Genre Research- Mean Girls Takeaways

 As I rewatched Mean Girls but from a different point of view, I analyzed things like Narrative, sound, editing, and cinematography. 

The cinematography focused on close-up shorts emphasing the characteristics and power of each character, for example when Regina first introduced, they use a focused close-up shot where  you can't see anything behind her making the focus of the shot completely on her and what she is saying, where when characters "less powerful" are on screen the selective shots aren't present, because what they are saying isn't as important. 

The story is built around the classic idea of the new girl who wants to fit in with the popular crew or in this case the “plastic girls”. The four leading girls all represent somewhat of 'Stock Characters' and stereotypes, 'The Leader'--Regina George, 'The Sidekick'--Gretchen Weeners, 'The Dumb one'--Karen Smith and 'The Convention breaker'--Cady Heron. Through use of stereotypes through this female character it is immediately insinuated that all girls have these characters in them, and females themselves fit the stereotypes that have been presented. However, due to the stereotypes being presented and the almost exaggerated and comedic personalities that are tied in with the stereotype, audiences are encouraged to believe that these characters are made purposely for comedic effects.

 The trailer is narrated by Jessy in the beginning when she is explaining the dynamic of the school to Cady and the audience. Later on, they start using actual audio from the film and they mix them up to create humor and tell a story. They use music and non-diegetic sounds to make it more realistic and keep the audiences’ attention and the music is used to match the speed of the clip. 

 

They use techniques such as shot-reverse shot, 180-degree rule, match on action, and the eyel-ine match. The effect of continuity editing is to keep the story in a coherent time and space. This makes it easy for the audience to follow the plot and the characters.

The expectation that she will ditch Jess and Damian is built from the beginning of the trailer when they introduce the plastic girls. It is also expected when they introduce Regina’s ex-boyfriend and that there will be conflict with Cady and Regina because of that. 

Takeaways: 

·      It is built in chronological order, with elements from every part of the film to delay and build expectation in the audience. 

·      They start off the trailer with a dark humor joke indicating that this is a comedy movie. 

·      They also introduce all the characters in the first 20 seconds of the film and tell the story of the main character.  

·      How will I tell the story in chronological order, developing the plot and using music to create suspense and tension in the audience?