Exam 2

Question 1

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Answer 1

Directed by Steven Spielberg and Music by John Williams.
Science fiction adventure about a group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a “sunburn” from its bright lights to prove it. Roy refuses to accept an explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his life to pursue the truth about UFOs.

Question 2

Expressionism

Answer 2

A style of filmmaking emphasizing extreme distortion, lyricism, and artistic self-expression at the expense of objectivity.

Question 3

Medium Shot

Answer 3

A relatively close shot, revealing the human figure from the knees or waist up.

Question 4

Close-up

Answer 4

A detailed view of a person or object. A close-up of an actor usually includes only his or her head.

Question 5

Extreme Long Shot

Answer 5

A panoramic view of an exterior location, photographed from a great distance, often as far as a quarter-mile away.

Question 6

Long Shot

Answer 6

A shot that includes an area within the image that roughly corresponds to the audience’s view of the area within the proscenium arch in the live theater.

Question 7

Full Shot

Answer 7

A type of long shot that includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.

Question 8

Extreme Close-up

Answer 8

A minutely detailed view of an object or person. An extreme close-up of an actor generally includes only his or her eyes or mouth.

Question 9

Establishing Shot

Answer 9

Usually an extreme long shot or long shot offered at the beginning of a scene, providing the viewer with the context of the subsequent closer shots.

Question 10

Over-the-shoulder Shot

Answer 10

Usually a medium shot of two people, with the camera placed just behind the shoulder of one character, directed at the face of the opposite character.

Question 11

Angle

Answer 11

The camera’s angle of view relative to the subject being photographed. A high angle shot is photographed from above, a low angle from below the subject.

Question 12

Bird’s Eye View

Answer 12

A shot in which the camera photographers a scene from directly overhead.

Question 13

Setup

Answer 13

The positioning of the camera and lights for a specific shot

Question 14

Crane (boom) Shot

Answer 14

A shot taken from a special device called a crane, which resembles a huge mechanical arm. The crane carries the camera and the cinematographer and can move in virtually any direction

Question 15

Cinematographer

Answer 15

The artist or technician responsible for the lighting of a shot and the quality of the photography

Question 16

High Key

Answer 16

A style of lighting emphasizing bright and even illumination, with few conspicuous shadows. Used mostly in comedies, musicals, and light entertainment films

Question 17

High Contrast

Answer 17

A style of lighting emphasizing harsh shafts and dramatic streaks of lights and darks. Often used in thrillers and melodramas

Question 18

Low Key

Answer 18

A style of lighting that emphasizes diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. Often used in mysteries and thrillers

Question 19

Film Noir

Answer 19

A french term-black cinema-referring to a kind of urban American genre that sprang up after WWII, emphasizing a fatalistic, despairing universe where there is no escape from mean city streets, loneliness, and death, stylistically. Noir emphasizes low-key and high-key contrast lighting, complex compositions, and a strong atmosphere of dread and paranoia

Question 20

Backlighting

Answer 20

When the lights for a shot derive from the rear of the set, thus throwing the foreground figures into semidarkness or silhouette

Question 21

Dominant

Answer 21

That area of the film image that compels the viewer’s most immediate attention, usually because of a prominent visual contrast

Question 22

Filters

Answer 22

Pieces of glass or plastic placed in front of the camera lens that distort the quality of light entering the camera and hence the movie image

Question 23

Rack Focusing

Answer 23

The blurring of focal planes in sequence, forcing the viewer’s eyes to travel with those areas of an image that remain in sharp focus

Question 24

Fast Stock

Answer 24

Film stock that’s highly sensitive to light and generally produces a grainy image. Often used by documentaries who wish to shoot only with available lighting

Question 25

Storyboarding

Answer 25

A revisualization technique in which shots are sketched in advance and in sequence, like a comic strip, thus allowing the filmmaker to outline the mise en scène and construct the editing continuity before production begins

Question 26

Wide-Angle Lens

Answer 26

A lens that permits the camera to photograph a wider area than a normal lens. A side effect is its tendency to exaggerate perspective. Also used for deep-focus photography

Question 27

“Colorized” Films

Answer 27

A computer technology allowing black and white movies to be colorized

Question 28

Green Screen

Answer 28

Filming live actors against a blank green screen for subsequent compositing with digital elements

Question 29

Chiaroscuro

Answer 29

A term from art history that refers to the use of deep shadow in the mise en scène

Question 30

High Angle

Answer 30

A camera angle usually above the eye level of the performers

Question 31

Tilt

Answer 31

A shot photographed by a tilted camera. When the image is projected on the screen, the subject itself seems to be tilted on a diagonal

Question 32

Aspect Ratio

Answer 32

The ratio between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the screen

Question 33

Widescreen

Answer 33

A movie image that has an aspect ratio of approximately 5:3, though some widescreen possess horizontal dimensions that extend as wide as 2.5 times the vertical dimension of the screen

Question 34

Full Screen

Answer 34

A display format that modifies the original movie to fit the aspect ratio of your TV or other displays

Question 35

Pan-and-Scan

Answer 35

Method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio TV screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition’s most important aspects

Question 36

Letterbox

Answer 36

Practicing of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film’s original aspect ratio

Question 37

Masking

Answer 37

A technique whereby a portion of the movie image is blocked out, thus temporarily altering the dimensions of the screen’s aspect ratio

Question 38

Iris

Answer 38

A masking device that blacks out portions of the screen, permitting only a part of the image to be seen. Usually, the iris is circular or oval in shape and can be expanded or contracted

Question 39

Intrinsic Interest

Answer 39

An unobtrusive area of the film image that none the less compels our most immediate attention because of its dramatic or contextual importance

Question 40

Tight Framing

Answer 40

Usually in close shots. The mise en scene is so carefully balanced and harmonized that the people photographed have little or no freedom of movement

Question 41

Loose Framing

Answer 41

Usually in longer shots. The mise en scene is so spaciously distributed within the confines of the framed image that the people photographed have considerable freedom of movement

Question 42

Panning

Answer 42

Short for panorama, this is a revolving horizontal movement of the camera from left to right, vice versa.

Question 43

Proxemic Patterns

Answer 43

The spatial relationships among characters within the mise en scene, and the apparent distance of the camera from the subject photographed

Question 44

Deep-focus Shot

Answer 44

A technique of photography that permits all distance planes to remain clearly in focus, from close-up ranges to infinity

Question 45

Open Form

Answer 45

Use primarily by realist filmmakers, these techniques are likely to be unobtrusive, with an emphasis on informal compositions and apparently haphazard designs. The frame is exploited to suggest a temporary masking, a window that arbitrarily cuts off part of the action

Question 46

Closed Form

Answer 46

A visual style that inclines toward self-conscious designs and carefully harmonized compositions. The frame is exploited to suggest a self-sufficient universe that encloses all the necessary visual info, usually an aesthetically appealing manner

Question 47

Aleatory

Answer 47

Techniques of filmmaking that depend on the element of chance. Images are not planned out in advance but must be composed on the spot by the camera operator. Usually used in documentary situations

Question 48

Anticipatory Setup

Answer 48

The placement of the camera in such a manner as to anticipate the movement of an action before it occurs. Such setups often suggest predestination

Question 49

Shot-Reverse-Short Cutting

Answer 49

The cutting alternates between opposing over the shoulder camera setups showing each character speaking in turn. Generally used for conversation scenes

Question 50

Systematic Mise en Scene Analysis

Answer 50

15 Terms: Dominant, Lighting Key, Shot and Camera Proxemics, Angle, Color Values, Lens/Filter/Stock, Subsidiary Contrasts, Density, Composition, Form, Framing, Depth, Character Placement, Staging Positions, Character Proxemics