Analysis of the opening sequence for

‘Mean Girls’

The establishing shot is of two people who we assume to be parents. We can see from the shot that the parents are looking down at their child/children which shows that they

are of a higher level of importance.

In the next shot we see that they where looking down at their child who isn’t as young as you would think at the beginning. It is an over the shoulder shot this shows that they are

having a conversation but she is still younger.

The next shot is a long shot of the family, taking pictures together, you can see the house they live in. The daughter is being treated as if it is her first day, as it is a long

shot the audience focuses on all of the different things in the shot.

The next shot is a medium close up of the mother and daughter. The mother is holding onto her daughter and doesn’t want to let her go. We can see from the daughters facial expression that she does not want to be hugged the her mother is hugging her. We also hear from the non-diagetic voiceover that it is in fact the girls first day at a school as she

has been home-schooled.

The next shot we see is a close up of a girl in a spelling bee. We hear form the non-diagetic voice over that ‘home-schooled’ children are mostly known as freaks.

The non-diagetic voice over continues by saying that home-schooled children may also be weirdly religious, after we hear that she continues to say that she is part of a normal

family, who had lived in Africa their whole lives.

SummaryOverall in the opening sequence of this film there is a wide variety of establishing shots, close ups and medium shots. We see where the character is living and we find out a bit about her life. The film is most likely known as a chick flick it will be a light hearted film. You can tell by the film that it will be girly. The non-diagetic sound lets the audience know a bit about the life of the main character.