Final Flashcards
1
Q
what year was sound added?
A
1929
2
Q
how many americans went to the movies every week
A
80 to 90 million
3
Q
what are the four institutions of film?
A
- economic
- social
- technological
- psychological
4
Q
what is an economic institution?
A
designed to make money
5
Q
what is a social institution?
A
providing an appropriate form for social contact for members of an emerging American populace born and bred in the world of mass culture
6
Q
what is a technological institution?
A
dependent for is success on products of the Industrial Revolution - cameras, celluloid, microphones, amplifiers, magnetic recording tape, film laboratories, electricity, projectors, speakers and screens
7
Q
what is a psychological institution?
A
purpose is to encourage the moviegoing habit by providing the kind of entertainment that working-class and middle-class Americans want
8
Q
when and what did George Eastman invent?
A
motion picture film
1889
9
Q
when and what did Thomas Edison invent?
A
motion picture camera - the Kinetoscope
1891 - 1893
10
Q
when and what did Guglielmo Marconi invent?
A
wireless telegraph
1895
11
Q
what are Kinetoscope parlors?
A
contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time
12
Q
when did the first Kinetoscope parlor open?
A
1894
13
Q
when was the advent of projection?
A
1895 - 1896
14
Q
what films were popular in the pre 1906 cinema?
A
actualities
15
Q
whena dn what is the nickelodeon era?
A
1905
theatres devoted exclusively to the showing of motion picture films began to spring up in virtually every city on the country
16
Q
what are nickelodeons? (4)
A
- price of admission was a nickel
- 200 seats
- quickly installed in or near shopping or entertainment districts in former stores that were converted to movie theaters
- low cost of admission and abbreviated length attracted working class
17
Q
how many americans attended nickelodeons each week and how many did they attend?
A
26 million americans attended over 10,000 nickelodeons each week
18
Q
what did the Motion Picture Patents Company do?
A
sought to control all aspects of motion picture production, distribution and exhibition
19
Q
when and why did the mayor of New York City order all nickels to be closed?
A
december 1908
“threat to the city’s physical and moral well being”
20
Q
how did the MPPC respond to the closing of nickels?
A
responded almost immediately with a campaign to improve the content of motion pictures and conditions of theaters
21
Q
how did exhibitors respond to the closing of nickels? (4)
A
began to court middle class customers by becoming more “respectable”
- provided half price matinees for women and children
- upgraded quality of the physical structure of the theaters
- eliminated lower-class elements such as ethnic films and foreign-language sing-alongs
- raised prices
22
Q
how did producers respond to the closing of nickels? (3)
A
- by making films that appealed to a higher class of clientele
- engaged in self-censorship and voluntarily submitted their films to the national Board of Censorship for review
- drew more and more on the classics
23
Q
what is Griffith cinema?
A
actively narrated events, shaping the audiences perception of them. commonly used parallel editing
24
Q
what is parallel editing/crosscutting?
A
cutting back and forth from two (or more) simultaneous events taking place in separate spaces. can be used to create suspense and contribute to psychological development of his characters
25
why is the birth famous? (3)
- ran for 44 consecutive weeks at the Library Theater in New York City
- reserved seats sold at $2
- racist agenda
26
what is The Regent?
a 24600 seat theater that opened in 1913 in New York
27
who is S.L. Rothapfel?
manager of the Regent who made it the premier motion picture theater in the world
28
who is Sid Gauman?
launched a series of movie palaces that were more lavish then the other and provided a prologue to each movie
29
what did Balaban & Katz offer in their theaters? (5)
- free child care
- attendant smoking rooms
- paintings and sculptures
- organ music for those waiting in line
- air conditioning
30
who joined forces with Balaban & Katz?
Paramount
31
who are the majors? (5)
- Paramount
- Loew's/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Fox/20th Century-Fox
- Warner Bros
- Radio-Keith-Orpheum
32
who are the minors? (3)
- Universal
- Columbia
- United Artists
33
when and why did MPPC break up?
1915
| US courts declared the MPPC to be in violation of the Sherman Artitrust Act
34
what is the Famous Players Company and when was it formed?
1912 by Adolph Zukor
| boasted motion pictures with "famous players from famous plays"
35
what is vertical integration and when did it begin?
1910
the structure of a marketplace that is integrated at a variety of crucial levels. in the motion picture industry, the studios are owners of their production facilities, distribution outlets and theaters
36
how many pictures did major studios produce a year?
40 - 60
37
what are the three distribution practices?
- block booking
- blind bidding
- runs, zones and clearances
38
what is block booking?
a distribution system in which exhibitors are forced to contract for the rental of groups of (two or more) films to secure the permission to exhibit any one film distributed by a particular studio
39
what is blind bidding?
a distribution system in which exhibitors are forced to contract for the rental of films prior to seeing them
40
what are runs?
a film that opened in the first-run movie palace in early September would not get to play in the cheaper neighborhood theaters until later October or early November
41
what are zones?
only one theater in any particular area was permitted to exhibit a new picture.this tended to favour studio-owned theaters
42
what are clearances?
smaller second-run and sub-run theaters were forced to wait until a picture had completed its run in the larger houses before they could obtain it
43
what are the characteristics of M-G-M? (4)
- "more stars than there are in heaven"
- polish and gloss
- middle class family values
- seriousness of prestige melodramas
44
what are the characteristics of Paramount? (3)
- sexual savoir-faire
- tongue-in-cheek wit
- european stylishness
45
what are the characteristics of Warner Bros? (3)
- working man's studio
- hasty, rough, conveyed a gritty realism
- gangster films
46
what are the characteristics of 20th Century Fox? (4)
- period and costume pictures
- rural audience
- only studio neither owned or operated by Jews
- films with a certain social consciousness
47
what are the characteristics of RKO? (1)
- unlikely combination of films
48
what are the characteristics of Columbia Pictures? (2)
- witty and urbane screenwriting
| - skrewball comedy talent
49
who are the poverty row studios? (4)
- Grand National
- Producers Releasing Corporation
- Eagle-Lion
- Allied Artists
50
what is poverty row?
a number of smaller studios that sprouted up in the early 1930s to make B pictures to accompany the A picture on the bottom half of a double bill
51
what is the Paramount case?
the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division filed suit against the majors for using monopolistic practices and in 1948, the majors were forced to separate production and distribution from exhibition
52
what were the other factors that led to the demise of the studio system? (4)
- lengthy postwar strikes against studios by labour unions
- changing patterns in leisure-time entertainment
- competition with television
- rise of independent production
53
what is segmentation?
the process of dividing works into their constituent parts to study them in greater detail
54
what are dramatic unities?
unities of action, time and space
55
what do establishing shots do?
to present the spatial parameters within which the subsequent action of a scene takes place
56
what is mise-en-scene?
staging of the scene, relation of everything in the shot to everything else in the shot
57
what are the three types of camera angles?
- low angle
- eye-level
- high-angle
58
what are the seven types of camera distances
- extreme close-up
- close-up
- medium close-up
- medium shot
- medium long shot
- long shots
- extreme long shots
59
what is a medium close-up?
give a chest-up view of individuals
60
what is a medium shot?
show the body from the waist up
61
what is a medium long shot?
frame from the knees up
62
what is a long shot?
range from full figure images of characters as well as a bit of the surrounding space immediately above and below them, to shots in which the human figure is only a small part of the overall scene
63
what are what are extreme long shots?
the human body is overwhelmed by the setting in which it is placed
64
what are the five types of camera movement?
- zoom
- pans
- tracks
- dolly shots
- crane shots
65
what is a zoom shot?
involves the use manipulation of the lens produces the impression of movement toward or away from objects by shifting from wide angle to telephoto focal lengths or vice versa. these shifts simply enlarge or decrease the apparent size of the image
66
what is a pan shot?
the camera rotates horizontally and/or vertically on its axis
67
what is a tracking shot?
the camera moves bodily through space in any of a variety of directions parallel to the floor
68
what is motivated lighting?
their source and direction are determined by the location or setting specified in the script
69
what is three point lighting?
the standard lighting setup employed in Hollywood films. they are staged to suggest three basic sources or lights, key light, fill light and back light
70
what is key light?
chief directional light sources
71
what is fill light?
weaker light sources that fill in the shadows cast by the key light
72
what is back light?
the minor lights that are used to light the space between the back of the set and the characters to separate or distinguish them from the background
73
what are clothes lights?
a number of back lights deployed to create the illusion of depth by lighting the shoulder of the characters
74
what is high key lighting?
the ratio of fill light to key light is high, there is a high amount of fill light which washes out shadows cast by the key light. this produces a more or less brightly lit scene in which light is evenly distributed throughout the set. associated with upbeat genres, such as comedies and musicals
75
what is low key lighting?
the ratio of fill light to key light is low, shadows cast by the key light are not fully filled in, producing a shadowy effect and an uneven distribution of light. this style is used with downbeat genres such as mysteries, thrillers, horror films and film noir
76
what is laid star lighting?
highlights or conceals certain features of the major performers and marks the expressions on their faces readable
77
what is star miking?
specially placed microphones ensure that the words of major performers and crucial lines of dialogue will be heard and sound mixing practices lift them out of the general hubbub of sounds in the scene
78
three different categories of film sound
- dialogue
- sound effects
- music
79
what is a shot?
an unbroken strip of film made by an uninterrupted rubbing of the camera
80
what is a scene?
the films smallest dramatic unit, it consists of one or more shots that present an action that is spatially and temporally continuous - an action taking place in a single space at a single time
81
what are the five basic transitional devices?
- the cut
- the fade
- the dissolve
- the iris
- the wipe
82
what is the cut?
a simple break where two shots are joined together
83
what is the fade?
involves the gradual darkening of the image until it becomes black or gradual brightening of a darkened image until it becomes visible and achieves its proper brightness
84
what is the dissolve?
achieved by simultaneously fading out on one shot while fading in on the next so that the first shot gradually disappears as the second gradually becomes visible, during the middle of the dissolve, the two shots will briefly be superimposed
85
what is the iris?
an adjustable diaphragm or iris in the camera or a movable mask placed over the camera lens will gradually open to reveal more and more image within an expanding, geometrically shaped frame or it will gradually close down
86
what is the wipe?
transition in which the second shot appears to wipe the first shot off the screen
87
what are the five transitions for editing within scenes?
- graphic matches
- matches on action
- eyeline matches
- point of view editing
- the 180-degree rule
88
what is a graphic match?
major features of the composition in one shot will be duplicated in the next shot, providing a graphic continuity that serves to bridge the edit
89
what is a match on action?
use the carryover of physical movement from one shot to the next to conceal cuts
90
what is eyeline matching?
involves two shots in which a character in the first shot looks off screen at another character or object. the next shot shows what that character sees from a position that reflects the character's position and the direction in which he or she looks, but remains more or less objective in nature. it does not duplicate the character's actual perspective
91
what is point of view editing?
a subset of the eyeline match that involves a series if three separate shots - a shot of a character looking offscreen, a point of view shot of what the character sees and a reaction shot of the character as he or she reacts to the thing seen. the point of view shot duplicates what the character sees
92
what period did Hollywood produce more Westerns than any other kind of film?
1926 - 1967
93
what is film noir?
literally meaning "black film," film noir refers to a style or and mode of film making, which flourished between 1941 and 1958, that presents narratives involving crime or criminal actions in a manner that disturbs, disorients, or otherwise induces anxiety in the viewer
94
what are three characteristics of a genre?
- iconography
- conventions
- syntax
95
what is neo-noir?
a revival of an older body of films
96
what are film noir's aesthetics? (10)
- relied heavily on shadowy, low key lighting
- deep focus cinematography
- distorting, wide angle lenses
- sequence shots
- disorienting mise-en-scene
- tension inducing, oblique and vertical compositional lines
- jarring juxtapositions between shots involving extreme changes in camera angle or screen size
- claustrophobic framing
- romantic voiceover narration
- a complex narrative structure, characterized by flashbacks and/or convoluted temporal sequencing of events
97
what are film noir's themes? (5)
- futility of individual action
- the alienation, loneliness and isolation of the individual in industrialized, mass society
- problematic choice between being and nothingness
- the absurdity, meaninglessness and purposelessness of life
- arbitrariness of social justice which results in individual despair, leading to chaos, violence and paranoia
98
who are the typical noir heros?
antisocial loners or amnesiacs
99
what is the production code?
rules and regulations, established at various periods during the history of the studio system, that indicated particular subjects, ranging from nudity, white slavery, drug addiction, and other criminal acts to miscegenation, that were not permitted to be represented on the screen
100
what was different about hard-boiled detective novels?
features a proletarian tough guy who lived on the fringe of the criminal world
101
what is fetishization of women?
the image of the women is overvalued, often through the use of lingering close-ups, glamorous costumes or other techniques that transformed her into a spectacle
102
what is the process of devaluation of women?
women was seen as guilty object, her "castration" serving as the symbol of her punishment
103
western vs civilization (3)
the individual vs the community
nature vs culture
the west vs the east
104
what is steam punk?
a subgenre of science fiction in which radical technological advances take place early in. the industrial era
105
who were some of the anticommunist groups?
- house un-American activities committee
- dies committee
- motion picture alliance for the preservation of American ideals
106
what is "the Waldorf statement?"
the studio heads agreed to suspend the Hollywood Ten without pay, to deny employment to anyone who did not cooperate with HUAC's investigations and to refuse to hire communists
107
what happened to movie attendance between 1948 and 1968?
Hollywood had lost three quarters of its audience and the nature of moviegoing in America had evolved from the status of ingrained habit to infrequent diversion
108
what percent of box office receipts were from first run theatres?
70 to 80 perfect
109
how many drive ins were there in 1947 and 1948
554 and 4700
110
when did This is Cinerama open and why was it revolutionary?
September 30, 1952 and introduced wide screen
111
when did Bwana Devil open and what feature did it introduce?
in 1952 and introduced 3D pictures
112
how is Cinerama created?
used three cameras mounted alongside of and set 48 degree angles to one another to film panoramic vistas. it was projected by three synchronized projectors into a deeply curved screen that extended across the full width of most movie palaces
113
what is Todd-AO?
it produced a widescreen image by projecting 70mm film into a deeply curved screen
114
how many households owned one or more VCRs?
79 percent
115
how much did revenue from DVD sales drop from 2004 to 2010?
12.1 billion to 45 billion
116
by the mid 1960s, how many movie goers were under the age of 30 and how many had gone to college?
76 percent and 64 percent of this
117
what is a blaxploitation film?
a term coined by Variety to describe a series of Hollywood genre films made in the early 1970s, featuring black performers, that were produced for a black audience
118
what is the new wave and when did it start?
the explosion of films made by young, first time French directors that started in 1958
119
what does Frederic Jameson believe?
American cinema of the 1970s was a postmodern phenomenon that reflected the sense of alienation and fragmentation brought about by late communism. contemporary consumer society possesses a culture that is postmodern, postmodernism not only comes from modernism but arises in reaction to it
120
what is pastiche?
a form of imitation of the unique style or content or earlier works that lacks any trace of the satire or parody that characterizes traditional forms of imitation
121
what was Motion Picture Story Magazine and when and by who was it published?
the first film magazine designed for a general readership, which publicized Vitagraphs players and recent releases. Vitagraphs head of production, J. Stewart Blackton did in 1911
122
who formed United stars and when?
- Mary Pickford
- Douglas Fairbanks
- Charles Chaplin
- D. W. Griffith
1919
123
who formed First Artists Production Company and when?
- Barbara Streisand
- Sidney Poitier
- Paul Newman
1969
124
what and when is the studio era?
mid 1920s to late 1950s
| males producers revealed their obsessions certain actresses by trying to make them stars
125
who was the first movie star?
Edison's Kinetoscope Exhibition Co. signed Jim Corbett in 1894
126
who was the first star to be created by film?
Florence Lawrence whose stardom was created from fans
127
what are B films?
quickly made motion pictures, usually produced to fill the second half of a double bill that also features and A film. B films generally have a budget ( and a running time) that is significantly less than that of A films
128
what is backlight?
light used to illuminate the space between characters and their backgrounds to separate characters from their backgrounds
129
a widescreen process that relies on an anamorphic camera lens to squeeze a panoramic view into standard 35mm film and an anamorphic projection lens to display the original view on a theater screen, producing an image with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. the system was initially accompanied by four track magnetic stereo sound
CinemaScope
130
a widescreen process that employed three interlocked cameras to record a panoramic view on three separate strips of 35mm motion picture film. in the theater, three interlocked projectors projected the three film strips side by side on a deeply curved screen. a separate strip of film carried the stereo magnetic sound, which consisted of six tracks that supplied sound to five speakers behind the screen and additional surround speakers, and a seventh track that was used to control the other six
Cinerama
131
a mode of production associated with American Cinema that involves certain narrative and stylistic practices. narratives are structured around characters who have specific, clearly defined goals and deal with their triumph over various obstacles that stand in the way of the attainment of those goals. these narratives are presented in a manner that is both as efficient and as invisible as possible
classical Hollywood cinema
132
what is an extreme close-up?
presents only a portion of the face
133
what is a close-up?
frames the entire head, hand, foot or other object
134
what is a crane shot?
a moving shot of which the camera, mounted on a crane, rises or descends as it views the action
135
what is a dolly shot?
a shot in which the camera, mounted on a mobile platform or camera support with wheels, moves in any of a variety of different directions parallel to the floor
136
what is genre?
a category of film making that recognized as a type possessing familiar narrative and stylistic conventions. standard genres are the melodrama, Western, war film, musical and comedy
137
what is a movie palace?
an enormous motion picture theater with lavish, often exotic, decor. located in a large urban area, a movie palace typically had enough seats for several thousand spectators at once
138
what is populism?
a dominant myth that celebrates a certain kind of american identity based on preindustrial, agrarian ideals, such as that of Jefferson;s yeoman farmer, the small businessperson, the opponent of big government, the anti-intellectual and the good neighbor
139
what are the seven classical style principles?
- individual talents tightly controlled
- storytelling is the primary concern
- based in unity - macro and micro unity
- realistic int he sense of mimesis
- immediately comprehensible and unambiguous
- basic emotional appeal
- technique never revealed - "invisible style"
140
what are five Hitchcock motifs?
- the ambiguity of guilt and innocence
- the transference of guilt from one individual to another
- the fascination with a guilty women
- the therapeutic function of obsession and vulnerability
- the equation of knowledge and danger
141
who is Mary Pickford?
retained screen image as "Americas Sweetheart" while offscreen image was a working a working woman
142
who is Douglas Fairbanks?
often played hard working young businessman but offscreen engaged in sports, athletic exercise and other physical adventures
143
why was Valentino so loved?
his image as a menacing and brutal but romantic lived
