View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the rule which Mamet says means "Keep it simple, stupid"?
(a) Idiot rule.
(b) KISS rule.
(c) Shooting rule.
(d) Film rule.

2. What is a progression toward the simplest, most ordered state, according to Mamet in Chapter 2?
(a) Entropy.
(b) Streamlining.
(c) Delineation.
(d) Examination.

3. What is the term which refers to the protagonist's immediate goal?
(a) Superobjective.
(b) Motivation.
(c) Objective.
(d) Obstacle.

4. All the audience cares about is the what, according to Mamet?
(a) Narration.
(b) Objective.
(c) Thrust of the scene.
(d) Protagonist.

5. According to Mamet, the storyteller did NOT need something in Chapter 2. What was it?
(a) Characterization.
(b) Entropy.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Back-story.

6. Who said, "Write the story, take out all the good lines, and see if it still works"?
(a) Stanislavski.
(b) Hemingway.
(c) Chekhov.
(d) Fitzgerald.

7. Counterculture architecture was based on designing buildings based on what?
(a) How the architect felt.
(b) The weather.
(c) The setting.
(d) The natural surroundings.

8. What does Mamet say is the ordering of unrelated events or ideas or images in favor of an overriding preconception?
(a) Empathy.
(b) Apathy.
(c) Articulation.
(d) Neurosis.

9. Anytime anyone does what, "that's a counterforce"?
(a) Extols empathy.
(b) Narrates the back-story.
(c) Shows emotion.
(d) Tells the truth.

10. What was the third beat about in the hypothetical film in Chapter 2?
(a) Preparing.
(b) Waiting.
(c) Homage.
(d) Respect.

11. The purpose of technique is to free the what?
(a) Dream life.
(b) Conscious mind.
(c) Unconscious.
(d) Creativity.

12. Mamet says that the house has to look like a house. The ______ doesn't have to look like a house.
(a) The door.
(b) The window.
(c) The steps.
(d) Nail.

13. According to Mamet in Chapter 3, he challenges the way people talk about any performance artist and the way they talk about whom?
(a) Humphrey Bogart.
(b) Donna Reed.
(c) James Stewart.
(d) Carey Grant.

14. According to Mamet, storytellers need to be warned against falling into what?
(a) Narration.
(b) Characterization.
(c) Elaboration.
(d) Circularity.

15. Who said the following: when we have two theories, each of which adequately describes a phenomenon, always pick the simpler?
(a) William of Occam.
(b) Einstein.
(c) Eisenstein.
(d) Aristotle.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mamet, he lived in a house that was how many years old at the time this book was written?

2. Who characterized the notion of "judge of yourself"?

3. According to Mamet in Chapter 3, the only thing the dramatic form is good for is what?

4. Who said that the point is what happens to he hero, not what happens to the writer?

5. Who wrote Memories, Dream, Reflections?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 394 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample