Midterm For American Cinema (Ch. 1-8)

Front 1

For 20 years, from the coming of sound in 1929 to 1949, roughly ___________ Americans went to the movies every week.

Back 1

80 to 90 million

Front 2

Who produced the first motion picture camera?

Back 2

Thomas Edison

Front 3

Starting in 1905, "nickelodeons" began to spring up to show motion picture films. What was the cost?

Back 3

5 cents

Front 4

After the "nickelodeons" era ended, bigger theaters were created called __________.

Back 4

Movie Palaces

Front 5

In 1908 producers banded together to form the ____________ to control production.

Back 5

Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC)

Front 6

From 1896 to roughly 1905 the audience that went to the movies was _____________.

Back 6

Middle Class

Front 7

Which director is famous for parallel editing in early cinema?

Back 7

D. W. Griffith

Front 8

D. W. Griffith's epic ___________ illustrated the power of the motion picture medium to communicate ideological argument.

Back 8

The Birth of a Nation

Front 9

Cinema has developed into the following institutions.

Back 9

Economical and Technological

Front 10

What director was the first to shoot in the village of Hollywood?

Back 10

D. W. Griffith

Front 11

Classical Hollywood cinema possesses a style that is largely _________ and difficult for the average spectator to see.

Back 11

Baroque

Front 12

Every aspect of the production operation was geared up to facilitate the smoothest possible flow of the ___________ process.

Back 12

Narrative

Front 13

Equilibrium is disrupted at the beginning of the film and only recovered at the ___________.

Back 13

End

Front 14

In Classical Hollywood Films the narrative ends ambiguously with no clear ending.

Back 14

False

Front 15

Often, in Classical Hollywood Films, the character's goals had a specific deadline that had to be met.

Back 15

True

Front 16

Most spectators are aware, either consciously or unconsciously, that films are _________.

Back 16

not real

Front 17

Audiences generally experience films of the classic studio era as ___________.

Back 17

Continuous

Front 18

Aristotle defined the 3 dramatic unities as ___________.

Back 18

Action, time, and/or space

Front 19

What type of format did the film Some Like it Hot have?

Back 19

Journey

Front 20

Do Citizen Kane and The Social Network fall under the Classic Hollywood Cinema narrative? Why?

Back 20

Both don't because there is no clear protagonist, they are not continuous, and they are considered modernist films.

Front 21

Classical Hollywood cinema is a __________ centered cinema.

Back 21

character

Front 22

Mise-en-scene means:

Back 22

Put on the stage

Front 23

Mise-en-scene is:

Back 23

Camera composition

Front 24

In Citizen Kane when Charles Kane is defeated and is standing in his deserted campaign the low angle of the camera actually captures his powerful powerlessness, making it appear as if the character is about to topple over.

Back 24

True

Front 25

One formal device of camera movement is a/an:

Back 25

Zoom

Front 26

The standard lighting setup employed in Hollywood films is called:

Back 26

Three-point lighting

Front 27

What type of lighting effect conveys an upbeat comedy?

Back 27

High-key lighting

Front 28

What sound takes precedence in any scene?

Back 28

Dialogue

Front 29

When we cut to the character's perspective, it is called:

Back 29

Point-of-view

Front 30

To guarantee matches in screen position and movement filmmakers use:

Back 30

180-degree rule

Front 31

Hortense Powdermaker described Hollywood as ___________.

Back 31

A dream factory

Front 32

To reduce risks, Hollywood generated its own form of brand names called ___________.

Back 32

The star system

Front 33

What studios were part of the majors?

Back 33

Paramount, Loew's/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M), Fox/20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros., and Radio-Keith-Orpheum

Front 34

What studios were part of the minors?

Back 34

Universal, Columbia, and United Artists

Front 35

The studio system succeeded because the U.S. courts declared the MPPC to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1915.

Back 35

True

Front 36

Vertical integration refers to the studios' control of ________, ________, and __________.

Back 36

production, distribution, and exhibition

Front 37

Everyone in the studio system was under contract; how long were the stars' contracts?

Back 37

7 years

Front 38

Who was at the top of the production process in the chain of command?

Back 38

Chief Executive

Front 39

What studio was known for screwball comedies?

Back 39

Columbia Pictures

Front 40

What studio is known to have invented the Horror genre with films like Dracula?

Back 40

Universal

Front 41

In 1911, Vitagraph launched the Motion Picture Story Magazine, the first fan magazine.

Back 41

True

Front 42

Stars were _________ that the studios could take to the bank.

Back 42

Assets

Front 43

Many contemporary stars got their start in film through their apprenticeship on a successful __________.

Back 43

Television series

Front 44

Which star/s have appeared in seven consecutive blockbusters that have earned over $100 million each?

Back 44

Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Will Smith

Front 45

Stars essentially consist of three personalities -- the star, the actor and the __________.

Back 45

Actual person

Front 46

A star is an actor whose persona transcends the sum total of his or her performances.

Back 46

True

Front 47

Marilyn Monroe says, "only the _________ can make a star..."

Back 47

Public

Front 48

Throughout history Stars were created because they answered the public's conscious or subconscious need of that particular time.

Back 48

True

Front 49

Histories tend to cite ___________ as the first movie star.

Back 49

Florence Lawrence

Front 50

__________ emerged in the late 1960's as the first black star.

Back 50

Sidney Poitier

Front 51

"Melodrama" literally means "a drama accompanied by music."

Back 51

True

Front 52

If the story or situation was not rooted in melodrama, then at least the acting or __________ was.

Back 52

Mise-en-scene

Front 53

Melodrama was a ___________ genre.

Back 53

Modal

Front 54

For setting; Melodramas take place in the ___________.

Back 54

Domestic space of the family

Front 55

Melodrama in America remained steadfastly populist; there were urban and rural populist that had diverse views but both camps supported _____________.

Back 55

social reform

Front 56

What are the characteristics of the Melodrama Genre? (Who was the hero, villian, etc.)

Back 56

The hero was guided by virtue or a sense of noble purpose. The villains were landlords, factory owners, and other symbols of industrialization. The plot was formulaic with a beginning (normal, accepted pattern of life), a middle (continuous disturbance and imbalance in the world), and an end (the resolution where the hero saves the day or balance in the "universe" is restored). The language is melodramatic (full of expressive body language, facial expression, make-up, setting that all speak non-verbally).

Front 57

American Comedy helped bring out political incorrectness about __________.

Back 57

Racism

Front 58

Through the theme of comic ___________, American screen comedies demonstrate the flexibility of our democratic social structure in its ability to absorb new members...

Back 58

Integration

Front 59

Ultimately, what is important in comedies is not so much the positive or negative aspects of change as the way in which characters respond to change.

Back 59

True

Front 60

Slapstick comedy is:

Back 60

Humor involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of common sense.

Front 61

Charlie Chaplin's comedy was rooted in ___________ values.

Back 61

19th century

Front 62

Screwball comedy is:

Back 62

Fast-pace repartee, farcical situations, battle of the sexes humor that involved courtship and marriage

Front 63

Screwball comedies bridged __________ differences, solving the social problems of the Depression era.

Back 63

Class

Front 64

A thesis comedy is a comedy with an overt celebrity message.

Back 64

False

Front 65

Beneath its witty dialogue and behind its clever sight gags, American film comedy has a latent __________ agenda, addressing controversial issues in such a disarming way that they appear to lose all controversy.

Back 65

Social

Front 66

What type of comedy was the film "His Girl Friday?"

Back 66

Screwball

Front 67

How does or doesn't Airplane fit with Hollywood Classical style? Why?

Back 67

Classical because it is character driven and has a resolution. Not classical because it draws attention to the film and it isn't seamless.

Front 68

Explain the mise-en-scene in the video clip with the black lady in bed and the white lady standing in front of the window.

Back 68

The bed post is splitting the two lifestyles/personalities. No matter where the white lady moves there is still a divide between the two lives. The white lady is standing and moving and her side of the screen is bright and busy while the black lady's side of the screen is dark, dull and boring.