E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: film form in key sequences — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: film form in key sequences
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
What you need to know
Key sequences to know in detail: the opening in the forest, the house turned into a laboratory, and the bicycle chase and farewell.
Cinematography and lighting: a camera at a child's height, adults shown without faces, backlit smoke and torchlight, and the bicycle flying across the moon.
Mise-en-scène: E.T.'s design, Elliott's suburban home, and the clinical plastic tunnels of the laboratory.
Editing and sound: dissolves, faster editing in the chase, a flute motif, and John Williams's score.
How the film represents age (children against adults), gender (Mary and Gertie) and the family.
The few short lines of dialogue that matter most in these sequences, a few words each.
A worked answer to a practice stepped question on one element of film form in a key sequence: identify an example (1 mark), explain it (4 marks) and explore it in at least one key sequence (10 marks).
How to answer each part: the marks, and what the short identify and explain parts need as well as the extended answer, since naming a technique instead of a specific example from the film loses marks there. Practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
