In a web ad industry where more placements run video, operation and creative production go hand in hand. When you take on video creative, you commission an in-house designer or an outside partner, and the question is how you convey the specific moves of each scene. Say you tell a designer "in the opening, I want the text to flash in, then move to the next scene," and they reply "I will add a reflection with a light sweep on the text and switch scenes with a wipe transition." With the terms, that exchange is nothing, but without a shared vocabulary, you cannot follow the designer and the conversation stalls.
To keep the brief and the delivery from drifting apart, this guide picks the basic video terms a media buyer should know, for someone who does not do the design themselves.
Format terms
First, the format terms that come up even in ad delivery settings.
TermMeaningCodecThe format for compressing and expanding a file, set separately for video and audioContainerThe format that holds the video and audio, told apart by the extensionFile sizeThe data size of the video, in MB, KB, and so onResolutionThe pixel count, specified in an upload spec as width×height (e.g. 1080×1080), an aspect ratio (e.g. 16:9), or a ratio with vertical pixels (e.g. 1080p at 16:9)RuntimeThe playback length, in seconds, minutes, or hoursFrame rateIn fps, the number of frames per second in the videoBitrateIn bps, how much video and audio data is packed into each secondEncodeCombining the video and audio data into one file (container)
Video requirements usually go in a brief and come up less in conversation, but understand each term so the request is clear before you place it.
Effects
Watching a video, you often see text move, sparkle, or a shot slowly turn into another. Those are effects, a basic production technique, and an effect adds impact and changes the impression. They come in many kinds, and three are worth knowing.
Motion graphics adds movement to text, logos, illustrations, and shapes, the most-used effect in editing. The "still image that moves" in a TV program or CM, and the animation of pressing a YouTube subscribe button, are familiar examples. Remember it as adding motion to a designed still graphic.
Sound effects (SE) are the effect sounds used in film, TV, radio, and YouTube, and they give the original video and audio a different impression. Over footage of a campfire, the choices shift the feel: a quiet crackle reads as relaxed, a fierce burn reads as impactful, and a quiet crackle plus gentle rain reads as enjoying a fire in the rain. SEs widen the imagined image and the range of expression.
Action effects add a special effect to the footage, such as a glint of light, an explosion of fire or smoke, or weather like rain, snow, and sunlight. They suit adding impact, and pairing them with sound effects shifts the impression on two axes, sound and image.
Transitions
A video is built by joining scenes in the edit, and the effect that links one scene to the next is a transition. The word means a shift or a move, and it leaves an impression at the point where one scene changes to another. Transitions come in many kinds with different traits, and the common ones are worth knowing.
Whiteout and blackout turn the screen gradually white, or black, before the next scene, both used to mark a point where the scene changes sharply. Dissolve fades the previous scene out as the next fades in, named for the way the scenes melt together, an easy and basic transition. Wipe, from "wipe away," switches scenes as if wiping the screen clean, like a swipe on a phone, a simple transition that reads as clean. Slide brings the next scene over the previous one, sliding it across. Rotate switches scenes as the previous one spins, a dynamic move that adds momentum to a fast-paced video, often used in short social and YouTube ads. Zoom zooms in on the previous scene, then zooms out into the next, adding movement and energy, a fit for switching on the motion of sports or vehicles.
A shared language smooths the work
This picked the video terms a beginner should know. Rather than "I do not make it, so I need no design knowledge," even a little understanding on the operator's side smooths the exchange with the designer, since the terms become a shared language. Pick them up.
