Film Media
The three components that make up the light-sensitive emulsion in color filmstock
What are gelatin, silver halide, and dyes?
The four main phases of production
What are: 1. Scriptwriting and funding, 2. Preparation for filming ("preproduction"), 3. Shooting ("principle photography"), and 4. Assembly ("postproduction") ?
The opposite of "wide release"
What is "platforming" or "limited release"?
A way to reformat films for display on standard TV screens, typically involving the limitation of the field of vision (cropping)
What is "pan-and-scan"?
The name of the first major annual international film festival
What is the Venice International Film Festival?
The teeth that guide a film strip through cameras, printers, and projectors
What are sprockets?
Two parts: a. the term for the synopsis of a film's action, typically presented early in the writing process; and b. the term for the working copy of the screenplay that is used (and sometimes changed) during filming
What are a. the "treatment," and b. the "shooting script"?
Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith's rough estimate (%) for the share of ticket sales in the US that are controlled by the distributors they call the "majors" (Warner Bros., Paramount, Walt Disney/Buena Vista, Universal, Sony/Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox)
What is 95%?
The term for reformatting that adds a black bar on the top and bottom of the screen, to preserve the entirety of the original frame
What is "letterboxing"?
The year in which the first annual international film festival was run
When is 1932?
[NON-STANDARD FORMAT]: Name four (4) different film gauges
8mm, 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, Super 8, Super 16, IMAX
[NON-STANDARD FORMAT]: What are "ADR" and "walla" and what component/phase of film production do they relate to?
Both of these terms relate to sound editing. "ADR" = Automated Dialogue Replacement; "walla" = nonsynchronous background babble added during the ADR process, used to create a soundscape of ambient crowd noise
Term for a film expected by the studio and distributor to make big box office, thereby potentially offsetting any of the company's smaller releases that do not recoup costs at the box office
What is a tentpole?
The "house nut"
What is the portion of grosses a theater is permitted to reserve (as a way of covering their operational costs) before profit sharing with distributors?
The university with which Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith were all affiliated
What is the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
What Digital Cinema Package?
The title for the head electrician
What is a "gaffer"?
These modes of non-theatrical distribution of content/media are described by the textbook as "ancillary markets"
What are streaming, digital downloads, licensing for cable and satellite, and physical media (VHS, DVD, Bluray, Betamax, LaserDisc, etc.)?
The term for a theater owner or operator, or, more generally, the person who shows the film to the public
What is an "exhibitor"?
A technique used in Hollywood musicals from the Classical era (1930 through mid-1950s) that involves pre-recording the sound components of song-and-dance sequences, which are later matched by visual performances for the camera where the actors lip-synch and dance
What is "playback"?
[NON-STANDARD FORMAT] Two of three for points: 1. What is the "critical flicker fusion" frequency (flashes per second)? 2. What is the standard range of early silent film frames per second? 3. What is the standard contemporary frame rate?
1. 50 flashes per second
2. 16–20 frames per second (18 is common)
3. 24 frames per second
The title of the supervisor of B-roll, location, and stunt footage shooting
What is the "Second/2nd Unit Director"?
Examples given by Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith of the potential for "new narrative possibilities" that come with increased availability for at-home or repeat viewing of films released in theaters
What are (all acceptable answers): alternate endings, puzzle films, companion texts, marketing, merchandising, and product placement?
Two practices prohibited in the US under which exhibitors have little or no choice about the films they receive from distributors. BONUS: the Supreme Court decision that prohibited these practices, and its year
What are "blind booking" and "block booking"? What is United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948), a.k.a. "The Paramount Decision"
The term for low-budget films tailored to niche exhibition markets (such as drive-in or indie theaters, or home video, and straight-to-DVD/VOD)
What are "exploitation pictures" or "exploitation films"?