Mass Media: Film Unit Take-Home Exam                                                     Name: __________________

Short Answer Questions:

1. What is the name for a flexible film that can be passed through a camera?
2. What French men pioneered a system to show films to an audience on a large screen?
3. What term describes the duration of a film?
4. If you stopped a film suddenly, what is the one image on the screen called?
5. What do these words refer to? Subliminal, quick, average, lengthy
6. If you want to give the idea of general setting, what kind of shot would be used?
7. What kind of film is it that tells stories?
8. What kind of shot is it that focuses only on a face or small object?
9. What kind of feeling would a “bird’s eye view” give the audience?
10. Why is it that early silent films appealed to the poor, immigrant class?
11. What is “story time?”
12. What film led the trend for longer movies and re-invigorated racism in the U.S.?
13. What angle takes away the power of the subject, making it insignificant?
14. In what type of situation would a low-angle shot be used?
15. What studios were the “Big Five?”

Long Answer Questions:

1. Describe the camera work in the first early silent films.
2. How was “The Great Train Robbery” a pioneering film? Identify at least two ways it broke barriers and set standards.
3. Describe how, according to the textbook, the movie studios tried to control production, distribution, and exhibition.
4. List the major genres of films, and give an example in each genre that is NOT listed in the textbook.

Long-Term Assignment and Assessment:

q       On page 265 in the text there is an investigation activity called “The Blockbuster Mentality.” Read it. You will perform this investigation outside class as we complete the film unit. At the conclusion of the unit you will submit your responses to the investigation. More on this activity will be given in class.