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E.T - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Elliptical cap
        
        Certain parts a scene are omitted in order to create a sense of ellipsis, or a missing piece
        
        Used to imply a passage of time, suggesting character's thoughts or feelings
        
        Or to create a sense of mystery or intrigue
    - - the audience only knows what the character knows
      - there is no additional narration or information beyond what the characters within the family already knew
      - Often used through elements like flashbacks or dreams
    - - Allows the audience to know more than the characters
      - Narrator provided additional details and background information, creating a sense of expectation
  - - - Events unfold in chronological order and sequential order
    - - Events unfold out of chronological order
  - - - Elliott replies with that he is off with someone else in Mexico
  - - - open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning
- - - - They are peaceful and adorable
- - - - Cinematography
        
        slow pan from stars to the forest
        
        Marks the film as science-fiction and evokes sense of wonder
        
        Tracking shots
        
        around the ship
        
        Mimics the aliens' caution movement
        
        Makes the audience feel like part of their group
        
        POV shots
        
        E.T's perspective
        
        Shows his curiosity and innocence
        
        Helps viewers bond with him early
      - Lighting
        
        Hiding and revealing
        
        Spielberg deliberately keeps E.T shadowy and partially obscured in the early scenes
        
        Backlighting and silhouettes create mystery while also masking the limitations of the puppet design
        
        The restraint makes E.T feel more magical and less like a special-effects creature
        
        forest is lit in low-key lighting, atmospheric tones
        
        gives it a dreamlike quality that contrasts with the harsh, bright lights of the approaching government agents
      - Sound and tone
        
        Uses minimal dialogue, relying on ambient forest sounds and John Williams' subtle musical cues to build tension and wonder
    - - wonder and innocence
        
        The aliens are gentle explorers, not invaders
      - Fear of authority
        
        Humans are introduced as faceless, looming threats
      - Loneliness and separation
        
        E.T becomes stranded when the ship departs without him, setting up the emotional core of the story
  - - - A saw blade, coffee can, a speak & spell
      - Uses it in the forest to send a message to his people
      - Elliott helps him, but he's torn: he wants E.T to stay, even though E.T needs to leave to survive
    - - The scene is magical- moonlight, glowing forest, the strange beauty of the homemade transmitter
        
        but underneath it is fear. E.T is dying
      - Elliott senses it
        
        The wonder is tinged with dread, and Spielberg lets both emotions sit together
    - - The forest is shot with soft, diffused lighting
        
        Makes it feel like a dream
      - Wide shots
        
        emphasise how small E.T and Elliott are in the vast landscape
      - close-ups
        
        Capture Elliott's conflict: he wants to help E.T, but he doesn't want to lose him
      - The camera often stays low, at E.T's height, reinforcing empathy
    - - John William's score is gentle here, almost hesitant
        
        doesn't swell until the signal is send- even then, its restrained
      - Sound mix blends:
        
        Rustling forest
        
        Electronic chirps of the communicator
        
        E.T's laboured breathing
      - Creates a sense of fragile gope
    - - Communication across difference
        
        E.T and Elliott don't share a language, but they share an understanding of one another
      - Home and belonging
        
        E.T wants to return home; Elliott wants him to stay
      - Growing up
        
        Elliott learns that love sometimes means letting go
      - Morality
        
        E.T's physical decline makes the scene urgent and heartbreaking
    - - Mary at home
        
        Comedic
        
        Comedy is created through a sense of dramatic irony
        
        The audience and Gertie see how oblivious Mary is to the presence of E.T Gertie tries and fails to reveal E.T to her
        
        Spielberg captures the obliviousness of Mary through, her putting the shopping away having a back shot
        
        When Mary 'knocks out' E.T with the fridge door
        
        E.T walks right past her as she moves around
        
        Mary doesn't realise E.T when he walked behind her as she's picking up the clothing that E.T knocked on the floor
        
        Comedy created by E.T intimidating Gertie when she says 'B good'
      - Cinematography
        
        E.T making noise but Mary doesn't hear it
        
        Camera only goes up to 'adult' height when Mary is around
        
        Should be seeing what Mary's seeing but because she is busy with her own things, she doesn't pay attention to the things around her
        
        Always in the POV of a child
        
        She should have been able to notice E.T at least once in the shots
        
        Mary was so wrapped up in her own world she doesn't recognise E.T speaking
      - Mise-en-scene
        
        E.T posture when Elliott opens the door through E.T dresses up
        
        Use of food shopping, clothes- E.T pulling it down- doesn't realise it
        
        Mary picks it up, phone, TV, fruit, fridge- Knocked E.T over
        
        Fridge becomes a barrier- we can see him, but Mary can't
        
        TV- E.T was hiding behind it
      - Performance
        
        Mary always has her back to him, although the proximity is very close, she doesn't realise that he is present
        
        Alignment
        
        when we can see their perspective and sympathise with their point of view
        
        Filmmakers use various techniques to align us with certain characters in film's
  - - - we see the comedy of this because we see exactly what E.T is doing and Mary not noticing
    - - Backlight draws the attention towards what Mary is doing
      - There is a lot of natural lighting
      - bunch of clutter around
        
        lacks the homely presence
    - - Natural lighting and shading used to show what E.T is doing when he touches the phone
      - With Gertie standing in the background looking at what he is doing
      - The significant of Mary
        
        Is oblivious to E>T shows that Mary doesn't really care for the wellbeing of Gertie when she leaves her alone to get Elliott
        
        Shows that Gertie wants attention but is not getting it from her own mother
        
        E.T shows the bridge between the family and him, he tries to connect them
        
        characters design shows that he is not very attractive, he is their size and is a lot smaller than Elliott's brother Michael
      - Narrative significance
        
        Is established that E.T is learning to talk
        
        Anticipating him asking him children for help to 'go home'
        
        Thematic significance we can see how children and adults have different concerns and are not always able to understand one another
        
        They each live their own 'worlds' with separate anxieties/
        
        second part of the sequence is still comedic tone, but gradually lead towards the more serious narrative point
        
        We learn that E.T is homesick and wants to phone home
        
        This is the mid-point and the introduction of the second act problem, which has to be resolved by the end of the film
  - - - Peter pan is a story about refusing to grow up, and Spielberg uses it deliberately
      - E.T is childlike, curious and gentle
      - Gertie is young enough to accept him without fear
      - The bedtime-story setting emphasises imagination, trust and emotional openness
        
        qualities the children have but the adults lack
    - - Mary is physically present but emotionally unaware
        
        She doesn't realise E.T is only a few feet away
        
        Visual irony highlights a recurring motif: adults in the film cannot see what children can
      - Spielberg frames Mary warmly but keeps her oblivious, reinforcing the idea that adulthood dulls perception
    - - Peter Pan is a story about leaving and retuning, about the ache of separation
      - subtext quietly prepares the audience for E.T's eventual departure
      - Spielberg "knits together plot elements with thematic resonance" in this moment
    - - E.T's reaction to the story- listening, learning, responding emotionally- makes his feel empathetic and intelligent
      - Also the first time we clearly see his glowing finger
      - Symbol of healing and connection, which appears within this scene
    - - Storytelling as connection
        
        E.T bonds with the human world through narrative before he can speak English
      - The fragility of childhood
        
        Gertie's innocence and Mary's distractedness shows how quickly childhood slips away
      - The emotional cost of leaving
        
        Peter Pan's themes echo E.T's coming separation from Elliott
  - - - Spielberg films it from a child's POV
        
        Camera stays low, at Elliott's height, so the space-suit figures appear enormous
        
        They don't speak at first
        
        They don't show faces
        
        They just enter
        
        This makes them feel less like scientists and more like monsters
        
        This is Spielberg's recurring idea
        
        Children see adults as giants, especially when adults don't listen
      - Imagery is deliberately surreal
        
        Suits look like NASA gear
        
        Bulky, white, reflective
        
        Completely out of place in a suburban living room
        
        Spielberg exaggerates the strangeness to make the moment feel dreamlike
        
        Almost like an alien invasion in reverse
        
        effect: Humans look more alien that E.T ever did
      - The home is transformed into a hostile environment
        
        the house, once warm and chaotic with kids, becomes wrapped in plastic tunnels, tubes and barriers
        
        visual transformation symbolises
        
        The loss of childhood safety
        
        the intrusion of adult control
        
        The collapse of Elliott's private world
        
        One of the clearest examples of Spielberg using production design to express emotion
      - Marks the story's shift from wonder to crisis
        
        Up to this point, the film has been magical, funny and intimate
        
        The home invasion sequence is the moment where everything becomes serious
        
        E.T is dying, Elliott is connected to him
        
        The government is no longer a distant threat, it is inside the house
      - Themes reinforced
        
        Childhood vs. authority
        
        Adults don't understand the emotional bond between Elliott and E.T
        
        Fear of the unknown
        
        the government treats E.T as a specimen, not as a person
        
        Loss of innocence
        
        Elliott's home, once a sanctuary, becomes a laboratory
        
        Reversal of roles
        
        The "aliens" in this moment are the humans
    - - Cinematography
        
        Low camera angles
        
        camera stays at Elliott's height, making the space-suit figures appear enormous and inhuman
        
        Aligns with a child's perspective and exaggerates the threat
        
        Long lenses and slow push-ins
        
        These create a sense of creeping inevitability as the figures approach the house
        
        framing through windows and doorways
        
        Spielberg uses frames-within-frames to show the home being visually "invaded" before it's physically breached
        
        Silhouettes
        
        The suits are often backlit, turning them into faceless shapes rather than people
      - Acting
        
        Elliott's performance
        
        Panicked and breathless, showing both his physical connection to E.T and his terror at losing control of the situation
        
        Mary [the mother]
        
        plays the scene with frantic energy
        
        She is trying to protect her children but is overwhelmed
        
        reinforced the theme that adults are powerless in the face of institutional authority
        
        Space-suit figures
        
        Moves slowly, deliberately, without visible emotion
        
        Their body language is stiff and clinical
        
        Makes them feel more like machines than people
      - Mise-en-scene
        
        The house
        
        Once warm, cluttered, and lived-in
        
        Becomes a sterile environment as plastic sheeting, tubes, and scientific equipment take over
        
        Space suits
        
        Bright white, bulky, and reflective
        
        clashes violently with the domestic setting
        
        barriers and tunnels
        
        Plastic tunnels snaking through the house visually represent the takeover of the children's world by adult systems
        
        Props
        
        E.T's homemade devices, children's toys, and family objects are suddenly surrounded by government equipment, symbolising the collision of innocence and authority
      - Editing
        
        Rapid cross-cutting
        
        Between the children inside and the suited figures outside builds suspense
        
        abrupt cuts
        
        Replace the film's earlier gentle pacing, signalling a shift from wonder to crisis
        
        Parallel editing
        
        shows the simultaneous collapse of two worlds
        
        E.T's failing health and the government's encroachment
        
        Longer takes
        
        used once the invasion begins, trapping the audience in the moment and emphasising helplessness
      - Lighting
        
        harsh, artificial light
        
        from the suits and equipment contrasts with the warm, natural lighting earlier in the film
        
        Backlighting
        
        Turn the invaders into silhouettes, stripping them of identity
        
        Cold, clinical tones
        
        dominate once the house is sealed
        
        Makes the environment feel medical and threatening
        
        Low-key lighting
        
        in the interior emphasises shadows and uncertainty, heightening the sense of fear
      - Sound
        
        Build up
        
        Before the suits appear, the house is filled with
        
        ambient suburban quiet
        
        Soft domestic noises
        
        E.T's laboured breathing
        
        These familiar sounds create a baseline of safety
        
        Spielberg then disrupts it with unnatural, mechanical noises from outside
        
        sonic clue that something is approaching
        
        The arrival
        
        When space-suit figures appear:
        
        Heavy, pressurised breathing
        
        air-pump hissing
        
        Plastic rustling
        
        Metallic clanking
        
        These sounds make the suits feel alive in a monstrous way
        
        Breathing is unsettling- loud, rhythmic and avoid of emotion
        
        The humans sound more alien that E.T ever did
        
        foley and movement
        
        every movement of the suits is amplified
        
        footsteps thus heavily
        
        Gloves scrape against surfaces
        
        suits creak with weight
        
        Because the camera is low [child's POV], the sound mix emphasises the mass of the invaders
        
        They don't just enter the house- the dominate is sonically