I analysed the title sequence and opening scene of ‘She’s the man’. This film is widely known as a chick flick film featuring Amanda Bynes as the main character. Amanda Bynes is a common lead actress in chick flick films and has featured in ‘what a girl wants’ and ‘Sydney white’. When analysing I considered the different elements that were shown to establish the character, surrounding, genre and time. The film was targeted at teenage girls mainly aged 12 – 17. But this film does include football and a lot of male acting which means this film could be aimed at both genres. This chick flick has a lot of comedy in and it can be put into two genders. This opening immediately introduces the audience to the main issue in the film, which is girl’s playing ‘soccer’. This subject is very rare for chick flicks; this girl does go against what girls are typically like in chick flicks.
She’s the man starts with girls playing football against the boys at the beach, from the sounds of the girls cheering we can tell that they are winning. The first part of action we see is a boy on a jet ski, this establishes where they are, and we know that they are at the beach. This then leads on to the beach where the match is taking place. The whole title sequence has a scrap book effect. The filming pauses on some of the people and then flashes colour, shapes and the actors name. This gives it an MTV music video/scrapbook effect. The title sequence is recorded like a home video and is very different to usual chick flick title sequence.
The writing is a simple font, and depending on the colours of the shapes it is on top of the colour of the writing changes. The shapes in the sequence are like drawings and paint splatters. All of them are in bright colours, thias means it stands out to the audience but the colours would appeal to both genders. So most chick flicks would include pink but this title sequence doesn’t have any pink, which is quite unusual for this genre. The title of the movie is shown in the same way as the actors names, except the title is a bold, black title.
The title sequence mainly focuses on the main character, every time it stops to flash up a name she is in view. This tells the audience who the main character is and who they should be focussed on. This is common in chick flicks as the title sequences mainly focus on the main characters. There is an obvious divide in this film as there is a group of girls and a group of boys. This supports Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions as it is obvious to the audience that it is girls v the boys, this is a common theme throughout the film. The girls are all skinny, tall and they seem to be confident. In chick flicks the main characters are either confident and popular, or bullied and shy. This film obviously is one about a happy, confident girl.
The sound is mixed in this title sequence, there is a bit of shouting from the people playing football and some sounds that you would usually hear at the beach (e.g. waves). There is also some sound effects when they are kicking the football, the sounds have obviously been enhanced to be louder. This sound is diegetic as they can hear this sound. There is some non-diegetic music in the title sequence in the form of No sleep tonight by the faders. This song is an upbeat song by a female band, this also fits in with the chick flick genre as it usually starts with female music. The music has a fast beat to it and fits in with the people running around. When the title sequence finishes and it goes into the first scene of the movie the music stops and the speech begins.
The mise- en-scene is very important in these title sequences, the beach is quite a typical place to feature in a chick flick film, the girls are wearing bikini tops, but with their bikini tops they are wearing shorts as they are playing football. The male characters are wearing shorts, some are wearing t-shirts and some aren't we would expect to see this in a lot of chick flicks. As it is usually the girls being attracted to the boys, not the other way round. The group of people are taking up a lot of space on the beach from this we can tell that they are quite popular and that everyone is friends, as they are joking and playing with each other. But through this we can see that the girls stick together, we know that they are a tight unit.
Roland Barthes theory of narrative codes is included in this title sequence. The hermeneutic code is used as the titles only show that they are playing football but this does not give away much of the story. The audience are left asking questions like what does the girls playing football have to do with the film? The proairetic code isn't really used in the title sequence as it is quite simple what is happening, we can see exactly what the characters are doing. The semantic code is also not used in the title sequence. The music is quite fast and upbeat, so not tension is created. However Levi Strauss theory does apply to this sequence as the boys are against the girls. As this film is mainly aimed at females the audience is influenced into being on the females side. The audience wants the females to beat the males.
The first scene fits in with chick flick genre, it starts with the main character and a boy who we can clearly work out is her boyfriend. They are lying down on the sand and they kiss. This has many elements of a chick flick, with the romantic scene, the boyfriend and the sunny beach. We could find these elements in a number of chick flick films. The camera is on a mid shot. So the couple take up almost all the frame so the audience is totally focused on them. There is some speech between them before the kiss. This then leads on to the second scene of the movie.
The opening titles of a film are supposed to indicate to the audience a number of things: the film genre, the time, the characters, and tone. I feel the opening title sequence to ‘She's the man’ does this. The story isn't immediately clear but his keeps the audience guessing and this is what makes them keep watching. They want to know what the link is. The title sequence is very controversial as it is unlike any other title sequence that i have seen on a chick flick. Overall I would say the title sequence was good and interesting, but I do not think it fits in with the chick flick genre.
Good detailed analysis, well done.
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