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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who said the following: when we have two theories, each of which adequately describes a phenomenon, always pick the simpler?

2. Who said of American films that they were all "pictures of people talking"?

3. What is the period after you've finished the shot list and before you go into shooting?

4. Who wrote Memories, Dream, Reflections?

5. Mamet says in Chapter 3 that it is the nature of human perception to go to what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the class progress in the details of their hypothetical film in Chapter 2?

2. What did Mamet write in the Preface regarding the blind author who decided to become a screenwriter?

3. How did Mamet illustrate juxtaposition of shots in documentary film in Chapter 1?

4. What is a "MacGuffin", and who coined this phrase?

5. How did Mamet describe Eisenstein's theory of montage?

6. What scenario did Mamet put forth to the class in Chapter 2? How did Mamet relate the suggested opening shot of this scenario to television?

7. What writers and filmmakers did Mamet refer to in the Preface and Chapter 1 regarding screenwriting and film direction?

8. What did Mamet cite from the book, "The Uses of Enchantment" in Chapter 2?

9. Describe how film is like a design.

10. Describe the "School of Countercultural Architecture."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Eisenstein's theory of montage. How did Mamet view this approach to storytelling in film?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Mamet's take on exposition and narration in storytelling and specifically in film.

Essay Topic 3

What authors did Mamet quote in the book with regard to cutting extraneous text in a screenplay? What theorists did he speak about in dramatic analysis?

(see the answer keys)

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