Exam 1 - Multiple Choice

Question 1

Eadweard Muybridge

Answer 1

horse motion studies for Leland Stanford

Question 2

Kinetescope

Answer 2

early motion-picture device, Edison and Dickson

Question 3

The Cinématographe

Answer 3

invented by the Lumiere brothers, 35 mm camera that could print positive copies then form part of the projector

Question 4

Black Maria

Answer 4

Edison and Dickson’s original studio

Question 5

Grand Café

Answer 5

December 18, 1895 screening of ten films by the Lumiere brothers

Question 6

Phantom rides

Answer 6

designed to give spectators the illusion of traveling

Question 7

What were the three key genres of the post-novelty period (1897-1898)

Answer 7

Boxing Films, Passion plays, and views of the Spanish-American War

Question 8

Who is Edwin S. Porter?

Answer 8

The first American Filmmaker, responsible for The Great Train Robbery, Life of American Firemen, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Question 9

Between 1905-1912, which country had the largest film industry?

Answer 9

France

Question 10

What is vertical integration?

Answer 10

A practice in which a single company engages in
all three basic activities of the film industry (production, distribution, and exhibition). In the US film industry, the Majors (slang for powerful film companies) were vertically integrated from the 1920s on, owning production facilities

Question 11

What is horizontal integration?

Answer 11

A practice in which a company in one sector of
the motion-picture industry acquires or gains control over other companies in that sector. For example, a production company may expand by purchasing other production firms.

Question 12

What was the Motion Picture Patents Company?

Answer 12

A company formed within the industry that invoked competition to increase quality of films, dominated by Edison

Question 13

What was the national board of censorship?

Answer 13

A private company partly funded by the MPPC, would examine films and censor them justly

Question 14

What is pixilation?

Answer 14

a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames

Question 15

What is the 9-foot line?

Answer 15

film from 9 feet away cutting off just below the hips to better se facial expressions, (The Painted Lady, 1912, D.W. Griffith)

Question 16

What is crosscutting?

Answer 16

Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.

Question 17

What is analytical editing?

Answer 17

editing that breaks down a single space into separate areas

Question 18

What is contiguity editing?

Answer 18

Showing characters move between contiguous spaces Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth, 1905)

Question 19

What were the major reasons America took over the film industry in 1913-1919?

Answer 19

-Disruption of World War I
-Higher budgets, based on large domestic and international audiences
-Sold abroad cheaper than local productions

Question 20

What was the Cabria movement?

Answer 20

Sweeping European historical spectacles
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914) 12 reels

Question 21

What made swedish cinema so distinctive?

Answer 21

-Prominent use of northern landscape*
-Use of local literature, costumes, and culture*
-“Swedish qualities” allowed for successful export
-Recognized as the first alternative Hollywood to emerge after WWI

Question 22

What is block booking?

Answer 22

a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit any exhibitor who wanted films with high box-office potential had to rent other, less desirable films from the company.

Question 23

What is effects lighting?

Answer 23

Effect-lighting is any type of lighting which attempts to reproduce the effect of the illumination you’d actually see in a particular place under the conditions of the story.

Question 24

What were the state of production facilities in France and how did it affect filmmaking?

Answer 24

Outmoded production facilities
-The transition to artificial lighting was costly
-Few backlots
-Low budgets and fewer spectacle films
-Increased location shooting

Question 25

Photogénie

Answer 25

a term that indicates something more than being “photogenic.” For impressionists, photogénie was the basis of cinema.

Question 26

La Roue

Answer 26

A film of the French Impressionist era directed by Abel Gance, used fast editing and quick cutting to enhance feelings and the mental states of the main characters

Question 27

What impact did inflation have on German cinema?

Answer 27

Inflation greatly benefited German cinema
people had little reason to save, since money lost its value sitting in a bank or under a mattress, which meant spending was high on whatever was readily available, that being film, which gave way to more theaters being built
Inflation encouraged exports and discouraged imports, which allowed the German film industry to dominate the market overseas.
More people started to show up to the theater

Question 28

What were the major characteristics of the German Expressionist movement in the visual arts? (painting)

Answer 28

Avoiding the realism of shading and depth-colors
Large shapes and dark outlines
Distorted figures and subjects (elongated limbs, weird faces, etc.)

Question 29

What are Kammerspiel films?

Answer 29

“chamber-drama”, concentrated on a few characters,
exploring a crisis in their lives in depth. The emphasis
was on slow, evocative acting and telling details, rather than extreme expressions of emotion.

Question 30

What was the Entfesselte camera?

Answer 30

Technoligical innovation of the German Expressionist movement, meaning the unfastened camera
Moving camera, or camera moving through free space on it’s own plane away from the characters, popularized by The Last Laugh by F.W. Murnau

Question 31

What was the Parufamet Agreement?

Answer 31

A German film distribution company formed between MGM, Paramount, and Ufa in the mid-1920s, after Ufa went bankrupt
The Agreement stated Ufa owned half of it, while Paramount and MGM each held one-quarter. Parufamet would distribute at least twenty films a year for each participating firm.