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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the steamboat captain's answer to Stanislavsky, in Chapter 6?
(a) "I stick to the channel; it's marked."
(b) "I drink a lot of water."
(c) "I have a sounding beacon."
(d) "I use a map."

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

3. Stanislavsky wrote that the difficult will become easy and the easy habitual, so that the habitual may become what?
(a) Honest.
(b) Beautiful.
(c) Exact.
(d) True.

4. What does David Mamet say that the answer to all of the tedious actor questions is?
(a) Quickly.
(b) Based on the objective.
(c) Look at the text.
(d) It doesn't matter.

5. According to Mamet, "In film or in the street, people who describe themselves to you are" what?
(a) Playing a role.
(b) Trying to get something.
(c) Being honest.
(d) Lying.

6. Mamet says in Chapter 6 that to "Understand your specific task, work until it's done, and then stop" is the same as what?
(a) The superobjective.
(b) The throughline.
(c) The plot.
(d) The focus.

7. What does Mamet say is useless filler in film, and the giveaway to a joke's punch line, in Chapter 5?
(a) Signposts.
(b) Exposition.
(c) Drama.
(d) Obstacle.

8. According to Mamet, what is one of the imperative questions to ask in the beginning of the hypothetical film in Chapter 5?
(a) Who?
(b) Why now?
(c) Why not?
(d) When?

9. What did Stanislavsky ask the steamboat captain, according to Mamet in Chapter 6?
(a) How he didn't get lost.
(b) How he maintained a living.
(c) How he steered the boat safely.
(d) How he kept from getting seasick.

10. According to Mamet in Chapter 5, what is the perfect movie?
(a) Breakfast at Tiffany's.
(b) Casablanca.
(c) Dumbo.
(d) It's a Wonderful Life.

11. According to Mamet in Chapter 6, the "hope that God will intervene and save you" is what most people mean when they talk about what?
(a) Skill.
(b) Craft.
(c) Talent.
(d) Luck.

12. Mamet says that if you are telling the story with pictures, the dialogue is the sprinkles on the what?
(a) Icing.
(b) Cupcake.
(c) Cake.
(d) Ice cream cone.

13. Mamet says of film directing and screenwriting that they are what?
(a) Controlling.
(b) Very different.
(c) Exact sciences.
(d) The same trade.

14. According to Mamet in Chapter 6, it isn't your job to make it what?
(a) Pretty.
(b) Creative.
(c) Interesting.
(d) Truthful.

15. The reply from the person who was asked if they were ever lost was that they were once bewildered for how many days?
(a) Two.
(b) Six.
(c) Three.
(d) Twelve.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mamet in Chapter 4, "If you don't know what you want, how can you know when _____?"

2. After how many takes does Mamet say you can no longer remember what the scene was about, in Chapter 4?

3. What does Mamet say that dramatic analysis is like in Chapter 6?

4. What was the impetus for the beginning of Citizen Kane?

5. What was the last beat about in the hypothetical film in Chapter 5?

(see the answer keys)

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