Chapter 2 Flashcards
Artists are able to give their work form in a way that drives our interest and focuses our attention by
creating a pattern.
Which elements of a film work together to create its form?
Every element of a film
What is the relationship between form and content in film?
They both function to engage the viewer.
Audience expectations are created by the ______ of a film.
form
How do conventions in form define film experience?
They fulfill expectations of what the audience expects to see in the film.
Successful art has the ability to involve its viewers. How is this achieved?
By engaging our senses
By creating a structured experience
Imagine you are watching a comedy film and you laugh. Which of the following best describes your reaction?
Emotional response
The overall set of relationships among a film’s parts represents its __.
form
Film viewers unfailingly try to understand what the film is trying to say or suggest. What are they looking for?
Meaning
What is the best way to picture the relationship between form and content in a film?
Content enters into the total form of the film.
How does the form of film sustain the interest of a viewer?
Creating and building expectation
If you go to see a musical film, you expect to see singing and dancing. Why is that expectation taken for granted?
It is a convention.
Which of the following best illustrates the conventional relationship between film form and emotional response?
Josh goes to see a horror film wanting to be frightened.
What are reasons that the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz offers meaning to viewers?
It connects the narrative and other elements of the film.
______ refers to what a film as a whole is trying to say and what its significance is.
Meaning
Saying you enjoyed a film is a question of ______.
personal taste
Which of the following are functions fulfilled by the song “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz?
To generate a positive reaction among viewers
To express Dorothy’s desire to leave home
To foreshadow the journey she takes in the film
What is the term for any significant repeated element that contributes to the overall form of a film?
Motif
True or false: Patterns we find in films are always the result of choices made by the filmmakers. For instance, Hitchcock was careful to limit all of the action in Rear Window to what the protagonist could see out of his window.
True
True or false: While viewers tend to have differing ideas about the meaning of a film, it is the filmmaker’s intent that represents its true meaning.
False
Which of the following is NOT a primary criterion by which critics evaluate film?
Enjoyment
Does every element of the form of a film usually have a function?
Yes
Adversaries in a film often oppose the desires of the protagonist. What principles of film form are at play here?
Variation
At the beginning of The Shining, a knife rack is shown in the kitchen scene and reappears near the end when Wendy needs a weapon. What does the knife rack exemplify in terms of film form? (Click on image to enlarge.)
A motif
Which of the following statements are true about patterns in film form or style?
Filmmakers often use patterns in a film that are similar to that of other films of the same form or style.
Filmmakers make choices in story development that result in patterns that underlie the film’s unity.
Filmmakers can use even common items, such as a door, to form part of a pattern in a film.
What are reasons that the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz offers meaning to viewers?
It connects the narrative and other elements of the film.
Which of the following is NOT an example of variation in film form?
Repetition of motifs
The Wizard of Oz is at its core the story of a journey, over the course of which the character of Dorothy evolves and changes. What principle is at play here?
Development
Adversaries in a film often oppose the desires of the protagonist. What principles of film form are at play here?
Variation
What is the best way to help understand the formal development of a film?
Compare the beginning with the ending
What effect does overall unity in a film have on the viewer?
Completeness
Which of the following is NOT an example of the principle of development in the form of film?
An event
Which of the following is an example of how the comparison of beginning and ending illuminate the formal development of The Wizard of Oz?
Dorothy ends up physically where she started but as a changed person
A film has ______ when all of the relationships we perceive within a film are clear and economically interwoven.
unity
