Analysing Opening Sequences - Mean Girls

'Mean Girls' is about a girl who has moved from Africa to America and has started at a new High School. She has been home schooled all her life and moving to a new school is presenting a challenge for her. The director uses various devices to show how she doesn't fit into the different cliques within the first two minutes of the film.

The first two minutes there is some dialogue with the parents talking to the main character Cady and then the main character is made more sympathetic by a voice over, telling the target audience about her past in Africa. This is then followed by flash backs of her in Africa, which gives the target audience an idea of how different her life was before and whilst she is talking it also makes the target audience sympathise with her. The titles and credits are shown just before the voiceover begins. There is also non-diegetic music in the background helping to create the light-hearted atmosphere.

Once she has arrived at the new school, there is a graphic match with the students arriving at the school and shots of the animals from Africa, this is in slow motion which gives the audience a sense of time passing very slowly at a dramatic moment and is also comic, comparing the students with dangerous wild beasts. When she is walking through the crowd there is match on action, making it feel more natural, an example of continuity editing. The target audience hardly notices this as it is a basic technique used every film. Cady Heron meets Janis and Damien at her new school within the first 2 minutes, her new friends warn her to stay away from 'the plastics' and other cliques. Within  the first two minutes the rest of the plot is easy to guess - she won't stay away and there will be problems between her and this group. This quick establishing has left the target audience wanting to watch more, it hasn't given too much away but at the same time it has drawn the audience in. This sequence is all about establishing the setting and characters quickly.

This is where 'Mean Girls' starts. There is a use of dialogue between the mother and father telling Cady to be careful at school. This is an important screen shot as it gives the target audience an idea on what is going on within the first 20 seconds. The camera is angled looking up at the parents which could represent them as the more dominant characters. At this point we are then introduced to the main character through dialogue with her parents which gives an impression to the target audience that she is a nice girl, who is different from the rest of teenagers today. There is then a use of silence and the voiceover begins, expressing her point of view.

This shot is important as it conveys her past and tells the target audience a bit about where she is from and her relationship with her father. There are 4 photos shown to give the target audience a better understanding of the relationship. There is a camera flash when each photo is shown which is effective and tells the audience that this was in her past and not at the present moment.

 
This is another shot of Cady, her father and a Zulu Warrior, which also tells us what kind of people her and her family are. This photo shows that Cady's family are genuine and would rather help the animals and children from Africa than worry about the quality of life. She explains this in the voice over, but on the other hand seeing the pictures as well makes it look and feel more genuine.


This is where her new ‘friends’ are introduced, which tells the target audience that they are going to be there throughout the film. In this screen shot they are laughing at her as she has already been bullied by someone who has pushed her out of their seat. When we see these two characters we get the impression that they are going to give her a hard time, but the target audience only find this out later in the film. They guide her at this stage and tell her what to do and what not to do. These two are represented as unusual teenagers from the rest , as you can see this by their clothing and how they only have each other. This shot is from Cady's Point of view, which makes us empathise with her more.
 In 'Mean Girls' the titles and credits are done effectively and represent the tone of film as a whole. In this film the titles and credits are done in the colours pink, yellow and purple. These colours are bright and lively and are sometimes associated with women. The titles and credits are also on a black background to make the colour stand out. For example in the screen shot above. The titles and credits stop once the parents start talking to Cady, but start again when she walks into the school. This is not effective as everyone in the school is wearing different colours and the titles are neutral colours compared to what the teenagers are wearing therefore you can’t see some of the titles and credits, they should be black as the target audience would be able to see them more.