Investigating Props

This term in the Media and Film Studies department, Year 12 students have been closely analysing the 80’s cult classic film: E.T The Extra Terrestrial. Directed by Steven Spielberg in 1982, this heart warming film follows the story of a young boy named Elliott, who encounters and befriends E.T. - an alien who has been accidentally stranded on earth.

As well as watching and appreciating the film, students have been tasked with comparing it to some of the other films they have studied this year; Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) and The General (Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, 1926) in order to give them an overview of how US Film’s have developed through time.

The focus of this week’s learning was mise en scene, and particularly the role that props have in creating meaning in film. Pictured are some of the students’ independent analysis of the key props in E.T The Extra Terrestrial, which they have drawn an annotated in their exercise books. Also shown is some of Miss Wood’s class’ group work, where the Year 12 students were tasked with identifying the main roles and functions of a series of props and costumes from all three of the films they have studied.