AS Level Media Studies
Mean girls:
Mise en scene;
The main character Cady wears very neutral toned, casual clothing. Her style doesn't change after her move from Africa which makes her stand out as she does not fit in.
The clip is mainly set in a high school, there is a lot of mischevious behaviour from the students, this is done to show the difference between homeschooling and normal schooling.
The lighting through out the whole clip is high key, this is to make sure the mood of the clip is seen as exciting and happy.
Sound;
Sound is very important in this clip. The score for the first 30 seconds of the clip is quite soft and neutral not really portraying any specific mood, but when the title 'Mean Girls' appears it becomes slightly faster, more upbeat and in a major key. This score then stays quite consistant until Cady enters the school, where it then turns into a very upbeat, fast paced pop song.
There is quite a bit of dialogue in this clip in the form of a narrative, this is where the main character explains who she is and gives basic information about herself.
There is some digectic sound that is added post production in the form of foley. This happens when the photo montages is happening, each time the photo gets changed there is the sound of a camera clicking.
Graphics;
The typography in this clip was set on a plain black background, this made the writing stand out a lot more and made the fact that there is something 'mean' in this film stand out a bit more.
The first 2 words in each name or title are a different colour and size to the last word. This made the first name or the job seem more promanant.
The last title was the words 'Mean Girls', the word mean was in a bold, white, sans serif font which made it look like the most important word out of the two. The word girls was in a thinner, purple sans serif font. This showed that the word is more femanine, and the use of the colour purple as opposed to pink shows that the girls are not perfect, stereotypical popular girls but do have some bad or mean traits.
Editing;
There are a lot of quick cuts used when the photo montage is happening, this is to give the effect that a camera is taking those photos at that point in time.
When Cady is walking into school for the first time the depth of field is quite soft, this gives a blurred effect. By doing this it shows that Cady is quite overwhelmed, and that she is trying to block everything out that is surrounding her.
Shot reverse shot was used when Cady was initially talking to her mother in the first shot, this showed the excitement that her mother had and the worry that she had.
Camera work;
The first shot we see is a low angle, point of view shot. This is while 2 parents are giving basic rules to what we assume is their young child about going to school. This is an interesting shot because a 16 year of girl stands up in the next shot. This shot was done to show to the audience that the character is quite niave and young minded.
Point of view shots are used quite frequently by the character, this shows to the audience that the film will be from that characters perspective, this camera technique fits in well with the consistant narrative.
Representation;
The representation issue in this clip is definatly social status, the main character is trying to get from the weird kids group to the popular girl group.
Age certifictates;
This film is rated at a 15, this is because explicits are used throughout the film and the theme is based on later teen experiences which could be unsuitable for a younger audience.