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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Mamet, most actors in film and stage today are what?
(a) Too edgy.
(b) Badly trained.
(c) Well trained.
(d) Too self-absorbed.

2. Everything in the old cartoons was based on what, according to Mamet?
(a) Plot.
(b) Imagination.
(c) Ink.
(d) Individual expression.

3. What does Mamet say that the people in Hollywood don't have, in Chapter 5?
(a) Seriousness.
(b) Souls.
(c) Education.
(d) Money.

4. Mamet made the analogy in Chapter 4, "if the house is going to stand, the nail must do the work of ____."
(a) A nail.
(b) A slat.
(c) A hammer.
(d) A beam.

5. What was the reason for the beginning of Oedipus Rex?
(a) Oedipus' mother dying.
(b) Oedipus' father dying.
(c) The plague.
(d) The onset of war.

6. After shooting which take do you not even remember why you were born?
(a) Tenth.
(b) Twentieth.
(c) Twelfth.
(d) Fifteenth.

7. The study of what is very useful for directors, according to Mamet?
(a) Photography.
(b) Dreams.
(c) Myth.
(d) Science.

8. Which chapter did Mamet recommend the students read in, A Practical Handbook for the Actor?
(a) Character.
(b) Analysis.
(c) Dictation.
(d) Structure.

9. The purpose of rehearsal is to tell the actors, beat by beat, what?
(a) The emotions needed.
(b) The characterization.
(c) The objectives.
(d) The actions called for.

10. Oedipus is the model of all tragedy, according to whom?
(a) Plato.
(b) Sophocles.
(c) Aristotle.
(d) Euripides.

11. The only reason characters speak is what?
(a) To get what they want.
(b) To tell a story.
(c) To express exposition.
(d) To narrate.

12. What example did Mamet use in Chapter 4 to demonstrate how you don't or do shoot a scene?
(a) A documentary.
(b) A pig farmer.
(c) A car crash.
(d) A cartoon.

13. What was the last beat about in the hypothetical film in Chapter 5?
(a) A man sells a pig.
(b) A man sells a goat.
(c) A man saves the day.
(d) A man rewards a good deed.

14. When the farmer saw the man on the road, how did Mamet refer to this beat?
(a) Selling the animal.
(b) Gaining a foothold.
(c) Capitalizing on a golden opportunity.
(d) Gaining respect.

15. What, in approaching the task of film, do we not have to do all at once, in Mamet's analogy in Chapter 6?
(a) Float a river.
(b) Build the house in a day.
(c) Swim the ocean.
(d) Climb the whole mountain.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was in the pen in the ending of the story in Chapter 5?

2. Who directed Casablanca?

3. What do you refer to when giving direction to the actor or the cameraman?

4. Mamet says in Chapter 6 that to "Understand your specific task, work until it's done, and then stop" is the same as what?

5. Where did the farmer go in the town in the hypothetical film of Chapter 5?

(see the answer keys)

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