Analyse the first ten minutes of the film. How do the first ten minutes give us information about the setting, characters and genre of the film? How is it designed to appeal to the target audience?
Ten Things I Hate About You - Media Coursework
Analyse the first ten minutes of the film. How do the first ten minutes give us information about the setting, characters and genre of the film? How is it designed to appeal to the target audience?
The first ten minutes introduce us to all the main characters, and give us an idea of their personality and role in the plot. It suggests the plot to us, and gives a basic outline, without giving too much away. It clearly demonstrates who its target audience is, and aims its setting, language, humour and format accordingly.
The opening credits immediately let the viewer know the film is light-hearted, and not intellectual, by using brightly coloured writing. It almost looks like graffiti, a mainly teenage interest, which suggests it is aimed at teenagers. This idea is backed up by the music playing (Barenaked Ladies - One Week) which is chart music, also mainly aimed at teenagers. So, by using text and music, the director has already established his target audience, and the basic genre of the film. Behind the credits, the establishing shot is of a scribbled sketch of a cityscape, in a style similar to that of a picture in the back of a school exercise book. This is a pastime, like graffiti, which the target audience, can strongly identify with. The sketch then becomes a filmed cityscape, and it uses this to let us know the basic setting. We can see it is Seattle because of the Space Needle, an internationally recognized landmark. The camera sweeps across to a panning shot of the neighbourhood. It shows a pleasant, suburban area, with families walking and playing together. This is reinforcing that it is a light-hearted film, in typically "nice" area. The viewer can assume that the film will be about middle to upper class teenagers, presumably with many material possessions, and a happy home life. These are characters which many young people may aspire to, and wish they could become.
The previously non-diagetic music then becomes diagetic, as we see a medium close shot of four teenage girls laughing and singing in a smart, expensive car. The target audience may want to become independent, and carefree, and have their own car, and live the lives these girls do. When Kat's car pulls up beside them at traffic lights, the director uses a panning shot to emphasise the difference between these girls, and Kat. The girls' floral dresses, and clean-cut look, highlight the difference in Kat's simple, black clothes, and miserable expression. She drives a beaten-up shabby looking car, ...
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The previously non-diagetic music then becomes diagetic, as we see a medium close shot of four teenage girls laughing and singing in a smart, expensive car. The target audience may want to become independent, and carefree, and have their own car, and live the lives these girls do. When Kat's car pulls up beside them at traffic lights, the director uses a panning shot to emphasise the difference between these girls, and Kat. The girls' floral dresses, and clean-cut look, highlight the difference in Kat's simple, black clothes, and miserable expression. She drives a beaten-up shabby looking car, compared to their shiny red convertible. Her music overpowers theirs, and she's playing Bad Reputation by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The opening line of this is 'I don't give a damn about my bad reputation.' This lets us know that Kat has a reputation for not being like other girls, and more importantly that she knows it, and she doesn't care. The camera cuts between the two cars to show the girls' reaction to each other. Kat looks into their car with obvious dislike and contempt. The four girls all look away, scared. We see all four do this, to show that this is the wide opinion of Kat, and not an individuals' opinion.
Following this scene is an establishing shot of the school, to show us more specifically where the film is set. The target audience see this school and may wish it were their school. It's very big, and very impressive. The camera shows the whole school, but we can see Kat, striding confidently through the crowd, not worrying about the people around her. This reinforces the conclusions we have already reached about her character. Kat's character is now firmly established.
The next scene opens by showing us a perfect, tidy desk, with a single bud in a vase, and a guidance counsellor nametag resting on it saying Ms. Perky. The camera pans up to show Ms. Perky. She looks prim and proper, wearing a pink cardigan over a blouse, and glasses on the end of her nose. She is sitting very correctly and fits the stereotypical image of a guidance counsellor perfectly, and we predict that she will act accordingly. Cameron is sitting opposite her, but we don't see enough of him to make any decisions about his character. Ms. Perky is typing and we assume she is typing about school. However, the camera cuts to a close shot of the screen of her laptop, and we see she is writing an erotic novel. This is funny to the target audience, because they spend five days a week, having to respect and look up to teachers, and this gives them a chance to laugh at one of the most prominent authority figures in their lives. This joke is carried through the scene, as she betrays our first impressions completely. She is rude to him, calling him 'army brat' and describing the pupils with countless obscenities. She swears repeatedly, and then sends him away abruptly. Cameron meets Patrick in the doorway. This is so that we can see how big, and butch Patrick is compared to Cameron. This emphasises both Patrick's tough character, and Cameron's slightly pathetic character.
The camera uses tracking, wide angle shots to follow Cameron and Michael around the school, as Michael gives Cameron a tour. The viewer is taken through all the cliques in the school. The first is the popular gang of boys, with Joey as their ringleader. He comes across as arrogant as if he believes he is better than other people. His reaction to Michael lets us know that Michael is not accepted by these popular cliques. The cliques are all taken to extremes, and it's funny to the audience, because it is a satire on what school life is really like. However, the viewer can still understand the basis of it, as the clique system is a school environment is a large part of their day-to-day lives. As we see all the cliques in the school, we learn that Michael and Cam don't fit into any one category, so we know we will follow them as main characters throughout the film. The scene changes suddenly when Bianca enters. The music becomes romantic, the camera focuses on her alone, and a reaction shot of Cameron lets us know that she is to be seen as an 'object of desire.' The fact that she stood out of all the new people in the school to Cameron lets us know that she is special and important to the storyline. She's pretty and we hear her talking about material possessions as if they are the most important things in her life. This means our first impression of her is that she is a very shallow person. When she leaves the screen, the scene goes back to normal, showing that she is always the centre of attention, and perhaps she has a certain aura about her, which attracts people to her. This leads to Michael telling Cameron the story of Bianca and Kat's dad, and this lets us know the basic outline of the story. We can now predict roughly what the film will be about.
The next scene begins with the camera panning across the room, to show all the students and the teacher. This is to let us know where it is set, as up to this point, although the film is set in a school, we haven't seen any lessons. The director uses lots of reaction shots to show how the class react to Kat's opinionated, intellectual, feminist beliefs. We find out through the class discussion that Joey and Kat don't get on. They are rude to each other and make fun of each other, the camera cutting between the two, as they argue. We know that this is how Joey always acts, my Mr Morgan's reaction. He says ' One day you're going to be bitch slapped, and I'm not going to do anything to stop it.' Mr. Morgan is a joke character in the same way Ms. Perky is. He is used as an opportunity for teenagers to laugh at authority figures. He is rude and unreasonable, and sends Kat out of the class because she is cleverer than him. Patrick enters the scene halfway through and then leaves again immediately. This is to let the viewer know he's a rebel, and doesn't care about the consequences.
Kat's interview with Ms. Perky reinforces what we discovered in the previous scene - that she is cleverer than the teachers, as she gives Ms. Perky inspiration for her novel. Ms. Perkys' first words are 'Terrorising Mr. Morgan's class again?' showing that they meet regularly for this reason.
The first ten minutes really establish Kat's character, and introduce us to the other main characters - Patrick, Bianca, Joey, Cameron and Michael. We know it's set in high school, and aimed at people roughly the same age as the characters in the film, and slightly younger, so they can aspire to become them. The film uses jokes on authority figures, a setting they'll empathize with, and characters they'll aspire to become, to appeal to the target audience.
