Film Opening Analysis

High School Musical is a musical which is aimed at young children, mainly girls up to teens. There are three of the movies and have become a worldwide success. It is based around two protagonists 'Gabriella' and 'Troy' and shows how they meet and develop a relationship. I will be analyzing the micro-elements which are present in the opening sequence e.g. mise en scene, sound, editing and camera work.

The scene starts with an establishing shot of the lodge where the main protagonists are staying. Then shows Gabrielle doing what her character typically does, reads, and then her mother comes and tell her to go to a children party, then switches to Troy doing hat his character typically does, basketball, and then his mother comes and tells him to go to the party. At this moment in time Gabriella and Troy are both totally unaware of each other. there is then a series of medium shits which show the two characters walking around the party by themselves, not wanting to be there, there are individual close ups which show that they are perhaps a bit disorientated and the viewer can tell this by their facial expressions and awkward body language. They are then brought together into one shot when they are made to get on stage, this introduces the protagonists first meeting.

Most of the sound is diegetic with the sound of spoken dialogue and then when they're at the party, the sound of the karaoke is in the background. There are is non-diegetic sound when Gabriella is introduced, the sound sounded quite magical and girly, and as the film is aimed at young girls, the sound fitted in well. Not much non-diegetic sound was probably used because as it is a musical, the tracks were most likely wanted to be distinct and for there still to be a sense of storyline in the film.

The editing is quite normal paced and naturalistic. There are two shots when the protagonists are both individually framed, there are two spotlights and they both seperatley higlight Troy and Gabriella, this cleverly shows that they have been brought together. There are no special effects and the lighting is natural, however there is quite a magical feel to it because there are various decorative lights which all create a young, girly image.

These elements create the mise en scene, which is a girly, magical atmosphere. The fact that it is at a childrens party which is all lit up with kareoke makes it very girly and child friendly. It creates a very positive tone as when the two protagonists meet lively music is present.