Quiz 1

Question 1

Cinematic language

Answer 1

The accepted systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer.

Question 2

Shot

Answer 2

One uninterrupted run of the camera. A shot can be as short or as long as the director wants, but it cannot exceed the length of the film stock in the camera. Compare with “setup.”

Question 3

Editing

Answer 3

The process by which the editor combines and coordinates individual shots into a cinematic whole; the basic creative force of cinema.

Question 4

Cut

Answer 4

A direct change from one shot to another; that is, the precise point at which shot A ends and shot B begins; one result of cutting.

Question 5

Close-up (CU)

Answer 5

A shot that often shows a part of the body filling the frame – traditionally a face, but possibly a hand, eye, or mouth.

Question 6

Fade in/fade out

Answer 6

Transitional devices in which a shot fades in from a black field on black-and-white film or from a color field on color film, or fades out to a black field (or a color field). Compare with “dissolve.”

Question 7

Low angle shot

Answer 7

Also known as low shot. A shot that is made with the camera below the action and that typically places the observer in a position of inferiority. Compare with “high-angle shot.”

Question 8

Cutting on action

Answer 8

Also known as match-on-action cut. A continuity editing technique that smoothes the transition between shots portraying a single action from different camera angles. The editor ends the first shot in the middle of a continuing action and begins the subsequent shot at approximately the same point in the matching action.

Question 9

Protagonist

Answer 9

The primary character whose pursuit of the goal provides the structural foundation of a movie’s story. Compare with “antagonist.”

Question 10

Implicit meaning

Answer 10

An association, connection, or inference that a viewer makes on the basis of the given (explicit) meaning conveyed by the story and form of a film. Lying below the surface of explicit meaning, implicit meaning is closest to our everyday sense of the word meaning.

Question 11

Explicit meaning

Answer 11

Everything that a movie presents on its surface. Compare with “implicit meaning.”

Question 12

Formal analysis

Answer 12

Film analysis that examines how a scene or sequence uses formal elements – narrative, mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound, and so on – to convey story, mood, and meaning.

Question 13

Form

Answer 13

The means by which a subject is expressed. The form for poetry is words; for drama, it is speech and action; for movies, it is pictures and sound; and so on.

Question 14

Theme

Answer 14

A shared, public idea, such as a metaphor, an adage, a myth, or a familiar conflict or personality type.

Question 15

Motif

Answer 15

A recurring visual, sound, or narrative element that imparts meaning or significance.

Question 16

Dolly in

Answer 16

Slow movement of the camera toward a subject, making the subject appear larger and more significant. Such gradual intensification is commonly used at moments of a character’s realization and/or decision, or as a point-of-view shot to indicate the reason for the character’s realization. See also zoom-in. Compare with “dolly out.”

Question 17

Duration

Answer 17

A quantity of time. In any movie, we can identify three specific kinds of duration: story duration (the time that the entire narrative arc – whether explicitly presented on-screen or not – is implied to have taken), plot duration (the time that the events explicitly shown on-screen are implied to have taken), and screen duration (the actual time that has elapsed to present the movie’s plot, i.e., the movie’s running time).

Question 18

Point of view (POV)

Answer 18

The position from which a film presents the actions of the story; not only the relation of the narrator(s) to the story but also the camera’s act of seeing and hearing. The two fundamental types of cinematic point of view are omniscient and restricted.