CINEMA AND TELEVISION

By Esther Tejado.

To talk about cinema and television we need to know some vocabulary.

People

Actor/actress: the person who represents the scenes in a film, sitcom… Ex: Angelina Jolie.

Cameraman: the person that records the scene with a camera.

Cast: the people who appear during the film, episode…

Director: the person who decides what to do in every moment. Ex: Tarantino.

Screenwriter: the person who writes what happens in the history.

Genres

Action film: a film where the main character is normally a spy, so the action includes lot of unusual situations. Ex: Mr and Mrs Smith.

Love story: a film where the main characters fall in love. Ex: Call me by your name.

Horror film: a film that makes people being scared. Ex: Insidious.

Musical: a movie where the characters explain the situations by singing. Ex: Mamma mia.

Comedy: a film that makes people laugh. Ex: Bridget Jones’s diary.

TV programs

Sitcom: series, normally a comedy, with lots of short episodes. Ex: Sex and the city.

News: a program which informs people about the global situation.

Soap opera: a very long series, normally from South America, that shows the romances and tragedies of the main characters. Ex: Pasion de Gavilanes.

Reality show: an informal program to entertain people. Ex: Keeping up with the Kardashians.

Cartoon: an animated series for children. Ex: Doraemon.

Important verbs

To act: to take part in a film, series…

To perform: to entertain people by dancing, singing…

To understudy: to learn the part of another actor in a play.

Play out: to behave in a bad way.

Clown about: to act like a clown.

Idioms related to cinema and television

Break a leg: to wish good luck to the actors.

Get the show on the road: to start something.

Live up to the hype: to be as good as people expect.

Jump the shark: said of a TV show that has decreased in quality.

To make a clown of yourself: to make that everybody laugh at you because you’re being ridiculous.

References: https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/movie-idioms/