Film final Wilson

What is chiaroscuro lighting?

a pictorial arrangement of light and dark to create depth and contrast

stop-motion photography

a process that records inanimate objects or actual human figures in different positions in separate frames and then synthesizes them on film to create the illusion of motion and action

dolly shot

a shot in which the camera is moved on a wheeled dolly that follows a determined course

femme fatale

an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her

What's block booking?

an early tactic of movie studios to control exhibition, involving pressuring theater operators to accept marginal films with no stars in order to get access to films with the most popular stars

Oscar Micheaux

an African-American filmmaker who produced "race movies", showing all African-American casts in a variety of roles

actualities

Early films that documented everyday events, such as workers leaving a factory.

developmental documentary

Follows a non narrative structure but still follows change or progress

Cinema Verite

French term for truth film, a documentary style that records fragments of everyday life unobtrusively; it often features a rough, grainy look and shaky, handheld camera work

Know what the director of photography is responsible for in a film

Their job is to translate the director's vision into usable footage, using all of the photographic skills listed above and only after making a series of crucial decisions which we will get to below

What does the inciting incident accomplish and when does it occur in a film?

This particular moment is when an event thrusts the protagonist into the main action of the story, occurs in act 1

four principal frameworks to documentary

To explore the world and its people, interrogate or analyze an event or problem, to persuade an audience, to reflect the presence of a filmmaker

What is the main light that illuminates a subject in a shot?

key light

Women in Film Noir

painted as mysteries, either in need of savior or guilty.

Propaganda films

political documentaries that visibly support, and intend to sway viewers toward, a particular social or political issue or group

What stereotype in film and literature featured a character that was narratively doomed because of their mixed-race ancestry?

tragic mulatto

sound bridge

(1) At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. (2) At the end of one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard, leading into that scene.

Bechdel Test

(1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man

rack focus

A cinematographer can change the depth of field within a shot to shift our attention from one subject to another.

foley artists

A crew member who works in post-production in a specially equipped studio to create the sounds of the story world, such as the shuffling of shoes on various surfaces for footsteps

anticipation

Anticipation is used to let the audience know that a major action is about to take place

What is the very problematic D.W. Griffith film that was one of the first fulllength feature films, the first film screened at the White House, and an early example of cinema perpetuating the white hegemonic patriarchy?

Birth of a nation

What led to the decline of the blaxploitation genre by the late 1970s

But as the popularity of the films grew, so did their profits, and with those profits, came increasing interest from white producers and Hollywood itself. Sound familiar? By the late 1970s, the films had become a parody of themselves, often backed by white producers and directed by white directors. Suddenly, "blaxploitation" took on a new meaning, with white filmmakers reducing the characters intended to resist hegemony to the same tired, old stereotypes

The primary narrator in cinema is...?

Camera

Claymation

Clay characters or moquettes moved in small increments between still photographs

What film did some critics suggest would inspire race riots, prompting police to be dispatched to early screenings?

Do the right thing

take

Every repeated shot

first "appealing" character in animation and use of keyframes

Gertie the dinosaur

What happens at the end of the first act?

Hero is thrusted into their journey

What is Chuck Jones responsible for?

Highly exaggerated

Know whether or not silence is part of the soundtrack of a film

It is a huge part of the soundtrack

Who is known as the father of documentary?

John Grierson

What led to the decline of Black Cinema and the closure of many niche movie-houses around the country who exhibited "race films

Larger studios began producing similar films

Know who's generally credited with making the first motion picture

Lumiere Brothers

Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Melvin Van Pebbles

Know the main difference between WB's early Merrie Melodies and Disney's content

More satirical view of american society

Appeal

Obviously, not every character should be appealing. But this principle posits that animators should strive to create images that will be interesting and compelling to audiences.

What movie did critics call "Disney's Folly" before it was released?

Snow white and the 7 dwarfs

What film features the most infamous example of the Uncle Tom stereotype? Hint: its' locked away in a "vault."

Song of the South

What is associated with with Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein?

Soviet Montage Movement

Know what the first cartoon with sound printed directly on the film was

Steamboat willie

Also proposed by Laura Mulvey, how does the visual presence of a woman tend to influence the "story line" of the film

The Male Gaze.

What was The New Hollywood Era?

The New Hollywood emphasized the authority of the director and star over the material, not the central producer. And rather than control costs to maximize profits, studios allowed the freelance artists they employed to experiment with the form and take creative risks

ADR

They simply play the scene in a repeating "loop" as the actors record the lines over and over until it matches the performance on screen. Then the sound editors adjust the quality of the recording to match the setting of the scene.

timing

Timing helps create the illusion that an action is abiding by the laws of physics

Shot

a single piece of film uninterrupted by cuts

Know which series set the standard to the anime aesthetic in film and TV

astro boy

What genre of films including Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972) paved the way for Black filmmakers to reclaim old Hollywood stereotypes

blaxploitation

blonde bombshell

blonde, very attractive woman

Know what principle the classical Hollywood style is built upon

continuity or invisible editing

cross cutting

cutting back and forth between two or more narratives, also known as parallel editing

What is the 180 degree rule?

defines an axis of action, an imaginary line that runs through the characters in a scene, that the camera cannot cross

Voyeurism

desire to watch others having sexual relations or to spy on nude people

keyframe

drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition

Scenics

early nonfiction films that offered exotic or remarkable images of nature or foreign lands

Who's the head of the lighting department?

gaffer

set-up

move the camera - and everything associated with it - to a new shot, sometimes just a slightly different angle on the same scene

What is the most weighty criticism of the Bechdel test?

not taking into account the quality of the works it tests

cumulative documentary

presents a catalog of images and sounds throughout a film

contrastive documentary

presents a series of images with opposing points of views

What is xerography?

process where an animator's drawings are printed directly onto a cell.

What technological advancement gave rise to newsreels and documentaries with embedded social commentary?

sound

What was The Paramount Decision of 1948?

the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended vertical integration in the film industry by forcing the studios to divest themselves of their theaters

What does "mise-en-scene" literally mean?

the action of putting onto the stage

focal length

the distance from the center of a lens to the focal point

depth of field

the distance in front of a camera and its lens in which objects are in apparent sharp focus

gender performativity

the notion that gender is not inherent, but constructed and maintained through gendered acts

content curve

the point at which we have absorbed everything we need to know in a particular shot and are ready to see the next shot

What is generic transformation?

the process by which a particular genre is adapted to meet the expectations of a changing society

From the section entitled "Modern Hollywood Cinema and Representations of Blackness," what do all the modern stereotypes have in common? (This will be reviewed in your pre-recorded lectures)

their role in shaping a shared cultural narrative about race in America

Final Girl

usually a virgin, last person in a horror film, usually kills the monster

What key development in the 1980s led to a resurgence in modern Black Cinema? (This will also be reviewed in you pre-recorded lectures)

when more and more filmmakers had access to cheaper and cheaper equipment and were able to take control over the creative process outside of the Hollywood system