Assignment 1 Task 1 UNIT 10
- 1. Assignment 1 Task 1 Unit 10
- 2. MeanGirls (2004) Opening for a feature film – Coming of Age and Comedy
- 3. FirstShot In the first shot we see the main characters parents talking to her as it’s her first day of school.The parents are acting how they would as if she was a young child. This presents something that nearly every one has gone through with their first day of school. The dad says “you can ask one of the big kids where to do that.”This gives us the idea that she is a young child. The way the camera is positioned also creates the sense that she’s a child and we are seeing it from her perspective. In terms of mise en scene we are presented with a stereotypical suburban couple. This is a stereotypical start for a backstory of a coming of age film.
- 4. Reveal Then in the montage we are revealed that it is actually teenage daughter. Upsetting the norm the audience would expect to see. This creates interest within the audience. Later in the scene we see another normal thing to do with parents by them taking a photo.The setting of them doing this is an American neighborhood’s porch.This setting helps with presenting it as a coming of age film.
- 5. Breaking the norm. An interesting thing the film does in terms of audience again is mentioning again about how it goes against the norm.The main character has a voice over in this shot and in it she mentions how she guesses ’for a parent to cry on their kid’s first day of school’ then she brings forward to the fact ‘it usually happens when the kid is 5’.This creates a comedic effect which the audience would respond well too. Especially with the sound of her mother crying loudly.
- 6. Representations of social groups In the piece we see 3 differing representations of people. In the film we see the main character mention the stereotypical ideas of homeschooled children. She mentions how they can be "freaks”. In the next shot they show a footage of a stereotypical nerdy girl at a spelling competition. She is presented with a stereotypical nerdy costume and the actress puts on a nerdy voice.This effective to create stereotypical characters in the film to allow the audience to process them easier. Also to make her joke more funny. We then see her mention they might be ”weirdly religious or something” which goes well with the next shot of 5 stereotypical hillbilly children.We see the child in the middle talk about their religious views which are shown to be opposing to the bible.The child says ”On the third day, god created the Remington black Rifle. So that man can fight the dinosaurs… and the homosexuals.” Finally showing the rest of the children saying ”amen.”These children are presented in stereotypical clothing for their social group.This helps again with her joke about most home schooled children being different. We see their views contrasting with the films views making it obvious they don’t believe it by showing him talking slowly with his accent to increase the presentation of the stereotype and showing him lacking intelligence.
- 7. Cady’sCharacter Development – AfricaSide Immediately the main character’s personality and history is presented to the audience. This is done through her voice over narration which is done over African music linking to her life growing up there. Her voice is presented in a mellow tone so that she is a more relatable and likeable character quick quickly in the film. We are shown shots of her life in Africa in this.These shots are given a black border around them and are freeze frames. This is to give the affect of photographs so the audience feels like she’s going through a photobook while telling us about her life before the film. She mentions how she likes Africa which shows how difficult it will be for her to accustom to her new school. Foreshadowing the trouble she will have in the opening of the film.
- 8. Cady’sCharacter Development – America After we have talk aboutAfrica we see her character develop in other ways, one of these ways are through her clothing in the scene. She is presented in quite normal everyday clothing which contrasts to the popular teenager’s clothing which is presented to be chic and fashionable.
- 9. Teenage Portrayal In the opening montage we see the film portray teenagers as destructive and aggressive.This is to help portray the films scary nature to humanize the main character more for later in the film.This helps defend her actions later in the film.The fire is an exaggerated effect they use which helps with creating a sense of anarchy within the scene to show the main character’s opinion on teenagers.
- 10. Foreshadowing In the scene we see the film makers foreshadowing a later event when the main antagonist gets hit by a bus.
- 11. The Fault in our stars (2014) Opening for: Romantic Drama
- 12. FirstShot In the first shot of the film we see the filmmakers foreshadow later in the film with the shot of Hazel lying down outside at night.We hear the main character mention the idea of sugar-coating things the way movies or romance novels would.This breaks the fourth wall within the audience because of the coming montage of the happy moments from the film.This montage (images) shown on the next page). She then mentions how this isn’t the truth showing the theme of the entire film.This breaks the traditional norm in a romance film. This scene also shows the non-linear narrative of the film start.We are shown this from how the character shows the later shots of the film at the beginning. Breaking the norm of romantic films and turning this film into a memory instead of the current time.
- 14. Representation of the characters emotion in the doctors The emotion of the scene is conveyed by the actress’ actions during the scene.These actions are used to convey the character Hazel’s boredom in the doctor’s office scene. This creates the norm of hazel’s life showing the audience what hazel feels about her life in the scene and film.This is the first time we are shown hazel in her breathing tubes and her tank. Revealing to us that hazel is sick, breaking the stereotypes for a romantic film.
- 15. montage Hazel is then shown in a montage on why she is sad.This is shown from her missing life.Which presents the emotion towards the audience and makes the audience feel bad for her creating her as a sympathetic character.
- 16. The BreakfastClub (1985) Opening for:Teen-angst comedy drama
- 17. OpeningShot In the first shot of the film after the titles we are shown a David bowie Quote from his song ‘changes’.This any David Bowie fans who watch the film would recognize the song creating a connection between it and the film.This allows them to feel a connection between them and the film.
- 18. Montage In the film ‘The Breakfast Club’ they use a montage edited together with establishing shots and a voice over. The voice over describes the plot of the film and creates an interest in the audience.While the establishing shots shown presents the aspects of the school and cliques of the school.These shots also link to the teachers.
- 19. Representation ofCharacters Each of the characters in the film are presented different ways from the use of dialogue, costume and actions.Their conversations with their parents reflect their clique and their individualism.The first character to be shown is presented to be a ‘princess’ which is mentioned doing the montage which helps with a well known American high school stereotype. Her language used to show her opinions.The second character is shown to be a ‘nerd’ with his mother telling him to study and him being shown to be driven.The third character is presented to be a jock who is relying on a scholar ship for university. Helping with the well known ‘poor jock’ stereotype, we are slow presented him in the stereotypical costume with him wearing his varsity jacket. We are then shown the 5th character in the the current ‘bad boy’ costume for the time period, with him not being safe and not caring about it.Which represents the character within the stereotype well.The 6th character is not shown in detail in this sequence.