Film Appreciation
What is a MacGuffen?
It is something of vital importance to the characters in a film that turns out to be less significant to the overall narrative than first expected.
Addressing the relationship between form and expectations, this chapter illustrates how a movie's structure is organized around viewers' desire to ___.
Learn the answers to questions posed by story element
Three fundamental principles of film form are ___.
Light, Illusion of movement, and manipulated space and time.
An observational documentary generally does which of the following?
Limits the use of voice-over narration; eliminates as many signs of mediation as possible
The computer-generated animated layers over live performances using motion capture technology have been described by the actor Andy Serkis as what element of design?
Makeup
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) was the work of which director, considered to be the first major American experimental filmmaker?
Maya Deren
The ability of Charlie Chaplin to create suspense by editing together individual outdoor shots and indoor studio shots for his"cabin on the edge of a cliff" scene is a process known as
Mediation
Which of the following statements about mise-en-scéne is NOT true?
Mise-en-scéne has two visual components: Lighting and Movement
Which of the following persuasive documentaries chronicles the history of the U.S. prison and justice system as a systemized form of slavery?
13th (2016)
Most movies are shot and projected at how many frames per second?
24
Documentary filmmaking, which uses actual people, places, and events as source material, is described by John Grierson as __________.
A creative treatment of actuality
Nanook of the North (1922), which presents people and places in a straightforward manner, is an example of _________.
A factual documentary
To coney a passage between scenes, a filmmaker might choose which of the following transitions?
A fade-out or fade-in
The founding purpose of the persuasive documentary was to _______________.
Address social injustice
The digital revolution has affected ______.
Almost all areas of moviemaking, including makeup and hairstyling.
What is a formal analysis?
An analytical approach concerned with the means by which a subject is expressed
Which of the following characterizes a virtual reality experience as being distinct from a movie experience?
An experience requiring a special headset.
"Storytelling is storytelling no matter what your medium is. And the language of film is also the same. You're still using close ups and medium shots and long shots. You're still trying to introduce the audience to a character and get them to care." What is director Brad Bird referring to in this quote?
Animation
This type of movie may use highly stylized and distinctive camera work, editing, and lighting, drawing attention to the cinematic language in order to convey sensational stories set in embellished or imaginary settings.
Antirealism
What lighting effect is achieved when the filmmaker positions the subject between the light source and the camera?
Backlighting
Consider carefully the details of the mise-en-scène in the following clips. Based on the mise-en-scène, which do you think belongs to a dystopian futuristic, narrative inhabited by mostly one-dimensional characters?
Bartholomew's Song
The predetermined movement of actors that is planned according to the needs of the story is called _____.
Blocking
When the protagonist faces the seemingly insurmountable obstacle this is known as the ____.
Climax
The organization, distribution, balance, movement, and general relationship or objects and figures within the space of a shot is called _______.
Composition
Today's movies represent not the work of a single artist but a collaboration between a group of creative contributors. In this collaboration, the director's role is basically that of ___.
Coordinating lead artist
Noninteractive movie-like scenes in video games are known as ______.
Cut scenes
Which of the following describes the distinct visual style of film noir?
Deep shadows; nighttime exterior scenes; elements composed diagonally in the frame.
A character who interrupts the narrative to speak to the audience watching the film, thus breaking the "fourth wall" that separates the viewer from the two-dimensional fiction on-screen, is delivering _____.
Direct address narration
In animated films which consist of primarily computer-generated imagery, the relationship between the director and the production designer is the same as in non animated films, except that the production designer and his or her staff have ____.
Even greater control over the mise-en-scène and the entire look of the film than they could possibly have in non animated films
Gangster films are characterized by ________ and _________.
Exploring the American dream; an antihero
A character who pursues a goal and is the central figures of a story but has a dark and hostile nature is called an antagonist.
False
Screen duration is the amount of time a shot is on-screen.
False
Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey" (1999) is a prime example of cinematic invisibility in Hollywood (T or F)
False
The inciting incident, or catalyst, occurs when the protagonist face his or her greatest obstacle.
False
Watch this clip from Bartholomew's Song and assess the validity of the following statement: The story duration of this scene is approximately 15 seconds.
False
Hybrid films illustrate the ______.
Flexibility of film form by blurring boundaries of film categorization.
A movie is a coordinated synthesis of performance, composition, sound, and editing that creates meaning to a tell a story. When we analyze this synthesis we are analyzing a film's ___.
Form
Each image in long strips of celluloid film is known as a ___.
Frame
What are the three basic types of animation?
Hand-drawn, stop- motion, and computer animation
A movie is verisimilarif it ___.
Has the appearance of being true or real.
Experimental films frequently reflect the creative vision of a single artist. These films ______.
Invite individual interpretation.
Cultural invisibility, a consequence of hared belief systems, frequently contributes to hidden movie meanings. Which of the following statements does NOT accurately characterize cultural invisibility?
It is a way to unconsciously challenge viewers' shared belief systems.
Which of the following distinguishes narrative films from other kinds of movies?
Narrative films are directed toward fiction.
The three major types of movies are __________.
Narrative, experimental, and documentary
Which of the following statements best characterizes this chapter's treatment of viewer expectations?
Our experience of any given film is affected by how that film manipulates expectations.
Pioneering director D.W. Griffith's classic "ice break" scene in "Way Down East" (1920) is an early example of what technique common to chase scenes?
Parallel editing
A movie's _____ consists of the specific actions and events that the filmmakers select and the order in which they arrange those actions and events to effectively convey the narrative to the viewer.
Plot
Antirealism uses our perceptions of ___ as a starting point to expand upon or even purposely subvert.
Reality
Documentaries that explore - and sometimes critique - the documentary form itself are known as ______ documentaries.
Reflexive
What cinematic technique of manipulating time does John Woo use in The Killer (1989) to choreograph his fight scenes?
Repetition of action
Which of the following statements about round characters is NOT true?
Round characters generally exhibit predictable behavior
Horror films are often characterized by a protagonist who _________.
Saves a community that rejects her
The overall range, in time and palace, of the movie's story is known as the _____ of a film.
Scope
What are the three types of duration identification in this chapter?
Screen duration; plot duration; story duration
The person in charge of set dressing and supervising a variety of specialists is called the ____.
Set decorator
Cinematic language combines various elements such as lighting, movement, sound, and camera effects into single ____ that creates meaning analogous to a sentence.
Shots
Which of the following film series allows us to experience familiar characters' physical and emotional development over an extended period of time?
Star Wars
The amount of time that that the implied story takes to occur is called the ___.
Story duration
The total world of a film's ____________ is called its ____________.
Story; diegesis
Unlike _________ order, which flows chronologically, ________ order can be manipulated so that events are presented nonchronologically.
Story; plot
In Psycho (1969), director Alfred Hitchcock shows the viewer, but not detective Arbogast, a shot of Mrs. Bate's bedroom open, before she attacks him with a knife. This storytelling device is known as _____.
Suspense
Lighting ratio is the balance between light and shadow—or the balance between the key and fill lights. Which of the following images represents high-key lighting?
THX 1138
All movies contain layers of complexity and meanings that can be studied, analyzed, and appreciated in terms of cinematic language. Which of the following describes cinematic language?
Techniques and concepts filmmakers use to connect viewers to a film, which often conceal the means of storytelling.
This test is an evaluative tool that qualifies films as woman-friendly only if they have least two women characters who talk to each other about something besides a man.
The Bechdel test
An important movement in art direction that used grossly exaggerated film sets to articulate human feeling and emotion through design elements such as structure, color, and texture is known as expressionism. Which of the following stills represents expressionism?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The manipulation of time and space is handled with great irony, cinematic power, and emotional impact in which film's famous "baptism and murder" scene?
The Godfather (1972)
The careful manipulation of lighting by film artists and technicians to create mood, reveal character, and convey meaning takes place in what film about the dust bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930?
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Which of the following statements about the production designer is NOT true?
The production designer is hired relatively late in the production process.
Cutting on action is a common editing technique that hides the shift from one shot to the next by ending the first shot in the middle of a continuing action and starting the next shot at some point further along in the same action. Which clip is an example of cutting on action?
The Hill
Which film exploits our understanding of parallel editing only to thwart our expectations?
The Silence of the Lamb (1991)
What is the three-point system with respect to lighting?
The combination of key light, fill light, and backlight
Genre refers to the categorization of narrative films by the stories they tell and the ways they tell them. Which of the following statements is NOT true of genre?
The conventions of genre films are stable and do not evolve.
Which classical storytelling tradition can be found in the Star Wars films?
The hero's journey
Which definition of editing accurately describes film editing as one of defining characteristics that distinguish movies from other art forms?
The joining together of shots to control what the viewer sees in a movie and how the viewer see it.
Viewers identify with _______________ as filmmakers use ____________ to make meaning.
The lens; the camera
Form describes _____, while content describes ____.
The means of expression; the subject of a movie
What is figure movement?
The movement of something concrete within the frame
In what way is the latest wave of Star Wars films decidedly forward looking?
The multiethnic nature of the cast
What is a movie's narrative?
The telling of a movie's story
This clip from Death to the Tinman provides an example of a ___________ narrator.
Third-person
Directors often incorporate lighting into the storyboards they use to plan the film.
True
Every motion picture draws upon basic compositional principles developed by two-dimensional art forms (photography, painting, drawing, etc.), but unlike these art forms, films are constructed from many individual shots that allow visual elements to rearrange themselves and the viewer's perspectives itself to shift within any composition (T or F)
True
Some of the departments the production designer supervises include carpentry, properties, and transportation.
True
What is the rule of thirds?
a framing convention that divides the frame into three horizontal sections and three vertical sections
When the performers combine the inner and the outer aspects of acting in a forceful and convincing way, they have used a process known as
circle of attention
Which of the following is NOT an example of a nondiegetic element?
dialogue
What are three elements that describe neorealism?
nonprofessional actors, location sets, handheld camera
The Lego Movie (2014) is an example of this, a term applied to a work of art that imitates or appropriates stylistic elements from a previous work or works.
pastiche
The elapsed time of those events within the story that the film explicitly presents is called the
plot duration
What are the major elements of cinematic design?
setting, decor, properties, lighting, costume, makeup, hairstyle
The story formula for this type of movie usually involve the origin of the protagonist's powers and/or high stakes struggle to defeat a villainous attempt to destroy a city, country, or universe; the mission is compromised by the hero's love for a vulnerable mortal.
superhero movies
Narrative structure is typically characterized by how many acts?
three
Omniscient narration offers ___ access to the narrative of a film.
unrestricted
