ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING
This is another well known teen romcom film that was released in 2008. The story is based on 14 year old Georgia Nicolson who keeps a diary based on her ups and downs of being a teenager and her life through high school, and what she learns about kissing. It includes a lot of typical teenage acts such as parties, crushes, kissing and the big event of moving to another country.
MISE EN SCENE
The main setting that we see in the opening for this film is a typical English street with the main character, Georgia Nicholson, walking towards a house party. She arrives at the party but promptly leaves are seeing her friends have failed to follow through on the costume ideas. After leaving we see her running back home so the majority of the opening scene takes place outside on the path home where we cross a lot of people just walking round the town going about their day to day life.
The costumes in the opening scene are that of a teenage house party. It is a fancy dress party that can be clearly be seen through the outfits but as they are teenagers and this is a stereotypical representation of their lives we can see that the girls are all in tight or short dresses and have appeared to have spent a lot of time doing their hair and makeup - no doubt to impress teenage boys which is a key feature in this film. As the main character shows up to the party in an olive costume it foreshadows how she may be seen as the typical 'nerdy girl' who isn't popular an doesn't worry about what anyone else thinks of her, but after seeing that her friends went with a more typical way of dressing it shows how her character could change in order to fit in more.
The make up and hair in the opening is very simple and minimal - which is conventional for the main character at the start of the film like seen in Mean Girls. It represents how they are just average teenagers but mirrors how they will change throughout the movie as they develop as a character and become more popular.
The lighting in the opening scene is highly outdoor lighting for the most of it which represents a happy, upbeat, positive mood. During the quick house party seen the lighting changes to more low-key which symbolises how something bad might happen and how there is a negative attitude towards Georgia being herself and being judged.
OPENING CREDITS
The opening credits for Angus, thongs and perfect snogging take place throughout the whole opening scene over around three and a half minutes. They start with who is presenting the film (Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies), follows by the director, Gurinder Chadha. These are always the first things to be seen in opening credits as it shows their importance. After this, we see twelve of the main actors names, starting with most important of Georgia Groome who plays Georgia Nicolson in the film. The actor names are followed by assigned jobs which is not conventional as most focus on the main characters, producer and director - but here we see who was in charge of casting, music, costume designer, editor and production designer, all very important roles but are unlikely to be seen in an opening scene usually. It then goes on to say what the film is based on, which in this case is two books with a similar story line. The directors name is then repeated at the end to represent her importance.
TYPOGRAPHY
The typography used in the opening scene and in the opening credits is all a bold, sans serif font in bright and vivid colours. The bold colours mirror the youthful vibe of the film which is conventional for teen romcoms. They also all appear in the first or last third of the screen as they have Georgia s the main focus in the centre third.
SOUND
Throughout the opening there is diegetic of She's so Lovely by Scouting for Girls playing in the background for the scene of Georgia running back to her house after the party. At the start of the opening there is dialogue between Georgia and her dad then between her and her friends. There is also major key as it is very upbeat and youthful. This is common in teen romcoms as it presents the youthful, teen vibe.