Multiple Choice Quiz

For each of the questions that follow, only one choice accurately completes the statement. In some cases, more than one answer may seem plausible, so carefully consider each option before choosing the response that accurately completes the statement.

1		Near the end of the 19th century, the great breakthrough in recording motion came with William Dickson’s invention of this machine—an unwieldy, battery-driven, immobile, 500-pound motion picture camera:
			A)	the camera obscura.
			B)	the daguerreotype.
			C)	the Kinetograph.
			D)	the Steadicam.
2		Shortly after Edison’s breakthrough, in 1894 brothers August and Louis Lumiere developed a hand-cranked combination camera-projector with a great advantage over the earlier device:
			A)	it was relatively portable, weighing only 16 pounds.
			B)	it provided a means for recording synchronous sound.
			C)	it used both black-and-white and color film stock.
			D)	it provided a means of artificial lighting for shooting in low-light situations.
3		This filmmaker, a magician and theatre owner, made use of the “stop-start” technique for clever optical illusions and fantasies, his films ranging in length from less than a minute to 15 minutes and numbering about 500 in total between 1896 and 1912:
			A)	Thomas Edison.
			B)	George Méliès.
			C)	Edwin S. Porter.
			D)	D. W. Griffith.
4		With The Great Train Robbery in 1903, this filmmaker cut together action from fourteen separate shots, visually transporting viewers from one location to another and back again using the technique that came to be known as parallel editing:
			A)	Thomas Edison.
			B)	George Méliès.
			C)	Edwin S. Porter.
			D)	D. W. Griffith.
5		This American moviemaker had the greatest influence abroad during the speechless era, using close-ups, angle shots, cross and parallel cutting, achronological editing, and even orchestral scores synthesized to accompany theatrical showings of his feature-length films:
			A)	Thomas Edison.
			B)	George Méliès.
			C)	Edwin S. Porter.
			D)	D. W. Griffith.
6		Not long after the early Kinetoscope parlors, but before the growth of movie houses, these makeshift theatres (converted cigar stores, restaurants, pawn shops, and skating rinks) charged five cents for admission to short features:
			A)	peep shows.
			B)	nickelodeons.
			C)	picture palaces.
			D)	cineplexes.
7		By about 1915, the industry came largely under the control of men like William Fox, Adolph Zukor, Jesse Lasky, and Samuel Goldfish—men who rose from modest occupations to reign over celluloid empires and who became known as the legendary
			A)	“block bookers.”
			B)	“movie moguls.”
			C)	“United Artists.”
			D)	“Gang of Four.”
8		The silent screen’s most successful comedic star achieved almost mythic status with his rare gift of mime, physical agility, and subtle characterizations, enabling him a creative freedom almost unparalleled in his time:
			A)	Charlie Chaplin.
			B)	Buster Keaton.
			C)	Stan Laurel.
			D)	Fatty Arbuckle.
9		Among the star personae cultivated by studios for actors like Theodora Goodman (a.k.a. Theda Bara) was the unscrupulous, seductive woman who uses her wiles to entrap unwitting men with the promise of unbridled passion:
			A)	the leading lady.
			B)	the femme fatale.
			C)	the “Latin lothario.”
			D)	“America’s sweetheart.”
10		Melodramas such as A Girl’s Folly, Mary of the Movies, and Broken Hearts of Hollywood served as cautionary tales in the early 1920s, warning young women against
			A)	unscrupulous men who prey on star-struck girls in search of fame and fortune.
			B)	venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and other consequences of unprotected sex.
			C)	not supporting the war effort against the Germans.
			D)	the advances of femme fatales.
11		Prompting one wag to quip “the lunatics have taken over the asylum,” in 1919 actors Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin joined with director D. W. Griffith to form this production company:
			A)	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
			B)	Twentieth Century Fox.
			C)	United Artists.
			D)	Paramount Pictures.
12		During the First World War, Hollywood
			A)	was classified as an “essential industry” and turned out patriotic sagas and anti-German features.
			B)	shut down production so that its actors and technicians could fight overseas.
			C)	voiced its anti-war sentiment with productions that questioned the government’s involvement.
			D)	basically avoided any direct reference to the war effort.
13		Greatly influenced by Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, this Russian filmmaker identified various types of montage, such as “metric,” “rhythmic,” “intellectual,” and “dialectical,” the latter exemplified by the famous “Odessa Steps” sequence from Battleship Potemkin:
			A)	Lev Kuleshov.
			B)	Sergei Eisenstein.
			C)	V. I. Pudokin
			D)	Robert Wiene.
14		The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), a highly stylized treatment of madness and evil, was one of postwar Germany’s greatest achievements, using violent distortions to represent intense emotions like terror, pathos, and agony in the manner that came to be associated with the artistic movement known as:
			A)	expressionism.
			B)	impressionism.
			C)	realism.
			D)	surrealism.
15		One of the greatest influences on the development of talent in Hollywood in the years following the first World War was
			A)	the increasing availability of moviemaking technology to the general populace across the United States.
			B)	a nationwide system of talent scouts who scoured the country for potential filmmaking talents.
			C)	the migration of talented filmmakers from overseas to Hollywood studios.
			D)	the high degree of creative license directors enjoyed under the early years of the studio system.