The credits are somewhat incorporated into the film by adding the same music used in the film itself over the credits making them a more fun thing to read rather than skipping them. The credits fade into an aerial shot of the city in which the coast is near, with very flat land and bright, sunny weather. This is the city in which the film is placed. The use of bright colours again reinforces the mood the film may have. There is a 360 degree view of the entire city which helps the audience with their bearings.
Slowly the camera moves to lower ground where a car drives straight forward towards the camera making it feel like a zoom although the car is moving not the camera. In this car we are presented with four pretty young girls in summer clothes in a soft-top car. They appear to be the average popular girl of an American high school. As the four girls’ heads slowly tilt the camera follows their movement until reaching a new character who represents a juxtaposition to the characters the audience just met. Her music, car and face expression reveals this.
A close-up of her face introduces the audience properly to these characters’ features. Her dark costume and use of natural (no-make-up) and plain hair prove to the viewers that she is a difficult but yet significant character.
The scene fades to a new location and begins the scene with a low angle. This reinforces a crowded area. The numerous feet and hockey sticks portray people and as the camera slowly elevates to another aerial shot it becomes an establishing shot, giving the audience a good portrayal of the high school. This suggests that the young characters in this film will all attend this school and that this is a significant scene and location and why an establishing shot is used to convey this.
An over-the-shoulder shot is used to follow a character as they walk too show where they are going or what actions they are making. This is used on the main female character we were previously introduced to. This sequence is slowly informing viewers of her characteristics and what to expect of her throughout this film. Another cut is made to a close up of Ms.Perky’s nametag on her office desk. The fact that the camera is telling the audience who this is may suggests she will be perhaps a significant character to remember during this film.
Two characters are introduced with an over the shoulder shot. As a student is sitting in front of the main desk rather than at it the desk itself, he is forgotten. This is why it was important to have the close-up of his face before hand to get a sense of his presence portraying his features and emotions in this scene.
Titles and Credits – 10 Things I Hate About You
There are three separate title slides before the film begins. The first three are production and distribution company credits and logos. The colour scheme for them is a black background with artsy, messy and graffiti like metallic blue writing. The middle one shows the name of the film in which the background is the setting of the town the film is placed in, followed by the actors’ names on a similar background. These titles provide the necessary information before commencing the film telling the audience which main actors are in it, who directed it and who wrote the script. This specific title sequence is rather entertaining with the use of bright colours and a picturesque view of the city’s coast. It creates atmosphere before the film actually starts and prepares us for what to perhaps expect in terms of the mood and atmosphere.
Screen Shots – 10 Things I hate About You
Group long shot of four close friends. Appear to be well groomed, happy, bright in a soft-top car.
Contrasting the other girls. Alone in car, dated and enclosed car. No smile..
Mid –shot and group shot of four girls that almost seem to be scared to be caught looking at her. They appear to be confused and feel awkwardly towards her.
A close-up of her face, which show her emotions. Seems to not care what others think. Total opposite of the other girls - not made-up, hair is plain and car is dark reinforcing her personality.
Long shot looking down again reinforcing the two groups’ differences. Girls singled out drives off alone fast with her rebellious and dark music.
Establishing shot – sense of location for viewers. Shows the size of the school foreshadowing maybe that the size will link to a problem that may later on arise.
Suggests she is a significant character. Which is ironic as guidance counselors a renown to not have to do much. Name choice is humorous.
Use of Sound – 10 Things I Hate About You
Immediately when the film starts a strong guitar solo starts along with the accompanying of drums and a male singer. It is a typical 90’s band style music suggesting the time period of the film with the mixture between rap and soft rock. This is all non-diegetic music used to open the title sequence. However, as the aerial shot of the camera comes down to lower ground and zooms in on the girls, they are listening to this exact song in the car on the radio making it a now a diegetic sound. Similarly, the car parallel to the group of girls is also playing music but a very different type or genre of music. This is reinforced by the words ‘I don’t give a damn about my reputation’. This is also a diegetic sound as it is sound perspective from the girl’s radio being played. The windows are opening and the music is blasting so that everyone surrounding her can also hear it, which makes the music such a shock to the girls in the car opposing her, as it isn’t exactly a happy song. The song shortly turns into a non-diegetic sound when changing scene and the radio is no longer present. This is accompanied by other ambient sounds such as hockey sticks and footsteps out side a high school and dialogue such as shouting and screaming that is unclear to the audience, which makes it all the more realistic as the school is crowded. The song still being played is synchronous sound as it is associated with this particular character as her mood is very toned down, angry and agitated.
The music fades to silence slowly when the camera enters the guidance counselor’s office. Nothing but the ambient sound of the counselor’s keyboard is present. This is a stereotypical way to represent a teacher as they usually keep a student waiting in silence as they finish typing in films of this genre.
From this I have learned that:-
Stereotypical characters and situations work - we have been worried about not being original, but as long as we have a new twist, we can use stereotypical elements to our advantage
Sound is important to establish the mood / tone
The opening doesn't have to move that fast in terms of plot - character is more important in our genre
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