Understanding Film Exam Questions
with Complete Solutions
Classical Hollywood Cinema - ANSWER-USA. 1910s-1960s. Continuity editing. Positive
narratives. Eye-level camera. High key lighting (low contrast). Glamour.
Film examples: Grapes of Wrath, Sullivan's Travels, Modern Times
German Expressionism - ANSWER-1920s. Post-WWI.
Anti-realism.
Set designs absurd sets and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. T
he plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity,
betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics. Psychological states of the main characters, like
fear/derangement drunk.
Camera tracks differently, tension expressed with camera movement.
Perspective/strong angles/entrapment.
SEE: Mise-en-scene.
Film examples: M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Soviet Realism - ANSWER-1920s (post- 1917 Revolution)
Films must depict some aspect of man's struggle toward social progress for a better life
through socialism. Life in a commune as ideal. All problems solved.
Not typical dramatic material.
Parallel actions, expressions. Repetition.
No professional actors.
Montage. Eisenstein.
Film examples: Battleship Potemkin, Ivan the Terrible and Oktobre
Neo-Realism - ANSWER-Italy. 1940s-1950s (post-WWII).
A) Highly influential movement from the early 1940s.
B) Social movement in film - Italian, not many directors.
C) Establish new vision of what film could do. (New realism, not glamorous like CHC)
D) Non-professional actors, low budget, end of WWII.
E) Improvised fields, no schematic.
, F) Rely on long, fluid takes. Little editing and manipulation.
G) De Sica, Rossellini, Visconti.
H) NOT communist, represented liberal/socialist perspective.
I) No particular political standpoint, only humane/philosophical.
J) Artifiace - neorealism is an artificial construct.
1) Articulate different social classes. Forced to include all ideals.
2) Can be melodramatic. Unreal situations + real characters = real.
3) Filmmaking ability... post war "documentaries" or realistic expectations.
4) Literary comparisons. Simple at surface, deeper meaning.
5) Orson Welles achieved realism/depth of field, a level of control over his film.
6) Citizen Kane similar. Illusion of reality limits, more of a novel, more constructed and
thought out.
7) Casting... just the right performer. Non-professional.
Film example: Bicycle Thieves
Dogma 95 - ANSWER-Denmark. 1995-2005.
Manifesto: Vow of Chastity
Diegenic sound. Handheld camera. Natural lighting.
Intent to be naturalistic. Instant > Whole
No superficial action.
Not a genre movie.
Academy 33 mm film.
Film example: The Celebration
Cinema Verite - ANSWER-On-Going.
Story through camera. Normally handheld. No narrator. No major editing other than
cuts. Usually documentary. Close-ups, attention to faces. Jumps shot to shot to take
what you want from the moment. Did not overtly project meaning.
Film Example: DA Pennebacher's Don't Look Back.
Cinematography - ANSWER-"Movement."
The art and science of motion picture photography and development. Pans, tilts,
tracking shots.
Mise En Scene - ANSWER-The design theme and aspects of a film production.
Everything that appears before the camera, and it's arrangements.
10 Elements of Mise En Scene - ANSWER-1- Composition
with Complete Solutions
Classical Hollywood Cinema - ANSWER-USA. 1910s-1960s. Continuity editing. Positive
narratives. Eye-level camera. High key lighting (low contrast). Glamour.
Film examples: Grapes of Wrath, Sullivan's Travels, Modern Times
German Expressionism - ANSWER-1920s. Post-WWI.
Anti-realism.
Set designs absurd sets and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. T
he plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity,
betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics. Psychological states of the main characters, like
fear/derangement drunk.
Camera tracks differently, tension expressed with camera movement.
Perspective/strong angles/entrapment.
SEE: Mise-en-scene.
Film examples: M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Soviet Realism - ANSWER-1920s (post- 1917 Revolution)
Films must depict some aspect of man's struggle toward social progress for a better life
through socialism. Life in a commune as ideal. All problems solved.
Not typical dramatic material.
Parallel actions, expressions. Repetition.
No professional actors.
Montage. Eisenstein.
Film examples: Battleship Potemkin, Ivan the Terrible and Oktobre
Neo-Realism - ANSWER-Italy. 1940s-1950s (post-WWII).
A) Highly influential movement from the early 1940s.
B) Social movement in film - Italian, not many directors.
C) Establish new vision of what film could do. (New realism, not glamorous like CHC)
D) Non-professional actors, low budget, end of WWII.
E) Improvised fields, no schematic.
, F) Rely on long, fluid takes. Little editing and manipulation.
G) De Sica, Rossellini, Visconti.
H) NOT communist, represented liberal/socialist perspective.
I) No particular political standpoint, only humane/philosophical.
J) Artifiace - neorealism is an artificial construct.
1) Articulate different social classes. Forced to include all ideals.
2) Can be melodramatic. Unreal situations + real characters = real.
3) Filmmaking ability... post war "documentaries" or realistic expectations.
4) Literary comparisons. Simple at surface, deeper meaning.
5) Orson Welles achieved realism/depth of field, a level of control over his film.
6) Citizen Kane similar. Illusion of reality limits, more of a novel, more constructed and
thought out.
7) Casting... just the right performer. Non-professional.
Film example: Bicycle Thieves
Dogma 95 - ANSWER-Denmark. 1995-2005.
Manifesto: Vow of Chastity
Diegenic sound. Handheld camera. Natural lighting.
Intent to be naturalistic. Instant > Whole
No superficial action.
Not a genre movie.
Academy 33 mm film.
Film example: The Celebration
Cinema Verite - ANSWER-On-Going.
Story through camera. Normally handheld. No narrator. No major editing other than
cuts. Usually documentary. Close-ups, attention to faces. Jumps shot to shot to take
what you want from the moment. Did not overtly project meaning.
Film Example: DA Pennebacher's Don't Look Back.
Cinematography - ANSWER-"Movement."
The art and science of motion picture photography and development. Pans, tilts,
tracking shots.
Mise En Scene - ANSWER-The design theme and aspects of a film production.
Everything that appears before the camera, and it's arrangements.
10 Elements of Mise En Scene - ANSWER-1- Composition
