Binary Oppositions in Opening of Teen Films

Many film production companies star exaggerated binary oppositions in different aspects of the teen movies especially in mise en scene and sound. Most of theses films if not all establish characters with binary oppositions to build a story based on society and situations around teenagers. Despite the common themes and story-lines, Teen movies set up these oppositions through the four technical areas of Mise en Scene, Camera, Editing and Sound. Some examples include:

10 Things I Hate About You

This movie is introduced with visual techniques and sound to create a theme of teenagers with the use of upbeat music and bright flashy text. We can identify many binary oppositions from there when the camera pans to the new blue convertible with four happy and bright girls bouncing to the pop music which is overwhelmed by the oncoming red closed-off car blasting rock music that conveys the complete opposite of the girls on the left. She is dressed in black, completely chilled and straight-faced giving off a bad girl vibe as she drives off.

The Guidance counsellor in herself is a major opposition in which she depicts the opposite of what she's intended to be through her appearance and hidden agendas. This creates humour in the scene that appeals to many teenagers as well as adults. The different cliques that are introduced also show the range of binary oppositions in a much exaggerated way with 'White Rastas', 'Cowboys', 'Future MBA's' and 'Coffee Kids' etc. There is a big contrast between the outsiders and the 'cool' and popular kids in the school especially when the heavenly music introduces the 'hot and 'beautiful' girl into the picture. 

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes is another movie that conveys binary oppositions quite clearly especially in the opening scene where the White American Montague's are introduced driving in a bright yellow convertible in hawaiian shirts and colourful hair with a hip hop beat playing in the background in contrast to the Latin American Capulets who are in a new and sleek blue SUV with cowboy themed music and boots as well as elegant suits. They also hold confidence with a groomed, expensive and fit appearance in comparison to the montagues who seem a bit more scared and jumpy. The theme music of the montagues is cut off when the Capulets are introduced and when it tracks back to the Montagues on the other side of the gas station, the music then changes to accompany the Montagues.

The opening then ends in a full on gun fight with the opposing families with many casualties and destruction giving off a foreshadowed sad event in the near future. The two families buildings are also shown where the signs are given two opposite colours (Red and Blue).  From these scene we can identify the binary opposition of the two families (Capulets vs Montagues).

Grease

 

Grease starts of with several beach sceneries of John Travolta (Danny) and Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) 'hanging' and 'making' out enjoying their time together. Immediately, we see the opposition of male and female where it all fits the stereotypres of woman and men. This is also seen in the cartoon opening credits where Danny is seen in his messy teenage bedroom getting out of bed with completely ratchet hair that completely contrasts to Sandy who gets up looking perfect in her elegant and spotless princess-like quarters. From here a storyline can be deduced to where we find the love interest between these two characters. We also find them driving to school where the T-birds (a 'cool' guy group) drive in a blue car and the Pink Ladies in a pink car.

Where the establishing shot of the school is introduced, we see the T-birds hanging out to find Kenickie hitting a fellow student's books; a binary oppsition with bully against geek. We also see Rizzo come out of the car with her bad-girl look with her black leather jacket and her girls on either side of her giving her power a sense of power which opposes Sandy with her yellow themed attire and long flowy skirt depicting her innocence; bad girl vs good girl.
 

Twilight

Twilight is a fantasy adventure high school film that also has the common themes of teen movies where theres a guy and a girl (lovers) but with a vampires and werewolves who seem to hate each other (another binary opposition. In the opening scenes, we see the predator and prey opposition with the deer as well as the difference between the locations of where Bella is moving from sunny to cloudy, desert to forest and her Mother to Father. She also encounters her childhood friend Jake who is Native American compared to White Americans, Black Americans and Asian Americans in her new school where another opposition is the Outcast vs Locals.

When she arrives at her new school, she encounters students hanging out beside their new, sleek and modern cars which makes her old-fashioned truck where the locals dont seen too kind to her as an outsider.