Film Studies (UVC18402)

UNIT I

Why film studies; Characteristic of Film Studies; Film theory & semiotics; The Birth of Cinema;
Pioneers of Cinema- Edison, Lumiere Brothers, George Melies, Edwin.S.Porter, D.W.Griffth,
Sergei Eisenstein; Influence of Studios on cinema; Development of Classical Hollywood
Cinema- Origin & Golden age of Hollywood, Motion Picture Industry & Modern Hollywood.

UNIT II

Indian Cinema- Arrival of the Cinema; Pioneers of Indian Cinema; Dynasty of Actors and
Director; New Indian Cinema; Government and Indian Cinema; Tamil cinema-origin & growth;
Pioneers of Tamil Cinema; Tamil Talkies and studios; Golden era of Tamil cinema; Mega stars
& Mega movies; New Dimension of Tamil Cinema-Marketing & Distribution.

UNIT III

World Cinema- Different Schools of World Cinema; German Expressionism; French

Impressionism, Surrealism & New Wave Cinema; Soviet Montage; Italian Neo Realism- origin
& development; Japanese Cinema; Iranian Cinema; Third world Cinema.

UNIT IV

Mise-en-scene- definition & concept; Four P’s of Mise-en-scene; Elements of Mise-en; Narrative
functions of Mise-en-scene; Cinematographer properties- photographic image, duration of the
image & framing; Montage- definition & concept; Types of Montage; Montage Vs Parallel
Editing; Editing- dimensions of film editing & continuity editing.

UNIT V

Narrative Cinema - definition & concept; Non Narrative cinema- Avant-garde & Experimental
film; Film Form- definition & elements; Ambiguity, Style & Ideology; Film Genre- definition &
types; Emerging trends of Digital Film & Short Films; Film Festivals- International & National
Festivals; Film Awards- International & National Film Festivals
Auguste and Louis Lumière were two of the pioneers of filmmaking,

1885 short film “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat,” presented in 4K and at 60 frames per second.

The Arrival of a Train (1896), one of the earliest films made. The Arrival of a Train is a
blackand- white documentation of a steam train entering a train station in France. Shot on a
camera called the Cinematographe, which also served as printer and projector, the film has no
cuts.

Lumiere Brothers:

The innovative French brothers, Auguste Lumiere (1862-1954) and Louis Lumiere (1864-1948)
working in Lyons Factory that manufactured photographic equipment and supplies developed the

‘Cinematography’ (motion recorder), which combines the functions of movie camera, film
processor and film projector. Cinematography is a portable, suitcase-sized, hand-held and
lightweight device that can be cranked by hand and project movie images to several spectators.
Besides the technological achievements, one of the Lumiere's viewing audience,

A Frenchman Georges Melies, a Parisian stage magician, developed and expanded the cinema
with his own imaginative fantasy films with help of magic and special effects. Melies most
popular and best known 14 minute science fiction work ‘A Trip to the Moon’ (Le Voyage Dans
la Lune) in 1902 was about 30 scenes called ‘Tableaux’. Melies included the surrealistic special
effects, including the memorable image of rocket ship landing and man walking in the moon.
Melies also introduced the idea of narrative storylines, plots, character development, illusion and
fantasy into film, including trick photography, hand coloring, dissolves, wipes, ‘magical’
superimpositions, double exposures, and the use of mirrors, trick sets, stop motion, slow motion,
fadeouts and fade-ins.

Thomas Alva Edison built “The Black Maria” Studio

The Black Maria was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It is
widely referred to as "America's First Movie Studio". The Black Maria--a slang term for the
prisoner transport vans the building resembled—was covered with tar paper, had a removable
roof, and rotated on a track to capture sunlight. Here, lab assistants filmed short movies for
Edison's Kinetoscope motion picture viewer.

Edwin.S.Porter is the director of the film “The Great Train Robbery” Porter coinvented a device
to regulate the intensity of an electric light in 1891. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903) is
widely acknowledged to be the first narrative film to have achieved such continuity of action.
Comprising 14 separate shots of noncontiguous, no overlapping action, the film contains an early
example of parallel editing, two credible back, or rear, two camera pans, and several shots
composed diagonally and staged in depth—a major departure from the frontally composed,
theatrical staging of Méliès.

Sergie Eisenstein invented the montage Technique.

The first developed the “intellectual montage.” Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin was a
propaganda piece that perfectly captured the idea of intellectual montage.

Sergei Eisenstein, it is important to understand that the theoretical approaches to editing are just
as important as the practical. Understanding behind shot sequences that create a scene, tone and
story.

David Wark Griffith was “taken by the beauty of his actress to such an extent that he invented
the close-up to better stare at the details” The close-up shot was introduced by D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith is acknowledged as an early master of the integration of the close-up into the
filmed story. In Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), shot on location on New York’s lower east
Side, a menacing Elmer Booth enters the frame and advances toward the camera, his face
enlarged into a particularly effective close-up.

The close-up ushered in new ideas about the possible representation of interior mental states, and
was used as a syntactical element to introduce flashbacks (as a kind of subjective memory),
dreams, hallucinations, and, perhaps most important for the development of mainstream cinema
language, point-of-view shots, in which the audience is invited to follow the eye-line of a
character’s gaze from one shot to the next.

D.W. Griffith was one of cinema's earliest directors and producers, known for his innovations
and for directing the 1915 film Birth of a Nation.

By 1908, Griffith had entered the fledgling world of moviemaking. He did acting work for the
New York City film companies Edison and Biograph and went on to become a director of
hundreds of shorts for the latter company, working with actors like Lionel Barrymore, Mary
Pickford and the Gish sisters. He started to develop two-reel works and eventually made the
four-reel film Judith of Bethulia. ("Four-reel" meant the movie could play for an hour.)

Biograph, Griffith was highly innovative with his filmmaking techniques, utilizing cross-cutting,
close-ups and fade outs to distinctive effect He independently directed Birth of a Nation, released
in 1915 and telling the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Adapted from the book
The Clansmen, Griffith's next film, the critically lauded Intolerance (1916), was again innovative
in its narrative structure by juxtaposing four different locales and eras.

Kinesics, a term coined by anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell, is the study of gesture, nonverbal
communication. Nonverbal communication is primarily conducted through the use of gestures,
facial expressions, and body language.

Central Board of Film Certification Committee was established under the Cinematograph Act
The CBFC is a statutory body which regulates the public exhibition of films in India according to
the provisions under the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

The Cinematograph Act of 1952 enshrines certain guidelines that tame the public expression of
ideas, opinions and imagination via films by filmmakers. Cinema has opened up to new
possibilities and debatable themes in the social and political arenas. With the rapid technological
advancement, it is easy to abuse the wonders of technology and portray themes that are hurtful to
social conformations.

Apparatus theory emphasize on cinematic devices that captures and records imagery Apparatus
theory maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are
ideological, and because the films are created to represent reality. Its mechanics of representation
include the camera and editing.

Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within
the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature. Apparatus theory follows
an institutional model of spectatorship

Formalist film theory focuses on the Technical aspect of cinema; Formalist film theory is an
approach to film theory that is focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film.

Formalism is primarily concerned with style and how it communicates the ideas, emotions and
themes. Formalist directors have no desire to show reality. They want to show their personal
vision of the world. They are concerned with spiritual and psychological truths that can best be
represented by distorting and exaggerating the image.

Structuralism film theory states that culture is based on Sign or semiology

Structuralism holds that, according to the human way of understanding things, ... structure can be
roughly called “grammar” which is based on its system of ... Structuralism is the theory that
conceives of all cultural phenomena as sign systems

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result
of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego.

Free association term fits into Freud's theory, psychoanalytical approaches in film criticism and
theory. One of them is cultural myth analysis that focused on the study of myths surrounding
films

National Film Development Corporation Ltd. (a Public-Sector Enterprise under the Ministry
of Information & Broadcasting) was formed by the Government of India to plan, promote and
organize an integrated and efficient development of the Indian film industry and foster
excellence in cinema. Over the years, NFDC has provided a wide range of services essential to
the growth of Indian Cinema. It has so far funded/produced/co-produced over 330 films in more
than 32 regional languages. The concepts of psychoanalysis have been applied to films in various
ways. However, the 1970s and 1980s saw the development of theory that took concepts
developed by the French

George Eastman invented the first color film “Kodak”

In 1880, George Eastman opened the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. His first camera,
the Kodak, was sold in 1888 and consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures. Later he offered
the first Brownie camera, which was intended for children. By 1927, Eastman Kodak was the
largest U.S. company in the industry They were introduced around 1940 but only came into wide
use for commercial motion picture production in the early 1950s. In the US, Eastman Kodak's
Eastmancolor was the usual choice, but it was often re-branded with another trade name, such as
"WarnerColor", by the studio or the film processor.

Eadweard Muybridge:

The British pioneer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), an early photographer was famous for
his photographic motion studies at the end of the 19th century. Muybridge became the first man
in history to record continuous live action, by using multiple still cameras. In 1870 at
Sacramento race course at California, Muybridge used a row of 12 cameras, equally spaced
along the race track to record the movement of a horse. In 1877, Muybridge repeated the same
experiment using 24 cameras to record another horse’s movement, which capture consecutive
stages of movement called series photography. Muybridge’s pictures, published widely in the
late 1800s, were often cut into strips and used in a ‘Praxinoscope’, a descendant of the ‘zoetrope’
device, invented by Charles Emile Reynaud in 1877.

Edison and Dickson developed the ‘Kinetophonograph’ or ‘Kinetophone’ that synchronized

film projection with sound from a phonograph record, but it didn't work very well and was
difficult to synchronize. Even though Edison is credited with the development of early motion
picture cameras and projectors, the actual credit goes to W K L Dickson, who invented a devise
that could photograph motion pictures called a ‘Kinetograph’.

Kurosawa Akira, first Japanese film director to win international acclaim, noted for such films
as Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Rashomon was released in 1950 and
introduced Japanese filmmaking to the rest of the world. But its reputation as a movie
masterpiece has steadily diverged from its eventual status as a symbol of elusive truth in both art
and life. More and more, actually having seen the movie isn’t a barrier to reference.

Dadasaheb Phalke introduced the people of India to the beauty of cinematic experience
andevolved the largest entertainment industry in the world. He had made India's first full-length
feature film Raja Harishchandra (1913).

The Father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb was one of the most eminent producer, directors and
screenwriters in the history of Indian film industry

In 1932, the last silent movie 'Setubandhan' of Dadasaheb Phalke was released and later it was
released with dubbing. He produced his last film 'Gangavataran' during 1936-37. He made over
95 films and 26 short films in his lifetime and died on 16 February, 1944 in Nashik. His
contribution to the Film Industry is remarkable and always be remembered. A chance to watch
the film ‘The Life of Christ’, which inspired him and decided to make a film based on the life of
Lord Krishna, which led him to raise money and experiment with a few films. Phalke went to
London in 1912 and got trained by Cecil Hepworth of Walton studio in the craft of film making
and returned to India with a Williamson camera and set upped ‘Phalke Films’ at Bombay,
through which Phalke made five films including ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913.

Satyajit Ray:

The Indian cinema’s well known director and popularly called as the ‘Father of Modern Indian
Cinema’. Satyajit Ray was born in 1921 at Calcutta to a well known musician and teacher of the
upper middle class and Bengali landed aristocracy Sukumar Ray. Satyajit Ray studied at
Rabindranath Tagore’s institution ‘Shantiniketan’ for a while, where he got introduced to the
ideas of Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Before graduating, Satyajit Ray left the university in 1943 at
the age of 22 and joined the ‘British Advertising Agency’ at Calcutta as a graphic designer
proved to be an excellent copywriter and model maker

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural
Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with Aparajito
(1956), and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy.
Bengali motion-picture director, writer, and illustrator brought the Indian cinema to world
recognition with Pather Panchali (1955; The Song of the Road) and its two sequels, known as the
Apu Trilogy. As a director Ray was noted for his humanism, his versatility, and his detailed
control over his films and their music. He was one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century.

Adoor Gopala Krishnan of the most notable filmmakers in India. With the release of his first
feature film Swayamvaram (1972), Adoor pioneered the new wave in Malayalam cinema during
the 1970s. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, (born July 3, 1941, Pallickal [now in Kerala], British India
[now India]),

Indian filmmakers were one of the leading figures in the New Indian cinema movement of
realistic and issue-based filmmaking that arose in the 1970s.

Rangaswamy Nataraja Mudaliar, popularly known as the father of Tamil cinema, was a
pioneer in the production of silent films. Starting his career as an automobile spare parts
merchant, he started the "Indian Film Company Limited" in Madras. In 1917,

Mudaliar made Keechaka Vadham, South India's first silent film.

Tamil Cinema: Similar to Calcutta, cinema very soon came to Madras in 1900 and most of
screenings were of films made by Lumiere brothers. Vincent Swamikannu, who purchased
camera equipments from Du Pond was the first Indian to make film in South India. At the same
time, the first feature film in Southern India ‘Keechaka Vadham’ in 1916 was made by R
Nataraja Mudaliar, which was based on a hindu mythological from the Mahabharata. Hollywood
returned A Narayanan founded General Pictures Corporation in 1929 and established filmmaking
as an industry in South India and became the single largest producer of silent films. Following
these two cities, cinema got extend to other Indian languages as Bombay, Calcutta and Madras
been the Cinema headquarters.

What is Narrative?

A narrative is defined by David Bordwell as ‘a chain of events in cause-effect relationship

occurring in time and space’.

 causality (and time and space) is central to narrative.

  parallelism-compare and contrast.
 Story and Plot
 Cause and Effect
 Time
 Space
 order

Narrative filmmaking refers to the types of movies that tell a story. The terms ‘fictional cinema’
and ‘narrative cinema’ carry the understanding that the filmmaker has the freedom to create
storylines

The structure of narrative cinema draws heavily on the III Act structure- the beginning, middle
and end; while the beginning of a movie deals with the introduction of certain characters gives a
clear reason and an identifiable motivation that justifies character’s behavior, action and goals,
the middle deals with the development of story and the plot, similarly the end deals with solution
for the script

NARRATIVE FILM – In the simplest sense, Narrative tells a story and the subjects in the film
“play parts.

NON-NARRATIVE FILM – the negation of Narrative film. Attempts to define Non-Narrative in

an affirmative mode tend to flounder

(Is non-narrative film “unstructured,” “raw,” “spontaneous,” “unscripted,” “naturalistic” …?

The objections are immediate and obvious).

Avant-garde & Experimental Film:

Avant-garde film is often produced in the context of the larger art world, particularly in relation
to the visual arts and literature. It is also frequently produced as a critique of dominant, classical
Hollywood cinema and functions in relation to political movements and strategies, such as
feminism. Currently, filmmakers are using video and new media of all kinds as well as including
film in larger multimedia installations.
Saussure provided a starting point for the semiological inquiry into cinema which was so
important by the late 1960s. Distinctions between cinema and verbal language were taken into
account either by new emphasis in the conceptualization of cinema or by modifications in
Saussurian methodological premises.

Film Form:

Basically, film form is anything that is involved in making and producing the finished product.
Film form is the technical and logistical stuff, as opposed to film content, which would include
plot, character analysis, etc. In contrast, when watching a robbery take place in a film, then the
content will be mediated by a variety of formal elements, chosen by the filmmaker to obtain a
particular effect in the viewer. As such, what distinguishes a film from mere footage is the
application of formal principles, both narrative and stylistic.

Elements of Film Form: The basic elements of film form are;

Form & Expectation: The nature of film form leads to expectations that a pattern exists between
the various formal elements.

Form & Convention: Not only had the expectations derived from cues within a film but also
from the prior experiences. Such conventions may result from the experience of life in general,
films have seen or other artworks.

Form & Emotion: The fact that has expectations will often cause to make an emotional
investment in a film. Both the emotions represented in a film and the emotional responses felt by
a viewer are important in the experience of film.

Form & Meaning: As active, intelligent viewers, would look for meaning in films. Such meaning
may be of two main types: explicit and implicit meaning. That is;

Explicit: Explicit meanings are general observations included in the film about one or its more
subjects. It is what has been clearly shown in film. Such movies are often constructed to teach or
persuade their viewers.
Implicit: Implicit meaning is a deeper level of interpretation of the content of the film and a
viewer may use awareness of cinematic techniques such as sound effects, editing or use of sets,
satire, symbols and narratives or stories to help discover implicit meanings.

Form & Evaluation: Some people will evaluate films on the basis of how realistic they are or on
moral criteria or even on the basis of their story alone. This is why may find a great deal of
difference of opinion with regards to the value of any particular film.

Ambiguity: Sometimes when sitting in a cafe, walking along the street or passing someone’s
window, we may see instances of behavior that we cannot definitely define, but whose
ambiguity (vagueness) causes us no problems or whose doubt forces upon us a choice.

Film Style: recognizable film techniques used by film makers to give specific changes or value
to their work, it include all elements like sound, mise-en-scene, dialogue, cinematography and
etc., in making a film.

Each director has a unique filmmaking style that differs from one another similar to a writing
style of a novelist. The main concept of film styles are editing, camera and sound, which must be
‘invisible’ to the audience.

Film Ideology: a belief generally held true by groups in society, in the specific time and place. It
is how one understands the world around. In analysing films, can get better understanding of
how certain ideologies are formed and why they sustain or change over time

Film Festivals- International & National:

Film festivals are events staged by universities, private organizations, local governments, arts
associations and film societies. They provide an opportunity for unknown filmmakers to get their
movies in front of a real live audience and to have their films reviewed by professional critics.
Filmmakers whose movies get accepted into a festival also get valuable press attention and
exposure to prospective agents or buyers and sometimes sizeable cash award if they win.

Cannes Film Festival:

Cannes International Film Festival was created on the initiative of Jean Zay, Minister for
Education and Fine Arts of France, who was keen to establish an international cultural event in
France to rival the Venice Film Festival. The Festival de Cannes, which is managed by a Board
of Directors, was registered as an ‘Association loi de 1901’ or non-profit association in France in
1972. The aim of the Festival is to encourage the development of the art of filmmaking in all its
forms, while fostering and maintaining a spirit of collaboration among all filmmaking countries.
The first edition of the Festival was originally set to be held in Cannes in 1939 under the
presidency of Louis Lumière.

Venice International Film Festival:

1932, is the oldest film festival in the world and one of the big three film festivals alongside the
‘Cannes Film Festival’ and ‘Berlin International Film Festival’. The film festival is part of the
Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. Today, the Biennale
includes a range of separate events including: the International Art Exhibition; the International
Festival of Contemporary Music; the International Theatre Festival; the International
Architecture Exhibition; the International Festival of Contemporary Dance; the International
Kid’s Carnival and the annual Venice Film Festival, which is arguably the best-known of all the
events.

Berlin International Film Festival: The Berlin International Film Festival (Internationale Film
festpiele Berlin) also called as the Berlinale, is one of the world’s leading film festivals and most
reputable media events. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated
annually in February since 1978. Around twenty films compete for the awards called the Golden
and Silver Bears. The public program of the Berlin International Film Festival shows about 400
films per year, mostly international or European premieres.
International Film Festival of India (IFFI): The first International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
was organized by the Films Division; Government of India held in Mumbai from 24th January to
1st February in 1952, the Festival was subsequently taken to Madras, Delhi and Calcutta.

Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF): ICAF started organizing Chennai International Film
Festival (CIFF) from the year 2003. All the earlier editions have seen a gradual growth in terms
of attendance as well as popularity.

Film Awards- International & National: Film awards are given or recognized by groups or
organizations or festivals that recognize achievements in cinema, usually by awarding various
prizes. Awards are divided into four major categories, they are;

Academy Awards:
The Academy Awards is also known as ‘Oscar Award’ is an annual American awards ceremony
hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence
in cinematic achievements in the United States film industry as assessed by the Academy’s
voting membership.

National Film Awards: The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremonies
in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival
of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since
1973. Every year, a national panel appointed by the government selects the winning entry and
the award ceremony is held in New Delhi, where the President of India presents the awards.

Benjamin Franklin Medals

In 1998, the Benjamin Franklin Medals were created by reorganizing all of the endowed medals
presented by The Franklin Institute at that time, into a group medals recognizing seven areas of
study: Chemistry, Computer and Cognitive Science, Earth and Environmental Science, Electrical
Engineering, Life Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics. The first Benjamin Franklin
Medals were presented in 1998
  An Annual American Academy Award is also known as Oscar Award
 Indian New Wave cinema-Do Bigha Zamin won the International Prize at the 1954
Cannes Film Festival and paved the way
 In agreement with academy of Motion Picture Arts the first cinematic based school was
created.
 Sivaji Ganesan was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour by the French
Government
 The first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language
Film is Mother India

Edwin.S.Porter

‘The life of an American Fireman’. By joining separate scenes together his ‘transition’ released
cinema from the constraint of space and ushered in the use of editing as a way of telling the
story. The edits served to make the film much more dramatic too. This film is a mixture of an
original footage shot by Porter and a fire scene from the library stock.

‘The Great Train Robbery’ in 1903, he cut directly from one scene to another as well as showing
simultaneous action by cutting from scene to scene, now known as ‘cross cutting’. People
understood that the action shown was happening at the same time

D.W. Griffith

The American film director D.W. Griffith’s ‘The Birth of a Nation’ film 1915, cross-cutting is
famously employed to establish relationships and drive the narrative. However, parallel editing
not simply contributed to storytelling, it juxtapositions, contrasts, contrasts and dismemberments.
Griffith’s understanding of the importance of editing in establishing relationships on screen
produced complex and dynamic filmmaking.

Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin's comedic explorations into the human condition transformed cinema, mostly comedies,
from a mere novelty into a zoetic art form

Charlie Chaplin won an honorary award for his Circus silent movie, 1928
About 1911, Hans Lorenz Stoltenberg who has tested with direct animation, musically fixing
together tinted film in diverse colors.

The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Keisuke Kinoshita

Laura Mulvey's filmmaking and writing hurled a flourishing Feminist film based ideas

Hitchcock’s ‘Blackmail’ is often considered as the first British sound feature film

Louis Althusser.

Althusser argues that ideology has a profound relationship with subjective experience. He writes,
“all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects.” What he means by
this is that the practices and beliefs inherent to ideology produce a sense of identity.

Louis Althusser combined Marxism with the scientifically oriented methods of Structuralism in
his essay, Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatuses (1970) and analysed how the dominant
systems enforce their control by subtly moulding their subjects through ideology.

The first cinema shows in Bengal have been dated to 1896-7, a few months after the first Indian
showing of the Lumiere Brothers'

Bengali cinema prominent film culture is largely associated with the parallel cinema movement,
Bengali films were low-budget films, including Satyajit Ray's famous The Apu Trilogy (1955–
1959). The first film in the trilogy, Pather Panchali (1955)

Mother India became a definitive cultural classic and is regarded as one of the
best films in Indian cinema. The film won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best
Feature Film, the Filmfare Best Film Award for 1957, and Nargis and Khan won the Best
Actress and Best Director awards respectively. Epic film Mother India was directed by Mehboob
Khan

The story of Mother India:

The wedding of Radha (Nargis) and Shamu (Rajendra Kumar) is at hand, but the loan they take
out to pay for the ceremony ends up leading to their ruin. Unable to pay the mounting interest
rates, the couple is forced to give up three quarters of their crop to the moneylenders. Shamu
works the fields in an attempt to alleviate their poverty, but a loose boulder crushes his arm,
rendering him incapable of work and humiliated at his sudden inability to provide for his family.

Pramathesh Baruah

Pramathesh Chandra Barua or P. C. Barua was an actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who
was involved with Indian films in the pre-independence era. Devdas is a 1935 Bengali film
directed by Pramathesh Barua and based on the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel, Devdas.

First film studio and film society in Kerala was formed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan & Mankada
Ravi Varma

Kalidas is the first Telugu and Tamil bilingual talkie in South India

A perfect director of photography cognizes what visuals electrify the director and it could make
recommendations explores the potential of every location on shots to capture

Prosthetics

Prosthetic makeup (also called Special make-up effects and FX prosthesis) is the process of
using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques, Prosthetics related to Cosmetics

Prosthetics and special effects make-up is used in film to turn the cast into characters, or advance
a storyline with effects like injuries and ageing

Marathi film

The first Marathi talkie film, Ayodhyecha Raja, was released in 1932, Shree Pundalik was
produced and directed by Dadasaheb Torne alias Rama Chandra Gopal.

Shree Pundalik, India's first feature film was released on May 18, 1912 ... means of
entertainment, there is just something about films that is magical. ... It was based on Marathi play
by Ramrao Kirtikar and it was a silent film.
‘The Odessa Steps Sequence’. It was in this sequence that Eisenstein made famous his editing
technique which was known as ‘Soviet Montage’. The Kuleshov Effect is a film editing effect
invented by Soviet filmmaker

Parallel editing also known as cross-cutting, Parallel Editing is a technique where the editor
shows two or more different pieces of action that are supposed to happening simultaneously.

Mise-en-scence: All the visual elements of a theatrical production within the space provided by
the stage are called mise-en-scene,

Four aspects of mise en scene which cover the part of physical art of the theatre are setting,
costume, lighting and movement of characters.

Film stock is the basic component of all motion pictures, allowing images to be captured and
reproduced through the use of a camera.

The four dimensions of editing are the spatial connection, temporal connection , graphic
connection and the rhythmic connection.

Spatial editing is when the relations between shots function to construct film space. establishes
a whole and separates it into parts

Temporal editing is when the relations between shots function to control time, Works to convey
the order, duration, or frequency of events, succession of events.

Rythmic editing is when the relations between shots function to control film pace, a shot's
physical length corresponds to a measurable duration, rythmic function occurs when several shot
lengths form a discernable pattern. equal length will create a steady metrical beat lengthening
shots can generate a gradually slowing tempo successively shorter shots can create an
accelerated tempo.

Graphic Editing: the comparison of purely pictorial qualities from shot to shot independent of
space and time. Eg. compares patterns of light and dark, line and shape, volumes and depths,
movement , graphic editing can achieve smooth continuity or abrupt contrast

Continuity Editing : A system of cutting used to maintain continuous and clear narrative action
by following a set of rules.

Continuity editing is the process in film and video creation where you combine related shots, or
different components of a single shot, into a sequence which directs the audience's attention to
the consistency of story across time and location.
Continuity editing is a system of cutting used to maintain a continuous and clear narrative by
following a set of rules.

Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing,

composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom,
focus, color, exposure, and filtration, It involves such techniques as the general composition of a
scene;

Cinematography is all about the art of visual storytelling. Aside from skillfully operating a
camera and setting up the lighting for every scene.

Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each
visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance
the story

A cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, is in charge of the camera and the
lighting crew. They’re the person responsible for creating the look, color, lighting, and for
framing of every single shot in a film.

Photography is the art of fixing an image in durable form through either a chemical or digital
process an artist’s sensibility to composition, the arrangement of objects and setting within the
frame of the camera to achieve balance and visual interest. To tell a story in a single image,
frozen in time, After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Light

A deep understanding of the basic properties of light. Four properties, to be specific: Source,
Quality, Direction and Color.

There are two basic distinctions in terms of origin: natural or artificial. Natural light refers to
light from the sun or moon (which is really just the sun bouncing off the moon, but you knew
that), and artificial light refers to light generated from any number of different technologies,
LED, incandescent, fluorescent, etc.

The lens that determines the clarity, framing, depth of field and exposure of the image, changing
the lens, without moving the camera at all, you can radically transform the look of a shot.

The overall distance between the sensor and the point at which the light passes through those
glass elements is called the focal length

Focal length determines both the angle of view and the magnification of the image.
Lenses can be divided into two basic types based on how they treat focal length: zoom and
prime. Zoom lenses allow you to adjust the focal length by sliding the glass elements closer to or
further away from the sensor

Prime lenses have a fixed focal length

Lenses also allow cinematographers to control the depth of the image by either isolating a
subject as the only element we see clearly in a particular shot or allowing us to see everything in
the background and foreground equally. This is called depth of field, the range of distance in
front of the camera in which subjects are in sharp focus.

Composition, the arrangement of people, objects and setting within the frame of an image, they
design each shot, is one of the most important elements in cinematic storytelling. How those
people, objects and setting are arranged with in the border of the image can bring balance or
imbalance, reveal or hide information, indicate power or weakness, all without a word of dialog,
an editor even a character on the screen.

Images that are well-balanced use the space within the frame to evenly distribute visual interest,
creating a proportional, pleasing composition

One way to achieve that balance is the rule of thirds. The idea is to divide the frame into thirds
horizontally and vertically and line up areas of visual interest at the intersection of those points.

surrealism the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or

effects in art, literature, film

Surrealism was an avant-garde art movement in Paris from 1924 to 1941, The movement used
shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the
traditional function of art to represent reality

Surrealist cinema is characterised by juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic psychology, and a

frequent use of shocking imagery.

It is a method of art, by means of which, artists seek access to their unconscious minds and
investigate the reality disguised by pragmatic conventions. Surrealism, like Dadaism, exploits the
artistic creativity on randomness and imagination to append traditional values

The French New Wave is perhaps the greatest advocation for the important of film criticism,
giving the film industry a fine example of how critical analysis directly leads to the progression
of the industry as a whole

Films by New Wave directors were often characterized by a fresh brilliance of technique that
was thought to have overshadowed their subject matter.
In 1948, Alexandre Astruc published The Birth of New Avante-Garde: The Camera-Stylo, a
manifesto outlining the power of cinema as an artistic tool.

The film magazine Cahiers du cinéma, the publication that popularized the auteur theory in the
1950s.

A group of critics, who wrote for a French film journal called Cahiers du Cinema, created the
film movement . It began as a movement against the traditional path that French Cinema
followed, which was more like literature. The French New Wave had the potential to bring a
radical change to French cinema.

The French New Wave arose as a direct rejection of the then-popular “Old Hollywood” style of
films, which emphasized strong, easy-to-follow narratives produced by big studios that
controlled most or all of the creative process.

Montage is a technique of film editing that combines a series of short shots or clips into one
sequence, Montage, in motion pictures, the editing technique of assembling separate pieces of
thematically related film and putting them together into a sequence.

Soviet montage includes many different methods of creative editing to elicit different responses.
Metric montage cuts shots to a defined number of frames, regardless of what is happening in the
image. Rhythmic montage cuts shots based on visual continuity. Tonal montage uses the
emotional content of shots to create meaning. Overtonal montage utilizes metric, rhythmic and
tonal montage simultaneously to a greater effect, conveying more abstract ideas. Intellectual
montage juxtaposes images to elicit cerebral responses rather than emotional ones.

Soviet Montage used often unconnected imagery to create an idea or feeling in the minds of
audiences.

Director Lev Kulshov first conceptualised montage theory on the basis that one frame may not
be enough to convey an idea or an emotion. This would become known as the Kuleshov Effect.
The audiences are able to view two separate images and subconsciously give them a collective
context

Soviet Montage Movement Films

While the most prolific film of the time was the Battleship Potemkin, other movies of the time
included Dziga Vertov’s documentary Kino-Eye (1924).

Lev Kuleshov’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
(1924), featured the travels of a character called Mr. West who learns the truth about how
America perceives the Soviet people.
‘Montage’ means bringing the conflicting images/shots together that gives a unique contrast
leaving a shock and anticipation for the audience

Montage

Eisenstein who was also making his own experiments exceeded “Kuleshov Effect” giving out
montage which is also called “Soviet Montage”. ‘Montage’ means bringing the conflicting
images/shots together that gives a unique contrast leaving a shock and anticipation for the
audience. Eisenstein believed that more the conflicting the shots are the more it is intellectual
leaving its audience in shock which also stirs their inner emotions.

Categories of Montage

Sergei Eisenstein categorized montage into five different types

Metric Montage

It is a simple montage style where the long scenes are shortened to a length called as ‘absolute
length’ of the shots without affecting the essence of the original story or its emotion. This type of
montage is used to create a suspense and tension which is usually fast paced and has abrupt cuts
that doesn’t have continuity but makes sense of the complete length of the shot.

Rhythmic Montage

In contrast to metric montage, this style of montage focuses on the rhythm of the action taken
place which is equal to the actual length of the shot. This type eliminates the abruptness and the
unexpected jump from one shot to other. The best example of rhythmic montage is “Odessa
steps” from Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin”, a Russian classic. The relationship made
with soldiers marching down the steps towards the protesters. Each step taken forward shows the
emotions of the group of protestors who are trying to flee from the soldiers pouring bullets.

Tonal Montage

Tonal Montage concentrates on the emotion of characters that is sequenced with other shots. For
example if the heroine of the film commits suicide after a huge emotional imbalance it is shown
with drifting piece of cloth in the air that reaches the hero while he tries to reach. The drifting
piece of the cloth conveys the message of the fallen heroine. Such type of scenes brings in
emotional quality to film.

Overtonal Montage

The simultaneous use of all the three above montages in a combination forms the overtonal
montage creating conflict between the shots.
Intellectual Montage

Intellectual montage involves the use of all the four montage styles that arises not only conflicts
between the shot but also arises a complex emotion to the audience that will make the audience
the plight of the characters on the screen. This style of complex editing can be seen in Sergei
Eisenstein’s film Strike, 1925.

Italian filmmakers who had previously shot traditional productions at Cinecittà film studios
were now taking to the streets with minimal equipment, non-professional actors and an
unbreakable belief in their sociopolitical purpose. The end of WWII and the consequent end of
German occupation then allowed the neorealist movement to thrive artistically, discussing
sociopolitical turmoils and real world struggles in a way that was never possible under
Mussolini’s rule.

In 1937, Benito Mussolini founded Cinecitta, a massive studio that operated under the slogan “Il
cinema è l'arma più forte,” which translates to “the cinema is the strongest weapon.” The purpose
of the studio was to produce propaganda films for the Italian state. But during the war, it was
bombed by Allied forces and nearly entirely destroyed.

After the war, filmmakers had to find a new way to produce their stories. Many directors chose
to shoot their films in the streets, with low budgets and amateur actors.

Martin Scorsese, a maven of all things Italian cinema, is one of a small army of great filmmakers
with a debt to the movement.

Trivia: In Bicycle Thieves, the brand name on Antonio’s bicycle is ‘Fides’, Italian for ‘faith’.

The first film made for entertainment in Japan. In 1899, a photographic engineer named
Tsunekichi Shibata made what is thought to be the first Japanese cinematographic production, a
film of purely theatrical content that showed a kabuki play named Maple Viewing or Momijigari.

the 1950s which is considered the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from
this decade (Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) made the list of Sight & Sound’s 2002
Critics and Directors Poll for the best films of all time

Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival Which firmly put Japanese cinema on the map
globally.

The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and
released in 1951.
The 1980s saw the decline of many of the massive Japanese film studios and their associated
cinemas, with major studios Toho responsible for Godzilla and Toei barely managing to be
stable in business,

1990s and 2000s are considered to be “Japanese Cinema’s Second Golden Age”, due to the
immense popularity of anime, both within Japan and overseas. In anime, Hayao Miyazaki
directed Spirited Away in 2001, breaking Japanese box office records and winning several
awards,

Godzilla (1954)

Moving on to the core of my essay the film I picked out and arguably being one of Japanese
cinemas most important globally successful and iconic films, Godzilla.Initially appearing in
IshirÅ Honda’s 1954 monster film.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai was a 1954 Japanese adventure/drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film
is set in 1587 during the warring states period of Japan. The story revolves around a village of
farmers that recruits seven master less samurai to fight against bandits who aim to steal the crops
after the farms harvest

The very first Iranian sound film, Dokhtar-e Lor/Lor Girl, 1932, also known as The Iran of
Yesterday and The Iran of Today, was produced by Ardeshir Irani and Abdolhossein Sepanta in
the Imperial Film Company in Bombay.

Iranian cinema indirectly reflected establishment views and notions rather than revealing the pain
and the crucial problems faced by society.

Charlie Chaplin movies reflected the pain of everyday life but Iranian cinema never had this
freedom.

In the second part of the Twentieth Century, some Iranian filmmakers protested against current
cinema policies and, in a spirit of reform, they brought new social and political ideas into their
movies. Eventually, as a result of a political evolution, a rare miracle called the “Iranian New
Wave” occurred. A new movement had arrived in Iranian cinema. It was a kind of realism that
changed Iranian cinema. It expanded through various films, and grew far away from the fears of
an earlier era that had acted as a damper.

Contemporary Iranian cinema is a symbol of our civilization, culture and art; a vanguard of the
dialogue among civilizations and an emblem of the creative Iranian mind.
Question Bank

Who invented “Kodak”?

a. George Eastman
b. Lumiere Brothers
c. George Melies
d. Thoma Alva Edison

Who directed “The Arrival of a Train”?

a. George Melies
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. Lumiere Brothers
d. Eadweard Muybridge

Who built “The Black Maria”

a. Sergei Eisenstein
b. Thomas Alva Edison
c. George Eastman
d. Lumiere Brothers

Father of Indian Cinema

a. Dada SahebPhalke
b. JamshedjiFramjiMadhan
c. Hiralalsen
d. Satyajit Ray

Who is The Father of Tamil Cinema?

a. Samikannu Vincent
b. V.Shantaram
c. NatarajaMudhaliar
d. Narayanan

Which of the following theory is for “Women Centric” movies?

a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory
b. Apparatus Film Theory
c. Formalist Film Theory
d. Feminist Film Theory
Which of the following Film Theory was postulated by Sigmund Freud?
a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory
b. Apparatus Film Theory
c. Formalist Film Theory
d. Structuralist Film Theory

What is the Full form of “NFDC”?

a. National Fund and Development of Cinema
b. National Film Development Corporation
c. National Fund on Demand of Cinema
d. National Film Development Committee

Which was the First Film Studio in Tamil Nadu?

a. India Film Company
b. AVM Studio
c. Vahini Studio
d. Tamil Nadu Film Studio

Where was the First Film Studio established in South India?

a. Hyderabad
b. Coimbatore
c. Chennai
d. Ernakulam

Who was the First Person to direct a movie in the place Hollywood?
a. Edwin S. Porter
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. D.W.Griffith
d. Lumiere Brothers

What is the full form of OTS shot?

a. Over Time Schedule
b. Over The Shadow
c. Over The Shoulder
d. Over Track Slider
What is the full form of CG?
a. Cinema Graphics
b. Computer Graphics
c. Camera Grid
d. Camera Guard

What is the meaning of the term “Genre”?

a. Staging
b. Putting Together
c. Type
d. On stage

First film of Phalke is

a. Mohini Bhasmasur
b. Kaliya Mardan
c. Raja Harishchandra
d. Gangavataran

Who is the director of the film “The Great Train Robbery”?

a. Edwin.S.Porter
b. Sergei Eisenstein
c. D. W. Griffith
d. George Melies

Who invented the montage?

a. Edwin S. Porter
b. Sergie Eisenstein
c. George Eastman
d. Douglas Fairbanks

In a pan shot the camera...

a. Stays stationary
b. Zoom in, zoom out
c. Moves L --> R or vice versa
d. Moves up, down or down, up.
What is Kinesics?

a. Social interaction
b. Sculpture
c. Printmaking
d. The study of gesture

Which of the following regional cinema referred to as Kollywood?

a. Punjabi Cinema
b. Tamil Cinema
c. Marathi Cinema
d. Malayalam Cinema

Which Committee was established under the Cinematograph Act

a. The Rowlatt Committee

b. Central Board of Film Certification
c. Abhijit Sen Committee
d. The Indian Coinage Act

The Grouping of the different parts of a work of art is

a. Film Language
b. Posture
c. Lighting
d. Composition

Formalist film theory focuses on the

a. Technical aspect of cinema
b. Historical aspect of cinema
c. Content aspect of cinema
d. Cultural aspect of cinema

Marxist film theory emphasizes the

a. Individual
b. Elite
c. Mass
d. Institution
According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, what is the role of the superego?
a. Establishes the rules and prohibitions, telling us the right thing to do using guilt to
override our id impulses
b. Mediates between the unrealistic id and the external real world
c. It works out realistic ways to satisfy the id’s demands
d. It demands immediate satisfaction

A shot that is made with the camera below the action.

a. Diegetic Sound
b. Continuity Editing
c. Back Story
d. Low-Angle Shot

Which one of the following Film Theory was postulated by Sigmund Freud?
a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory
b. Apparatus Film Theory
c. Formalist Film Theory
d. Structuralism Film Theory

What is the Full form of “NFDC”?

a. National Fund and Development of Cinema
b. National Film Development Corporation
c. National Fund on Demand of Cinema
d. National Film Development Committee

Which one of the following is Satyajith Ray’s first Movie?

a. Jalsaghar
b. Ganashatru
c. Pather Panchali
d. Apur Sansar

Who directed the First movie shot in Hollywood?

a. Pudovkin
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. D.W.Griffith
d. Sergei Eisenstein

What is the meaning of the term “Genre” in Film Studies?

a. Staging
b. Putting Together
c. Classification
 d. On stage

First film of Phalke is

a. Mohini Bhasmasur
b. Kaliya Mardan
c. Raja Harishchandra
d. Gangavataran

Who is the director of the film “The Great Train Robbery”?

a. Edwin.S.Porter
b. Sergei Eisenstein
c. D. W. Griffith
d. George Melies

Who invented the montage Technique?

a. Jean Luc Godard
b. Sergie Eisenstein
c. George Eastman
d. Douglas Fairbanks

The close-up shot was introduced by ______

a. D. W. Griffith
b. Robert W. Paul
c. Georges Melies
d. Charlie Chaplin

What is Kinesics?
a. Social interaction
b. The study of Sculpture
c. Printmaking
d. The study of gesture

Which one of the following regional cinema referred to as Mollywood?

a. Punjabi Cinema
b. Tamil Cinema
c. Marathi Cinema
d. Malayalam Cinema

Which Committee was established under the Cinematograph Act?

a. The Rowlatt Committee
b. Central Board of Film Certification
 c. Abhijit Sen Committee
d. The Indian Coinage Act

Who is the Father of Tamil Cinema?

a. V.Shantaram
b. NatarajaMudhaliar
c. Subbaiah Naidu
d. Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu

Formalist film theory focuses on the

a. Technical aspect of cinema
b. Historical aspect of cinema
c. Content aspect of cinema
d. Cultural aspect of cinema

Which term fits into Freud's theory?

a. Stimulus
b. Free association
c. Response
d. Reinforcement

Structuralism film theory states that culture is based on

a. Sign or semiology
b. Psychology
c. Lumierescope
d. Editing techniques

A shot that is made by placing with the camera position below the action.
a. Sound effect
b. Continuity Editing
c. Back Story
d. Low-Angle Shot

What is semiotics?
a. The study of signs and symbols
b. The study of amateur films
c. The study of culture
d. The study of nature

Early film maker George Melies is known for _______.

 a. Special Effects
b. After Effects
c. Cinematographe
d. Zoetrope

Who invented the first color film “Kodak”?

a. George Eastman
b. Lumiere Brothers
c. George Melies
d. Thomas Alva Edison

Where was the First Film Studio established in South India?

a. Hyderabad
b. Coimbatore
c. Chennai
d. Ernakulam

What is the full form of OTS shot?

a. Over Time Schedule
b. Over The Shadow
c. Over The Shoulder
d. Over Track Slider

Which was the debut film of Adoor Gopala Krishnan?

a. Elippathayam
b. Kathapurushan
c. Swayamvaram
d. Kisan Kanya

Battleship Potemkin film is directed by ________

a. Vittorio De Sica
b. Robert Wiene
c. Sergie Eisenstein
d. John Grierson

The film Rashomon is directed by

a. Alfred Hitchcock
b. Akira Kurosawa
c. Moshen Makmalbaf
d. Vittorio De Sica
 Which theory emphasize on cinematic devices that captures and records imagery?
a. Apparatus theory
b. Formalism theory
c. Cognitive theory
d. Structuralism Theory

Films that satisfy the Three Act Structure film format are generally referred as
a. Narrative cinema
b. Non-narrative cinema
c. Live cinema
d. Real cinema

Ans: a

Who built “The Black Maria” Studio?

a. Sergei Eisenstein
b. Thomas Alva Edison
c. George Eastman
d. Lumiere Brothers

Ans: b

___________ provided a starting point for the semiological inquiry into cinema.
a. Louis Althuzer
b. Lev Kuleshov
c. Saussure
d. Dziga Vertov

Ans: C

___________ film is a mixture of an original footage shot by Porter and a fire scene from the
library stock.
a. The Life of an American Fireman
b. The Gulf Between
c. Enola Holmes
d. Saving Pyrate Ryan
Ans: A
Which one of the following Film Theory was postulated by Sigmund Freud?
a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory
b. Apparatus Film Theory
c. Formalist Film Theory
d. Structuralism Film Theory
Ans: A

The American film director who employed cross cutting technique in the way of storytelling was
______.
a. Edwin Stanton Porter
b. Christopher Nolan
c. D. W. Griffith
d. Louis Lumiere

Ans: C

Charlie Chaplin won an honorary award for his 1928 silent movie, ____________.
a. A Woman of Paris
b. The Circus
c. Limelight
d. A king in New York

Ans: B

____________ is the highest award given by the Franklin Institute.

a. Frank P Brown Medal
b. Franklin Medal
c. Benjamin Franklin Medal
d. Bower Award

Ans: C

________ is considered as the foundation of a film.

a. Script
b. Sets
c. Costumes
d. Lights
Ans: A

___________was a Marxist philosopher influenced by the methods of structuralism.

a. Roland Barthes
b. Christian Metz
c. Jacques Lacan
d. Louis Althusser

Ans: D

Which one of the following is Satyajith Ray’s first Movie?

a. The Inner Eye
b. Ganashatru
c. Pather Panchali
d. Seven Samuari

Ans:C

Who is the director of the film “The Great Train Robbery”?

a. Edwin.S.Porter
b. Sergei Eisenstein
c. D. W. Griffith
d. George Melies

Ans: A

Shree Pundalik was a ______________ in Marathi

a. Silent film
b. Talkie film
c. Eastman color film
d. Black & white film
Ans: A

The first silent film in Tamil, Keechaka Vadham was made by _________.
a. J J Madan
b. R. Nataraja Mudaliar
c. Ramchandra Gopal Torney
d. Madanrai Vakil
Ans: B

The Dutch angle is also known as

a. Horizon angle
b. Dutch tilt
c. Full angle
d. Top Angle
As: B

OTS stands for _______

a. Over Time Schedule
b. Over The Shadow
c. Over The Shoulder
d. Over Track Slider
As: C

Epic film Mother India was directed by __________.

a. Guru Dutt.
b. Raj Kapoor
c. Mehboob Khan
d. Dilip Kumar

Ans: C

Which prominent film culture is largely associated with the parallel cinema movement _______?
a. Tamil cinema
b. Marathi cinema
c. Kanada cinema
d. Bengali cinema

Ans: D

In South India, the first Telugu and Tamil bilingual talkie is _______________.
a. Kalinga Mardanam
b. Kalidas
c. Lava Kusha
d. Raja Harishchandra

Ans: B
In 1935 Devdas movie was directed by _____________.
a. Bimal Roy
b. Vedantam Raghavaiah
c. Pramathesh Baruah
d. Sriram Adittya

Ans: C

The close-up shot was introduced by ______

a. D. W. Griffith
b. Robert W. Paul
c. Georges Melies
d. Charlie Chaplin
Ans: A

First film studio and film society in Kerala was formed by ________.
a. Kulathoor Bhaskaran Nair & Mankada Ravi Varma
b. Kulathoor Bhaskaran Nair & Karamana Janardanan Nair
c. M. R. Gopakumar & Kulathoor Bhaskaran Nair
d. Adoor Gopalakrishnan & Mankada Ravi Varma
Ans: D

An overhead shot which where the using camera is deferred in the air on a ___________.
a. Moving dolly
b. Moving crane
c. Moving unit
d. Moving side
Ans: B

Define the statement ‘Framing the shot’.

a. Proximity to the camera
b. Proximity to the characters
c. Proximity to the objects
d. Proximity to the subjects
Ans: A
About 1911, who has tested with direct animation, musically fixing together tinted film in
diverse colors.
a. Léopold Survage
b. Hans Lorenz Stoltenberg
c. Georges Méliès
d. Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Ans: B

Laura Mulvey's filmmaking and writing hurled a flourishing ___________.

a. Experimental film based ideas
b. Feminist film based ideas
c. Narrative film based ideas
d. American film based ideas
Ans: B

Which Committee was established under the Cinematograph Act?

a. The Rowlatt Committee
b. Central Board of Film Certification
c. Abhijit Sen Committee
d. The Indian Coinage Act
Ans: B

Early film maker George Melies is known for _______.

a. Special Effects
b. After Effects
c. Cinematographe
d. Zoetrope
Ans: A

Who invented the first color film “Kodak”?

a. George Eastman
b. Lumiere Brothers
c. George Melies
d. Thomas Alva Edison
Ans: A

Which was the debut film of Adoor Gopala Krishnan?

a. Elippathayam
b. Kathapurushan
 c. Swayamvaram
d. Kisan Kanya
Ans: C

Battleship Potemkin film is directed by ________

a. Vittorio De Sica
b. Robert Wiene
c. Sergie Eisenstein
d. John Grierson
Ans: C

The film Rashomon is directed by

a. Alfred Hitchcock
b. Akira Kurosawa
c. Moshen Makmalbaf
d. Vittorio De Sica
Ans: B

Hitchcock’s ‘Blackmail’ is often considered as

a. Western genre films

b. Sports Film
c. The first British sound feature film
d. Animated Film
Ans: C

What are the chief characteristics of German Expressionism?

a. Artificial sets with realistic details

b. A high level of dissonance.
c. Extremes of pitch
d. Constantly changing textures

Ans: A

Japanese cinemas employed narrators are known as

a. Horror
b. Action
c. Benshi
d. Comedy
Ans: C

An Annual American Academy Award is also known as

a. National Film Awards
b. Filmfare Awards
c. Oscar Award
d. Golden Globe Awards

Ans: C

What are the four ‘P’s of Mise-en-Scene?

a. Point of view, Power, Position, Placement
b. Power, Posture, Point of view, Position
c. Point of view, Posture, Properties, Position
d. Posture, Position, Properties, Placement
Ans: C

What is a technique of film editing that combines a series of short shots or clips into one
sequence?

a. Eyeline Match
b. Continuity Error
c. Montage
d. Composition
Ans:C

Which one of the following is cutting shots together based on exact measure or length of time?
a. Tonal Montage
b. Metric Montage
c. Over tonal Montage
d. Rhythmic Montage
Ans: B

The images to be captured and reproduced through the use of a camera is a

a. Color Space
b. Film stock
c. Sound
d. Frame
Ans: B
What is the meaning of the term “Surrealism” in Film Studies?
a. Comedy Imagery
b. juxtapositions
c. Expressionism
d. Impressionism

Ans: B

Who founded Cahiers du Cinema?

a. Edwin S. Porter
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. D.W.Griffith
d. André Bazin
Ans: D

The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by
a. Yasujiro Ozu
b. Keisuke Kinoshita
c. Akira Kurosawa
d. Kenji Mizoguchi
Ans: B

What is the meaning of Mise en Scene in film?

a. Posture
b. Classicism
c. Sound
d. Putting On Stage
As: D

Cinema made on artisanal basis, from outside the film industry without regard to traditional film is
known as _____________.

a. Commerical
b. Halloween
c. Documentary
d. Avant Garde

As: D
Which country cinema indirectly reflected establishment views and the crucial problems faced
by society?
a. Iranian cinema
b. German cinema
c. French cinema
d. Japanese cinema
Ans: A

Which of the below mentioned device does “capturing, processing and projecting” of film
a. Kinetograph
b. Kinetophonograph
c. Chronophotographic gun
d. Cinematograph
Ans: D

A perfect director of photography cognizes what visuals electrify the director and it could make
recommendations on what shots to capture.
a. Discovers the probabilities of every shots
b. Explores the potential of every visual
c. Explores the potential of every location
d. Discovers the possibilities of every frame
Ans: C

Which one of the following is related to prosthetics?

a. Costume
b. Composition
c. Cosmetics
d. Contrast
Ans: C

Who is the Father of Film Grammar?

a. Edwin S. Porter
b. Lumiere Brothers
c. D.W.Griffith
d. Etienne Jules Marey

As: C
In agreement with academy of _________________ the first cinematic based school was created.
a) Motion Picture Arts
b) Film & Acting
c) Stanislavski
d) Meisner
Ans: A

___________ provided a starting point for the semiological inquiry into cinema.
a) Louis Althuzer
b) Lev Kuleshov
c) Saussure
d) DzigaVertov
Ans: C

____________ was the multi-purpose device used in the ancient time to watch films.
a) Kinetograph
b) Kinetoscope
c) Cinematographe
d) Camcorders
Ans: C

___________ film is a mixture of an original footage shot by Porter and a fire scene from the
library stock.
a) The Life of an American Fireman
b) The Gulf Between
c) Enola Holmes
d) Saving Pyrate Ryan
Ans: A

The first commercial TV station started in Hollywood was ___________.

a) Kismet
b) Nine network
c) KTLA
d) Bein
Ans: C

__________ device was not considered as efficient way of recording motion pictures.
a) Kinetoscope
b) Kaleidoscope
c) Periscope
d) Zoopraxiscope
Ans: D

___________ theory aims at dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer of the film.
a) Marxist
b) Formalist
c) Cognitive
d) Apparatus
Ans: D

The American film director who employed cross cutting technique in the way of storytelling was
______________.
a) Edwin Stanton Porter
b) Christopher Nolan
c) D. W. Griffith
d) Louis Lumiere
Ans: C

Edison’screation___________ was considered as the world’s first film production studio.

a) Paramount Pictures.
b) Lionsgate Films.
c) The Weinstein Company
d) The Black Maria
Ans: D

Charlie Chaplin won an honorary award for his 1928 silent movie, ____________.
a) A Woman of Paris
b) The Circus
c) Limelight
d) A king in New York
Ans: B

____________ is the highest award given by the Franklin Institute.

a) Frank P.Brown Medal
b) Franklin Medal
c) Benjamin Franklin Medal
d) Bower Award
Ans: C

_________is considered as the foundation of a film.

a) Script
b) Sets
c) Costumes
d) Lights
Ans: A

Politicized _________ theories are meshed with academic theories of film.

a) Experimental
b) Cultural
c) Environmental
d) Statistical
Ans: B

___________was a Marxist philosopher influenced by the methods of structuralism.

a) Roland Barthes
b) Christian Metz
c) Jacques Lacan
d) Louis Althusser
Ans: D

The actions from two separate spaces could be juxtaposed by switching from the action of one
scene to the other is known as _________.
a) Phallus
b) Parallel montage
c) Textual analysis
d) Symptomatic reading
Ans: B

The South Indian film industry incorporates ______ film cultures

a) Five
b) Six
c) Seven
d) Eight
Ans: A
Shree Pundalik was a ______________ in Marathi
a) Silent film
b) Talkie film
c) Eastmancolor film
d) Black & white film
Ans: A

The first silent film in Tamil, KeechakaVadham was made by __________________.

a) J.J. Madan
b) R. NatarajaMudaliar
c) RamchandraGopalTorney
d) MadanraiVakil
Ans: B

Epic film Mother India was directed by __________

a) Guru Dutt.
b) Raj Kapoor
c) Mehboob Khan
d) Dilip Kumar
Ans: C

Which prominent film culture is largely associated with the parallel cinema movement
________________.
a) Tamil cinema
b) Marathi cinema
c) Kanada cinema
d) Bengali cinema
Ans: D

______________ founded Elphinstone Bioscope Company in Calcutta.

a) DadasahebPhalke
b) ArdeshirIrani
c) H. S. Bhatavdekar
d) JamshedjiFramjiMadan
Ans: D

In South India, the first Telugu and Tamil bilingual talkie is _______________.
a) KalingaMardanam
b) Kalidas
c) Lava Kusha
d) Raja Harishchandra
Ans: B

Statement 1: JumaiShasthi was the first Bengali talkie film.

Statement 2: JamaiShasthi was a traditional festival originated ages ago as a part of a women's
socio-religious duty.
a) Both statement is correct
b) Statement 1 correct, Statement 2 incorrect
c) Statement 1 incorrect, Statement 2 correct
d) Both statement is incorrect
Ans: B

East India Film Company produced its first Telugu film, Savitri in which year ____________.
a) 1923
b) 1933
c) 1943
d) 1953
Ans: B

In 1935 Devdas movie was directed by _____________.

a) Bimal Roy
b) VedantamRaghavaiah
c) PramatheshBaruah
d) SriramAdittya
Ans: C

Assertion (A): The Parallel Cinema movement, mainly led by Bengalis, which then accounted
for a quarter of India's film output. The movement emphasised social realism.
Reason (R): The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959, Satyajit Ray) won major prizes at all the major
international film festivals and firmly established the Parallel Cinema movement.
a) A is true but R is false
b) A is false but R is true
c) Both A & R are true and R is not the correct explanation of A
d) Both A & R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
Ans: C

The first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is
_______________.
a) Aurat
b) Madhumati
c) Gunga Jumna
d) Mother India
Ans: D

SivajiGanesan was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour by the
a) Indian Government
b) British Government
c) Tamilnadu Government
d) French Government
Ans: D

In the movie Ayodhyecha Raja, Taramati character was performed by _______________.

a) DurgaKhote
b) Sandhya
c) Ranjana
d) Asha Kale
Ans: A

Who was the screenwriter for the movie NaaluPennungal?

a) AdoorGopalakrishnan
b) ThakazhiSivasankaraPillai
c) MrinalSen
d) Isaac Thomas Kottukappally
Ans: A

First film studio and film society in Kerala was formed by ________________.
a) KulathoorBhaskaran Nair &Mankada Ravi Varma
b) KulathoorBhaskaran Nair &KaramanaJanardanan Nair
c) M. R. Gopakumar&KulathoorBhaskaran Nair
d) AdoorGopalakrishnan&Mankada Ravi Varma
Ans: D

Assertion (A): The term "parallel cinema" has started being applied to off-beat films produced in
Bollywood, where art films have begun experiencing resurgence.
Reason (R): This led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir, urban films
reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai.
a) A is true but R is false
b) A is false but R is true
c) Both A & R are true and R is not the correct explanation of A
d) Both A & R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
Ans: D

Which one of the following is related to prosthetics?

a) Costume
b) Composition
c) Cosmetics
d) Contrast
Ans: C

In the following awards, which one was not crowned by ‘Amélie’

a) Cesar Awards
b) European Film Awards
c) British Academy Film Awards
d) Golden Eagle Awards
Ans: C

A role has two concepts, which describes simples cloths for villager and designer clothes for
urbane that establish the difference between their ___________
a) Locality
b) Lifestyle
c) Presence
d) Performance
Ans: B

A perfect director of photography cognizes what visuals electrify the director and it could make
recommendations on what shots to capture.
a) Discovers the probabilities of every shots
b) Explores the potential of every visual
c) Explores the potential of every location
d) Discovers the possibilities of every frame
Ans: C
An overhead shot which where the using camera is deferred in the air on a ___________
a) Moving dolly
b) Moving crane
c) Moving unit
d) Moving side
Ans: B

Define the statement ‘Framing the shot’

a) Proximity to the camera
b) Proximity to the characters
c) Proximity to the objects
d) Proximity to the subjects
Ans: A

Which of the following statement is wrong? 1. Short-focal-length lens makes objects look further
away than they actually are, 2. Short-focal-length lens makes objects look closer, 3. Short-focal-
length lens permit many or all planes to be in focus, 4. Short-focal-length lens movement from
background to foreground may appear slower.
a) 1, 2, 3, and 4
b) 2, 3, and 4
c) 3 and 1
d) 4 and 2
Ans: D

Which one of the following is not related with the Dutch angle?
a) Canted angle
b) Oblique angle
c) Diagonal technique
d) Straight angle
Ans: D

In editing, the sense and info communicated rely profoundly on how the shots are arranged and
_____________ next to each other.
a) Juxtaposed
b) Paralleled
c) Ordered
d) Positioned
Ans: A

Which one is not related to absolute film?

a) Subgenre
b) Experimental
c) Narrative
d) Non-narrative
Ans: C

About 1911, who has tested with direct animation, musically fixing together tinted film in
diverse colors.
a) Léopold Survage
b) Hans Lorenz Stoltenberg
c) Georges Méliès
d) Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Ans: B

Pure Cinema is a concept of _____________

a) Germany
b) Italy
c) French
d) Russia
Ans: C

Laura Mulvey's filmmaking and writing hurled a flourishing _____________________

a) Experimental film based ideas
b) Feminist film based ideas
c) Narrative film based ideas
d) American film based ideas
Ans: B

Which one of following is not related to MIX NYC?

a) Queer experimental film
b) Experimental film
c) Paris is burning
d) Barbara Hammer
Ans: B

If you engaged with the film, the filmmaker may cherry-pick to swindler your expectations:
when your expected consequence is deferred you may experience suspense; when your
expectation is embittered you may experience surprise.
a) Form and Convention
b) Form and Consequence
c) Form and Experience
d) Form and Expectation
Ans: D

You see a couple quarrelling in the path, where their sounds are higher harsh and no offence has
been committed, so you keep walking. At the same time, you may amaze that why they are in
conflict and the condition is still imprecise to us. But when the man hit the lady, we would no
longer be witness and either we attempt to stop the man from hitting the lady again or we call the
police.
a) Disunity
b) Ambiguity
c) Conflict
d) Repetition
Ans: B

Which one of the following is not related to Tenet movie?

a) Sci-fi
b) Suspense
c) Kapadia
d) Paramount
Ans: D

Do Bigha Zamin won the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival and paved the way
for the ____________.
a. Indian Parallel cinema
b. Indian New Wave cinema
c. Morden Cinema
d. Talkie cinema
Ans: B

In agreement with academy of __________ the first cinematic based school was created.
a) Motion Picture Arts
b) Film & Acting
c) Stanislavski
d) Meisner
Ans: A

Sivaji Ganesan was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour by the _______.
a. Indian Government
b. British Government
c. Tamilnadu Government
d. French Government
Ans: D

The first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is
_______.
a. Aurat
b. Madhumati
c. Gunga Jumna
d. Mother India
Ans: D

Who is known as the Father of Indian cinema?

a. Dada SahebPhalke
b. JamshedjiFramjiMadhan
c. Hiralalsen
d. Satyajit Ray
Ans: A

Who invented “Kodak”?

a. George Eastman
b. Lumiere Brothers
c. George Melies
d. Thoma Alva Edison

a. George Eastman

Who is the assistant of Thomas Alva Edison?

a. Etienne Jules Marey
b. Eadweard Muybridge
c. W.K.L.Dickson
d. AugusteLumiere

c. W.K.L.Dickson

In early stages, which metal was used as a charge for viewing Cinema in Cinema
Halls?
a. Copper
b. Silver
c. Gold
d. Nickel

d. Nickel

Which of the below mentioned device does “capturing, processing and projecting”
of film
a. Kinetograph
b. Kinetophonograph
c. Chromophotographic gun
d. Cinematograph

d. Cinematograph

Who Started Motion Picture Patent Company – MPPC?

a. Dada SahebPhalke
b. Thomas Alva Edison
c. DavidWark Griffith
d. Edwin S. Porter

b. Thomas Alva Edison

Who directed “A Trip to the Moon”?

a. Edwin S. Porter
b. W.K.L Dickson
c. George Melies
d. D.W.Griffith

c. George Melies
Who directed “The Arrival of a Train”?
a. George Melies
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. Lumiere Brothers
d. Eadweard Muybridge

c. Lumiere Brothers

Who built “The Black Maria”

a. Sergei Eisenstein
b. Thomas Alva Edison
c. George Eastman
d. Lumiere Brothers

b. Thomas Alva Edison

What is the length of one 35 mm Film Reel?

a. 1000 feet
b. 1100 feet
c. 1200 feet
d. 1300 feet

a.1000 feet

Which of the below is the Basic Element of Film?

a. Plot
b. Lighting
c. Editing
d. Story

c. Editing

Which was the First Indian Movie with Dialogue?

a. Raja Harishchandra
b. AlamAra
c. Birth of Shri Krishna
d. Lanka Dahan
b. AlamAra

Father of Indian Cinema

a. Dada SahebPhalke
b. JamshedjiFramjiMadhan
c. Hiralalsen
d. Satyajit Ray

a. Dada SahebPhalke

Who is The Father of Tamil Cinema?

a. Samikannu Vincent
b. V.Shantaram
c. NatarajaMudhaliar
d. Narayanan

c. NatarajaMudhaliar

Which is the First Tamil Talkie Movie?

a. Kalidas
b. KeechagaVadham
c. Balayogini
d. Prahalada

a. Kalidas

Which of the following Film Theory was postulated by Sigmund Freud?

a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory
b. Apparatus Film Theory
c. Formalist Film Theory
d. Structuralist Film Theory

a. Psychoanalytical Film Theory

What is the Full form of “NFDC”?
a. National Fund and Development of Cinema
b. National Film Development Corporation
c. National Fund on Demand of Cinema
d. National Film Development Committee

b. National Film Development Corporation

Who is Referred as “NadigarThilagam” in Tamil film Industry?

a. Gemini Ganesan
b. Nagesh
c. SivajiGanesan
d. M.N.Nambiar

c. SivajiGanesan

Which film inspired Dada SahebPhalke to become a Film Maker?

a. Raja Harishchandra
b. The Life of an American Fireman
c. The Life of Christ
d. The Arrival of the Train

c. The Life of Christ

Which was the First Film Studio in Tamil Nadu?

a. India Film Company
b. AVM Studio
c. Vahini Studio
d. Tamil Nadu Film Studio

a. India Film Company

Where was the First Film Studio established in South India?
a.Hyderabad
b.Coimbatore
c.Chennai
d.Ernakulam

c.Chennai

Contrast Lighting, Artificial Set, Exaggerated Acting, Unexpected Camera Angles

are the characteristics of:
a. Italian Neo – Realism
b. French Impressionism
c. Third World Cinema
d. German Expressionism

d. German Expressionism

In which the Soviet Montage editing technique was first used?

a. Battleship Potemkin
b. Petersburg
c. Storm Over Asia
d. The Great Train Robbery

a. Battleship Potemkin

Where is the place Hollywood?

a. San Diego, California
b. Los Angeles, California
c. Sacramento, California
d. Davis, California

b. Los Angeles, California

Which of the following Japanese movie won “Golden Lion Award” at the Venice
Film Festival in the year 1997?
a. Hanabi (Fireworks)
b. Sonatine
c. Angel’s Egg
d. Violent Cop

a. Hanabi (Fireworks)

Who was the First Person to direct a movie in the place Hollywood?
a. Edwin S. Porter
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. D.W.Griffith
d. Lumiere Brothers

c. D.W.Griffith

Who is referred as “Benshi” in Japanese Cinemas?

a. Cinematographer
b .Narrator
c. Theatre Artist
d.Musician

b .Narrator

Who is the Father of Soviet Montage?

a. Lev Kuleshov
b. DzigaVertov
c. VsevolodPudovkin
d. Sergei Eisenstein

d. Sergei Eisenstein

Who is the Director of the movie “Metropolis”?

a. Fritz Lang
b. Vittoria de Sica
c. Akira Kurosawa
d. YasujiroOzu

a. Fritz Lang

What was the first Film shot in the place Hollywood?

a. The Arrival of a Train
b. In Old California
c. The Great Train Robbery
d. The life of an American Fire Man

b. In Old California

What are the four ‘P’s of Mis-en-Scene?

a. Point of view, Power, Position, Placement
b. Power, Posture, Point of view, Position
c. Point of view, Posture, Properties, Position
d. Posture, Position, Properties, Placement

c. Point of view, Posture, Properties, Position

Which of the following is the element of Mise en Scene?

a. Setting
b. Framing
c. Composition
d. Recce

a. Setting

Which Camera Shot is Generally used to capture “Facial Expressions”?

a. Long Shot
b. Close Up shot
c. Mid Shot
d. Extreme Long Shot
b. Close Up shot

The technique of selecting and editing separate sections of film together to create a
meaning is
a. Montage
b. Mise-en-Scene
c. Genre
d. Continuity Editing

a.Montage

Showing two or more events happening simultaneously at different locations is

a. Montage
b. Parallel editing
c. Graphic dimension editing
d. Continuity editing

b.Parallel editing

Showing Image through Subject’s eye is?

a. Following Shot
b. Canted Shot
c. Mid Shot
d. Point of View Shot

d. Point of View Shot

Changing the focus of the lens from Foreground to Background or vice versa is
a. Racking Focus
b. Shallow Focus
c. Deep Focus
d. Depth of Field
a. Racking Focus

What is the full form of CG?

a. Cinema Graphics
b. Computer Graphics
c. Camera Grid
d. Camera Guard

b. Computer Graphics

The term Protagonist is referred to

a. The Comedian
b. The Villain
c. The Leading Role
d. The Heroine

c. The Leading Role

42. Which of the following come under Non-Narrative Cinema category?

a. Documentary film
b. Music videos
c. Abstract film
d. All of the above

d. All of the above

Films that satisfy the Three Act Structure film format are generally referred as
a. Narrative cinema
b. Non-narrative cinema
c. Live cinema
d. Real cinema

a. Narrative cinema
What is the meaning of the term “Genre”?
a. Staging
b. Putting Together
c. Type
d. On stage

c. Type

Which of the following comes under Major Film Genres?

a. Biopics
b. Action Films
c. Fantasy Films
d. Film Noir

b. Action Films

Woody Allen is famous for

a. Action Movies
b. Crime Thriller Movies
c. Horror Movies
d. Comedy Movies

d. Comedy Movies

What is the full form of CIFF?

a. Chennai International Film Festival
b. Chicago International Film Festival
c. Canada International Film Festival
d. California International Film Festival

a. Chennai International Film Festival

Which of the following is the oldest Film Festival?

a. Cannes Film Festival
b. Berlin International Film Festival
c. Venice International Film Festival
d. International Film Festival of India
c. Venice International Film Festival

Number of frames per second

a. 48 fps
b. 24 fps
c. 60 fps
d. 96 fps

b. 24 fps