We have looked at a number of teen film openings, including 'Romeo&Juliet', '10 Things I Hate About You', 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', and 'The Princess Diaries'. Each showed a number of different binary oppositions.
These Include:
- Popular vs unpopular.
- Rich vs poor.
- Beautiful vs ugly.
- Happy vs angry.
- Smart clothing vs casual clothing.
- Old vs young.
- Sisters vs brothers.
- Teacher vs students.
- Pop music vs punk music.
- Confident vs nervous.
- Old car vs nice new car.
- Dark vs colourful.
Examples:
Teachers vs students: '10 Things I Hate About You' & 'The Princess Diaries'.
Teacher vs student binary oppositions are represented in '10 Things I Hate About You' through the teacher instructing students on what to do, and showing authority, to which each student reacts differently according to their character type. One student does as they are told, whereas the other likes to try and challenge authority.
Whereas in 'The Princess Diaries', this binary opposition is shown through a teacher shouting at students for misbehaving, and intimidating them with their level of authority.
Beautiful vs ugly: '10 Things I Hate About You' & 'The Princess Diaries'.
Shown through different cliques in '10 Things I Hate About You', as the male is being instructed on who is acceptable to talk to based on their looks and popularity, and told he does not belong to the "beautiful people".
In 'The Princess Diaries', this binary opposition is shown by the typically "ugly" girl envying the "beautiful people", and being made fun of, showing the two contrasts, and how they do not fit together and are looked at as unequal to each other.
Rich vs poor: '10 Things I Hate About You', 'The Princess Diaries', 'Romeo&Juliet'.
The binary opposition of Rich vs Poor is shown in '10 Things I Hate About You' by the social hierarchies, as the popular kids are rich, and are seen wearing and talking about designer clothes, whereas the poorer students are seen admiring or avoiding the richer kids. This not only shows who is rich and who is poor, it also suggests that their social standing depends highly on how much money each student has.
This binary opposition is similarly represented in 'The Princess Diaries', as yet again, the popular kids are seen with more sleek hairstyles, clothes and shoes. Whereas those that aren't as rich are shown looking relatively more scruffy, which yet again suggests that social standing is in direct correlation with how much money someone has, especially when it comes to the school environment in typical teen movies.
'Romeo&Juliet' represents rich vs poor similarly, but this binary opposition does not interfere with popularity as it is not set in the school environment like the previous two films are. The rich characters in 'Romeo&Juliet are seen wearing suits and nice shoes, whereas the poorer characters are wearing Hawaiian shirts, with wild, coloured hair. The music used at the opening for each set of characters also gives us an insight to what they are like and the rich vs poor opposition. For those who are poorer and wearing the Hawaiian shirts are introduced to pinky/rock music, whereas the richer characters are introduced with more dramatic, calm, and sophisticated music. This suggests how each group differs.
Dark vs Colourful: 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.
This binary opposition is established in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' through the lighting and surroundings of different characters, which represent the type of person they are, as well as they're general mood/feelings. For example, Ferris is cheerful and feeling good as he has gotten away with pretending to be ill in order to get the day off of school. His good mood is shown through the use of bright lighting, and everything around him appears light and colourful. On the other hand, Ferris's friend is very ill and feeling horrible, and in his scene, he is shown laying in bed in the dark, with no sign of brightness or colour. This stark contrast represents how each character feels, and sets us up for the rest of the movie as we are now aware of their current mood and what type of character each of them are.