The films that have inspired me:
- Wild Child
Wild Child is directed by Nick Moore and stars Emma Roberts.
Plot: A sixteen year old American girl (Poppy), who lives in LA with her rich father and little sister, gets out of hand with her actions after her mother dies in a car accident and her father gets a new girlfriend. When Poppy finds out her fathers new girlfriend is going to move into their house, she pushes the boundaries and her father sends her to a boarding school in England. He believes that by sending Poppy to this British boarding school, it will build her into a kind, caring and respectful young lady. However instead of trying to settle into the new school, Poppy tries everything to get out of it. She teams up with her roommates who help her get expelled. Through all the time she spends trying to get expelled, Poppy forgets to live in the moment and finds out that her Mother attended that boarding school when she was younger. Poppy also finds true friendship and love on the way.|
How it inspired my opening sequence: The character of 'Poppy' is a very interesting one, which I would like to rebuild a similar character in my short sequence. Her character is very unpredictable with her actions throughout the film and I think that is a good trait to have in a comedy as it keeps the audience interested in what the character will do next.
I also like the contrast of the setting, An all American girl being put in a British boarding school. The audience automatically become interested in her reactions to a new environment and how she will fit in. I think the idea of this is very well though of and it is something that I would like to develop on with my short sequence.
The music used also fits with the film nicely which is another reason why this film is very inspiring and the use of wardrobe that Poppy wears in contrast with the British uniform creates a very compelling element to the film.
2. Clueless
Clueless is directed by Amy Heckerling and stars Alicia Silverstone
Plot: Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai a makeover. Meanwhile she falls for the new boy however to her confusion he turns out to be homosexual. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother was right about how misguided she was. Cher realizes that she has loved her Ex- stepbrother all along and they become a couple.
How it inspired my opening sequence: The main idea of popularity is defiantly something I want to introduce in my opening sequence. Clueless shows a very clear view of popularity in high school and what you have to do to get to the top of the schools social hierarchy. Popularity is a topic which I think is a crucial part in any teen movie. Also the idea of the most popular girl in school with her social power over people and how she used and abuses it. I would defiantly add elements of use and abuse of power into the opening.
Another element in this film that helped me craft my idea, is the 'girl power'. The friendship between the girls is a love/ hate relationship where they are friends but are really in competition with eachother other silly things such as who has the best boyfriend, best clothes and most popular. This is the kind of relationship I want to include in my opening sequence between the characters.
The fashion in this film is also very vintage and stylish, its very different from the other clothing in teen comedy films. This element of the film made me consider what year to set my opening scene in as I would reallly like ot add a 'old fashioned' twist to it.
Clueless has won 8 awards and been nominated for another 9
3) Mean Girls
Mean Girls is directed by Mark Waters and stars Lindsay Lohan.
Plot: A sweet and innocent sixteen year old girl named Cady has been home schooled by her scientist parents all her life in Africa. Now she has moved to America with her parents so that she can experience a normal teenage life and become 'socialised'. Cady gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tactic laws of popularity in high school. She unwittingly finds herself beign accepted into the schools most poular group called 'the Plastics', Cady soon discovers why her new group of friends have been dubbed this name. Along the way Cady creates a plan to destroy the plastics so that the rest of the schoool can see what they are really like.
How it inspired my opening sequence: Mean girls has inspired my opening sequence for many reasons, one beign the stereotypicla high school 'cliques' that are mentioned a lot during the film. I want to add in this 'stereotypical' element in my opening sequence to really exaggurate the typical teen comedy.
Another reason i have used this film as inspiration, is because of the humour. The hilarious humor used in this film is definatly the best out of any teen comedy. Mean Girls has qoutes and phrases in it that teens use today and will be using for a long time into the future. Some of these quotes are "Thats so fetch", "She doesnt even go here', "You go Glen Coco", "I'm a mouse, Duh" and "I'm sorry that people are so jelous of me, but I can't help it that i'm popular".
I want my opening scene to have comic jokes in it, similar to the ones in mean girls that will make people laugh.
Mean girls has won 7 awards and been niminated for another 19.
4) Geek Charming
Geek Charming is directed by Jeffery Hornaday and stars Sarah Hyland
Plot: High school student Josh is the school geek. Dyaln is the most popular girl in the school. Josh decides to make a documentary about the life of the most popular girl in school for a Media project, in which he turns to Dylan. Josh soon finds that Dylan is shallow and selfish and a mean person, he decides to change the documentary for his media project as he finds Dylan to controlling and abnoxious. She also keeps calling Josh's project "Her movie" which irritates him. However Dyaln later appologies to Josh and they continue to make the documentary on popularity. Along the way, Josh teaches Dyaln to be more kind to people and be more down to earth and Dyaln teaches Josh to be more confident. They learn things about eachother and tell things that they have never told anyone before. A romance blossoms between the school nerd and the most popular girl in the school and Josh gets a top grade for his media documentry on popularity.
How it inspired my film: Geek Charming sparked ideas for my opening sequence as the film highlights school hierachy and different cliques, much like mean girls. The film focuses on the relationship between these two completly different people in school and how they put aside their differences and help eachother. An element that I thought was interesting about this film was that it was the popular girl that fell in love with the geeky boy. Usually it is the popular boy who falls for the nerdy girl, Hornaday has flipped the cliche teenage romance storyline. I thought that the idea of the film beig 'flipped' would be a good idea to add to my opening sequence as it would make it different and less predictable.
Geek Charming was nominated for 1 award.
These films that have helped with my inspiration for my opening sequence all have things in common:
- They are all set in 'High school'
- They all have love interests in them
- They all star a female lead who portrays a 'popular'
- The popular female lead is wealthy in all these films
- The popular female lead is shallow in all these films
- The characters are all around 16 years old
- They all deal with popularity problems
- In all the films there is an unstable friendship or 'fake friends' scenario
- There is a theme of 'rebellion' in all the films
- There is a set hierchy or 'cliques' in each film
Pointing out all these similarities within my inspirational films, has helped me with what I should consider including in my teen comedy opening sequence to create a realsitic teen comedy opening.
Although all these points link the films, the overriding message is that to be yourself is ultimatly the way you should be and all the films highlight that the shallow slef absorbed people are actually the ones who are the most insecure. The main 'popular' characters at the beggining of the film always finish the film as a different person.
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