A walk-on is a minor role consisting of a single, brief appearance on the screen, usually not appearing in the credits and without dialogue; contrast with extras, bit parts, and non-speaking roles.

The walk-through is the first rehearsal on the set, to figure out lighting, sound, camera positioning, etc.

Walla walls refers to the atmospheric, background sound effect for the indistinct murmurings and buzz of voices in a crowd. Extras in crowd scenes, in older films (or in radio), would be asked to murmur the phrase "walla walla," and others, to create the sound of the crowd and to pretend that they were talking. See also Foley artist, dubbing, and non-synchronized sound.

Wardrobe is the general name for the costume department, or the costumes (and their accessories) themselves. See also "costume."

Wardrobe allowance is the fee paid to performers for use and cleaning of talent’s own clothing.

Waterfall is the contractual repayment of and profit distributions to all the financial contributors to the production of a film, by order of priority.

Weenie refers to the object that motivates the main action in a serial (e.g., a lost city, buried treasure, or missing plans, etc).

In early film production, the whistleman was the individual on a film set's sound stage who was employed to make sure all noises were "shushed" before filming. The whistleman would blow on a whistle just before the shooting of a take commenced, to make sure that the set was quiet and that extraneous noises near or outside the studio set were silenced.

White balance refers to electronically setting or "color-correcting" a camera's white balance, or the true color of white, since white doesn't appear "white" with all lighting conditions. White balance may also be referred to as color balance.

A whodunit refers to a mystery/detective film.

In sound effects, whoop-whoops refers to the extra noises added to a sound, e.g., bells, horns, or whistles to an explosion, to make it more interesting or exciting.

A wide-angle shot is a shot taken with a lens capable of capturing a wider field of view than a regular lens. A wide-angle shot exaggerates the disparity, depth, and distance between the background and foreground. All objects are kept in focus and within perspective. Abbreviated as "WS."

Widescreen refers to projection systems in which the aspect ratio is wider than the 1.33:1 ratio that dominated sound film before the 1950s. In the 1950s, many widescreen processes were introduced (to combat the growing popularity of television), such as CinemaScope (an anamorphic system), VistaVision (a non-anamorphic production technique in which the film is run horizontally through the camera instead of vertically), and Todd-AO and Super Panavision (that both used wider-gauge film). Also known as "letterboxing."

A wig-wag is a red warning light located above each entrance-exit door on a film set sound stage, designed to flash (with a buzzer sound) to indicate when shooting commences or ends. A wig-wag is also known as "red-eye."

A window is the specific time period which a film is allowed to be exhibited by a rights buyer, such as a television network, or pay/cable exhibitor.

A wipe is a transitional technique or optical effect/device in which one shot appears to be "pushed off" or "wiped off" the screen by another shot replacing it and moving across the existing image; also called a push-over. A flip-over (or flip) wipe is when one scene rotates or flips over to the new scene. Wipes were very commonly used in the 1930s.

Word of mouth refers to public discussion or buzz that a film can acquire, fueled by sneak previews and advance advertising. Word of mouth is an important marketing element in a film's success or failure. Positive word of mouth gives a film legs, while negative word of mouth may prematurely close it down.

Wrap refers to the completion of film shooting (either for the day or for the entire production or project). In the early days of cinema, the cameraman would say after filming, "Wind, reel, and print," which abbreviated is "WRAP." An entirely completed film is termed "in the can."

A writer is the individual who authors the content of the piece from pre-existing material or uses an entirely new idea. Usually there are many writers involved with re-writes, adaptations, character development, etc. Also known as a "screenwriter."

walk-on

walk-through

walla walla

wardrobe

wardrobe allowance

waterfall

weenie

whistleman

white balance (color balance)

whodunit

whoop-whoops

wide-angle shot

widescreen

wig-wag

window

wipe

word of mouth

wrap

writer

Stage 32 Glossary