What does the filmmaking abbreviation M.O.S. mean?
The origin of the jargon abbreviation is so much fun!
Some of the early directors in Hollywood, whose first language was German, had some troubles with the preposition "with". So, instead of saying, " We are recording this scene without sound", it sounded just like "We are recording this scene mitout sound". That is why today "MOS" means "without sound".
What are your thoughts on this subject?
40 Comments
Kim Capen
muted, minus, without, all with similar meaning and none reference the acronym, question should never have been posed. Answers like this are the reason people give up on this forum.
Raphael Bruckner
It means "motor only sync" or
"Motor only Sound"
Robert Cone
What a stupid differentiation.
Timothy Rayburn
mos is motor os sound not the meth of mit of sound so the questrion dose not give the true answer
teacherchicky
Wrong! You have two possible correct answers here and the true answer is mit-out sound or made without sound! So, me choosing minus sound is actually correct! Another question I must report!
Allan Dowton
DUH!!! “Minus sound” IS “without sound”
Donna Carder-Kummer
Where was the review for this unfair question? MOS means motor only sound? I want my 5 points, these kind of questions make a person want to say forget this site!
Donna Carder-Kummer
Muted, minus, without!! What’s the difference??
Carole Cottrell
What a dreadful question! I am feeling like leaving this site, so many ill informed answers lately.
dick aspel
I'm an actor- it's general meaning is motor only sync. Is there no due diligence?
Leapy Lee
Poor answer choices, none of which are technically correct
George Oliver Prince
Kind of tough selections
hector tubens
Interesting info.
John Manley
correct answer not available - again!!
Julie Allen
MOS is a standard filmmaking jargon abbreviation used in production reports to indicate an associated film segment has no synchronous audio track. It stands for "motor only sync" or "motor only shot". Additionally, the term has been understood to stand for "mit out sound".
Kenneth Dallas
This is only an urban myth with no provenance.
Kenneth Dallas
Give us a reference to back this up.
scottsman
I learned this abbreviation at the navy's motion picture school back in 1979. Like James Mohn said, many of the early directions were German and they had trouble with English at times so they used the German word "mit" that translates into English as "with". Therefore "mit out" equals "without".
Nicole Toma-Tolman
Hmm.... neat.