Film Lit / Final Exam

According to Scorsese, what are the four aspects of cinema that make it "so special" and "uniquely powerful?"

Light, Movement, Time, Inference

What did Scorsese mean by "film language"?

the ability for an audience to see meaning through cuts, editing, and other cinematic means

Which cinematic technique was revolutionary in allowing viewers to infer meaning and images, as well as change the way people watched visual images and interpret them in the mind's eye?

the cut

Visual literacy is important because moving images engage humanity and intelligence.

True

Film should be preserved because it guarantees movement and progress.

True

Wizard of Oz/Gone with the Wind

Famous first technicolor films

A Trip to the Moon

An early film that parodied the writings of Jules Verne and HG Wells

Mary Jane's Mishap

An early film praised for its sophisticated use of editing

The Waterer Watered

First narrative film and earliest known instance of film comedy to portray a fictional story

The Jazz Singer

The true first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences

Becky Sharp

First three-strip technicolor film

The Great Train Robbery

First American Western film that is credited to have changed the way audiences viewed films because of the crucial use of "cuts"

Cupid Angling

First instance of true color film (non-technicolor)

Worker's Leaving the Factory

First publicly projected film

Fred Ott's Sneeze

First motion picture copyrighted in the U.S.

Phantoscope

A backlit projector invented by Charles Francis Jenkins

Eadweard Muybridge

An English photographer who settled a bet about a galloping horse that produced the earliest work of motion picture.

Phenakistoscope

The first successful illusion toy invented by Joseph Plateau

Zoetrope

An illusion toy invented by George Horner that uses slits

William K. L. Dickson

Thomas Edison's assistant

Kinetoscope

An individual motion picture viewing device invented by Thomas Edison

George Eastman

Founded the Kodak company to mass produce films and a system for developing films.

The Black Maria

One of the first movie studios created by Thomas Edison and his assistant.

Praxinoscope

An illusion toy invented by Emile Reynaud that uses mirrors

Cinématographe

A device invented by the Lumiere brothers that filmed, developed, and projected images

Theme

Synonymous with social commentary.

Mood

How the work makes the audience feel.

Foreshadowing

A narrative device used to arouse the audience of possible outcomes within the confinement of a narrative.

Sidehadowing

A narrative device that the audience may believe to be significant to discover the puzzle of the plotline, but turns out to be nothing at all, and simply just adds to the verisimilitude of the fiction.

Prolepsis

A distant relative of dramatic foreshadowing, showing an event that has yet to pass.

Tone

A filmmaker's attitude towards a subject.

Chekhov's Gun

A dramatic principle that requires every element in a narrative to be irreplaceable.

Red herring

A hint designed to mislead or plant doubt for the audience.

Movies should be treated as texts - works to be analyzed and interpreted.

True

There is an audiovisual component to movies that set them apart from books/literature.

True

Every movie is made in Hollywood.

False

Two examples of movies that are NOT mainstream are INDEPENDENT and INTERNATIONAL.

True

In literature, imagery is verbal and in film, imagery is visual.

True

One basic function of the flashback is to explain the connection between past and present.

True

Once a year, movie studios can submit a theatrical trailer for ONE movie that is longer than 2:30.

True

The current movie rating system is still called The Hays Code.

False

PG-13 movies can have ONE non-sexual F-word per script.

True

In film, first-person point of view can be achieved by employing subjective camera.

True

A logo, a studio's trademark, can be modified to fit the theme of a movie.

True

A "Main Title" title card shows the title of the movie.

True

A pre-credits sequence is a segment of the film that occurs before the opening credits.

True

An "Opening Title" can be an epigraph or a quotation.

True

End credits only include people considered to be "above the line."

False

Mockumentary

films that use elements of a documentary but are NOT actually REAL

Farce

sometimes referred to as low comedy

Movie Operettas

everything, including dialogue, is sung

Rockumentary

follows the life and personal info of musicians instead of just showing performances

Post-Modern Musical

rapid cutting; no long shots since some actors may lack musical experience

Dance Musical

the characters' emotional and psychological states are expressed through dance

Screwball Comedy

sharp, fast, witty dialogue with elements of slapstick

Documentary

non-fiction; truthful

Backstage Musical

chronicles the joys and heartaches of show business

Satire

mockery of social conventions or political issues; a witty approach to insulting or ridiculing other works of art

Long

a shot of the complete human figure, with some of the background visible

Medium

in between a close and a long shot (ex: from head to waist; from waist to knees)

Associative

the scenes are linked together by an object or a series of objects

shot reverse shot

shots are arranged so that they follow each other in rapid succession, featuring an event or several events into a couple of seconds of screen time

close up

in terms of human anatomy, a shot of the head, for example

Establishing

A shot that sets the scene before the scene is broken down to other shots

Linear

one action links up with another, creating a miniature drama

How long can a "short film" be to qualify for The Oscars?

40 minutes or shorter

The two main functions of music in a film are:

to advance and enhance

Music affects the following elements in a film EXCEPT:

cinematography

Leitmotif

a musical phrase or song that is repeatedly associated with a character, a mood, or a situation

Soundtrack

a recorded song accompanying and synchronized to the images of a film

Non-diegetic

any sound NOT originating within the film's world

movie score

when an orchestra plays original music to a scene on screen

Diegetic

any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating from a source within the film's world

crash zoom

like the swish pan, except a rapid movement towards the subject

Crane

a high angle, moving shot

racking focus

the practice of changing the focus of a lens such that an element in one plane of the image goes out of focus and an element at another plane comes into focus

Zolly

combination of a dolly and a zoom

deep focus

requires that elements at very different depths of the image both be in focus

Pan

a shot taken when the camera stays in one place (on a tripod, for example) but rotates or swivels horizontally

shallow focus

a restricted depth of field; keeps only one plane in sharp focus

Dutch

a shot in which the frame is not level

Dolly

a shot taken from a moving platform on a set of wheels

Tilt

a shot taken when the camera stays in one place (on a tripod, for example) but rotates or swivels vertically

The process of selecting and arranging the shots based on their place within the narrative.

Editing

A group of shots forming a self-contained segment of the film.

a sequence

The most common form of editing in a narrative film.

continuity editing

Which of the the elements below is NOT a factor of the editing process?

Props

A single image of film or video.

Frame

The arrangement of the visual elements within a shot or sequence.

mise en scène

The chief over the camera crews, mainly responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image.

Cinematographer, director of photography, DP

Belief that essential purpose of art is to overcome deadening effects of habit by making familiar things unfamiliar.

defamiliarization

The 4 elements of mise en scène are:

setting, lighting, color, space

Some theorists believe that INTERTEXTUALITY is the very condition of literature and film (narratives)

True

Color symbolism is the emotional and cognitive response or reaction to a color.

False

Color psychology is not an official term, nor is it an actual field of study.

​​False

Color can be considered a character in the production design of a film.

True

Color can manipulate emotions and mood.

True

Certain colors can only represent one specific effect or symbolic aspect.

False

What are the three key elements in color?

hue, saturation, value

What is the use of "associative color" in film?

to associate a color to a certain meaning or idea