Looking at Movies: Chapters 3–6 & 8–10 Study Guide
Narrative - ✔✔story
structure defined by Aristotle: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement
fiction film
cinematic structure
Types of Movies - ✔✔(1) narrative- films that tell fictional story
(2) documentary- records real life events; usually narrative
(3) experimental- most difficult to define precisely compared to all; pushes boundaries of what
most people think
(4) Hybrid- "fusion of 2 or more film types" (ex. Under the Skin, 2013)
Four Documentary Approaches - ✔✔Factual
Instructional
Persuasive
Propaganda
Experimental Legacy: American Underground Cinema- SUBGENRES - ✔✔Formal
Self-reflexive
genre conventions - ✔✔Story formulas
themes
character types
,setting
presentation
stars
Six Major American Genres - ✔✔(1) Gangster- focus on organized crime
(2) Film noir
(3) Science fiction
(4) Horror
(5) Western Musical
when an object or animation becomes too humanlike, we tend to feel revulsion instead of
empathy, and it falls into the ____ - ✔✔uncanny valley (ex. The Polar Express)
Way(s) of Looking at Narrative in Film - ✔✔tells a story
way of structuring stories in films
type of movie
work of art that attempts to capture the unedited flow of experience through the mind -
✔✔stream of consciousness
documentary footage that shows acton as it unfolds - ✔✔b-roll
To create "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", an artist painted each individual frame; the film
needed 24 frames per second. What is this process called? - ✔✔hand-drawn/traditional
animation/cel animation
,Genre is the only reliable way of categorizing narrative films - ✔✔False
Most experimental films try to break from the formulas and conventions of mainstream films -
✔✔True
The categorization of narrative films by the stories they tell is referred to as genre - ✔✔True
A grassroots subculture that has grown out of the affordability of digital video, microcinema is
an example of how experimental film continues to grow - ✔✔True
The basic organizing structure of most movie narratives is ___ - ✔✔cause & effect
Horror films in the 1950s often reflected a fear of communism; Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(Siegel, 1956), for example, focused on the idea that one's neighbors could be replaced with
exact replicas that cannot be trusted. In the 1980s, horror films like The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
examined the deterioration of the American family as the divorce rate began to climb. What is
the term for this sort of change? - ✔✔Generic transformation: For genres to remain relevant,
they must change to reflect the interests and concerns of society.
All commercial movies can be categorized by genre - ✔✔False
Romantic comedies, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Stoller, 2008), frequently feature narratives
in which two characters meet and fall in love, are separated by some difficulty, and then return
to each other near the end. The genre convention displayed in this example is ______ -
✔✔story formula
Facts about experimental films - ✔✔most don't tell a story
, invite interpretation
often critique culture and media
also called avant-garde
What are the reasons why filmmakers continue to make genre films? - ✔✔make sense to us
culturally
most viewers like predictability
may want to challenge the limitations of the genre
Film noir was both delayed and heavily influenced by ___ - ✔✔WWII
If we examine a film's lighting, use of mise-en-scène, and editing, which of its genre conventions
are we analyzing? - ✔✔presentation
What do we call a set of films made by like-minded filmmakers attempting to create a particular
style and approach? - ✔✔film movements
A movie's normal world tells us what the rules of its universe are (chap 4) - ✔✔True
In Stagecoach (1939), Luke Plummer and the Apache warriors act as antagonists, working in
opposition to the passengers with whom we identify. - ✔✔True
Types of Duration - ✔✔Screen duration- movie's running time
Narrative - ✔✔story
structure defined by Aristotle: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement
fiction film
cinematic structure
Types of Movies - ✔✔(1) narrative- films that tell fictional story
(2) documentary- records real life events; usually narrative
(3) experimental- most difficult to define precisely compared to all; pushes boundaries of what
most people think
(4) Hybrid- "fusion of 2 or more film types" (ex. Under the Skin, 2013)
Four Documentary Approaches - ✔✔Factual
Instructional
Persuasive
Propaganda
Experimental Legacy: American Underground Cinema- SUBGENRES - ✔✔Formal
Self-reflexive
genre conventions - ✔✔Story formulas
themes
character types
,setting
presentation
stars
Six Major American Genres - ✔✔(1) Gangster- focus on organized crime
(2) Film noir
(3) Science fiction
(4) Horror
(5) Western Musical
when an object or animation becomes too humanlike, we tend to feel revulsion instead of
empathy, and it falls into the ____ - ✔✔uncanny valley (ex. The Polar Express)
Way(s) of Looking at Narrative in Film - ✔✔tells a story
way of structuring stories in films
type of movie
work of art that attempts to capture the unedited flow of experience through the mind -
✔✔stream of consciousness
documentary footage that shows acton as it unfolds - ✔✔b-roll
To create "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", an artist painted each individual frame; the film
needed 24 frames per second. What is this process called? - ✔✔hand-drawn/traditional
animation/cel animation
,Genre is the only reliable way of categorizing narrative films - ✔✔False
Most experimental films try to break from the formulas and conventions of mainstream films -
✔✔True
The categorization of narrative films by the stories they tell is referred to as genre - ✔✔True
A grassroots subculture that has grown out of the affordability of digital video, microcinema is
an example of how experimental film continues to grow - ✔✔True
The basic organizing structure of most movie narratives is ___ - ✔✔cause & effect
Horror films in the 1950s often reflected a fear of communism; Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(Siegel, 1956), for example, focused on the idea that one's neighbors could be replaced with
exact replicas that cannot be trusted. In the 1980s, horror films like The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
examined the deterioration of the American family as the divorce rate began to climb. What is
the term for this sort of change? - ✔✔Generic transformation: For genres to remain relevant,
they must change to reflect the interests and concerns of society.
All commercial movies can be categorized by genre - ✔✔False
Romantic comedies, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Stoller, 2008), frequently feature narratives
in which two characters meet and fall in love, are separated by some difficulty, and then return
to each other near the end. The genre convention displayed in this example is ______ -
✔✔story formula
Facts about experimental films - ✔✔most don't tell a story
, invite interpretation
often critique culture and media
also called avant-garde
What are the reasons why filmmakers continue to make genre films? - ✔✔make sense to us
culturally
most viewers like predictability
may want to challenge the limitations of the genre
Film noir was both delayed and heavily influenced by ___ - ✔✔WWII
If we examine a film's lighting, use of mise-en-scène, and editing, which of its genre conventions
are we analyzing? - ✔✔presentation
What do we call a set of films made by like-minded filmmakers attempting to create a particular
style and approach? - ✔✔film movements
A movie's normal world tells us what the rules of its universe are (chap 4) - ✔✔True
In Stagecoach (1939), Luke Plummer and the Apache warriors act as antagonists, working in
opposition to the passengers with whom we identify. - ✔✔True
Types of Duration - ✔✔Screen duration- movie's running time
