Grease - Opening Scene

Grease

Everything in the opening scene is in cartoon and animation form, this could connote teenagers being referred as children and not as adults. There is non-diegetic sound and this adds more anchorage to the shots. The non- diegetic sound consists of the film title Grease. This may be used to make the film more memorable and make the audience remember the film much better. The first shot we see is the music player which moves to the beat of the non-diegetic sound in the background. The main clue that he is from a young generation is that the diegetic sound from the radio the man saying it’s the first day of school …

The next shot is of the young adult is getting out of bed. Just by looking at the state of his bed room you can tell he is messy. Young adults (men) tend to be very messy and they are mainly represented this way. Another way you can tell he seems quite young is that there is tie and shirt on the side of his bed which tells the audience his from a young generation. He makes quite a lot of mess in the bathroom and just pushing the things on the sink until they fall off and does not seen to bothered to pick them up. He just cares about his looks especially his hair. Through the opening scene they introduce the main characters but the carton version of them. By doing this I think this interacts much better with the younger generation as viewers of the movie. The writing of the text or the actors name and who and what role they play as is quite informal this appeals to the wider and younger generation who is most likely come to see the movie.

Then there are short clips of what the young generation are most likely to do, go out, dance, go to parties, go to music concerts, listen to music and do they own hobbies.

Then we go to the girl bedroom which completely opposite from the young man room. Its much cleaner, tidier and more refreshing look… this is how girls are represented as neat and tidy people. The room is also quite girly and floral unlike the young man room messy, junky and greasy. She is quite pretty, thin and blonde girls… many girls tend to want to have the perfect figure and be represented this way. Another theme introduced to teen films.

There is another set of short clips as Grease was out in the early 80’s it shows what was happing in Britain at that time of year. This helps us understand and also represents British people and what the young generation was going through.

We see the other characters as well and we repeatedly see a prop in the background the flag or logo with Rydell written on it. This helps the audience to link all these characters together and is also helps the storyline flow together. In every shot or scene we a see a character they are some how linked to one another.        

Straight cuts have been used through out the opening scene.