Film & Television Dictionary – Letter Z

Zeppelin: A windscreen that is mounted on the end of a boom pole to protect the microphone from wind and other elements, which improves your overall sound quality.

Zoetrope: The zoetrope is made up of a cylinder with vertical slits cut in the side and sequential images pasted on the inside. As the cylinder spins, you look through the slits at the pictures across. Scanning the slits keeps the pictures from blurring together, and you see a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Zoom: A type of shot in which you can zoom in or out with the camera lens.

Zoopraxiscope: A device developed in the 1870s by Eadweard Muybridge, that projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession to give the impression of motion. Considered by many to be the first movie projector.