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

2. The only reason characters speak is what?

3. Stanislavsky wrote that the difficult will become easy and the easy habitual, so that the habitual may become what?

4. What did Stanislavsky ask the steamboat captain, according to Mamet in Chapter 6?

5. According to Mamet in Chapter 6, someone once asked whom if they had ever been lost?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Aristotle's theory of tragedy relate to the hypothetical film in Chapter 5?

2. What example did Mamet give of Humphrey Bogart's simplicity, in Chapter 4?

3. What analogy did Mamet give that involves Stanislavsky, in Chapter 6?

4. What was Mamet's reply to the question, "Is it possible to do everything "right" and still make a bad movie?"

5. What has the hypothetical film evolved to in terms of danger in Chapter 5?

6. What did Mamet write about the Navaho Indians in Chapter 6?

7. What is the appropriate response to the actor who asks "how do I walk down the hall", in the example in Chapter 4?

8. What does Mamet say to give yourself over to in directing, in Chapter 5?

9. What does Mamet say regarding the training of film actors in today's world?

10. What metaphor did Mamet use to illustrate the work in pre-production, in Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and define the K.I.S.S. rule. In what context did Mamet refer to this in the text?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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