Shared Flashcard Set

Details

U of S. Carolina - Film 180 - Test 1
Notecards for Film 180 at University of South Carolina
78
Film, Theatre & Television
Undergraduate 1
09/20/2011

Additional Film, Theatre & Television Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

ABSTRACTION

Definition
  • A picture's formal characteristics, its lines, shapes, masses, shadings, colors, textures, and their relationships, stripped of all representational meaning and signifying nothing
  • Also, particular ideas when stripped of their particularity and restated as general categories and principles
Term
Academy Ratio
Definition
* The "Golden Mean" relationship of a picture's width to its height established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 4 to 3, standard before 1950 and still used for TV
Term
A.C.E.
Definition

* American Cinema Editors


*The Guild which many professional film editors belong to

Term
Adaptations
Definition
*Filmed versions of works originally produced in other media, typically literary or theatrical
Term
ADR Editor
Definition
* The technician who operates "Automatic Dialogue Replacement" dubbing or looping
Term
A.S.C.
Definition

* American Society of Cinematographers

 

*The self-selecting guild or union of most of the best (in Britain, B.S.C)

Term
Ambient Sound
Definition
* "Live" background sounds creating the illusion that we are seeing and hearing a real world, such as the sounds of distant birds or cars, supposedly incidental but in fact functioning to enhance the drama
Term
American Shot
Definition
* A three-quarter shot showing a human figure from the knees up, implying the ability to move at will, so-called by the French
Term
Animation
Definition
* Drawings, clay figures, and sand swirls, or various objects seemingly "animated" or brought to life, made to seem to move by photographing them one frame at a time with slight changes in position between frames
Term
Antagonist
Definition
Any character or force opposing the protagonist's desires, making for difficulties or dramatic conflict
Term
Art Documentary
Definition
A nonfiction film appreciated more for its style, or for its aesthetic qualities, than for its subject, message, or truth
Term
Aspect Ratio
Definition
The screens' width in relation to its height, classically 1.33 to 1, etc.
Term
Assistant Director
Definition
One of several director's helpers as needed to assist with set-ups, secondary shots, car or crowd cueing and control, preliminary rehearsals of lesser performers, or other directorial chores
Term
Auteur
Definition
A film's "author" or primary creative sensibility, supposedly the director, a term originating in French critical policy directed against impersonal films, now supporting the cult of the director as superstar
Term
Avant-Garde Films
Definition
Art films extending or violating film conventions in new ways, made by individual artists for their own noncommercial reasons, usually challenging viewers to find for themselves the appropriate ways to look at them
Term
Back Light
Definition
Lights illuminating the main image from the rear, sculpting it from the background with highlighted edges, as with haloed hair
Term
B-Film
Definition
A low budget movie usually shown as the second feature during the big-studio era in America; often took the form of popular genres, such as thrillers, westerns, or horror films
Term
Big Caper Film
Definition
A form of gangster film showing a team of skilled, usually admirable professional thieves gathering to plan a fabulous crime, then pulling it off
Term
Biopic
Definition
A biographical picture dramatizing the personal life of some historical figure or recent celebrity, or a partial complete fiction about some such person, usually inspirational but occasionally disturbing
Term
Black Comedy
Definition
A comedy in which the clowns' follies cause serious consequences, or a melodrama populated by destructive but amusing clowns, with the audience's usual moral response to the sight of people in trouble suppressed or suspended
Term
Blocking
Definition
A director's primary responsibility, planning the positions and movements of actors, objects, and cameras during a shot, so the actors can "hit their marks" taped on the floor, remain in focus, and perform with max dramatic effectiveness
Term
Camio
Definition
A brief appearance of well-known star in a small role, sometimes unaccredited
Term
Camera
Definition
A portable device for recording whatever images are in front of it, consisting of a lens, a shutter, a film strip coated with light-sensitive chemicals, and some means for transporting the film strip past the lens for successive intermittent exposure to light, one frame at a time
Term
Canted Camera Shot
Definition
A shot made with the camera slanted off its vertical axis, showing a world somehow gone awry
Term
Center Line
Definition
An imaginary line perpendicular to the camera's line of sight, basis of the 180-degree rule, determing the "picture plane" or plane of the action parallel to the screen, never crossed between shots without risking the viewer's sense of spatial relationship
Term
CGI
Definition
Computer-Generated Imagery; identifies special effects and images composed with computers
Term
Cinematographer
Definition
The artist and technician responsible for the film's lighting and photography, an expert with lights, lenses, cameras, film stocks, and photographic processes who designs and tests different effects until they match the director's intentions for the film, then oversees the actual shooting
Term
Clapboard
Definition
A slate with a hinged clapper on top for labeling the beginnings of each take visually and aurally, for later synchronizing the film with sound track
Term
Classical Film
Definition
Critics' term for films in the prevailing Hollywood studio style, with continuity editing creating a credible screen reality, sets reinforcing that impression, plots built on lines of action finally resolving whatever the conflicts posed, and characters who elicit strong audience identification
Term
Climatic Structure
Definition
Plot construction based on a single problem or issue posed at the outset, developed through conflict and complication in a "rising" action, climaxed irreversabibly near the end, and resolved or fully comprehended after the climax, the structure assumed virtually all drama and storytelling in the Western world for the past 3000 years
Term
Climax
Definition

The moment or scene near the end of a dramatic action when conflicting characters or forces confront each other and whatever will come of it is finally determined

(sometimes called "obligatory scene")

Term
Close-Up
Definition
A shot made with a camera position or lens setting filling the screen with the image of any object the size of a human face or smaller, generating strong viewer attentiveness and feelings of intimacy
Term
Comedy
Definition
A major genre portraying varieties of fools in their folly, including in the audience distanced recognition, mutual relief from anxieties, and amused laughter
Term
Compositon
Definition
The rectangular frame's patterns of lines, masses, and textures formed by the spatial relationships of the people and things making up the image
Term
Conflict
Definition

The confrontation and struggle of opposing charcters, forces, or principles basic to most narratives and all drama

(protagonist vs. antagonist)

Term
Continuity
Definition
The spatial and temporal persistence and consistency of the world on film
Term
Continuity Editing
Definition
The systematic sequential arranging of shots so that an action seen on the screen seems to be occuring in real time and known space
Term
Cover Shot
Definition
A "Master Shot" of a continuous action photographed without interruption, establishing relevant spatial relationships and protecting the planned narrative continuity in case other related shots are not usable
Term
Crane Shot
Definition

A shot displaying a flowing or floating movement up and across short distances

(camera mounted on a crane)

Term
Cross-Cut
Definition
An edit cutting from on action to another simultaneous action somewhere else
Term
Cut
Definition
The spliced place between two frames where on shot ends abruptly and another begins, literally cut by the editor
Term
Cutaway
Definition
A shot briefly interrupting one action to provide a glimpse of another also taking place
Term
Day-and-Date
Definition
A Hollywood Blockbuster opens at thousands of theatres around the world on the same date
Term
Director
Definition
The film's chief artistic coordinator or authority, responsible for blocking the camera and cast and eliciting their performances, and for bringing in the film on time and within budget
Term
Dissolve
Definition
A noticeable fading of one shot while another superimposed on it grows stronger and finally replacing it
Term
Documentary Film
Definition
Any film consisting of images of the actual world, shot and edited to warn, inform, impress, or entertain its audiences with the supposed truth thereby revealed
Term
Dolly
Definition
A camera platform on wheels, sometimes with a small crane as well, for slow, rolling shots toward and away from, but also alongside whatever is being photographed
Term
Editing
Definition
A process that involved the selection images and sounds for the subsequent inclusion in the film and assemblage of this material to produce a finished film
Term
Editor
Definition
The person who receives work prints of the fim's takes, logs them, cuts and splices the preferred takes into a rough cut, then with the director trims shots and reconstructs sequences until a desired "final cut" of the work print has emerged
Term
Director of All Quiet on the Western Front?
Definition
Lewis Milestone
Term
Screenwriter of All Quite on the Western Front?
Definition
Erich Remarque or George Abbott
Term
Cinematographer of All Quite on the W. Front?
Definition
Arthur Edeson and Karl Freund
Term
What year was All Quite on the W. Front released?
Definition
1930
Term
Who was the Director of Modern Times?
Definition
Charlie Chapman
Term
Who was the Screenwriter of Modern Times?
Definition
Charlie Chapman
Term
Cinematographer of Mordern Times?
Definition
Ira Morgan and Rollie Totheroh
Term
What year was Modern Times released?
Definition
1936
Term
Director of Casablanca?
Definition
Michael Curtiz
Term
Screenwriter for Casablanca?
Definition
Juluis J. Epstein
Term
Cinematographer of Casablanca?
Definition
Arthur Edeson
Term
What date was Casablanca released?
Definition
1942
Term
Director for Citizen Kane?
Definition
Orson Welles
Term
Screenwriter for Citizen Kane?
Definition
Herman J. Mankiewicz AND Orson Welles
Term
Cinematographer for Citizen Kane?
Definition
Gregg Toland
Term
What year was Citizen Kane released?
Definition
1941
Term
Treatment
Definition
First step in screenwriting; a 2-5 page outline of idea
Term
120 Pages
Definition
General rules of screenplays; about one minute per page
Term
"Story By:"
Definition
The idea person or creator; makes more money
Term
"Written By"
Definition
Takes the idea and writes it
Term
Optioning
Definition
When a script is "rented" out for a certain amount of time; cannot shop script around; should only last a year
Term
One Sheet
Definition
A one page summary of script with visuals
Term
Orson Wells
Definition
First to establish the director as the star
Term
William Wilder
Definition
Developed the de-focal lens keeping everyone in focus even in the wide, establishing shots
Term
Director of The Public Enemy?
Definition
William A. Wellman
Term
Where did The Public Enemy take place?
Definition
Chicago
Supporting users have an ad free experience!