Chapter 17 — Quiz

Twenty-five questions to check your command of story and structure. Mix of multiple choice, true/false (with justification), short answer, and "what's wrong with this structure?" diagnostics. Answer from memory first; the key with explanations is at the end.

Multiple choice

1. What is the primary mechanism by which structure holds a viewer's attention? - A) High production value - B) Open loops — questions planted early and paid off later - C) Fast cutting - D) A surprising twist ending

2. A story beat is best defined as: - A) A single shot - B) A sentence of narration - C) A moment where something turns — new information lands or a question opens/closes - D) A music cue

3. In three-act structure, the inciting incident belongs at the end of which act? - A) Act 1 (setup) - B) Act 2 (development) - C) Act 3 (resolution) - D) It has no fixed place

4. The narrative arc is: - A) The shape of the camera move across a shot - B) The line of meaningful change from a start-state to a different end-state - C) The list of shots in a scene - D) The music's emotional rise

5. Which opening is the strongest hook for a testimonial? - A) "Hi, I've been a customer for six years." - B) A ten-second logo animation - C) "My basement flooded at eleven at night." - D) "This is a video about our great service."

6. "Show, don't tell" works because: - A) Images are always more beautiful than words - B) The viewer draws the conclusion themselves, and owns a conclusion they reached - C) Narration is expensive to record - D) Captions are required for accessibility

7. In a nonfiction profile, the B-story is usually: - A) The blooper reel - B) The backup footage - C) The deeper "why" — the emotional or thematic thread under the surface subject - D) The second camera angle

8. The best test of whether your beats form a story rather than a list is: - A) Whether they're in time order - B) Whether each connects to the next with "but" or "therefore" rather than "and then" - C) Whether there are at least five of them - D) Whether they rhyme thematically

9. You interviewed a subject and their strongest sentence came 2 minutes in. The professional move is to: - A) Use the interview in the exact order it was spoken - B) Cut that sentence entirely — it came too late - C) Lead the piece with that sentence and back-fill the setup after - D) Re-shoot the interview

10. Why does Act 2 sag in weak nonfiction? - A) It's always too short - B) It must sustain tension without resolving, and weak versions add material that changes nothing - C) Viewers only watch the beginning and end - D) Music can't play during Act 2

11. A logline is: - A) A timecode log of every shot - B) One sentence stating who the video is about, what they face, and what changes - C) The opening line of narration - D) A caption for social media

12. Which is an example of telling rather than showing? - A) A shot of an empty 6 a.m. classroom with one light on and a teacher already writing on the board - B) Narration that says "she was a dedicated teacher" - C) A close-up of worn, familiar tools - D) A subject waving off payment from a child

True / False — justify in one sentence

13. The order events actually happened is usually the best order to tell them in.

14. A thirty-second ad is too short to have a three-act structure.

15. Re-ordering a real interview subject's soundbites is always dishonest.

16. If nothing changes across a video, you have a story without an arc.

17. The hook usually has to be shot specially; you rarely already have it in your footage.

18. Narration should carry what the picture cannot show, not repeat what it already shows.

Short answer

19. Name the three acts and give the one-line job of each.

20. Explain the difference between the three-act scaffold and the arc.

21. List four kinds of hook and give a one-line example of any one of them.

22. What is the show-don't-tell question you ask when you catch yourself writing an adjective, and why does it produce a shot?

23. Define A-story and B-story and give an example of each for a profile of a small-town pharmacist.

What's wrong with this structure?

24. A client video opens: "Welcome. In this video we'll show you how our team saved a struggling bakery and turned it into the neighborhood's favorite." Diagnose the single biggest structural problem and prescribe the fix.

25. A 3-minute profile is structured strictly in time order: "He was born here. He went to school here. He opened the shop in 1994. He added a second location. He's thinking about retiring." Diagnose why it doesn't hold, and name the two things it's missing.

More diagnostics

26. The single strongest reason to lay B-roll over an interview is: - A) It looks more professional - B) It shows the proof of what the interview says, and hides the cuts between soundbites - C) It fills time - D) It removes the need for good audio

27. (Short answer) List the seven prompts of the fill-in "story spine" in order, and name the one beginners most often leave empty.

28. (True/False — justify) If you cannot write a logline for your video, it means your footage is bad.

29. (What's wrong?) A how-to video opens: "Hi, I'm going to show you five tips. Tip one is…" Diagnose the missing element and prescribe a fix.

Answer Key

1. B. Structure = managed curiosity; open loops (question early, payoff later) are the core mechanism. (§17.1)

2. C. A beat is a turn in the story, not a shot or sentence; one beat may span several shots. (§17.1)

3. A. The inciting incident ends Act 1 — it disturbs the normal and starts the story. (§17.2)

4. B. The arc is the line of change; something is meaningfully different at the end than the start. (§17.2)

5. C. "The basement flooded at eleven at night" opens a loop (what happened?); the others inform, brand, or clear the throat. (§17.3)

6. B. A conclusion the viewer reaches themselves, from evidence, is one they own and trust; telling closes the gap and invites doubt. (§17.4)

7. C. The B-story is the deeper "why" braided with the A-story's "what"; the A informs, the B moves. (§17.5)

8. B. "But/therefore" reveals causation (a story); "and then" is chronology (a list). (§17.6)

9. C. Lead with the strongest line and back-fill setup — the buried hook belongs up front; this is "shoot for the edit." (§17.3)

10. B. Act 2 must hold tension without resolving; weak middles add facts that don't raise stakes or doubt. Fix: make each middle beat complicate. (§17.2)

11. B. The logline compresses subject + stake/want + change into one sentence; if you can't write it, you don't yet know the story. (§17.6)

12. B. "She was a dedicated teacher" is an abstract claim (telling); the others are observable evidence (showing). (§17.4)

13. False. The order events happened is a timeline; a story is the order that best builds and pays off the arc, which often means opening on something that happened last. (§17.5)

14. False. A thirty-second ad has all three acts in miniature — a hook/setup, a quick escalation, a payoff. Structure scales down. (§17.2)

15. False. Re-ordering to tell the story more clearly and truthfully is craft; only re-ordering to make the subject seem to say something they didn't mean is dishonest. (§17.5)

16. False. If nothing changes, there is no arc — and with no arc you don't have a story, you have footage in a row. (§17.2)

17. False. The hook is usually already in your material, buried behind an intro you thought you needed; finding and front-loading it is an edit decision, not a re-shoot. (§17.3)

18. True. Word and image should do different jobs; narration that repeats the picture is redundant and should be cut, reserving VO for context, interior thought, or a fact not visible. (§17.4)

19. Act 1 setup — establish the normal + the inciting problem/question. Act 2 development — the pursuit gets harder; rising complications. Act 3 resolution — the turn/climax + a new normal. (§17.2)

20. The three acts are the scaffold (the structural container: setup/development/resolution); the arc is the content (the actual line of change the scaffold holds up). You can have the scaffold and still have a flat arc if nothing truly changes. (§17.2)

21. Any four of: the question; in medias res; the striking image/sound; the bold claim/stake; the promise; the character. Example (bold claim): "This machine hasn't stopped running in forty years." (§17.3)

22. Ask "what would I see if this were true?" It produces a shot because the answer is always a concrete, observable behavior or object — evidence you can point a camera at — instead of an adjective you'd have to assert. (§17.4)

23. A-story = the surface "what" (how the pharmacy runs; filling prescriptions; the trade). B-story = the deeper "why" (she knows every patient by name; she's the last independent pharmacy for thirty miles; what's lost if she closes). The A informs; the B moves. (§17.5)

24. The biggest problem is front-loading the ending — the opening hands over the whole outcome ("saved a struggling bakery and turned it into the favorite"), killing every open loop before the video starts. Fix: open on the threat or the low point ("The bakery had thirty days before the bank took it"), so "we saved it" becomes a payoff the viewer travels toward, not a spoiler. (§17.1, §17.3)

25. It's a chronology dump — a timeline, not a story: the beats connect with "and then," nothing complicates, and no single moment is preferred over another. It's missing (1) an arc (a real change to build toward — what's actually at stake or different by the end?) and (2) a hook (it opens on "born here," the least gripping possible beat, instead of the strongest). Fix: find the change, lead with the strongest beat, and re-order to build toward the turn. (§17.2, §17.5)

26. B. B-roll proves the spoken claim (show-don't-tell) and covers the cuts between selects so the interview edits invisibly — two jobs at once. (§17.4, §17.5)

27. Once upon a time… / Every day… / Until one day… / Because of that… / Because of that… / Until finally… / And ever since then… Beginners most often leave "Until one day…" empty — they forget the story needs a turn. (§17.6)

28. False. A missing logline means the story isn't found yet — you don't yet know the arc, the stake, or the change. It's a structure problem to solve on paper (ideally before shooting), not evidence the footage is bad. (§17.6)

29. It has no hook — it opens with throat-clearing and a bare list ("five tips") that opens no loop and makes no promise worth staying for. Fix: lead with a promise or a stake that names the payoff — e.g., "You're probably making the third of these mistakes right now; here's how to stop." (§17.3)

Topics to review by question

If you missed more than two in any one section, re-read that section before the Production Checkpoint — your Project 2 spine depends on all six.