High School Drama - Analysis of camera, editing sound and mise en scene

I chose to do an analysis of the title sequence from the 2007 Disney High School musical comedy drama High School Musical 2

 

EDITING & SOUND:


We first see this in the begining of the movie, for the title. This is accompanied by the melodic music which plays quietly in the background. Soon after the first set of  titles, a pre-recorded song plays for around 2-3 minutes and is continued at the very end of the sequence when the whole student body are outside of the school, now with instruments:



MISE EN SCENE:
Mise en scene is the most important element of a film, regardless of its genre. This is important in a high school movie. If we see a narrative behind a title, it will tells the audience things like where the action takes place, and what the film will focus on:

In the very begining, we even see what this school is called:



After this is when the titles start

 *Some screenshots of the initial titles*

As we can see, the cast are the first titles in the movie. As well as showing us the Highschool itself, this tells us that they are the most important people in the movie. Since this is a Highschool film, of course, the production team have taken into consideration the younger generation would want to see them first.

Between the titles and amongst the titles we also see who does what, and what their character is like. For example:

 

The characters beside the main character here are clearly cheerleaders, because of their colour-coordinated costumes outfits and pom-poms they use as props.

 

Lead characters are positioned before other characters, which tell us who have the most power and screentime during the movie.

 

There is also a comical aspect which we see through props in mise en scene, that relate to the 'comedy' aspect of the movie. The clock gets bigger and bigger as the end of school - and the start of summer approches:

 

 

CAMERA



The camera is also very important, as it controls what we see and how we see it. The camera is positioned at a high angle for about 4 shots of the title sequence:

 First in the classroom
 Then in the cafeteria
 And finally outside as they leave for summer break.
 This lets us see the volume of students,  makeing the shot look more powerful