FILM 1 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026
the act of taking something apart to figure out what it is made of and how it fits together - Answers
Analysis is defined as:
movement - Answers The term cinema comes from the Greek word kinesis, which means
narrative - Answers Almost all commercial feature-length movies share this basic characteristic
What does it mean? - Answers The search for answers in film analysis boils down to one essential
question
camera's viewpoint - Answers Audiences tend to identify subconsciously with the
cutting on action - Answers The most common editing technique designed to hide the instantaneous
shift from one camera viewpoint to another is
shared belief systems - Answers Filmmakers are compelled to favor stories and themes that reinforce
viewers'
main character - Answers A protagonist is most often the ________ in a story
point of view - Answers If a camera adjusts to see what the actor sees each time he or she turns his or
her head, it is called taking the actor's
editing - Answers ________ often establishes patterns and rhythms only to break them for
dramatic impact
content; form - Answers ________ is the subject of an artwork, and _______ is the means by which
the subject is expressed
expectations - Answers Our decision to see a particular movie is almost always based on certain
pursue a goal - Answers Very often a movie starts with a world that is altered by a particular incident
that forces the characters to ________.
turns out to be insignificant - Answers A MacGuffin is an object of vital importance to the characters
that
Greg Toland - Answers The cinematographer for John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940) was
phi and persistence of vision - Answers Film movement is made possible by two interacting optical
and perceptual phenomena:
realism and antirealism - Answers Between 1895 and 1905 the French filmmakers Auguste and Louis
Lumière
and George Méliès established these two basic directions that cinema would follow:
cinematic language - Answers Conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer.
understanding cinematic terms - Answers Understanding the language of the cinema is dependent
upon
cinema is a subjective experiences AND its complexity leaves many variables up to interpretation -
Answers Some of the difficulties in analyzing a film include:
to communicate - Answers Like All language, the main function of Cinematic Language is
story - Answers Narrative refers to
analyses its form - Answers Analyzing Story Structure
content is emphasized AND form is hidden - Answers In 'traditional' cinema
narrative, mise en scene, performance, and editing - Answers In this class we will study four central
components of cinema. What are they?
the story's outcome - Answers Once a narrative begins, expectations make viewers ask questions
about:
the abstract, speculative, or fantastic - Answers Antirealism is defined as an interest in or concern for
A convincing appearance of truth - Answers What is the definition of "verisimilitude"?
story arc AND form - Answers Aristotle states that a story must have a beginning, middle, and an end.
What does this refer to
The accepted systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer. -
Answers What is meant by "cinematic language"?
Because no matter how similar to our experience of the world it might appear, realism always entails
mediation - Answers Why can it be said that realism in movies is a kind of illusion?
Narrative films are directed toward fiction - Answers What distinguishes narrative films from
documentary and experimental
films?
, Organically, as inspired by shifts in history, politics, or society - Answers How do film genres generally
tend to originate and develop?
Both deal with the human's encounter with forces beyond his or her control and understanding -
Answers What similarities does the horror genre share with the science fiction genre?
A unifying idea that a film expresses through its narrative or imagery - Answers What is a movie
theme?
false - Answers A film is always considered a Narrative film if it has a narrative
dramatic arc - Answers What term is used to describe the basic story structure of a 'traditional'
film?
conflict, climax, and resolution - Answers What are the three elements of basic narrative structure
a resolution that is complete, and without ambiguity - Answers A closed story structure refers to
Dramatic tension that seeks an outcome - Answers What does conflict introduce into the narrative?
no conflict, no story - Answers Why is conflict so important to a story?
When opposing forces are driven to 'demand' a resolution - Answers The point of climax in a story can
be defined as
Fretag's Pyramid - Answers What is the name of the diagram that illustrates the structure of a five
act play?
Another name for Resolution - Answers In a five part dramatic structure the Denouement is
to see a recognizable pattern - Answers What helps us to quickly comprehend what is on the screen?
cause and effect - Answers What is one method that employs dramatic logic to a story?
Clearly defined characters, clearly defined goals - Answers One characteristic of the Hollywood Style is
false - Answers The Antihero is usually the Antagonist in a film
Creates ambiguity and potentially conflicting narrative outcomes - Answers Often the role of the
Antihero
despite the fact that we know it is 'just a film' - Answers With the Suspension of Disbelief a film must
create the illusion of
reality
Many of the elements have been handed down, unchanged, since ancient times - Answers We refer
to the structure of certain stories as Classic because
Louis B. Mayor - Answers When asked what makes a good film, what Hollywood mogul said, "Story,
Story, Story"?
true - Answers Story may include information that is not in the plot
a character of exceptional attributes AND the bad guy - Answers According to classical story the
antagonist is
the point in the film that brings about absolute and irreversible change - Answers How does Robert
McKee define climax?
it impacted the content of the films - Answers One reason the PCA is important to critical studies is
1930-1940 - Answers The 'golden era' of the Hollywood Style was between what years
script doctors - Answers Who are professional screenwriters that are hired to review a screenplay and
improve it?
storyboard - Answers What is the term that describes a shot-by-shot breakdown that combines
sketches or photographs of how each shot should look and contains written descriptions of the other
elements?
Aristotle - Answers Who first outlined the fundamentals of narrative theory that exist even today?
exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement - Answers The five parts of dramatic
structure must happen in the following order
Casablanca (1942) - Answers What film was ranked number one on the Writers Guild of America
(West)
list of the 101 greatest screenplays?
screen duration - Answers What do we call a movie's uninterrupted running time on screen?
summary relationship - Answers In a ________ the screen duration is shorter than the plot duration
setting - Answers What do we call the part of a movie that is the time and place in which the
story occurs?
direct-address - Answers What kind of narrations occurs when a character breaks the "fourth wall"?
shots from an omniscient point of view and shots from each character's point of view - Answers In
Stagecoach (1939) John Ford establishes and reinforces ideological and
emotional differences by alternating between
the act of taking something apart to figure out what it is made of and how it fits together - Answers
Analysis is defined as:
movement - Answers The term cinema comes from the Greek word kinesis, which means
narrative - Answers Almost all commercial feature-length movies share this basic characteristic
What does it mean? - Answers The search for answers in film analysis boils down to one essential
question
camera's viewpoint - Answers Audiences tend to identify subconsciously with the
cutting on action - Answers The most common editing technique designed to hide the instantaneous
shift from one camera viewpoint to another is
shared belief systems - Answers Filmmakers are compelled to favor stories and themes that reinforce
viewers'
main character - Answers A protagonist is most often the ________ in a story
point of view - Answers If a camera adjusts to see what the actor sees each time he or she turns his or
her head, it is called taking the actor's
editing - Answers ________ often establishes patterns and rhythms only to break them for
dramatic impact
content; form - Answers ________ is the subject of an artwork, and _______ is the means by which
the subject is expressed
expectations - Answers Our decision to see a particular movie is almost always based on certain
pursue a goal - Answers Very often a movie starts with a world that is altered by a particular incident
that forces the characters to ________.
turns out to be insignificant - Answers A MacGuffin is an object of vital importance to the characters
that
Greg Toland - Answers The cinematographer for John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940) was
phi and persistence of vision - Answers Film movement is made possible by two interacting optical
and perceptual phenomena:
realism and antirealism - Answers Between 1895 and 1905 the French filmmakers Auguste and Louis
Lumière
and George Méliès established these two basic directions that cinema would follow:
cinematic language - Answers Conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer.
understanding cinematic terms - Answers Understanding the language of the cinema is dependent
upon
cinema is a subjective experiences AND its complexity leaves many variables up to interpretation -
Answers Some of the difficulties in analyzing a film include:
to communicate - Answers Like All language, the main function of Cinematic Language is
story - Answers Narrative refers to
analyses its form - Answers Analyzing Story Structure
content is emphasized AND form is hidden - Answers In 'traditional' cinema
narrative, mise en scene, performance, and editing - Answers In this class we will study four central
components of cinema. What are they?
the story's outcome - Answers Once a narrative begins, expectations make viewers ask questions
about:
the abstract, speculative, or fantastic - Answers Antirealism is defined as an interest in or concern for
A convincing appearance of truth - Answers What is the definition of "verisimilitude"?
story arc AND form - Answers Aristotle states that a story must have a beginning, middle, and an end.
What does this refer to
The accepted systems, methods, or conventions by which the movies communicate with the viewer. -
Answers What is meant by "cinematic language"?
Because no matter how similar to our experience of the world it might appear, realism always entails
mediation - Answers Why can it be said that realism in movies is a kind of illusion?
Narrative films are directed toward fiction - Answers What distinguishes narrative films from
documentary and experimental
films?
, Organically, as inspired by shifts in history, politics, or society - Answers How do film genres generally
tend to originate and develop?
Both deal with the human's encounter with forces beyond his or her control and understanding -
Answers What similarities does the horror genre share with the science fiction genre?
A unifying idea that a film expresses through its narrative or imagery - Answers What is a movie
theme?
false - Answers A film is always considered a Narrative film if it has a narrative
dramatic arc - Answers What term is used to describe the basic story structure of a 'traditional'
film?
conflict, climax, and resolution - Answers What are the three elements of basic narrative structure
a resolution that is complete, and without ambiguity - Answers A closed story structure refers to
Dramatic tension that seeks an outcome - Answers What does conflict introduce into the narrative?
no conflict, no story - Answers Why is conflict so important to a story?
When opposing forces are driven to 'demand' a resolution - Answers The point of climax in a story can
be defined as
Fretag's Pyramid - Answers What is the name of the diagram that illustrates the structure of a five
act play?
Another name for Resolution - Answers In a five part dramatic structure the Denouement is
to see a recognizable pattern - Answers What helps us to quickly comprehend what is on the screen?
cause and effect - Answers What is one method that employs dramatic logic to a story?
Clearly defined characters, clearly defined goals - Answers One characteristic of the Hollywood Style is
false - Answers The Antihero is usually the Antagonist in a film
Creates ambiguity and potentially conflicting narrative outcomes - Answers Often the role of the
Antihero
despite the fact that we know it is 'just a film' - Answers With the Suspension of Disbelief a film must
create the illusion of
reality
Many of the elements have been handed down, unchanged, since ancient times - Answers We refer
to the structure of certain stories as Classic because
Louis B. Mayor - Answers When asked what makes a good film, what Hollywood mogul said, "Story,
Story, Story"?
true - Answers Story may include information that is not in the plot
a character of exceptional attributes AND the bad guy - Answers According to classical story the
antagonist is
the point in the film that brings about absolute and irreversible change - Answers How does Robert
McKee define climax?
it impacted the content of the films - Answers One reason the PCA is important to critical studies is
1930-1940 - Answers The 'golden era' of the Hollywood Style was between what years
script doctors - Answers Who are professional screenwriters that are hired to review a screenplay and
improve it?
storyboard - Answers What is the term that describes a shot-by-shot breakdown that combines
sketches or photographs of how each shot should look and contains written descriptions of the other
elements?
Aristotle - Answers Who first outlined the fundamentals of narrative theory that exist even today?
exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement - Answers The five parts of dramatic
structure must happen in the following order
Casablanca (1942) - Answers What film was ranked number one on the Writers Guild of America
(West)
list of the 101 greatest screenplays?
screen duration - Answers What do we call a movie's uninterrupted running time on screen?
summary relationship - Answers In a ________ the screen duration is shorter than the plot duration
setting - Answers What do we call the part of a movie that is the time and place in which the
story occurs?
direct-address - Answers What kind of narrations occurs when a character breaks the "fourth wall"?
shots from an omniscient point of view and shots from each character's point of view - Answers In
Stagecoach (1939) John Ford establishes and reinforces ideological and
emotional differences by alternating between
