Deck 4: The Shot: Mise-En-Scene

Question 1

The two most basic types of light in a scene are the key and the rim.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Most of the gags in Our Hospitality depend on shallow-space compositions.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Georges Méliès's "Star-Film" studio was designed to give him control over every aspect of mise-en-scene.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

[Leave a slide on the screen from a film shown in class that exemplifies all four aspects of mise-en-scene for the duration of this question or show a brief clip a few times.] Describe and discuss the functions of the mise-en-scene in this shot/these shots. Mention at least one example of each of the four major categories of mise-en-scene.

Question 5

Animated films, like live-action films, have mise-en-scene.

Question 6

Discuss the problems with using realism as a criterion for evaluating films, giving specific examples from any of the films shown for this class.

Question 7

Unplanned events that are filmed by accident are not part of the mise-en-scene of a shot.

Question 8

[Show a brief clip from a film, preferably one the students have seen before; if the film is in black and white, substitute "lighting" for "color" in the question.] Discuss which compositional elements (moving objects versus static ones, color, balance, and size) guide our eye around the screen in the shots in the clip. Be as specific as possible in your descriptions.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT considered part of a shot's mise-en-scene?

A) the actors' movements
B) the camera's angle on the action
C) objects visible in the distance
D) the shadows

Question 10

Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront was considered a major example of realistic acting in its day.

Question 11

Discuss how Michelangelo Antonioni uses mise-en-scene through time and space to tell the story in his film, L'Avventura. [You may wish to show the clip several times before the students begin writing.]

Question 12

A major example of a nonrealistic and expressionistic set design is

A) Greed.
B) Intolerance.
C) The Outlaw and His Wife.
D) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Question 13

Films shot in the studio have mise-en-scene, while films made entirely on location do not.

Question 14

Select a moment from a recent film, such as Silence of the Lambs or Jerry Maguire , and discuss how meaning is conveyed purely through the actor's physical self.

Question 15

The system of lighting widely used in classical Hollywood filmmaking is known as

A) three-point lighting.
B) five-point lighting.
C) cast-shadow lighting.
D) omni-directional lighting.

Question 16

"Fill" light is used to create deep shadows.

Question 17

[Show a slide or a brief clip from a film, preferably one the students have seen.] Discuss which depth cues (overlap, aerial perspective, size diminution) are used to create an illusion of three-dimensional space in these shots.
[Note: To make this question more challenging, eliminate "(overlap, aerial perspective, size diminution)."]

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a term for a type of directional lighting?

A) top lighting
B) underlighting
C) overlighting
D) backlighting

Question 19

"Edge" lighting is a type of backlighting used to make characters stand out against a background.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT a type of lighting in the three-point lighting system?

A) rack
B) back
C) key
D) fill

Question 21

In Hollywood studio filmmaking, the lights are kept in the same position throughout a scene, no matter where the camera is placed.

Question 22

According to Film Art , a film actor's performance style is most affected by

A) the microphone placement.
B) the camera distance.
C) the aspect ratio.
D) the lighting.

Question 23

"High-key" lighting is typical of Hollywood filmmaking.

Question 24

"Frontality" of staging means that

A) a character is placed in the extreme foreground of the shot.
B) a character is facing toward the camera.
C) one character blocks our view of another.
D) a character is moving toward the foreground.

Question 25

Soft, high-key lighting is associated with mystery stories, crime films, and films noir.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT a motif in the mise-en-scene in Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality ?

A) a sampler embroidered "Love Thy Neighbor"
B) a fish-on-a-line motif
C) a gun rack
D) a dog-on-a-leash motif

Question 27

According to Film Art , realism is the most useful standard for evaluating actors' performances.

Question 28

Georges Méliès was

A) an early director of fantasy films.
B) an important French set designer of the 1930s.
C) the director of Our Hospitality.
D) the first historian to study mise-en-scene in the cinema.

Question 29

Since the advent of sound it is less important for actors to use their eyes, brow, and mouth to express character emotions.

Question 30

"Stop-action" involves

A) having actors stand in the same spot where they were at the end of one shot while the lighting is adjusted for the next shot.
B) halting the filming in one set and moving on to another while shooting out of continuity.
C) one actor in a scene refraining from any obvious movement after delivering a line so as not to call attention away from the actor who is responding.
D) animating an object by changing its position between each frame shot.

Question 31

German Expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are characterized by realistic mise-en-scene and subtle, psychologically-based acting.

Question 32

Aerial perspective suggests depth by

A) making more distant planes seem hazier than closer ones.
B) creating a high angle that makes parallel lines meet at the horizon.
C) composing a shot that makes the sky dominate the image.
D) filming from directly above a character or setting.

Question 33

"Warm" colors tend to attract the spectator's eye more than "cool" colors do.

Question 34

Perspective diminution suggests depth by

A) making parallel lines seem to intersect.
B) creating false perspective by placing taller characters closer to the camera and shorter characters farther off.
C) implying that the elements which are smaller in the shot tend to be farther away.
D) reducing the cues for perspective so that the space appears relatively shallow.

Question 35

When balancing the shot, filmmakers assume the viewer will concentrate on the lower half of the projected frame.