An ontology describes the things in a system and the relationships between them.

By relationships, I don't just mean A is related in some way to B, I mean (for example) A modifies B, or A requires B, or even A eats lunch with B. In short, they relate things to each other using whatever the verbs in that domain are. Imagine a database schema, but with richer information.

In theory, if you have a good ontology, you can translate an expert human's understanding of a system to something a computer can also understand. So if, for example, you were going to write software to orchestrate the production of a massive film, or a commercial production studio, you might benefit from a common ontology for film production.

In practice, ontologies in the wild have had limited success, historically, compared to expectations in the academic world around the end of the last century.

The movie and film production process currently involves a large web of organizations, including both traditional movie production studios and software development firms. These firms have to be able to communicate effectively and work together, so they need a common language that they can use to describe concepts.

Since (to paraphrase) the second hardest thing about software development is naming things, and software developers/filmmakers are likely to be unfamiliar with the other field's terminology, this guide is an attempt to provide suggested names of things such that everyone understands one another.