Term
| In Science Fiction films, who are typically the protagonists and antagonists? |
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Definition
| In Science Fiction films, protagonists tend to be humanity, whereas antagonists tend to be robots or aliens. Humanity must overcome these obstacles in order to triumph. |
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Term
| What types of settings are typical in Science Fiction films? |
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Definition
| Typically, science fiction films are set in the future or an alternate reality. They are frequently set in outer space, or a future version of our own society. |
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Term
| Science Fiction films frequently involve a journey. What is usually sought in this journey? |
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Definition
| Typically in Science Fiction films, the protagonists go on a journey to obtain knowledge. |
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Term
| Science Fiction films frequently create tension by exploring what? |
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Definition
| Science Fiction films frequently create tension by exploring the unknown, which is effective since we do not know what will happen in the future. |
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Term
| In horror films, who are typically the protagonists and antagonists? |
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Definition
| In horror films, the protagonists are typically humanity. Antagonists tend to be monsters or the mentally disturbed. Humanity must overcome these obstacles in order to triumph. |
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Term
| What is the typical setting for a horror film? |
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Definition
| The uneasy feeling audiences get in horror films is heightened by the setting typically being a normal, everyday, commonplace location. This emphasizes the feeling that the horrific things could happen anywhere. |
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Term
| Horror films often involve a journey. What is the goal of the journey in most cases? |
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Definition
| The goal of the journey in many horror films is to track down the monster and exterminate it, or to better understand why someone has turned into a killer. |
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Term
| How do horror films create tension? |
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Definition
| Horror films frequently create tension by exploring the unknown (human psychology, genetic mutations, scary monsters). |
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Term
| What film was seen in class as an example of Science Fiction? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Andy & Lana Wachowski (the Wachowski siblings) directed the Matrix and its two sequels |
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Term
| Name three ways The Matrix follows classical mythology tropes? |
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Definition
The Matrix follows classical mythology tropes in ways that include the following:
1) A reluctant hero is the "chosen one" who must overcome tremendous adversity (some of which is created by internal self-doubt) in order to triumph.
2) An oracle explains that there is a path he hero must choose.
3) The journey of the film is a quest to learn the "truth."
4) There is a character who seems to be a friend, but who ultimately betrays the hero. In the Matrix, this character is Cypher. |
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Term
| What type of very technical stunt work did Yuen Woo Ping choreograph for The Matrix that made the "I know Kung Fu" scene possible? |
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Definition
| Yuen Woo Ping is a famous Chinese fight choreographer that uses elaborate wirework for fight scenes. |
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Term
| What types of art work were the inspiration for the visual style of The Matrix? |
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Definition
| The Matrix's visual style was heavily influenced by anime and comic books, with scenes carefully storyboarded in detail before being shot. |
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Term
| Who wrote and directed Fargo (1996) ? |
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Definition
| Joel and Ethan Coen wrote and directed Fargo together. |
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Term
| Whereas the Wachowski siblings have a background in comic books, how did the Coen brothers get into filmmaking? |
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Definition
| The Coen brothers attended film school at New York University (NYU). |
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Term
| What characteristic is common across nearly all of the Coen brothers' films? |
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Definition
| The Coen brothers like to explore (and often subvert) genres. Examples include screwball comedy (Intolerable Cruelty), film noir (The Man Who Wasn't There), and westerns (True Grit), among numerous other examples. |
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Term
| In the 1950s, what key forces had a significant impact on the movie business? |
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Definition
At the end of the 1950s, three key trends affected the movie business:
1) Americans began moving away from inner cities (where movie theaters were typically located) to suburbs, and spent their leisure time on other hobbies besides going to movies
2) Watching television took the place of frequent movie attendance for many Americans
3) The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was applied to film studios, which made it illegal for movie studios to own movie theaters, and to control exclusively which movies were shown in which theaters. |
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Term
| In the 1960s, several key events significantly affected the culture of the United States. What were they? |
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Definition
The following major events in the 1960s deeply affected U.S. culture:
1) The Vietnam War (the first war the U.S. fought but did not clearly win)
2) The Civil Rights movement (particularly empowering for African-Americans)
3) Student protests (advocating for social reforms)
4) A significant split emerged between the values of the older, more conservative generation, and the younger, more liberal generation
5) The so-called sexual revolution and women's rights movement (closely associated with the availability of "the pill" which enabled women to have sex with little risk of pregnancy) |
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Term
| In what ways, did Hollywood seem out of touch in the 1960s? |
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Definition
In the 1960s, Hollywood's values were out of touch with those of young Americans in the following ways:
1) The Hayes code was out of date and made films seem laughably unrealistic at times
2) Content of Hollywood films was not appealing to younger audiences, who typically were seen as the most desirable, highest spending movie audience
3) The studios were run by old, white men, meaning many groups in society were not represented in the stories Hollywood was producing |
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Term
| What happened to the studios as their revenues declined in the late 1950s and 1960s? |
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Definition
| In the 1960s, years of Hollywood being increasingly out of touch with the young audience, and failing to adapt to the new rules about divesting theaters, led many of the studios to declare bankruptcy, which led to them being purchased by large corporate conglomerates. The original owners no longer had tight control over their operations and the way they distributed and exhibited their films. |
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Term
| What changes characterized the "New Hollywood" that emerged in the late 1960s? |
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Definition
In the late 1960s, a "New Hollywood" emerged that was characterized by the following:
1) Younger directors, who had trained in television, or had graduated from film schools, which had only recently come into existence
2) Hollywood replaced its own Hayes Code with its own MPAA Ratings system, which assigned G, PG, R or X rating to every film released, in order to advise audiences of the type of content each movie contained. This was an effort to avoid any government regulation of film ratings, while also enabling Hollywood to produce films with varying degrees of sex, violence and language.
3) Hollywood made a concerted effort to target younger audiences with the content of new films.
4) The films coming out of Hollywood trended toward more violent, sexual and socially conscious themes. |
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Term
| What term became popular in the 1970s to describe filmmakers who were revered as true artists as opposed to simply hired hands? |
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Definition
| The term "auteur" is used to describe filmmakers who are revered as artists to such a degree that they, not the studios and their staffs, are considered the "author" of the film. (auteur is the French word for author, and was first used by French film critics in the 1960s) |
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Term
| What were two side effects of the rise of the auteurs in the 1970s? |
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Definition
| In the 1970s, huge critical and box office successes like Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Steve Spielberg's Jaws, and George Lucas' Star Wars led to more and more control being handed over to Directors. The massive box office and rising cost of production led to big swings in the profitability of the studios as some projects did huge business while others were costly flops. |
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Term
| In the 1970s, who were the dominant directors who were treated as auteurs and given unprecedented control over their films? |
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Definition
The 1970s American directors who were regarded as "auteurs" included the following:
Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde)
Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver)
George Lucas (American Graffiti, Star Wars)
Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather)
Steven Spielberg (Jaws)
Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller)
Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show)
Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining) |
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Term
| Which films were such blockbusters in the 1970s that they reshaped the way Hollywood approached film distribution and marketing? |
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Definition
| The earliest mega blockbusters were Coppola's 1972 The Godfather, Friedkin's 1973 The Exorcist, and Spielberg's 1975 Jaws, and then George Lucas' Star Wars (1977). These films had such mass appeal that studios began strategically releasing certain films widely (meaning theaters everywhere as opposed to only in a few places at first) in order to continue to earn huge box office revenues. The back to back successes of Jaws and Star Wars also launched the summer movie season, which is now the primary timeframe in which studios release movies intended for massive audience and box office figures. |
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Term
| Because of the desire to create more blockbusters, studios invested heavily in certain movies they hoped would be blockbusters. To offset these huge costs, what did studios do? |
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Definition
| Studios tried to offset the huge costs of producing blockbuster style movies by making deals for product tie-ins with fast food restaurants, toys, pajamas, cups, books, selling the rights to show movies on cable TV and on VHS tapes in home VCRs. |
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Term
| In the 1980s, what was and still is considered the least risky way to make sure a movie was a blockbuster? |
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Definition
| By making a sequel to a prior blockbuster, studios can minimize the risk of an expensive movie being a box office flop. |
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Term
| What shifts were responsible for the unusual success of the independent film in the late 1980s through 1990s? |
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Definition
Independent film surged in the late 1980s and 1990s because:
A) Audiences were increasingly tired of sequels and other derivative/formulaic stories
B)filmmakers had access to increasingly inexpensive video cameras
C)it became possible to edit a movie on a home computer
D) all of these allowed for greater creativity and experimentation on smaller budgets (less risk) |
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Term
| What film seen in class was directed by Spike Lee? |
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Definition
| Do The Right Thing (1989) was directed by Spike Lee |
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Term
| What legendary film composer scored the music for Taxi Driver (1976) ? |
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Definition
| Bernard Herrmann was the legendary film composer who scored the films of Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) and Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, others), and was hired to create the score for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. |
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Term
| What acting style was used by Robert DeNiro, who worked for 12 hours a day as a cab driver to prepare for his lead role in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver? |
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Definition
| Method acting is the style of acting used by DeNiro. Method acting attempts is a way actors are trained to use their imagination, senses and emotions to conceive of characters with unique and original behavior, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment. It is intended to make the characters being portrayed seem like real people unto themselves, not just movie stars wearing costumes. |
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Term
| Which film, seen in this class, was produced shortly after the Hayes code was disbanded, and was regarded by many as "the most violent movie ever made." ? |
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Definition
| Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde (1967) was made in 1967, just one year after the Hayes Code was eliminated, and as such, the uncensored degree of violence depicted was startling to audiences who had never seen anything like it before. |
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Term
| In the 1950s, the U.S. government cited the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 to declare the Hollywood studio system a "monopoly" or "oligopoly." What were the options the studios had in attempting to resolve this issue? |
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Definition
| The government said that studio system held a "monopoly" because the studio owned both the means of production and the distribution of their films. This meant studios had to either sell off their theaters or their production facilities to satisfy the government requirement. They chose to sell off theaters, and continue to produce films. |
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Term
| What did the House Un-American Activities Committee have to do with Hollywood? |
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Definition
| The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was a committee in the House of Representatives that claimed the purpose of discovering and stopping communist, socialist, and extreme liberal activities in America. Hollywood filmmakers, known many of whom were known for having liberal ideals and socialist leanings, were targeted because there was a fear that audiences were being subjected to subliminal communist propaganda in the movies these people were producing. |
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Term
| When many changes and trends in the 1950s and early 60s resulted in a reduction in the movie-going audience that led to many abandoned theaters, how did studios attempt to bring the audiences back to the movies? |
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Definition
Studios attempted to get audiences back with gimmicks such as:
1) 3-D using simple paper glasses
2) Wide Screen formats that TV could not match
3) Smell-O-Rama (scents), Shock Theater (seats that would buzz to startle audiences at key moments)
4) B-movies (extremely low budget movies)
5) Drive-in theaters (acknowledging the rise in automobile ownership and "car dating" |
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Term
| Once color processing became available in 1939, why did some filmmakers continue to produce films in black and white? |
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Definition
Some filmmakers continue(d) to shoot in black and white because:
1) it is cheaper to process than color
2) it is an aesthetic choice (they want a classic look)
3) their film is set in a certain time period and black and white helps convey the "period" look
4) to cover flaws (bad make up, cheap sets, etc.) that would be too obvious in color |
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Term
| While both comedy and drama tend to feature realistic people in realistic situations, how do drama and comedy films differ? |
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Definition
Drama films tend to treat the plot seriously, while Comedy films tend to treat the plot lightly.
Drama films often have a sad ending, while Comedy films almost always have a happy ending |
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Term
| Which type of comedy uses sight gags for laughs? |
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Definition
| Physical comedy uses sight gags for laughs |
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Term
| Which type of comedy follows two people falling in love and the complications they endure? |
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Definition
| Romantic comedy follows two people falling in love and the complications they endure along the way. |
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Term
| Which type of comedy film features a battle of the sexes? |
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Definition
| Screwball comedy plots typically involve a battle of the sexes. |
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Term
| Which type of comedy focuses on young people/adolescents? |
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Definition
| Coming of age comedies focus on adolescents. |
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Term
| What is the difference between so-called high-brow and low-brow comedy? |
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Definition
| While low-brow comedy is usually satisfied getting laughs using very base comedy, such as farts and bodily function jokes, high-brow comedy tends to rely on wit and satire to appeal to a more sophisticated audience. |
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Term
| Would the Hayes Code have permitted Some Like It Hot to feature cross-dressing? |
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Definition
| The Hayes Code was in effect in 1959, when Some Like It Hot was made, but perhaps because the film was so clearly a comedy, the cross-dressing was not censored. However, it was banned in Kansas and "condemned" by the Roman Catholic League of Decency. |
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Term
| Some Like It Hot was made 20 years after color film became available. Why did the Director Billy Wilder choose to shoot it in black and white? |
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Definition
| Billy Wilder felt that shooting Some Like It Hot in black and white gave the feeling of the period of the story, the heavy makeup needed made the actors appear green in color screen tests. Notably, Marilyn Monroe had a clause in her contract that said all of her films had to be in color. Some Like It Hot is the only exception. |
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