Cinema Final Definition Study Guide

TRUE or FALSE: Black-and-white film stock produces pictures that lack color.

False

Which type of shot shows the full human body, usually filling the frame?

Long shot

The term kinesis refers to:

Movement

Which of the following is NOT part of the story?

A NON-diegetic element

The boundaries of a camera's point of view are indicated by the

Viewfinder

Only movies can record real time chronologically as well as subjectively.

False

Motion pictures had been popular for____ years before being considered worthy of serious study

50

Movies have evolved into a complex form of artistic representation in just over:

A hundred years

What is a setup?

A single camera position and everything associated with it

Today's style of animated films takes which of the following forms?

ALL of the above

What is NOT true about genres?

ALL of the above

Which is NOT a type of film stock

Aesthetic

Movies are constructed of multiple, individual shots joined to one another in ________.

An extended sequence

Which is NOT a basic style of nonfiction movies?

Avant-garde

What are the three kinds of lights used in the three-point lighting system?

Backlight, key light, and fill light

What term describes the process of visualizing and putting the filmmakers' vision into practice?

Composition

Which of the following is NOT an aspect of composition?

Dialogue

Which of the following is another name for the cinematographer?

Director of photography

In which type of camera angle is the camera tilted from its normal (level) horizontal and/or vertical position, often conveying the impression that the world in the frame is out of balance?

Dutch angle

The terms film, movies, and cinema are ________.

Essentially interchangeable

Our decision to see a particular movie is almost always based on certain ____________.

Expectations

________ specific to a particular performer or filmmaker can alter the way we perceive a movie.

Expectations

Which choice represents the correct sequence of the major elements of narrative form?

Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement

TRUE or FALSE: In the United States, the credit title production designer was supplanted in the late 1970s by the title art director.

False

TRUE or FALSE: It is NOT really possible to read more meaning into a particular visual or audio component of a film than the filmmaker intended.

False

TRUE or FALSE: The conventions that make up cinematic language are NOT flexible.

False

TRUE or FALSE: The more kinetic a movie is, the more cinematic it is.

False

TRUE or FALSE: The term "uncanny valley" has to do with the structure of any given genre. It is the moment before the truth is revealed.

False

TRUE or FALSE: When analyzing cinematic space, it's preferable to restrict ourselves to the space within the frame.

False

TRUE or FALSE: Major characters are always round and minor characters are always flat.

False, duh

TRUE or FALSE: One is required to like a movie in order to learn from it.

False, duh

What genre of film is identified by its use of somber tones and pessimistic moods, characteristic visual elements such as exaggerated camera setups and lighting, and characters who tend to be cynical, disillusioned, and often insecure or impotent loners?

Film noir

What do we call the process of determining what to include and exclude; deciding what is to be seen (onscreen space) and not seen (offscreen space); and controlling the distribution, balance, and spatial and perspectival relations of what appears on the screen?

Framing

The process by which a particular genre is adapted to meet the expectations of a changing society is know as:

Generic tranformation

The characterization of fiction films is:

Genre

Major events or branching points in the plot structure that force characters to choose between or among various alternative are:

Hubs

The motion picture frame:

Is generally wider than it is tall

Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between form and content?

It is an underlying concern in all art

Which of the following is NOT true of cinematography?

It is basically the same as still photography

Within the three-point lighting system, which light is the brightest to fall on the subject?

Key light

The key formal element that film carefully manipulates to create mood, reveal character, and convey meaning is___________.

Light

What are the three most commonly used shots in movies?

Long shot, medium shot, close-up

The essential quality that separates movies from all other two-dimensional pictorial art forms is ________.

Movement

Inferring causal relationships among events that occur in sequence or close to one another is the process of creating:

Narrative

When the camera is able to go anywhere and see anything, it is:

Omniscient

What is a shot?

One interrupted run of the camera

Instinctively, we search for _________ and ________ in all art forms.

Patterns / progressions

Stories can't exist without _________ and _________.

Plot and character

Which of the following is NOT a basic camera angle?

Point of view

Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) is what kind of nonfiction movie?

Propoganda

If a painting or film realistically depicts a recognizable subject, its form is ________.

Representational

When the framing seems to be presenting us with the point of view of a single character, this is known as:

Subjective point of view

What term indicates the number of times a particular shot is taken?

Take

Aspect ratio is?

The ratio of the width of the image to its height

A common compositional technique for creating the illusion of depth in a shot is:

The rule of thirds

Why have genre films been prevalent since the advent of cinema?

They appeal to audience's desire for predictability over novelty.

What makes experimental films "experimental"?

They push the boundaries of what most people think the movies are or should be.

TRUE or FALSE: Any camera angle can be used to depict point of view.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Different camera angles can convey different meanings depending on their content.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Explicitly present events are part of both plot and story.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Familiar sound effects or motifs from a movie's score are also important components of film form.

True

TRUE or FALSE: In movies, patterns may be formed by narrative, shot sequences, or non-narrative elements.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Making a Technicolor film in the 1930s was complicated and cumbersome and approximately 30 percent more expensive than making a black-and-white film.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Most narrative films follow chronological order.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Movies convey and imply smaller, more specific doses of both explicit and implicit meaning in virtually every scene.

True

TRUE or FALSE: Often the people making movies may be just as oblivious to the cultural attitudes shaping their cinematic stories as the people who watch them.

True

TRUE or FALSE: The most acute human eye can discern no more than fifty pulses of light per second.

True

TRUE or FALSE: The rule of thirds helps cinematographers and designers achieve distribution and balance in the general relationship of what we see on the screen.

True

Which of the following is NOT part of a movie's diegesis?

Voice-over commentary from an omniscient narrator

A synopsis is:

an outline of the action that briefly describes the ideas and structure for a movie.