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Dictionary Review CINEMATOGRAPHIC DICTIONARIES
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Dizionario di termini cinematografici |
English | Italian | Vezzoli | Alessi | Vedovati | CCC | Alvey |
Animator | Animatore | * | *1 | * | ¾ | * |
Art director | Scenografo/direttore artistico | * | *2 | * | * | *3 |
Assistant director | Aiutoregista | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | * |
Associate producer | Coproduttore/produttore associato | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Camera operator/cameraman | Operatore cinematografico | * | *4 | * | ¾ | *5 |
Cameraman (TV) | Operatore alla telecamera | ¾ | *6 | ¾ | *7 | ¾ |
Central casting | Capo compares | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Chief engineer (TV) | Capo tecnico di trasmissione | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Conformer | Addetto al taglio del negativo | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Construction manager | Scenotecnico | * | * | *8 | ¾ | ¾ |
Costume designer | Costumista/disegnatore dei costumi di scena | * | ¾ | *9 | ¾ | * |
Costume director | Costumista | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Costumer | Sarta di scena | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Creative producer | Produttore artistico | ¾ | *10 | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Crowd casting director | Capogruppo | ¾ | ¾ | *11 | ¾ | ¾ 12 |
Director | Regista | * | * | * | * | * |
Director of photography | Direttore della fotografia | * | * | * | ¾ | *13 |
Dolly man | Carrellista | ¾ | *14 | *15 | *16 | ¾ 17 |
Editing assistant | Aiuto montatore | * | *18 | *19 | ¾ | |
Editor | Montatore | ¾ | * | * | * | *20 |
Field producer | Produttore delle riprese esterne | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Gaffer | Capo elettricista | * | *21 | * | ¾ | * |
Herder | Capogruppo | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Independent producer | Produttore indipendente | ¾ | *22 | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Key animator | Capo animatore | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Key grip | Capo macchinista | ¾ | *23 | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Lamp operator | Elettricista | *24 | * | ¾ | ¾ | |
Manager’s assistant | Segretario di produzione | * | *25 | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ 26 |
Mike man | Microfonista | ¾ | *27 | * | ¾ | ¾ |
OB/ outside broadcast producer (TV) | Produttore di riprese esterne | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ 28 | ¾ |
Photographer | Fotografo | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | * |
Producer | Produttore | * | * | * | * | *29 |
Producer’s rep | Agente del produttore | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Production accountant | Amministratore di produzione | ¾ | * | *30 | ¾ | ¾ |
Production assistant | Assistente di produzione | ¾ | * | *31 | * | ¾ |
Production auditor | Revisore di produzione | ¾ | *32 | *33 | ¾ | ¾ |
Production illustrator | Disegnatore di bozzetti e story board | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Production manager | Direttore di produzione | * | * | * | ¾ | * |
Production sound mixer/mixer | Fonico recordista | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | * |
Production supervisor | Organizzatore generale | ¾ | * | *34 | ¾ | ¾ |
Production unit | Unità di produzione | ¾ | * | *35 | ¾ | ¾ |
Property buyer | Trovarobe | ¾ | ¾ | * | *36 | ¾ |
Property master | Capo attrezzista | * | *37 | * | ¾ | ¾ 38 |
Re-writes | Revisore della sceneggiatura | ¾ | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Rigger | Costruttore/allestitore | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | *39 |
Scenic designer | Decoratore di scena | ¾ | * | * | ¾ 40 | ¾ 41 |
Screenwriter | Sceneggiatore | ¾ | * | *42 | ¾ | ¾ 43 |
Scriptwriter | Sceneggiatore | * | *44 | * | * | ¾ |
Set decorator | Arredatore | * | * | * | ¾ | ¾ 45 |
Set manager | Ispettore di produzione | ¾ | *46 | ¾ | ¾ | * |
Sound editor | Montatore del suono/tecnico degli effetti sonori | ¾ | * | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Sound engineer | Tecnico del suono/fonico/ingegnere del suono | ¾ 47 | * | * | * | * |
Sound effects man | Rumorista | * | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ |
Sound mixer | Tecnico del missaggio | * | * | * | ¾ 48 | |
Still photographer/¾ man | Fotografo di scena/di produzione | * | * | * | * | * |
Studio manager | Responsabile teatri di posa | * | ¾ | * | ¾ | |
Studio producer | Produttore di uno studio cinematografico | ¾ | * | ¾ | *49 | ¾ |
Stunt coordinator | Coordinatore delle controfigure | ¾ | *50 | *51 | ¾ | ¾ |
Stuntman/woman/ person | Controfigura | *52 | *53 | * | ¾ | *54 |
Supervising editor | Capo montatore | ¾ | * | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ |
Talent scout | Talent scout | * | * | ¾ | ¾ | *55 |
English | Italian | Vezzoli | Alessi | Vedovati | CCC | Alvey |
20/61 | 48/61 | 48/61 | 13/61 | 19/61 | ||
33% | 79% | 79% | 21% | 31% |
This compilation is far from exhaustive and includes only terms that are already present in the references under comparison. The percentage of "hits" seems to indicate the broader range of Alessi and Vedovati, but does not allow further extrapolations. To do so, we would need to expand our comparison.
Early filming techniques are well studied and represented. Alvey, with his 1952-vintage "editing girls," is a prime witness of last century’s great technological explosion. And while CCC is focused on PBS-style studio productions and of limited help, Vezzoli shines with encyclopedic definitions worth an Oscar.
More recent developments are included only by the troika Vezzoli-Alessi-Vedovati. I checked one exemplary lemma and its variations: the constellation blue screen. Alessi recognizes the blue screen process as procedimento a maschera mobile. Under maschera mobile, Vezzoli acknowledges only the British travelling matte shot (Alessi’s single-film traveling matte system). The more robust Vedovati includes everything, indicates U.K. and U.S. usages, and is the only one to offer the variant I knew, processo a doppio movimento.
In many other instances, all three references are sound and well informed. Alessi dedicates no less then 12 pages to the exploration of every possible variation of film and is bested only by Vedovati, with over 150 headwords. The latter competes with Vezzoli in including the most lighting terms with similar considerable breath. Vedovati’s gobbo nero (= black baffle) has ancient theatrical roots, but so does Vezzoli’s gibigiana (= cookie).
Alessi jargonizes like a pro, with uneven results: Fegatello has a resonance that leaves its equivalent (refinishing take) in the dust, but panoramicare (= to pan) is by far the most unpronounceable neologisms of the decade, as denounced by any attempt to conjugate it. Anyhow, Alessis’s definitions are clear, informative, and to the point, and she reserves a hidden a "chicca," or candy, for her readers. There are dozens of translated film titles scattered throughout the text (pages 142, 189, 271, 399, 415, etc.) that constitute a useful update to an older but a much more extensive listing, indexed in the Dictionary of Translated Names and Titles by Adrian Room (Routledge, 1986).
Vezzoli is a fine scholar of film history, Vedovati is a technical wiz, and Alessi covers management/financing aspects better than anyone. Their references have complementary strengths, and a flaw, in common with their predecessors. Videographers and computer animators are absent, as much as digital processing, photography, and filming; computerized scenery and backgrounds; or digitized special effects. Unfortunately, for those and other terms associated with the role of computers in the filming industry, we are left to our own devices.
Notes
1. Also layout artist, and scene planner.
2. Also scenographer, production designer, and the more common set designer.
3. Also architetto (?). Scenografo is translated as production manager.
4. Also operatore di presa and operatore alla macchina.
5. Here, operatore da presa.
6. Also operatore di ripresa.
7. Translated as cameraman and teleoperatore.
8. As caposquadra costruttori.
9. Also figurinista.
10. Also produttore creativo (?).
11. Under the same Italian heading: Crowd marshall.
12. But a comparsa is an extra crowd artist.
13. In 1952, it was a capo operatore, primo operatore.
14. Also listed under the same Italian heading: Dolly pusher, dolly grip.
15. Also camera dolly man.
16. Under dolly operator, and pusher.
17. Dolly and dolly shot are offered.
18. Under the same Italian heading: Editor’s assistant, assistant editor, splicer.
19. Translated as assistente al montaggio.
20. Curioser still, an editing or splicing girl is a giuntatrice.
21. Also head gaffer, first electrician.
22. Under the same Italian heading: Independent filmmaker and free-lance producer.
23. Also head grip, grip’s master, first grip, and chief grip.
24. Also operatore delle lampade (??).
25. Also production coordinator, production office coordinator, and production secretary as Coordinatore di produzione.
26. There is management, and it apparently suffices.
27. Also operatore di giraffa as boom man or boom operator.
28. The listing includes instead: Outside broadcast and outside broadcast van.
29. Also casa di produzione (!).
30. Also cassiere di produzione.
31. Translated as segretario di produzione.
32. Also production accountant, production comptroller is rendered as amministratore, contabile della produzione.
33. Translated as amministratore di produzione.
34. Translated as ispettore di produzione.
35. Translated as troupe cinematografica (!).
36. Under property man and props.
37. Also property man and prop man, prop handler, prop maker, and props.
38. Only property man or attrezzista.
39. Translated as macchinista.
40. Scene-painter is included as pittore scenografo.
41. Only set designer is present as scenografo.
42. Also screenplay writer (?).
43. Only script and screen play are listed.
44. Also scenarista, which includes scenarist, screenplay editor, continuity writer, and film writer.
45. Here, set dresser (?).
46. Under the same Italian heading: Unit production manager (UPM) and unit manager.
47. Instead: Audio engineer (= fonico di sala).
48. Here, fonico.
49. Translated as direttore di studio.
50. Also responsabile delle scene di acrobazie, coreografo delle scene pericolose.
51. Translated as consigliere (?) tecnico and allenatore dello stunt man (one each?).
52. Also the more colloquial cascatore.
53. Also stuntperson and stunt double.
54. Inexplicably, controfigura che fa scene pericolose.
55. Only as incaricata che trova nuovi volti.