January 2015 Exam
Film Language
and
Film History
Film Language
Movie Roles
Camera Shots and Angles
Gen. Movie Understanding
The Narrative Structure
Common Language II
Mise en Scene
*Cinematography, Editing, Sound
A. Director
D. Editor
Movie Roles
B. Screenwriter
C. Cinematographer
E. Sound (designer/mixer/editor)
1. Aren’t limited to working with natural sounds, but
experiment with manipulating sounds, dialog & music.
Sound (designer/mixer/editor)
no# 2
3. Decides how a scene is shot.
Cinematographer
4. Plans the overall sound of the movie.
Sound (designer/mixer/editor)
5. Puts together the final film in post-production.
Editor
6. The principal creative artist on a movie set.
Director
7. Writes the script for the movie to be transformed in
to the visual film.
Screenwriter
A. Establishing Shot
D. Close-Up
Camera Shots
B. Long Shot
E. Extreme Close-Up
C. Medium Shot
8. Camera pays very close attention to the subject; mostly used on faces.
Close-Up
9. Creates intimacy, will show minor changes in expression.
Medium Shot
10. Draws attention to specific details.
Close-Up
No #11
12. Records a very small detail of the subject.
Extreme Close-Up
13. Serves to orient the viewer and provide for a gradual entry into the
dramatic content of a scene.
Establishing Shot
14. Usually too close to show emotions or reactions.
Extreme Close-Up
15. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still
emerges.
Medium Shot
A. Eye Level
D. Dutch Tilt/Angle
Camera Angles
B. High Angle
C. Low Angle
E. Aerial View
16. Can be used to expose the larger situation or to show the insignificance of a character
or event.
High Angle
17. Employed to disorient and disturb the viewer or show that the world in the scene is out
of balance.
Dutch Tilt/Angle
18. Establishes the setting.
Aerial View
19. The angle of this shot makes a character appear less powerful, helpless, insignificant, or
in some cases, trapped.
High Angle
20. The camera is positioned below eye level looking up at the subject. The angle provides a
sense of power, dominance, or height.
Low Angle
21. This technique is used when filming a hero of a movie to make him/her look bigger.
Low Angle
22. Used early in the movie for establishing characters, time, place.
Aerial View
23. Using this angle, this type of shot is an extremely common because of its neutral effect.
Eye Level
General Movie Understanding
14. _____ makes movies different from all other arts forms; it gives the filmmaker the power
to choose what and how the viewer sees the story.
A. Innovation
B. Celluloid
C. Money/Financing
D. Editing
Editing
15. In movies, meaning is often absorbed ____. One technique that contributes to a movie
delivering this includes ____.
A. intuitively; low-angle shots
B. intuitively; dialogue
C. counter-intuitively; dialogue
D. counter-intuitively; credits
intuitively; low-angle shots
16. Audiences will form impressions quickly, frequently within the first 10 minutes they will
decide if they like a movie.
A. True
B. False
True
17. Form describes _____________, while content describes _____________.
A. the subject of a movie; the means of expression
B. the means by which the narrative is expressed; the subject of a movie
C. the overall effect of characters; the elements contained in the dialog
D. the elements contained in the staging; the overall effect of staging
the means by which the narrative is expressed; the subject of a movie
No # 18
19. Movies attempt to convey verisimilitude. What is verisimilitude?
A. an alternate reality
B. character driven plots
a convincing appearance of truth
C. a convincing appearance of truth
The Narrative Structure
20. Which type of narrator can provide information that is not limited to just one character? This narrator
tends to be omniscient.
A. first person narrator B. third person narrator
third person narrator
21. ___ is/are beneficial for a film’s protagonist because it provides obstacles/challenges for the character to
overcome.
A. Character flaws
B. Friends
C. Academic prowess
D. none of the previous
Character flaws
-- Identify which act the following things/events tend to traditionally happen in:
A) Act One
B) Act Two
C) Act Three
22) Characters are established, esp. the protagonist
Act One
23) The climax
Act Three
24) Inciting incident
Act One
25) Most of the story takes place; there’s a pursuit of a goal
Act Two
26) The “normal world” is established
Act One
27) Obstacles are confronted
Act Two
28) Resolution/dénouement
Act Three
29. List the very basic narrative structure of movies (1. a clearly motivated protagonist… )
30. Explain what an inciting incident is AND what it does/can do for a movie.
Common Language II
a. A break in the continuity of a shot or between two shots caused by removing a section of a shot and then putting together what remains. Also refers
to the cutting from one shot to another in such a way as to abruptly change the spatial length between shots.
____ 9. Jump Cut
b. A recurrent thematic element in a film that is repeated in a significant way or pattern; a symbol, image, object, word, phrase, sentence within a film
that points/relates to a theme.
____ 11. Motif
c. A shot in which the camera moves up or down along its vertical axis.
____ 15. Tilt Shot
d. A shot that has great depth of field, keeping the foreground, middle ground and background in focus simultaneously.
____ 4. Deep Focus
e. Camera is mounted on a dolly (a cart usually on tracks) that records the shot as it moves (aka: tracking shot).
____ 6. Dolly Shot
f. Camera movement from left to right, right to left.
____ 12. Pan
g. Frame is divided into nine imaginary sections, used as guide for framing the image; points of interest should occur along on the lines.
____ 14. Rule of Thirds
h. In context, a shot of long duration; associated with realism.
____ 10. Long Take
i. Keeps the camera on one side of the action; grounds the characters on a particular side of the screen or frame.
____ 2. Axis of Action/180 Degree Rule
j. Positioning and movement of the actors in relation to the camera; determining where the actors will be on the set; done before filming starts.
____ 3. Blocking
k. The area that is in focus in any given shot.
____ 5. Depth of Field
l. The distance from the optical center of a lens to the point at which an object comes into focus.
____ 7. Focal Length
m. The position of the camera is the reverse of what it was in the preceding shot; used in dialogue scenes.
____ 13. Reverse-Angle Shot
n. The relation of width to height of the image.
____ 1. Aspect Ratio
o. The way a shot is composed, and the manner in which subjects and objects are surrounded by the boundaries or perimeter of the film image, or by
objects used in the setting
____ 8. Framing
Mise en Scène
____ 1. Which of the following does NOT define Mise en Scène?
a. the staging of a scene
b. where the action unfolds
c. the overall look and feel of a movie
d. sum of everything the audience sees, hears, & experiences e. none of the previous, all define Mise en Scène
none of the previous, all define Mise en Scène
____ 2. When referring to lighting in a film’s Mise en Scène, which is NOT an attribute?
a. the quality of light b. the placement of lighting
c. the frequency of light
d. the contrast of light
the frequency of light
For questions 3-5, identify the type of light- (A). Hard Light, (B). Soft Light - is associated with each attribute:
____ 3. diffused
Soft Light
____ 4. more flattering
Soft Light
____5. deep shadows
Hard Light
____6. Which of the following is NOT a name for a particular type of light in the three-point lighting system
a. Key Light
b. Low Light
c. Fill Light
d. Back Light
Low Light
____ 7. True (A) or False (B): Lighting contrast depends on the ratio of key light to fill light.
False
_____8 . The theory that if you create a grid and place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines of
the grid, then the shot becomes more balanced, interesting, and dynamic. This theory is called:
a. dynamic theory
b. framing theory
c. the rule of light
d. the rule of thirds
the rule of thirds
Online quiz will go over remaining topics:
Cinematography
Editing
Sound
Film History
Pre 1900 & Early History
German Expressionism
Soviet Montage
French Avant Garde
*Hollywood’s Golden Age
Italian Neorealism
*French New Wave
Pre 1900 and Early Film History
The idea of (1) _____ was put forth explaining that the brain could retain an image a split second longer than the eye actually sees it,
providing the illusion of movement.
Persistence of Vision
1834 A circular drum, called a (2) _____ while a toy, creates the illusion of movement for the viewer.
Zoetrope
1839 Thomas Wedgwood makes the first recorded photographic copperplate.
1872 (3)_____ creates the first series of still photographs of continuous motion (a running horse), using a row of cameras.
Eadweard Muybridge
1880s George Eastman begins mass-producing a clear plastic film called (4) ____. It is flexible and allows light to pass through it.
Celluloid
1889 (5)_______ and his research laboratory invents the Kinetoscope, an individual motion picture viewing box. The research team soon
after films Fred Ott’s Sneeze, the earliest American film on record.
Thomas Edison
1895 (6) _______ invent the Cinématographe, a portable, hand-cranked device that is a camera, processing plant, and projector all in one.
Within a year, seeing the potential for mass appeal, they open their first (7) _______ for paying audiences; thus establishing the realistic
style of filmmaking.
The Lumière Brothers
Theater
1897 (8) _______ establishes Europe’s first movie-making (9) _____. He begins making simple narrative films, most fantastic in nature like
the Trip/Voyage to the Moon, thus establishing, the second basic type of filmmaking, antirealism films.
Georges Méliès
Studio
1903 (10) ______ contributes to the development of cinema with the first narrative film with a storyline and early use of continuity editing
with The Great Train Robbery.
Edwin Porter
1905 (11) ________ are beginning to be built through the US, bringing motion pictures to people of all social classes.
Nickelodeons
1910-20s (12) ______ begins his pioneering, highly innovative moviemaking career. First with series of shorts and then feature-length films,
including The Birth of a Nation (1915), he helped establish and standardize the Classic Hollywood Style.
D.W. Griffith
1913-40s (13) _______ created the internationally loved character, the Little Tramp, established the studio United Artists (1919) with fellow
filmmakers, and made feature films like The Gold Rush.
Charlie Chaplin
German Expressionism
1. Why did the German film industry prosper just after World War I?
A) German filmmakers profited immensely from exporting their films to the U.S.
B) German films were deemed artistically superior to those of other countries
C) Germany's government banned foreign films
D) The German government gave generous subsidies to film producers
The German government gave generous subsidies to film producers
2) True (A) or False (B): Germany’s film industry in the 1920s aimed to create a new image for
Germany.
True
3) Which of the following best describes German Expressionist performance/performers?
A) German Expressionist actors aimed for totally natural portrayals of characters
B) German Expressionist actors carefully exaggerated movements and gestures in a very
stylized manner
C) German Expressionist performance was not especially distinctive or unusual
German Expressionist actors carefully exaggerated movements and gestures in
a very stylized manner
4) Which of the following is NOT a common characteristic of German Expressionist films?
A) Distorted and/or exaggerated settings
B) Use of oblique angles and nonparallel lines
C) Use of simple/subdued costumes, hair and make-up
D) Portrayal of nightmarish worlds
Use of simple/subdued costumes, hair and make-up
Soviet Montage
5) Which is NOT a reason why the Soviet government, Lenin in particular, supported the film
industry?
A) It had the power to literally hypnotize audiences
B) It had the potential power to unite the nation
C) It had the appeal of attracting masses of people
D) It had the potential power to instruct and indoctrinate
It had the power to literally hypnotize audiences
6) True (A) or False (B): In the Soviet Montage movement, many individual actors because
famous celebrities and were credited with making the movement so popular.
False
7) True (A) or False (B): The Soviet government used films during this time as tools of
propaganda.
True
8) What is the Kuleshov effect?
A) One of the basic principles of editing: meaning produced by joining two shots together
exceeds the visual information contained in each individual shot
B) Can be explained with a formula like: (A+B=C) or (thesis + antithesis = synthesis)
C) The viewer’s response in cinema depends less on the individual shot and more on the
editing of shots
D) Audiences can derive an emotional meaning from the juxtaposition of two completely
unrelated shots
E) All of the above help define the effect
All of the above help define the effect
French Avant-Garde
9) True (A) or False (B): French Avant-Garde filmmakers considered cinema an intellectual movement and they
considered themselves “intellectuals for intellectuals.”
True
10) Which of the following was NOT a characteristic of films made during the Avant-Garde movement?
A) Anti-conventional stories
B) Of an absurdist nature
C) Went against normal narrative conventions D) All are true
All are true
11) What do all these movements (German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, and French Avant-Garde) have in
common?
A) They all contribute to the expanding “film as documentary” movement.
B) They are all in reaction to the events of World War I.
C) They all contribute to the unfortunate fact that cinema was not well-received in Europe during this time.
D) All of the above are true
They are all in reaction to the events of World War I.
-- What movement is each of these associated with:
A) German Expressionism
B) Soviet Montage
12) An Andalusian Dog
French Avant-Garde
13) Battleship Potemkin
Soviet Montage
14) Metropolis
German Expressionism
15) Sergei Eisenstein
Soviet Montage
16) The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
German Expressionism
C) French Avant-Garde
Online quiz will go over:
Hollywood’s Golden Age
Italian Neorealism (1942-1952)
____ 16. All of the following are characteristics of Italian Neorealism EXCEPT:
a. realistic stories
b. depictions of ordinary people
c. decrying postwar conditions
d. highly political
e. none of the above – all are correct
highly political
____ 17. All of the following explain the style of Italian Neorealism EXCEPT:
a. small budgets
b. shot on location
c. mix of professional/non-professional actors
d. open endings
e. none of the above – all are correct
none of the above – all are correct
____ 18. Which of the following is/are directors of the Italian Neorealism period
(you can have more than one answer)?
a. Francis Coppola
b. Roberto Rossellini
c. Vittorio De Sica
d. Roberto De Niro
Roberto Rossellini AND Vittorio De Sica
____ 19. Who directed Bicycle Thieves?
a. Francis Coppola
b. Roberto Rossellini
c. Vittorio De Sica
d. Roberto De Niro
Vittorio De Sica
Online quiz will go over:
French New Wave