'High School Musical' is a romance film that covers every romance cliche known to mankind, as it is aimed at a younger audience who enjoy watching films with predictable, yet warm-hearted plot lines. The film as a whole is clearly aimed at a young audience, and the first scene makes this very clear from the outset, by starting the love story in a very idealistic, too-good-to-be-true fashion.
The first shot is an establishing shot of a ski resort, and the text on the screen tells us that it is New Years Eve. This starts off the idealistic feel to the film, as New Years Eve can signify the start of something new (as is made clear in the first song) and it is also close to Christmas, which is the favourite time of the year for many young people. The text that appears on screen is very bland and uninteresting, however does have a glowing edge. For an older audience this could seem a bit childish, but for the younger audience, at which it is aimed, the text choice is perfect. For we must remember that to give this film opening a fair analysis we must remember that it is aimed at a much younger audience, who have far different tastes to adult films.
After this first establishing shot we are brought closer to the action and what is going on inside the resort. The audience is guided around a party scene, with teenagers wearing odd, fancy dress hats, colourful balloons and fairy lights. Again we can see that this is a very idealistic outlook on teenagers, and a film aimed at an older audience would probably present teenagers smoking, drinking and taking drugs. However here the teenagers are shaking hands and making friends and getting along very nicely while drinking what is, presumably, orange squash.
After this scene we are shown the lead female character who is bowing to the age old romance convention of being vulnerable, a bit geeky, and quiet. This cliche is seen in many other romance films such as 'Love Actually' and 'A Walk to Remember'. She is shown to follow this criteria by avidly reading a book on New Years Eve instead of going to parties or hanging out with her family. Not only is this good because it keeps the young viewers hooked on the film through the cliches, but it also encourages young people to read more, and not be worried about what people may think. Parents of the children would want to use this, so they would buy their child the film in the hope that it would inspire them to read more.
The next short scene is of the male lead playing basketball, which is a very American male sport, which shows him as 'the sporty, popular one', another cliche of the romance genre. As an audience we know from the rules of the romance genre that he will fall in love with the female lead, as they have completely opposite personalities and this leads to the idea of almost 'forbidden' or unlikely love. The male lead is played by Zac Efron who is a traditionally 'good-looking' actor who appeals to a young audience. In this scene the acting is very melodramatic and over-the-top to make it easier for a younger audience to follow. Their actions are exaggerated and their lines are very very cliche. This is, however, a good thing, as a younger audience would enjoy it more than deadly serious acting.
The production design as a whole is very colourful and vibrant, once again appealing to the target audience. Every location has a lot of colour, which helps the children feel safe and comforted in the environment in which the film is set. There is no litter or graffiti or anything negative about the scenes, and this presents an appriate setting for a childrens film.
Overall I think it is a strong opening for the film, as it appeals to the target audience, presents them with a safe and familiar environment, and follows the standard conventions of a romance movie. If it had been aimed at an adult audience then it would not have been good at all, but it was good for what it was.
Location 1: Ashtead
