trombone

n. a large brass musical instrument that you play by blowing into it and moving a long sliding tube to change the notes.

n. a brass instrument consisting of a long cylindrical metal tube with two turns and a telescopic slide that varies the pitch.

“He played the trombone in the school jazz band every Friday night.”

“The composer wrote a challenging solo for the tenor trombone, requiring the performer to execute rapid slide positions with perfect intonation.”

n. a metal support used on a film set to hold lights, which can be extended like the musical instrument.

n. an extendable support bracket used for mounting lighting fixtures to a studio grid or set wall.

“The crew attached a heavy lamp to the trombone to light the actor from above.”

“The gaffer requested two additional trombones to extend the backlight further over the set without placing stands in the shot.”

Technical

v. to move a camera's zoom lens in and out very quickly or too much.

v. to rapidly and repeatedly adjust a zoom lens; often used pejoratively to describe amateurish or excessive focal length changes.

“The director told the camera operator to stop tromboning the lens during the scene.”

“The documentary was criticized for its distracting style, as the cinematographer continued to trombone the lens throughout the emotional interviews.”

Slang · Informal

v. to send a signal back to a central point before it goes to its final destination.

v. to route a telecommunications signal back to a central switching point before forwarding it to its ultimate destination.

“The call had to trombone through the main server before reaching the local office.”

“Network efficiency decreased significantly because the data packets were forced to trombone through the legacy switch in the headquarters.”

Technical