Test on Wednesday, 3/7

The test will focus on Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, etc. Look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Jaws: The conventions of classical cinema; thriller as genre; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; visual foreshadowing; DVD special features; continuity errors; cameo; Quint's monologue on the USS Indianapolis. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• Key Terms and the Effects They Create: framing (shot types), camera angles, lighting (high/low key, neutral); visual rhetoric (the definition of RotMI); deep focus; shallow/soft focus; rack/selective focus; eye-line match; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view--and EVERYTHING FROM CHAPTER ONE of our textbook! 

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school on Tuesday, 3/6 in room 452 at 2:35 p.m.

UPDATE: Approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay (on classical cinema) / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, December 13

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony); comedy as "serious fun"; Sugar's songs' lyrics; Screwball Comedy; curtain line; swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric; filmed in black and white for a reason; parallel editing (crosscutting); using proxemic patterns to create humor; Kinds of Comedy: parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, phallic symbols, running gag, dramatic irony, and meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Do The Right Thing: title credits; match cut; breaking the fourth wall; litany; episodic story structure vs. the classical paradigm; montage; racial tensions in NYC; and Spike Lee's DVD Special Features. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and not necessarily a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday, 12/12 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on mise en scene / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, November 8

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and Weijun Chen's Please Vote For Me. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics; the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure; epigraphs; birds-eye view shot; split screen; Butterfly Effect; motifs (spirals, clocks, etc.), montage; flash forward; red filter; freeze frame; web of life plot; and Lola as hero. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Psycho: shooting day for night; voyeurism; MacGuffin; parallel editing or crosscutting; director's cameo; motifs of mirrors and birds; the shower scene; the characterization of Norman Bates; the final image; and the groundbreaking features of the film in general. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? What did this film enlighten you about? The effect created by parallel editing or crosscutting. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

This is only a general guide and not necessarily a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Monday, 11/6 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 10/11

The test will focus on Gus Van Sant's's Good Will Hunting and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Good Will Hunting: Classical film style; title credits; puns in the title?; kaleidoscopic view; bird's-eye shot; slow motion photography; painterly vs. linear style; visual repetitions (motifs); final images for the 4 major relationships in the film; final shot; long take; attachment disorder as a psychological term. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, internal diegetic, and non-diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on Literary, Dramatic & Cinematic Aspects / 20% short answers

Good luck! 

Test on Tuesday, December 6

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho,  Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics; the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure; epigraphs; birds-eye view shot; split screen; Butterfly Effect; motifs (spirals, clocks, etc.), montage; flash forward; red filter; freeze frame; web of life plot; and Lola as hero. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Psycho: shooting day for night; voyeurism; MacGuffin; parallel editing or crosscutting; director's cameo; motifs of mirrors and birds; the shower scene; the characterization of Norman Bates; the final image; and the groundbreaking features of the film in general. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Do The Right Thing: title credits; match cut; breaking the fourth wall; litany; episodic story structure vs. the classical paradigm; montage; racial tensions in NYC; and Spike Lee's DVD Special Features. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and not necessarily a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Monday, 12/5 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on mise en scene / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Monday, 5/16

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Asghar Faradi's A Separation, the Student Choice Film for your period, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In A Separation: Visual and physical separations in the mise en scene; how is the depiction of life in modern Tehran, Iran similar and different to life in the west?; drama as genre; long takes at the film's beginning and end; what crucial information is not divulged at the end of the film? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony); comedy as "serious fun"; Sugar's songs' lyrics; Screwball Comedy; curtain line; swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric; filmed in black and white for a reason; parallel editing (crosscutting); using proxemic patterns to create humor; Kinds of Comedy: parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, phallic symbols, running gag, dramatic irony, and meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In American Beauty (Period 1) OR The Sixth Sense (Period 2): Be familiar with the characters, plot developments, and the concepts discussed in class. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, 5/12 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Monday, 2/29

The test will focus on Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, etc. Look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

 

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

• In Jaws: The aspects of classical cinema; thriller as genre; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; DVD special features; continuity errors; cameo; Quint's monologue on the USS Indianapolis. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• Key Terms and the Effects They Create: framing, camera angles, visual rhetoric (the definition of RotMI); deep focus; rack focus; diegetic and non-diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view--and EVERYTHING FROM CHAPTER ONE of our textbook! 

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school on Thursday, 2/25 in room 452 at 2:35 p.m.

UPDATE: Approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% short answer (on classical cinema) / 20% short answer (LCD aspects)

Good luck!

Test on Monday, October 19

The test will focus on Gus Van Sant's's Good Will Hunting, Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Good Will Hunting: Classical film style; title credits; puns in the title?; kaleidoscopic view; bird's-eye shot; slow motion photography; painterly vs. linear style; visual repetitions (motifs); final images for the 4 major relationships in the film; final shot; long take; attachment disorder as a psychological term. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? What did this film enlighten you about? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, internal diegetic, and non-diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, 10/15  in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck! 

Test on Friday, 5/22

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, the Student Choice film for your period, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 2 from our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts (especially regarding the Classical Paradigm and narrative structure). Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image. Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Modern Times: silent film, inter-title, characterization of “The Tramp,” episodic structure, motifs, sight gags and slapstick, final shot. DVD Special Features: deleted scene, original ending, talkies, all voices filtered through technology and 24 frames per second (fps). Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony), comedy as "serious fun," Sugar's songs' lyrics, Screwball Comedy, curtain line, swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric, filmed in black and white for a reason, parallel editing (crosscutting), using proxemic patterns to create humor, parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, phallic symbol, running gag, dramatic irony, meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, 5/21 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on 3/20

The test will focus on Steven Speilberg's Jaws, Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Jaws: Classical cinema; thriller as genre; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; cameo; Quint's monologue on the USS Indianapolis. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, clocks, etc.), montage, flash forward, red filter, 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 Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic and non-diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, 3/19  in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck! 

Test on Friday, 10/24

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, Stephen Walker's Young @ Heart, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Young @ Heart: the documentary style spectrum (characteristics of realism and formalism in nonfiction films), inter-title, cinema verite, reaction shot. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, time, etc.), montage, flash forward, red filter, 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 Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, 10/23 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Thursday, 5/29

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 2 from our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image. Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Spirited Away: The typical conventions of animated films; the film’s “eco-message”; motifs involving the importance of name, memory, and identity; Miyazaki’s inspiration for the character of Chihiro; auteur; moments of realism. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval), Sugar's songs' lyrics, Screwball Comedy, curtain line, swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric, filmed in black and white for a reason, parallel editing (crosscutting), using proxemic patterns to create humor, parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, running gag, dramatic irony, meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, 5/28 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Thursday, 4/3

The test will focus on Grady and Ewing's Jesus Camp, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the key terms and concepts from chapters 1 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies.  Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image.Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Jesus Camp: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Where do you put the film on the spectrum between cinema verite and 60 Minutes style documentaries?; in your opinion, does the film merely inform or does it try to persuade? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 
• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, time, etc.), montage, flash forward, red filter, 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 Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.
• In Chapter 8 - Understanding Movies: mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm (including exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, resolution and closure), linear vs. non linear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage, cinema verite.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, 4/2 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Thursday, 10/24

The test will focus on Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting,  Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the key terms and concepts from chapters 1 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Good Will Hunting: Classical film style; title credits; puns in the title?; kaleidoscopic view; attachment disorder; bird's-eye shot; slow motion photography; painterly vs. linear style; visual repetitions (motifs); final images for the 4 major relationships in the film; final shot; long take; attachment disorder as a psychological term. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, Butterfly Effect, motifs (spirals, time, etc.), montage, flash forward, red filter, 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 Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Chapter 1 - Understanding Movies: film style; various shots; framing; angles; lighting; cut, dissolve; eye-line match; deep focus; rack focus; diegetic and non-diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, etc.
• In Chapter 8 - Understanding Movies: mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm (including exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, resolution and closure), linear vs. non linear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage, cinema verite.

This is only a general guide and possibly not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, 10/23 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 5/22

The test will focus on Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and the Student Choice Film for our class period (Period 7: Gus Van Sant’s Milk or Period 6: Michael Blieden’s Super High Me). Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Spirited Away: The typical conventions of animated films; the film’s “eco-message”; motifs involving the importance of name, memory, and identity; Miyazaki’s inspiration for the character of Chihiro; auteur; moments of realism. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Modern Times: silent film, inter-title, characterization of “The Tramp,” episodic structure, motifs, sight gags and slapstick, final shot. DVD Special Features: deleted scene, original ending, all voices filtered through technology and 24 frames per second (fps). Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Do The Right Thing: title credits; match cut; breaking the fourth wall; litany; episodic story structure; montage; racial tensions in NYC; Spike Lee's DVD Special Features. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 
• In Milk (Period 6 ONLY): Characterization of Harvey Milk; setting of the film (social fabric); story structure; cinematic aspects; the general plot.
• In Super High Me (Period 7 ONLY): Documentary film style; the film’s purpose and final observations; the general plot.   

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 5/21 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wed., 4/10

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest and the key terms and concepts from chapters 2 and 8 from our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, the definition of RotMI, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics, the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure, epigraph, birds-eye view shot, split screen, crane or boom shot, steadicam, chaos theory, motifs (spirals, etc.), montage, red filter, 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 North By Northwest: director's cameo; day for night shooting; femme fatale; MacGuffin; final cut privileges; title credits; parody; montage; characterization and compression; visual irony; phallic symbol; visual foreshadowing; character subtext; "stealing a shot"; film subtexts; matte shot; "Becoming George Kaplan"; "The Matchless Eve Kendall"; "Murder scenes shot lovingly and love scenes shot murderously"; epiphany and character arc; how tension and suspense are created in "The Crop Dusting Scene." Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point 
• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"), aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen), iris shot, the dominant, subsidiary contrasts, intrinsic interest, tight vs. loose framing, character placement, composition, proxemic patterns, open vs. closed form.
• In Chapter 8 - Understanding Movies: mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm (including exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, resolution and closure), linear vs. non linear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage, cinema verite

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, 4/9 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mise en scene analysis / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 12/12

The test will focus on George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 8 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Night of the Living Dead: the zombie apocalypse genre and its conventions; continuity error; colorblind casting; "stealing a scene"; indie film; subversive subtexts (cultural/historical significance); ironies in the plot; final shot; director's cameo. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Spirited Away: The typical conventions of animated films; the film’s “eco-message”; motifs involving the importance of name, memory, and identity; Miyazaki’s inspiration for the character of Chihiro; auteur; moments of realism. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In North By Northwest: director's cameo; rear screen projection technique; femme fatale; final cut privileges; title credits; montage; characterization and compression; visual irony; visual foreshadowing; aural cue; "stealing a shot"; "Becoming George Kaplan"; "The Matchless Eve Kendall"; "Murder scenes shot lovingly and love scenes shot murderously"; epiphany and character arc; how tension and suspense are created in "The Crop Dusting Scene." Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point
• In Chapter 8 - Understanding Movies: mimesis, diegesis, avant-garde, plot, story, conventions, genre, classical paradigm (including exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, resolution and closure), linear vs. non linear narratives, realism as style, rites of passage, cinema verite

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday, 12/11 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 10/3

The test will focus on Harold Ramis's Groundhog Day, and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Groundhog Day: Classical film style; establishing shot; final shot; characterization of Phil and his seeming omnipotence;; motifs (what are they and what's the effect?); montage; allusion; hedonism; director's cameo; the structure and dark side of comedy; existential questions posed by the film. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• Key Terms and the Effects they Create: visual rhetoric (RotMI); cut; dissolve; long take; eye-line match; deep focus; soft (shallow) focus; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view, painterly vs. linear style--and EVERYTHING FROM CHAPTER ONE of our textbook! 

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school on Tuesday, 10/2 in room 452 at 2:45.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay / 40% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 5/30

The test will focus on Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, the Student Choice Film for your specific class period (Slumdog Millionaire, Period 2 or Good Will Hunting, period 7), and the key terms and concepts from chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic elements, etc. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

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

• In Cinema Paradiso: Establishing shot; characterization of Toto/Salvatore; minor characters and how they develop (character arcs); Italian life post WWII; symbolic imagery; jump cut; rack focus; final images (before and after the credits); elegy; the "Cinema of Life." Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In North By Northwest: director's cameo; day for night shooting; rear screen projection effect; femme fatale; MacGuffin; final cut privileges; title credits; parody; montage; characterization & compression; visual irony; phallic symbol; visual foreshadowing; aural cue; character subtext; "stealing a shot"; film subtexts; "Becoming George Kaplan"; "The Matchless Eve Kendall"; "Murder scenes shot lovingly and love scenes shot murderously"; epiphany and character arc; how tension & suspense are created in "The Crop Dusting Scene." Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point
• PERIOD 2 STUDENT CHOICE FILM - In Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire: Bollywood; structure (3 timelines); crosscutting; widescreen aspect ratio; Themes: strength of the human spirit, chance/destiny.
• PERIOD 7 STUDENT CHOICE FILM - In Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting: Classical film style; title credits; puns in the title?; kaleidoscopic view; attachment disorder; bird's-eye shot; slow motion photography; painterly vs. linear style; visual repetitions (motifs); final images for the 4 major relationships in the film; final shot; attachment disorder as a psychological term. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• From Understanding Movies: (Ch. 2) Mise en scene ("placing on stage"), aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen), iris shot, the dominant, subsidiary contrasts, intrinsic interest, tight vs. loose framing, character placement, composition, proxemic patterns, open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday, 5/29 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 40% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay / 40% short answers

Good luck!