My Films

Book to Screen

Glossary

Every word the course uses, in plain English. When a lesson uses one for the first time, it links here.

A

Account
Your sign-in on a website, made with your email address. It keeps your work saved under your name.
Action lines
The lines in a script that say what we see and hear: who is there and what they do. They are written as it happens: “She sits,” not “She sat.”
Adaptation
Turning a book into a film. You keep some parts, join some together and leave the rest out.
Address bar
The box at the top or bottom of the browser where you type a website’s address.
AI
Short for artificial intelligence. Computer programs that make pictures, video, voices or words from what you type.
AI label
A setting on a social app that marks your video as made with AI. Viewers see a small tag on it.
AirDrop
A way to send photos and files between Apple phones and computers that are close together, without the internet.
Automatic renewal
When a plan charges you again every month until you turn it off.

B

Backstory
What happened to a character before the story starts.
Book trailer
A short film, usually under 90 seconds, that makes people want to read a book. Like a movie trailer, but for a book.

C

Camera roll
Where your phone keeps your photos and videos: the Photos app on iPhone, Google Photos or Gallery on Android.
Caption (on a post)
The words you write under a video when you post it. Not the same as the captions shown on the screen.
Captions
The words of the dialogue shown on the screen while people talk.
Casting sheet
One page that says how a character looks: age, skin, hair, clothes and style, plus the picture chosen for them.
Close shot
The camera close to a face, to show feeling.
Commercial use
Using what you made to sell something or make money, including posting an ad for your book.
Continuity
Faces, clothes and places staying the same from shot to shot.
Copy and paste
Saving some words or a link for a moment (copy), then putting them somewhere else (paste).
Cover picture
The still picture people see on your video before they tap play.
Credits
What a monthly plan on a film service gives you to spend on making video, voices or songs. Each thing you make uses some up.
Cut
The moment one shot changes to the next.

D

Daily credits
Free credits Google Flow gives you each day. Ones you don’t use are gone the next day.
Dialogue
The words the characters say out loud.
Direction in brackets
A word or two in brackets above a line, like (angry) or (quietly). It says how to say the line. Screenwriters call it a parenthetical.
Director
The person who decides what a film shows and which takes are good enough to keep. In your film, that’s you.
Done for you
A film the BookWriter team makes from your book, instead of you making it yourself. You order one on the Movies page.
Drift
When a face, an outfit or a room slowly changes from shot to shot. It happens when the AI works from words alone.

E

Editing
Choosing which pieces of video to keep, in what order, and where each one starts and stops.
Editor
An app for putting video clips in order, trimming them and adding music and captions. CapCut and DaVinci Resolve are free ones.
Episode
One part of a story told in parts, like one show in a TV series.
Export
Turning your finished edit into one video file you can save and post.

F

Feed
The list of posts you scroll through when you open a social app.
File
One saved thing: a picture, a video, a sound or a document.
File ending
The letters after the dot in a file’s name, like .mp4 or .jpg. They tell you what kind of file it is.
Film rights
The right to make a film from a book. Whoever holds them decides who may film it.
Finished minute
One minute of the final film you get back, not counting the takes thrown away.
First cut
The first full version of a film, put together start to finish. It is always too long.
Fix list
A short list of what went wrong in your film, where it happens, and how you’ll fix it.
Footage
All the video made, including takes that don’t make the final film.
Frame
Everything the viewer can see in one shot, edge to edge. “In frame” means you can see them.

H

Hook
What grabs the viewer in the first three seconds.

I

Image to video
Making a video clip from a picture. The picture becomes the first moment, and the AI makes it move.
Ingredients (in Google Flow)
The saved characters and pictures you give Flow to copy in a shot, so they look the same every time.
INT. and EXT.
Short for interior (inside) and exterior (outside). Every scene heading starts with one of them.

L

Lip sync
The mouth moving in time with the words.

M

Medium shot
A person from the waist up, usually while talking.
Music library
A website of songs made for videos. You pay for a plan, and it lets you use the songs.
Music license
Written permission to use a song in your film. It comes with a music library’s or music service’s plan.

O

Out of sync
When the lips and the sound don’t move together, even by a moment.

P

Package
One done-for-you film at one price, up to a set length. A shorter film in the same package costs the same.
Plan
What you pay a service each month. A bigger plan gives you more credits.
Private post
A post only you can see. A safe way to practice posting.
Producer
The person who finds the money and the people to make a film or a show.
Project (in a studio)
A folder inside a studio that keeps one film’s clips, pictures and characters together.
Prompt
The words you type to tell an AI service what to make.
Publishing contract
The agreement you signed with a publisher. It says which rights to your book they hold.

R

Read
One recording of a line being spoken. A bad read gets made again.
Reference picture
A picture you give an AI service to copy, so a face, an outfit or a room comes out the same every time.
Resolution
How many dots (pixels) make up a video, across and down. 1080 by 1920 is a sharp, tall video for phones.

S

Saved character
A person you save once in a studio, with a face, clothes and a voice. The studio reuses them so they look and sound the same in every shot.
Scene
One stretch of story in one place, from when it starts to when it moves somewhere else.
Scene heading
The line in a script that says inside or outside, where, and day or night.
Scenebuilder
The part of Google Flow that puts your clips in order, trims them and downloads them as one scene.
Screenplay
A film’s script: what we see and exactly what is said.
Separate services
Using one service for each job, like one for video, one for voices and one for music, instead of one studio for everything.
Shot
One camera view, usually 2 to 8 seconds long.
Shot plan
A list of every shot in order, with who is in it and what happens.
Start frame
The picture a shot begins on. In image to video, the AI starts from it and makes it move.
Studio
An all-in-one AI film service, like Google Flow or OpenArt. One account makes pictures, video, voices and more.

T

Take
One try at making a shot. Some come out wrong and get made again.
Talking shot
A shot where a character says a line on camera. In Google Flow, the voice and the moving lips are made together.
Talking-head story
A film where one person talks to the camera and tells what happened. Most of it is one face.
Text to video
Making a video clip from words you type. You describe what happens, and the AI makes the shot.
Time log
A list of each part of making your film and how many minutes it took.
Timeline
The strip along the bottom of an editor that shows your clips and music in order, from start to finish.
Trim
Cutting a little off the start or end of a shot, so it begins and stops at the right moment.
Turn
The moment a story changes direction: a secret comes out, someone makes a choice, or something is lost.

U

Upload
Sending a file from your phone or computer to a website.

V

Vertical (tall) video
Video shaped for phones, taller than it is wide: Reels, TikTok, Shorts, Stories.
Voice clip
A short sound recording of one person talking.
Voice clone
A copy of a real person’s voice, made from a recording of them. Use only your own, or the voice of someone who said yes in writing.

W

Watermark
A logo stamped on a video, often added by free plans.
Wi-Fi
The internet from your home, a library or a café, without wires. It doesn’t use up your phone plan’s data.
Wide (horizontal) video
Video shaped for YouTube and TVs, wider than it is tall.
Wide shot
The camera far back, to show where we are.
Written permission
A yes you can keep and show later, like an email, a text or a signed note. In it, the person agrees to be in your film.

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