TEST on Friday, 3/19

The test will focus on Peter Weir's Witness, the documentary Young @ Heart, Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, and the terms and concepts from chapters 1, 2, and 8 of our textbook, Understanding Movies.


Look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

Along with the general plot and character developments of the following films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Run Lola Run: epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, pastiche, arc shot, crane or boom shot, steadicam, chaos theory, motifs (spirals, etc.), establishing sound, snorkel camera, montage, red filter, (NEW: freeze frame,) web of life plot, Lola as hero. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Young @ Heart: the documentary style spectrum (characteristics of realism & formalism), inter-title, cinema verite, reaction shot, episodic structure. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Witness: establishing shot, Amish culture, setting (Philadelphia vs. the Amish world), the Ordnung, the bonds of community vs. individual desire. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• Key Terms: Be able to define the term 'rhetoric' and how it relates to the title of our course: Rhetoric of the Moving Image. Also, literary, cinematic, & dramatic aspects, long/medium/close-up shots, high/low/eye-level/dutch (canted) angles, low/high key lighting, subjective/authorial point of view, eye-line match, diegetic/nondiegetic sound, (NEW: mid-ground, background, foreground.)
• From Understanding Movies: (Ch. 1) Film style: formalism/realism/classicism. (Ch. 2) Mise-en-scene ("placing on stage"), aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen), iris shot, the dominant, intrinsic interest, tight vs. loose framing, proxemic patterns, open vs. closed form. (Ch. 8) Mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm, linear vs. nonlinear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage.

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study! Extra help will be at 2:45 p.m on Thursday, 3/18 in room 452.

NEW: The general format of the test will be approximately as follows: PART I (40 points) - 20 multiple choice questions on film terminology, character and plot developments in our three films, and textbook/homework terms. PART II (40 points) - 4 short answer questions on major terms and concepts from the textbook relating to our three films. PART III (20 points) - mini-essay mise en scene analysis of a frame from one of our three films.


Good luck!