final review quiz q&a

Question 1

As it refers to early motion pictures, the term cinema of attraction suggests that audiences were primarily drawn to early cinema by

Answer 1

Films ability to offer visual amazement and new ways of seeing the world

Question 2

Which of the following was NOT an element of Abel Gance’s French Impressionist film making seen in Napoleon (1927)?

Answer 2

Experimentation with synchronized sound that anticipated moments in The Jazz Singer, which was released later that year

Question 3

Georges Méliès is remembered as a pioneer for his _________.

Answer 3

Trick films with groundbreaking special effects

Question 4

Unlike elsewhere in Europe, the German film industry actually flourished in the years after World War I. T/F?

Answer 4

TRUE

Question 5

Actress and producer Alla Nazimova lived openly in Hollywood with another actress. However, her silent films never approached an open acknowledgment of gay identity. T/F?

Answer 5

FALSE

Question 6

Compared to most of Hollywood history after the development of sound films, women were far more prevalent at all levels of the industry in the silent era. T/F?

Answer 6

TRUE

Question 7

What is a race film?

Answer 7

Films aimed primarily at black audiences and typically produced by smaller production companies outside of Hollywood

Question 8

Many early westerns were filmed on the outskirts of New York City. T/F?

Answer 8

TRUE

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT an achievement credited to Lois Weber?

Answer 9

She ascended to an executive role at Metro Pictures, a position described at the time as “the most responsible job ever held by a woman.”

Question 10

The increasing use of close-ups, cut-ins, and intertitles as a means of presenting increasingly complex stories came about in which age of silent film history?

Answer 10

Silent cinema’s transitional age

Question 11

“Actualities” are films which depict _________.

Answer 11

SCENES FROM DAILY LIFE

Question 12

What caused the nickelodeon boom around 1905?

Answer 12

The emergence of film exchanges, which rented movies to the exhibitors who built the Nickelodeons. Easy access to a large quantity of films allowed exhibitors to cycle through many films and keep the audiences coming back

Question 13

The nickelodeon was the name given to the huge, fancy new movie theatres built in the 1910s as the feature-length film became increasingly popular. T/F?

Answer 13

FALSE

Question 14

What best describes the experience of seeing a film in the late 1890s and early 1900s?

Answer 14

City-dwellers might see a film in between music and comedy acts at a vaudeville show, while in the countryside traveling projectionists would provide fleeting opportunities for locals to catch a film

Question 15

French directors argued for cinema pur, which is a form of filmmaking that is best described as _________.

Answer 15

Emphasizing visual elements unique to cinema, like camera movement and complex editing

Question 16

Not only did shooting outlines include instructions for camera operators to crank faster or slower when shooting certain scenes, major films often included instructions to projectionists on how fast or slow they should project the film in the theater. T/F?

Answer 16

TRUE

Question 17

Roughly how long were the films screened at the Grand Cafe in Paris by the Lumière brothers in 1895?

Answer 17

Between 5 seconds and a minute

Question 18

Which of the following best explains the founding of United Artists?

Answer 18

In was formed in response to Hollywood studios’ strict control over directors

Question 19

The Italian epic Cabiria (1914) is noteworthy for its __________.

Answer 19

Elaborate tracking shots and camera movement

Question 20

Studios controlled films from production, through distribution, to exhibition from the rise of Hollywood until the 1948 US v. Paramount decision. This business practice is known as __________.

Answer 20

Vertical integration

Question 21

By most estimates, at least 80% of the silent films made by 1930 were destroyed, lost, or deteriorated beyond repair. T/F?

Answer 21

TRUE

Question 22

As covered in class, Clara Bow epitomized a double-standard in 1920s American culture. What is the best explanation of this double-standard?

Answer 22

Bow was a sex symbol on the screen but, unlike her male counterparts, was vilified for her sex life in real life

Question 23

________ was the name of the practice in which studios forced exhibitors to agree to buy many other films from a studio in order to get the rights to show the most high-profile features.

Answer 23

Block booking

Question 24

What is a key reason why Italian filmmakers were the first to produce epic films on massive scales?

Answer 24

The low costs of labor in Italy

Question 25

What is the best description of the Kuleshov effect?

Answer 25

The audience’s response to the image of a person’s face can change depending on the other images shown around it in a film

Question 26

French comedian Max Linder, cinema's first international comic star, had a strong influence on _________.

Answer 26

Charlie Chaplin

Question 27

The popularity of the Edison Kinetoscope was brief, and Edison soon built the Vitascope as a rival to the Lumière brothers' Cinématographe. T/F?

Answer 27

TRUE

Question 28

What role did the post-World War I German government, the Weimar, play in German film?

Answer 28

The government supported the film industry with subsidies

Question 29

Which of the following was NOT an early silent film genre?

Answer 29

Comic book films

Question 30

What prompted the switch from nickelodeons to more spacious and luxurious movie theaters in the mid 1910s?

Answer 30

The development of the feature-length film

Question 31

The close-ups and point-of-view shots found in films before 1905 were mainly used as momentary stylistic flourishes rather than as systematic storytelling devices. T/F?

Answer 31

TRUE

Question 32

Why did Soviet filmmakers spend so much time re-editing old films and foreign imports in the early 1920s?

Answer 32

There was hardly any film stock in the years after World War 1, so filmmakers could not shoot new film

Question 33

What did the German brothers Max and Emil Skladanowsky invent?

Answer 33

The Bioscop, a machine capable of projecting moving pictures

Question 34

Which of the following statements is NOT true about the significance of Sessue Hayakawa's role as "a debonair and dangerous creditor who threatens" the female lead in Cecil B. Demille's The Cheat (1915)?

Answer 34

Unlike other Asian and Asian-American actors who were often cast as Native Americans, Arabs, and other ethnicities, Hayakawa never again had to perform in an “exotic” ethnic role

Question 35

The language barrier of intertitles prevented silent films from being a global phenomenon. T/F?

Answer 35

FALSE

Question 36

The earliest-known feature-length film is The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), which was made in ________.

Answer 36

AUSTRALIA

Question 37

Early silent films avoided adaptations of famous operas and Shakespearean plays. The absence of sound made such subject-matter impossible to adapt. T/F?

Answer 37

FALSE

Question 38

During the silent era, the speed at which films were projected was standardized at 16 frames per second by 1914. T/F?

Answer 38

FALSE

Question 39

What were the "screen magazines" that distributors offered to theater managers?

Answer 39

Packages of short films that could be shown together before a feature film

Question 40

Matinee idol refers to ______.

Answer 40

A male film star with a romantic appeal that was thought to draw a female audience in the daytime while men were at work

Question 41

Why was Warner Bros. the only studio to agree to partner with Western Electric in the effort to make sound movies?

Answer 41

As a smaller studio, Warner Bros. had nothing to lose and success might catapult them to the top of the Hollywood pack

Question 42

Who was the most popular animated cartoon character of the 1920s?

Answer 42

Felix the Cat

Question 43

The Great Train Robbery (1903) marked the beginning of cinema of narrative integration, because it was the first time that the specific details of characters mattered a lot for the enjoyment of the audience. T/F?

Answer 43

FALSE

Question 44

Indian film developed without any external influence from international filmmaking, leading to the unique Bollywood style that is still successful today. T/F?

Answer 44

FALSE

Question 45

Which of the following was NOT a response to the release of Birth of a Nation (1915)?

Answer 45

Oscar Micheaux, the most important black filmmaker of the era, was forced to move to France to continue his career

Question 46

More popular in Europe and most notably employed in the US by Charlie Chaplin, the practice of carefully crafting an arrangement of space and action within a mostly static frame is referred to as ___________.

Answer 46

Staging in Depth

Question 47

Which of the following was the greatest effect of the sound revolution in film?

Answer 47

Further consolidation of the industry, as many smaller studios that could not manage the transformation went bankrupt

Question 48

Around what date did nickelodeons start to appear?

Answer 48

1908

Question 49

As Hollywood transitioned to sound, some films were released in two versions, one with dialogue and one without. T/F?

Answer 49

TRUE

Question 50

The first permanent theaters were called ______.

Answer 50

NICKELODEONS

Question 51

The first successful public display of film projection was done in Berlin by the Skladanowsky brothers. T/F?

Answer 51

TRUE

Question 52

The earliest animated films used stop-motion filming of physical objects rather than hand drawing cartoons frame by frame. T/F?

Answer 52

TRUE

Question 53

Playwright Roy McCardell, hired by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, is often credited as the first screenwriter in the history of film. Which of the following was NOT one of his responsibilities as a story editor.

Answer 53

Editing the dialogue in screenplays to prepare the scripts for the actors to rehearse

Question 54

The Lumière brothers were so convinced by the long term appeal of motion pictures that in 1905 they sold their photography business to pursue films full time. T/F?

Answer 54

FALSE

Question 55

Between 1911 and 1925 half of all films copyrighted in the U.S. were written by women. T/F?

Answer 55

TRUE

Question 56

In which country did silent films remain popular for almost two decades after The Jazz Singer?

Answer 56

JAPAN

Question 57

The Great Train Robbery (1903) featured colored accents on clothing, like a dress or a bandana. How would such specific items be colored in the silent era?

Answer 57

HAND COLORING

Question 58

Unlike theater pricing today, film ticket prices in the silent era were tied to the quality of the film being shown; the better the perceived quality, the more expensive the ticket. T/F?

Answer 58

TRUE

Question 59

Which studio led the way in experimenting with synchronized sound in the 1920s?

Answer 59

WARNER BROS

Question 60

What is benshi, the unique element of Japanese silent cinema that helped make silent film production last into the 1940s in Japan?

Answer 60

The specially trained performer who provided live narration accompanying almost all silent films in Japan

Question 61

At a time when naturalistic acting was the norm in filmmaking, Alice Guy-Blaché encouraged her performers to pursue a more exaggerated style. T/F?

Answer 61

FALSE

Question 62

Film that could capture and record natural colors was not invented until after the silent era, so silent film could only rely on tinting, toning, and hand painting to add color. T/F?

Answer 62

FALSE

Question 63

Charlie Chaplin quickly saw the advantages of sound films and completely changed his film style after 1930. T/F?

Answer 63

FALSE

Question 64

Which of the following statements is NOT true about filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché?

Answer 64

Guy-Blaché co-founded the United Artists

Question 65

Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928), starring Mickey Mouse, was first shown in a test screening using live sound effects. Later, the production team created a synchronized soundtrack for wider release. T/F?

Answer 65

TRUE

Question 66

The single biggest factor in the decline of French filmmaking from its early dominance was _________.

Answer 66

THE DEVASTATION OF WORLD WAR 1

Question 67

Which of the following is NOT a reason why film actors finally started to become celebrities in the 1910s?

Answer 67

Mary Pickford’s marriage to Douglas Fairbanks was the first Hollywood event to attract public attention to the lives of movie stars

Question 68

Which country rivaled the United States in film output in the first decade of silent cinema, even surpassing American movie making in quantity of movies made for a period?

Answer 68

FRANCE

Question 69

Which coloring process added color only to the "whites" of black and white film?

Answer 69

TINTING

Question 70

Why does The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) stand out from the other Lumière films shown at the Grand Cafe in 1895?

Answer 70

IT ATTEMPTS TO TELL A COMICAL STORY

Question 71

What set of films booked large American theaters and charged much higher ticket prices than usual, thus inspiring D.W. Griffith to do the same with Birth of a Nation in 1915?

Answer 71

ITALIAN EPICS

Question 72

What new problem did audio technicians face by the mid-1910s in their efforts to create synchronized sound for movies?

Answer 72

The proliferation of big new movie palaces meant that they also had to figure out how to amplify the sound throughout a large space

Question 73

Which of the following was NOT a "sound" feature that could be found in the earliest years of silent film?

Answer 73

Phonographs that played a record synchronized to the film

Question 73

By 1922, just eight major studios accounted for close to 80% of all domestic film production in the United States. T/F?

Answer 73

TRUE

Question 74

Which of the following was NOT a feature of the release of Birth of a Nation in 1915?

Answer 74

It was shown in 1000s of nickelodeons across the country in a huge opening night to capitalize on the hype

Question 75

The construction of movie palaces meant that movie-going became more stratified. In other words, people of different socio-economic groups saw different films in different types of theaters. T/F?

Answer 75

TRUE

Question 76

Progressive Era reformers often used health concerns as an excuse to monitor and close down crowded nickelodeons in minority neighborhoods. T/F?

Answer 76

TRUE

Question 77

Who is considered the first female filmmaker?

Answer 77

Alice-Guy Blaché

Question 78

What is the Hollywood studio system (as it came to be in the silent era)?

Answer 78

The method which broke down the production of films into a sort of assembly line, with writers, designers, directors, and editors all piecing projects together

Question 79

Why did Edison's Kinetophone fail to solve the problem of synchronized sound and film?

Answer 79

It was difficult to operate and could only work on films lasting less than 5 minutes

Question 80

Almost all silent film stars had to retire with the arrival of sound because they lacked the voice and the skills to learn a new style of filmmaking. T/F?

Answer 80

FALSE

Question 81

Robert Flaherty created Nanook of the North (1922) after a similar earlier film was lost in a fire. T/F?

Answer 81

TRUE

Question 82

Which of the following was not a feature of nickelodeons in the late 1900s and early 1910s?

Answer 82

Most venues were massive spaces with hundreds of comfortable seats

Question 82

Seeking to differentiate their work from foreign imports, Australian filmmakers were regularly producing feature-length films long before other nations adopted the practice. T/F?

Answer 82

TRUE

Question 83

Who was the camera operator best known for many years of collaboration with D.W. Griffith?

Answer 83

BILLY BITZER

Question 84

Clara Bow's nickname was "the It girl." T/F?

Answer 84

TRUE

Question 85

Cranking a camera at a faster rate results in images that appear sped up when the film is projected. T/F?

Answer 85

FALSE

Question 86

Which studio and producer could be considered the king of slapstick comedy in the silent era?

Answer 86

KEYSTONE PICTURES AND MACK SENNETT

Question 87

The first known example of a moving camera can be found in ________.

Answer 87

PANORAMA OF THE GRAND CANAL

Question 88

Who is Maciste?

Answer 88

A popular strongman character who first appeared in Cabiria