CTVA 300 Exam 4 questions and
answers graded A+ passed
reflectance value - correct answer ✔✔An object's reflectance value is its inherent ability to
reflect light. Yellow objects, for example, naturally reflect more light than do black objects.
Hi-Contrast vs. Low-Contrast - correct answer ✔✔Hi-contrast: Images that contain bright white
highlights, stark black areas, and a narrow range of grays in between
Low-Contrast: an image that possesses a narrow range of tones (all middle grays, or all high
tones, or all low tones)
(Bright objects are more dynamic than dark ones. More intense)
What are three ways of controlling the tonal value of an image? - correct answer ✔✔1. Amount
of light falling on a picture
2. Manipulating exposure (the amount of light let into the camera)
3. Reflectance Value
How does an overexposure affect tone? an underexposure? - correct answer ✔✔Overexposure
will push all the image's tonal values towards the high end of the gray scale. The result will be a
"brighter" image with a reduced tonal range.
Underexposure will push all the image's tonal values towards the low end of the gray scale.The
result will be a darker image, again with a reduced tonal range.
What does an eye typically first seek out in an image? and second? and third? - correct answer
✔✔1st: Faces (or round shapes)
,2nd: Bright areas
3rd: Whatever is in focus
4th: Foreground
5th: Converging lines
Describe the tonal relation of the shots in the clip from Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad. -
correct answer ✔✔he scene below, from Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, is certainly not
as radical as Kubelka's short, but it uses contrast of tone from shot to shot to increase the
dynamism associated with one of its flashbacks. Watch it with tone in mind (clip 17 01)
What are some ways a filmmaker might create an image that might be considered an example
of coincidence of tone? non-coincidence of tone? - correct answer ✔✔First, "coincidence of
tone" occurs when the tonal organization of the shot helps reveal the subject. Usually, the
subject is revealed because he or she or it is one of the brightest things in the frame or is near
the brightest thing in the frame.
Second term: "Non-coincidence of tone" occurs when the tonal organization of the shot does
not help reveal the subject. Non-coincidence of tone is used in horror films and shows like X-
Files, etc. The subject is "lurking in the shadows" or pops out of "nowhere". That "nowhere" is
created through tonal organization. If he's wearing dark clothes and is not standing in the light,
we are unlikely to find him quickly.
Describe how the makers of Auto Focus use tone to structure their film. - correct answer
✔✔The filmmakers have manipulated tone to chart the psychological path of Auto Focus'
protagonist. The film is structured by tone - a high tone suburban oblivion, the middle-to-low
tone TV grind, and Bob's extremely low tone collapse.
Describe how the design of Bob's agent's office changes over the course of Auto Focus. - correct
answer ✔✔Three times Bob goes to speak to his agent:
1st - Note the saturated high tone yellow drapes, the white and light gray and pale blue papers
covering the agent's desk, the saturated and medium tone blue couch, the tan carpet, etc. Not
quite as high tone as the shots in Bob's home, but in the same ballpark.
, 2nd - Bob now wears more "drab" (in other words, desaturated and somewhat lower tone)
clothes. Like the shots from the set of Hogan's Heroes, these images exhibit a tonal range
generally lower on the gray scale than the shots, including shots of the same office, from the
first third of the film. Not only that, but the furnishings have changed. The high tone yellow
drapes have been replaced with some middle tone reds ones. And the bright blue couch from
the first scene is now a dark brown one!
3rd - These shots are even more dark and more devoid of color than the ones from the middle
of the film. There is a lot of black, but, as you can see, there are also strong whites. These, then,
are relatively hi-contrast images, or, to use the language of the text, images which exhibit
contrast of tone within the shot. This scene's tonal organization sets it apart from the other
scenes in the agent's office. And its tonal design reflects the overall tonal design of the film.
Tone has, again, helped to structure the film.
Describe how the makers of Mishima visually structure their film. What part does tone play in
that structuring? - correct answer ✔✔The "present tense" of Mishima's life is given in relatively
low-contrast high tone images with lots of desaturated color and handheld camera.
The flashbacks are distinguished primarily by virtue of the fact that they are drained of color.
Though the range of tones varies from flashback scene to flashback scene, none of them are hi-
contrast with true blacks and whites. Most, like the images below, evidence a much more
narrow range of tones. Each of the following exhibits an affinity of tone within the shot.
The scenes that recreate portions of Mishima's novels contain significantly more lurid colors and
stronger tonal contrasts.
What, according to the unit, are the filmmakers trying to achieve in the final scenes of Mishima?
How, visually, do they attempt to achieve it? - correct answer ✔✔Now, the movie is, on some
level, "about" Mishima's desire to turn his life into an artwork; it's about what the film calls "the
coincidence of life and art". Indeed, the last section of the film is titled "The Harmony of Pen
and Sword" - "pen" referring to Mishima's work as a writer and "sword" pointing to his
reactionary, pro-military politics. In fact, that shot (the ritual suicide) ends in a freeze frame
(below), a device that is even more static than a static shot.The real-life Mishima, the present
tense, previously dynamic with its handheld camera, has been frozen into a work of art! The
answers graded A+ passed
reflectance value - correct answer ✔✔An object's reflectance value is its inherent ability to
reflect light. Yellow objects, for example, naturally reflect more light than do black objects.
Hi-Contrast vs. Low-Contrast - correct answer ✔✔Hi-contrast: Images that contain bright white
highlights, stark black areas, and a narrow range of grays in between
Low-Contrast: an image that possesses a narrow range of tones (all middle grays, or all high
tones, or all low tones)
(Bright objects are more dynamic than dark ones. More intense)
What are three ways of controlling the tonal value of an image? - correct answer ✔✔1. Amount
of light falling on a picture
2. Manipulating exposure (the amount of light let into the camera)
3. Reflectance Value
How does an overexposure affect tone? an underexposure? - correct answer ✔✔Overexposure
will push all the image's tonal values towards the high end of the gray scale. The result will be a
"brighter" image with a reduced tonal range.
Underexposure will push all the image's tonal values towards the low end of the gray scale.The
result will be a darker image, again with a reduced tonal range.
What does an eye typically first seek out in an image? and second? and third? - correct answer
✔✔1st: Faces (or round shapes)
,2nd: Bright areas
3rd: Whatever is in focus
4th: Foreground
5th: Converging lines
Describe the tonal relation of the shots in the clip from Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad. -
correct answer ✔✔he scene below, from Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, is certainly not
as radical as Kubelka's short, but it uses contrast of tone from shot to shot to increase the
dynamism associated with one of its flashbacks. Watch it with tone in mind (clip 17 01)
What are some ways a filmmaker might create an image that might be considered an example
of coincidence of tone? non-coincidence of tone? - correct answer ✔✔First, "coincidence of
tone" occurs when the tonal organization of the shot helps reveal the subject. Usually, the
subject is revealed because he or she or it is one of the brightest things in the frame or is near
the brightest thing in the frame.
Second term: "Non-coincidence of tone" occurs when the tonal organization of the shot does
not help reveal the subject. Non-coincidence of tone is used in horror films and shows like X-
Files, etc. The subject is "lurking in the shadows" or pops out of "nowhere". That "nowhere" is
created through tonal organization. If he's wearing dark clothes and is not standing in the light,
we are unlikely to find him quickly.
Describe how the makers of Auto Focus use tone to structure their film. - correct answer
✔✔The filmmakers have manipulated tone to chart the psychological path of Auto Focus'
protagonist. The film is structured by tone - a high tone suburban oblivion, the middle-to-low
tone TV grind, and Bob's extremely low tone collapse.
Describe how the design of Bob's agent's office changes over the course of Auto Focus. - correct
answer ✔✔Three times Bob goes to speak to his agent:
1st - Note the saturated high tone yellow drapes, the white and light gray and pale blue papers
covering the agent's desk, the saturated and medium tone blue couch, the tan carpet, etc. Not
quite as high tone as the shots in Bob's home, but in the same ballpark.
, 2nd - Bob now wears more "drab" (in other words, desaturated and somewhat lower tone)
clothes. Like the shots from the set of Hogan's Heroes, these images exhibit a tonal range
generally lower on the gray scale than the shots, including shots of the same office, from the
first third of the film. Not only that, but the furnishings have changed. The high tone yellow
drapes have been replaced with some middle tone reds ones. And the bright blue couch from
the first scene is now a dark brown one!
3rd - These shots are even more dark and more devoid of color than the ones from the middle
of the film. There is a lot of black, but, as you can see, there are also strong whites. These, then,
are relatively hi-contrast images, or, to use the language of the text, images which exhibit
contrast of tone within the shot. This scene's tonal organization sets it apart from the other
scenes in the agent's office. And its tonal design reflects the overall tonal design of the film.
Tone has, again, helped to structure the film.
Describe how the makers of Mishima visually structure their film. What part does tone play in
that structuring? - correct answer ✔✔The "present tense" of Mishima's life is given in relatively
low-contrast high tone images with lots of desaturated color and handheld camera.
The flashbacks are distinguished primarily by virtue of the fact that they are drained of color.
Though the range of tones varies from flashback scene to flashback scene, none of them are hi-
contrast with true blacks and whites. Most, like the images below, evidence a much more
narrow range of tones. Each of the following exhibits an affinity of tone within the shot.
The scenes that recreate portions of Mishima's novels contain significantly more lurid colors and
stronger tonal contrasts.
What, according to the unit, are the filmmakers trying to achieve in the final scenes of Mishima?
How, visually, do they attempt to achieve it? - correct answer ✔✔Now, the movie is, on some
level, "about" Mishima's desire to turn his life into an artwork; it's about what the film calls "the
coincidence of life and art". Indeed, the last section of the film is titled "The Harmony of Pen
and Sword" - "pen" referring to Mishima's work as a writer and "sword" pointing to his
reactionary, pro-military politics. In fact, that shot (the ritual suicide) ends in a freeze frame
(below), a device that is even more static than a static shot.The real-life Mishima, the present
tense, previously dynamic with its handheld camera, has been frozen into a work of art! The
