CHAPTER 2 – GRIFFITH AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES: 1908-1920
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is not true about Nickelodeons?
a. They were air conditioned.
b. Their audiences came from the professional and upper classes.
c. They showed full length (over 90 minutes) movies.
d. None of the above
2. Which of the following companies was not a film leader in the Nickelodeon era?
a. United Artists
b. Biograph
c. Vitagraph
d. Kalem
3. Which of the following is true about Griffith’s early camera work?
a. He filmed so that the projected image would move faster than normal.
b. He filmed human subjects up close to intensify emotion.
c. He shot in artificial lighting nearly exclusively.
d. He shot scenes in a completely spontaneous, unrehearsed manner.
4. Which of the following editing techniques did Griffith make use of?
a. parallel editing
b. cross cutting
c. both a and b
d. neither a nor b
5. Which form of movie proved a staple of studios for 40 years?
a. sequel
b. noir
c. serial
d. romance
6. What was one technique that Biograph, as part of the Patents Company group, used to maintain
rigid control of the early movie-making industry?
a. It kept the names of the actors in its films secret.
b. It limited the budgets of its directors.
c. It moved its operations to California.
d. None of the above
7. One of the main detractions of The Birth of a Nation is
a. the realism of its battle scenes.
b. the clear racism demonstrated in the film.
c. melodrama of the ride-to-the rescue climax.
d. Billy Bitzer’s camera work/cinematography
8. In Intolerance, Griffith used which of the following:
a. near-subliminal, stream-of-consciousness flow.
b. cross cutting, including shots lasting 8 frames.
c. a sort of “crane” shot.
d. all of the above
9. Who, of the following, was Griffith’s most expressive female actor?
a. Dorothy Gish
b. Pearl White
c. Lillian Gish
d. Fannie Ward
10. A director whom Griffith did not “train” was
a. Henry King
b. John Ford
c. Tod Browning
d. Raoul Walsh
11. Who was probably responsible, though uncredited, with creating the Hollywood studio system?
a. William S. Hart
b. Max Sennett
c. Donald MacKenzie
d. Thomas Ince
12. Griffith’s strengths included all of the following except
a. creating clinical documentation.
b. creating emotional reactions.
c. creating lost worlds.
d. creating poetry and drama.
13. Which Cecil B. De Mille movie was hailed by the French as a breakthrough in mise en scene?
a. Dream Street
b. The Cheat
c. Tumbleweeds
d. none of the above
14. Mack Sennett’s comedy
a. worked off the odd idea that cops were funny.
b. often piled comic incidents to a “rally.”
c. were populated by character types like the Unfaithful Wife.
d. all of the above
15. The movies first important comedienne was
a. Marie Dressler.
b. Lucille Ball.
c. Mabel Normand .
d. Mary Pickford.
16. All of the following major comedic talents worked for Max Sennett except
a. Buster Keaton.
b. Fatty Arbuckle.
c. Charlie Chaplin.
d. Harold Lloyd.
17. Unlike Sennett, Charlie Chaplin realized
a. nothing transcended character.
b. nothing transcended goof looks.
c. nothing transcended crude, physical humor.
d. nothing transcended editing style.
True/False
(Place a T or an F in the line following the sentence.)
1. Early movies, before Griffith, were considered coarse and distasteful.
2. The serial was a staple of second- and third-run theaters for forty years.
3. Early on, unwritten rules required movies be made to look like live theatre as viewed from
front row center.
4. Griffith began using mature, “Grand Gesture” actors wizened by years of barnstorming.
5. Griffith’s passion was for the extreme long shot so that he could capture action and spectacle.
6. Griffith increased movie-making “language” with techniques like freeze frames, parallel
editing, frequent close-ups, and objects to synopsize and define character.
7. Griffith was willing to collaborate with others like Allan Dwan to create the effects that
Griffith wanted for his movies.
8. Cecil B. De Mille’s greatest gift was for getting actors to give wonderful performances.
9. Thomas Ince, rather than Griffith, is the uncredited originator of what has come to be known
as the Hollywood studio system.
10. Max Sennett’s success with his Keystone Studio was due to the fact that he “told” original
stories and used only top actors.
. Matching
1) Mae Marsh ___
2) Marcus Hanna ___
3) The Sands of Dee ___
4) freeze frame ___
5) Intolerance ___
6) The Birth of a Nation ___
7) Lillian Gish ___
8) masking ___
9) Cecil B. De Mille ___
10) Max Sennett ___
a. Griffith one-reeler containing 68 scenes
b. Our Lady of Constant Sorrows to a generation of filmgoers
c. hailed as the director who made the breakthrough with mise en scene
d. purposely photographed action and characters at a faster-than-life speed
e. after Lillian Gish, Griffith’s most expressive actor
f. film technique altering frame size used in Orphans of the Storm
g. Griffith used this device for ironic contrast between hungry workers and a bountiful banquet h.
Griffith’s artistically first-rate films, but a political/sociological embarrassment
i. powerbroker/kingmaker
j. four stories linked by titles, a symbolic mother image, and cross cutting
ANS:
Short Answer
1. What was the typical Nickelodeon like in terms of setting and comfort?
2. What was the rationale behind Biograph joining with Edison, Vitagraph, etc. in 1908?
3. What were some of the ways D. W. Griffith used editing, camera work, and acting to bring
emotions to the stories of movies like Birth of a Nation and Broken Blossom?
4. What were some of the humor techniques — camera work, acting, story lines — that Max
Sennett used to strike “wildly responsive chords” in audiences?
Essay Question
1. Compare and contrast the nickelodeons of early cinema with the megaplexes like AMC
theatres of today’s cinema.
2. To what extent was the confederation of Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, et al. concerned with
power, money, morality, and art?
3. What are some of the ways D.W. Griffith’s filmmaking techniques compare and contrast with
Steven Spielberg’s filmmaking techniques?
4. After watching one of his films on Youtube, what is 1) a structural analysis of the typical
Sennett plot, b) types of humor (with examples) found in the story, and c) the portrayal of
characters by manner, appearance, behavior, and possessions?