Top 3 Films
While researching and learning about film's opening we got assigned to pick our 3 top films and talk about their opening scene analyze and learn from them. This is one my assignments for blog and research. I picked 3 top films, which are Mean girls, Like a boss, and Girls trip. Let's learn about their opening scenes.
Mean Girls
https://youtu.be/rekn_T5ZAfw
Summary
Mean girls was released in April 2004, written by Rosalind Wiseman and directed by Mark Waters. This movie is about a teenage girl who was raised by her scientist parents in Africa who then moved to the suburbs in Illinois. Her name is Cady and when she moved, she got to experience going to public school and all the things that happened outside of her life. By being the new girl she somehow got into the main friend group at school which everyone considerers to be the cool students who were called "The Plastics" Cady begins to pick up everything and realizes how her new friend group are and how they move.
Opening scene
The opening scene of the movies is what grabs audiences attention into watching it and since its the opening scene it is one of the most important scenes in the movie. The opening scene was 4 minutes and 55 seconds long. In the opening scene it gives us some background detail about the main character that could help up get a jump start into the movie. The opening scene then proceeds to go into her first day of school where it seems to be very different for her, where she doesn't make any new friends and gets yelled by her teachers which is something she says had never happened to her. By the end of the opening scene she ends up eating lunch in the bathroom and it continued to where she got home and her parents asked about her day she rushes inside in an upseting mood. This is how the opening scene of mean girls played out.
Connection
The opening scene of mean girls connects to the movie because at first it teaches us about the character and where they've been and what they're doing now which made us up to speed on where the movie will pick up from. At school she seems to be getting it off from the start which is what happens in the movie but she eventually got better. In the opening scene she did not have any friends and had to eat her lunch in the bathroom but in the movie she did make multiple new friends who she could eat her lunch with. The opening scene of mean girls connects to the movie by letting the viewer know about background details and giving expectetions and prediction on how the movie will be.
Like a Boss
Like a boss is 2020 comedy film written by Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly and directed by Miguel Arteta. This movie is about two best friends, Mia and Mel who run their own cosmetics company. Their company got to a point where it would be hard for them financially and they are thinking about selling the business. This cosmetics business get the best of them and it puts their lifelong friendship to a sturdy situation. By the end of the movies they eventually got their business back into action and their friendship continued.
Opening scene
In every movie must come an opening scene to get the audience to want to watch the movie, let's analyze and learn about Like a boss's opening scene. It started off with a picture of a house while someone was talking in the background which is known as a J-cut, the conversation between the two characters continued on the phone which then proceedes to them getting up and going to the same bathroom which might be a surprise to some audiences. They conversation they were having was pretty funny which makes the viewer want to hear more and learn more about what happended in the conversation. The opening scene ended there following some pictures and detailed memories about the two characters. Over all the opening scene of the movie Like a boss lated 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Connection
In this movies the opening scene gave us two best friends who were having conversations then proceeds to background information about them through memory pictures. This opening scene connects with the movie because it let us know details about the characters and what they do. The opening scene lets us know that they are lifelong friends which in the movie they are and seems to go into details in the movies, they are both business woman who work together the opening scene showed that by editing cosmetics products during the sequence.
Girl's trip
https://youtu.be/LwIqXtivAV0
Summary
Girl's trip, directed by Malcom D. Lee and published in 2017 is about four great lifelong friends who after years grew apart. One of them had a chance for a vacation and planned a trip for all to reunite and instead be a girls trip, they got to catch up and again be friends but something happens during the trip where they all had a huge argument and went their separate ways. They were lifelong friends after all and by the end of the movie their friendship stayed and grew stronger.
Opening scene
The opening scene of Girls trip, lets analyze it. The scene started with a voiceover then to the characters dancing at an event. The voice over was giving information about the friend group, how they met, what they do and their overall friendship. It gives throwback videos and pictures of their friend group then comes back to the present on what their friend group is doing now and how they all moved on. It gives funny moments of them from the past and them now which makes the audience wanting more of the characters friendships and their personalities. The scene gets to a part after introducing all the characters where it describes how their friendship slowly went away. The opening scene lasted 3 minutes 30 seconds, introducing the characters and giving us some information and details about their past and their present.
Connection
The plot of the story is how friends can grow apart and reunite to the strongest bond. The opening scene connects to the story because it gives us information on how the friend group was in the beginning and how it slowly started to shift. With the opening scene we now know that the movie is about a friend group who likely will reunited because in the end of the opening scene it describes how one of the characters started missing one other which gives us a prediction that the friend group will be back together.
Compare and Contrast
The three opening scenes have great sequences that would grab audiences attention into watching the movie. I will be comparing and contrasting the different opening scenes in the three movies.
Visual elements
- In mean girls you can tell that the movie is not so new because of the lightning the shots, and the mise-en-scene compared to like a boss and a girls trip that they are new movies and their lightning is much more light and colored.
- They all had different settings, mean girl was mostly in a school, girls trip in a vacation spot and like a boss at a company
- Mean girl has the clothes that would now be considered old and the other two movies have the now fashion look
- Mean girl is a PG 13 movie and like a boss and a girls trip are both r rated but they all are comedy.
- Mean girls opening scene gave us flashbacks and background details on how the movie is about to start.
- Like a boss opening scene made us think that it was all about cosmetics because all the edits in the opening scene were about it.
- A girls trip was about how their friendship was at the beginning, giving us details and information on the characters and to the present on where and what they are now doing.
Auditory elements
- The sounds from mean girl was a voiceover for the opening scene and little diologues in the scene.
- Like a boss was just conversations between two characters
- A girls trip was one of the main characters who was giving us background information and knowlege.
- They are all different conversations and different sounds.
- They're music were all different from each other since they all mostly had different topics and different sequence.
Character
- In the movies some had one main character and others had multiple
- Mean girls had one main character with three other important characters with her.
- Like a boss had 2 main characters
- A girls trip had multiple
- In mean girls the most important one was the main on because the story was about her and her journey with friends. She seemed to be the most important character since the story was about her.
- Like a boss had 2 characters that were business parters and best friends they were both important to the movies plot and story but I think of them did play a bigger role in the overall movie.
- A girls trip did have multiple characters but one of them was doing the voice over has if she was the one telling us the story so I think she is the important one in the movie.
Representation
- In mean girl it did give the vibe that the new kid usually ends up sad about moving schools and everything seems to go wrong at school for them to usually eat lunch in the bathroom. The stereotype was that the new girls always gets upset or something always goes wrong when their new to a school.
- Like a boss, I didn't get any stereotype vibes because it was just two best friends who happends to know each other for quite some times and who own a business together.
- A girls trip give off the stereotype that even if you guys are firends for a while it always drifts apart because the opening scene had one out of the friend group doing the voice over and giving us details and catching us up about everything that happended to them losing each other.
This is the finish product of my top 3 films and I learned a lot from opening scenes while analying and going into details about these 3 opening scenes.
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