Thursday 19 January 2023

Film studies - building perfect examples for L'Age d'Or

 In case you didn't guess from the title, this post is for film studies students. Film studies uses slightly different language to media studies, so unless you also study film studies, I would recommend skipping this post!

Following your mock exam results, the most common piece of feedback given out was that you either

1 - used the wrong element of MES in the wrong section. So costume is MES, but performance is not. It's very picky but this is how you're marked! 

2 - you just didn't include enough reference to micro elements full stop! 

This task will help you address this. After this session, you will have a definitive selection of micro elements to use no matter what question come up

1 - Select one scene from L'Age d'Or, approximately one minute long

It helps if you select a scene that is relatively 'straightforward', with not much cross cutting. However, it can and should be argued that cross cutting is an essential editing technique!

2 - Analyse the scene under the following headings and prompts:

  • Mise en scene (lighting, colour, props, costume, set design, setting etc)
  • Performance (acting style, naturalistic, proxemics, gesticulation, facial expression etc)
  • Cinematography (shot type, camera angle, camera movement etc)
  • Sound (diegesis, contrapuntal, naturalistic, soundtrack, score etc)
  • Editing (cross cutting, jump cut, rapid fire, match on action, dissolve etc)
Under each one of these bullet points, you should have a list of very specific micro elements for this scene. This is the most essential thing to make reference to in the exam, and it WILL get you marks!

Note: if any of these terms seem strange or alien to you, it's time to do a bit of research and find out what they mean! Seriously, drop what you're doing and revise these terms. It will help you in the long run!

3 - Do this again for two more scenes


Pick your favourite scenes, the scenes which are most memorable. There are no prizes for originality!