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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. According to Mamet, you always want to tell a story in what?

2. A good writer only gets better by learning to do what, according to Mamet?

3. According to Mamet, what was his response to "lovely enthusiasts who will aver that the purpose of modern art is not to be liked"?

4. The smallest unit is the shot; the largest unit is what?

5. According to Mamet, film schools are basically what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Mamet's rule of thumb for cutting extraneous material from a film?

2. What does Mamet say in terms of withholding information from the audience, in Chapter 2?

3. Describe how film is like a design.

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

5. What did Mamet write in Chapter 1 regarding character description and narration?

6. Describe Mamet's discussion of understanding precipitation in architecture in Chapter 3.

7. What did Mamet indicate is the point of view of the performance artist, in Chapter 3?

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

9. How did Mamet relate the "School of Countercultural Architecture" to film directing?

10. What did Mamet write about drama school and film school in Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Mamet's opinion of actor training in the United States today. What level of training do film actors have versus stage actors?

Essay Topic 3

Define the following terms and describe how they relate to one another: shot, beat, scene, film, protagonist, and objective.

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This section contains 800 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample