Film Sound
A sound begins in one scene and carries over to the next. This is a _____.
sound bridge
What is the difference between plot and story in film?
The story is the events of the film in chronological order. The plot is the order in which those events happen in the film, as well as the way they happen (film style).
What question drives the western genre?
Whose country is it?
Gap-Toothed Women is an example of what type of documentary form?
categorical form
A spinning reel-to-reel tape machine
Blow Out, dir. Brian De Palma. We see the spinning reels in the credit sequence, during the motel scene, and at later points as well.
What are the three perceptual properties of sound?
Classical Hollywood cinema favors what kind of protagonists?
Goal-oriented (who encounter conflict and experience change)
What are the four basic functions of genre?
Blueprint, formula, label, contract
A Movie is an example of what type of experimental form?
Associational
A model train set
Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers, dir. Nick Park. A model train runs through W&G's home, delivering G's present in the first scene and the climactic chase toward the end.
What is Mickey Mousing?
Film sound which mimics the rhythm of on-screen movement.
Name three characters in Citizen Kane who motivate flashbacks in the film's plot.
Walter Thatcher, Mr. Bernstein, Jed Leland, Susan Alexander Kane, Raymond the butler
What historical event is given mythic treatment in My Darling Clementine?
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona
For what major New Deal federal project was The River an effective work of government propaganda?
The Tennessee Valley Authority
doffing a cowboy hat
My Darling Clementine, dir. John Ford. Wyatt Earp takes his hat off early on to collect his poker chips, and twice more in the presence of Clementine.
When John Travolta's character in Blow Out listens to his recording in the motel room, what technique of subjective sound design are we hearing?
Point of audition
Describe the function of the setting in the rotor scene from The 400 Blows.
The rotor and Antoine's response to it are apt metaphors for his life: it goes round and round without going anywhere and applies pressure to keep him in his place.
What well-known settlers' route did Stephen Meek believe he knew a shortcut around?
the Oregon Trail
What are the animation techniques used in 1) Duck Amuck and 2) Dimensions of Dialogue?
Cel animation and pixillation
A person playing, framed in a window
Citizen Kane, dir. Orson Welles. We see Kane playing outside a distant window as his parents and Thatcher discuss his fate, and later Leland and Bernstein discuss Kane's future in a similar composition.
Describe a real or imaginary example of the fluid line between diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
A car travels down the highway as music plays on the soundtrack. The driver clicks off the radio and the music stops; what we thought was non-diegetic sound has become diegetic.
Regarding the narration in Citizen Kane, what is the key distinction between Bernstein's flashback and the shot of "Rosebud" in flames?
In terms of the range of the narration, Bernstein's flashback is mostly restricted to his perspective of events. The shot of "Rosebud" is unrestricted—only we the viewers see this.
What film is often considered the first Western—and why is this not precisely accurate?
At the time of its release, The Great Train Robbery was not seen as a Western (since the genre didn't yet exist), but as part of the "railway" or "violent crime" genres.
Why is Stan Brakhage's Mothlight unusual among the experimental films we have watched?
Nothing is photographed—bark and leaves and insect pieces were glued to the celluloid.
A mirror, intact and then broken
Meshes of the Afternoon, dirs. Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. We see several mirrors in the film: as the face of the mysterious robed figure, later reflecting the husband's face. At last we see the woman shatter the mirror-image of her husband, and later mirror shards surround her dead body.