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ENGL 208—War on Film___________ MIDTERM EXAM_______ Heuston
(5 PTS. EACH):
(1) Which of the following elements is NOT part of a film’s mise en scene?
(a) Sound
(b) Staging of action
(c) Physical setting and décor
(d) Framing of materials
(e) Style or manner of photographing materials
(2) Which of the following films has elements of both action films (at least one action scene) and character-driven films?
(a) Casablanca
(b) The Bridge on the River Kwai
(c) Dr. Strangelove
(d) Beasts of No Nation
(e) All of the above
(3) Significance of camera angles: High angle shots (camera looking down on a person) tend to make a person look __________________, whereas low angle shots (camera looking up at a person) tend to make a person look ______________________.
(a) heavy or massive; light or slender
(b) small or powerless; powerful or menacing
(c) powerful or menacing; small or powerless
(d) evil; good
(e) None of the above
(4) During roughly what time period was the Motion Picture Production Code (a.k.a. the Hays Code) in effect?
(a) 1893-1943
(b) 1929-1942
(c) 1930-1968
(d) 1969-1989
(e) None of the above
(5) Why do some people disagree with auteur theory?
(a) It’s French, and thus doesn’t apply to American films
(b) It’s American, and thus doesn’t apply to French films
(c) It gives a film’s director all the credit and ignores other contributors
(d) It gives a film’s director too little credit and overemphasizes other contributors
(e) None of the above
(6) The early Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov took shots of an actor whose face showed a neutral expression, then juxtaposed them with one of three other shots: (1) a bowl of soup, (2) a dead woman in a coffin, or (3) a little girl playing. Audience members interpreted the actor’s neutral expression very differently depending on whether they saw it juxtaposed with (a), (b), or (c). What did this demonstrate?
(a) Soup kills
(b) The power of acting to influence audience
(c) The power of editing to influence audience reaction
(d) The power of propaganda in Soviet cinema
(e) The power of sound in film
(7) According to Giannetti’s definition, which of the following would likely or generally be categorized as a personality star as opposed to an actor star?
(a) Jason Statham (the star of the Transporter and Crank action movies)
(b) Arnold Schwarzenegger
(c) Will Ferrell
(d) John Wayne
(e) All of the above
(8) During the so-called Golden Age of the star system (a.k.a. the age of the Hollywood studio system)
(a) The Hays Code was in effect
(b) Five major studios dominated the film industry worldwide
(c) Exclusive contracts meant that studios essentially owned their stars
(d) Four hundred or more reporters and columnists covered the Hollywood beat
(e) All of the above
(9) Which of the following films is a product of the Hollywood studio system?
(a) Battleship Potemkin
(b) The Bridge on the River Kwai
(c) Casablanca
(d) Triumph of the Will
(e) None of the above
(10) Panning shots are
(a) camera movements that scan a scene horizontally
(b) camera movements that scan a scene vertically
(c) camera movements that bring the camera closer to a scene
(d) camera shots from a crane
(e) None of the above
(11) A movement of the camera away from the central attraction (usually a speaker) to show an onlooker or listener is called
(a) a tracking shot
(b) a reaction shot
(c) a crane shot
(d) a smash cut
(e) a dissolve
(12) Which of the following is NOT true of Casablanca?
(a) Ilsa and Victor escape from Casablanca with help from Rick.
(b) The police apparently murder Ugarte (the creepy little guy who is arrested in Rick's Cafe) off-screen.
(c) The police chief is a sexual predator.
(d) Ilsa intentionally cheats on her husband Victor with Rick in Paris.
(e) Rick kills the main Nazi character.
(13) _______________ is an example of a film in which the director repeatedly attempts to dazzle the audience with unusual or imaginative shots, whereas _______________ is much less flashy and uses such shots only rarely (if at all).
(a) Casablanca; Triumph of the Will
(b) Night and Fog; The Hurt Locker
(c) Triumph of the Will; Casablanca
(d) Casablanca; Battleship Potemkin
(e) None of the above
(14) Which of the following is NOT true of The Bridge on the River Kwai?
(a) A British officer kills Colonel Nicholson
(b) Colonel Nicholson kills Colonel Saito
(c) The American Commander/“Simulated Major” Shears returns to the area around the prison camp after his escape
(d) Colonel Saito plans to commit suicide
(e) None of the above
(15) When can the balance between realism and formalism shift?
(a) From soundtrack to soundtrack
(b) From actor to actor
(c) From shot to shot
(d) Never
(16) Which of the following statements about Beasts of No Nation is NOT true?
(a) Agu (the main character) kills kills unarmed people.
(b) The Commandant sexually abuses his child soldiers.
(c) The film features no significant white characters.
(d) The film presents child soldiers as completely willing participants in war.
(17) ____________ is an intermediate style between extremes of realism and formalism
(a) Documentary
(b) Chronology
(c) Cinéma vérité
(d) Classicism
(18) Condensing the action of a film by shortening or not showing certain actions (such as characters commuting to/from work or running errands) if showing those actions in their entirety would be unnecessary and/or boring is called
(a) panning
(b) the Kobayashi Maru scenario
(c) realism
(d) juxtaposition
(e) cutting to continuity
(19) Which of the following is true of Dr. Strangelove?
(a) the film both spoofs (meaning ridicules/parodies) and reflects Cold War-era anxiety and paranoia
(b) Peter Sellers plays multiple roles
(c) the film’s full title (including the subtitle) is deceptive or ironic
(d) it shows deliberately unflattering portrayals of US military and government personnel
(e) All of the above
(20) CGI can
(a) force us to rethink the realism-formalism debate (or think differently about what counts as realism)
(b) have a powerful influence on what types of films get made
(c) blur the lines between acting, directing, and editing (in a movie like Avatar or one of the Lord of the Rings movies, for example)
(d) All of the above
(e) None of the above
NOTE: DO NOT PRINT THIS EXAM OR MAKE ANY COPIES OF IT (PAPER COPIES OR COMPUTER COPIES). MAKE SURE TO SIGN YOUR HONOR STATEMENT (WHICH HEUSTON E-MAILED TO YOU) AND TURN IT IN ALONG WITH YOUR SCAN-TRON ANSWER FORM. DO NOT STAPLE YOUR SCAN-TRON FORM. DO NOT STAPLE YOUR SCAN-TRON FORM. I REPEAT, DO NOT STAPLE YOUR SCAN-TRON FORM.