Analysis of Bling Ring.

The bling ring

The Bling ring is a teen film presenting a group of troublesome teenagers living in the sunny hills of California, their obsession with money and fame lead them to an horrendous ending. Perhaps the break in never resolved their greed in popularity? 

 The Bling ring is a typical  teen film following the codes and conventions of a teen film as it includes the different types of characters such as the outsider , rebel, dumb popular girl, homosexual etc. It also is set in a  high school and typical teenage locations such as the classroom , beach , shopping hall and others which also show that the Bling Ring is a teen film. 

The Bling Ring also portrays the materialism and how fashion, money s strong enough to attract young pupils despite other important things. poverty, also shows a dark side of how teenagers in today's society crave for 'popularity '.

The group is represented as a group  of teenage girls that are seen as popular to people but they believe they need more which they decide to break in. Also the group of girls seen in Bling Ring are typical 4 girls you may see in other teen films normally consisting of a leader , rebel and the good looking girl. However,  a guy who is seen as an outsider is brought into the group which we rarely see within teen films but it is also shown he is a homosexual which makes it easier to develop relationships with these girls as if he where a homosexual  it would cause a sexual tension with the girls in the group. 

The Bling ring is rather different from other old teen films as we now live in a new era of youth with teenagers whom are easily able to access drugs and alcohol in which case the film shows the use of it, while still presenting the genre of an ordinary  teenage film, it follows into the movie genre of films like oceans eleven and the bank job though, the film manages to aim it at teens by meeting the criteria.

 

Furthermore, The Bling Ring also exaggerates the severe obsession of teens whom crave for celeb 'fashion' and money compared to similar films like Mean Girls.

We also see that the boy is portrayed as an outsider who hasn't got many friends and seems rather silent and innocent until he meets the troublesome clique and develops character and shows what he is really like. Similarly to the girl (plays Lindsay lohan) in mean girls, as she is an outsider that has nothing in common with the popular girls but until she is noticed by them and brought into the group she starts to become like them and do what she's been told to do, and develops friendships with them.

The Bling ring also presents many different social networking sites such as Facebook which show how the teenagers get convicted by posting pictures of themselves with the items they've stolen (eg. Paros Hilton's bag) so they seem much significant, rich and popular against their peers, in other words, 'showing off'.

Bling Ring also focuses particularly on celebrities like Lindsay lohan, showing them through media  and news channels and their involvement with the teenage thefts as this is what motivated them to commit the crimes .

In conclusion, the film was able to demonstrate of how the youth of today are changed, particularly in a bad way by their greed of popularity.

 

A reflective post about my current progress

I believe that my progress in this coursework is going very well, i am mostly up to date with my blogging. 

There are a few thing suggested by my teacher that will help improve the presentation of my blog, for example, the background colour of my blog, she suggested that the background should be dark, maybe black with white writing to give it more interest. She feels that the white background with black writing is too bland and ordinary, because of this i will communicate with my group to give some extra colour to our blog.

There are a few things that i still need to complete in the blog right now: including blog posts about teen movies that i need to watch, including Bling Ring and Fish tank. Fish tank is a film we are using to possibly inspire our final project of the opening scene, so doing an analysis of the film will gives us a better understanding of the film and broaden our ideas of what our project will be based on. We also have to create and account on Time Toast which we will be using soon. 

Over the course of the blog i will be making sure to use as much digital media and interactive  things in the blog. This will make the blog much more lively and interesting for a viewer/reader.

Reflective Post

Progress Post

I think I am getting on well with the blogging tasks because it is becoming easier for me to use blogger and I am even starting to like using it. At the moment I have started all the tasks but I have not completed two of them - the opening of a movie and the representation task. I now have to keep up  to date with my posts and change the colour of the whole blogs background and writing instead of keeping the background white, as it is boring. Over the holidays, I will need to make a account on Time Toast and learn how to use it and write a review on the movie that I will watch during the holidays an Bling Ring. Lastly, I will need to check my blog and make sure it is up to date.

A reflective post about my progress.

                       Progress Report

I believe I'm getting on quite well because I'm up to date within blogging though, I need to think about adding colour to  my blog to make it perfectly appealing and fun to vision! I could also be checking over everything I've done during the holidays to make sure that I'm not missing anything aswell as adding Images and gifs to the teen movie post (could add a trailer even). I will need to make sure I create an account in Time Toast and know how to use it. I also will make sure that I get these things done to progress. Finally I will think about what genre  and film my own  film will be inspired by.

Stereotypes in Teen movies

Stereotypes are typical generalised representations of an individual or a gorp of people which can be presented through behaviour, appearance, or even beliefs. These are shown through the media in many ways and are then reinforced to then become a belief in society.

Not Another Teen Movie is a typical movie that reinforces stereotypes throughout the movie for each characters, clearly exaggerated to create a comic effect. 

The Cheerleaders/The pink girls

Cheerleaders are typically represented to be the nastiest girls in the school and every girl aspires to be exactly like them, they are also meant to be the most popular and tend to have relationships with the jocks. Costumes include any outfit that includes pink all over, anything "cute", fashionable or their cheerleading outfits. Props will include pom-poms, beauty products, etc.

An example of these in other movies : Mean girls (1,2&3)

The Jock

The Jocks are the female versions of the cheerleaders. They tend to wear the same outfit constantly and this consists of a baseball designed bomber jacket and they tend to have the best hair cuts. If they don't wear this, then when they are in the appropriate environment, they will be in their sports uniforms (football, basketball, baseball, etc.) They are usually with a group of their friends, wearing the same outfit. They are usually located in a gym or any other  place of sports, lockers, etc.

An example of these in other movies : Troy Bolton from High School Musical.

The pretty "ugly" girl

They typically tend to be the outsiders of their fellow peers, in many ways including style, clique, behaviour, way of talking (slang). Their outfits tend to be very plain and tend to be either messy or very bland, clearly not keeping up with the latest fashion trends. They also tend to be very smart, especially book smart and have a big crush on the jock but she can never get him.

Another good example of this would be : Never been kissed

Reflective Post.

To progress in my media coursework, I am missing two posts.

- The write up of The Bling Ring

- An analysis of a teen film 

I, along with the rest of my group, will also think about changing the background and making our blog stand out from the others.

In the holidays, I will:
- Make an account on TimeToast
- Make sure my blog is totally up to date
- Write about The Bling Ring using Donna's Prezi
- Watch a teen film and write an analysis of it.

I will also watch a film, given by my teacher, called "Fish Tank" to inspire the opening for our film.

An analysis of a teen movie -Mean Girls

Mean Girls analysis

Throughout the Mean Girls, stereotypes are this social classification of a group of people identified as a common characterizes, the 'dumb' blonde. This category is used in  Mean Girls as the girls are stated as 'Mean Girls' and are 'dumb' blondes such as Karen, were she shows her brainless by stating that she could check the weather with her breasts. There are many different cliques as you see "the plastics" the most popular girls, "the jocks" this is stereotyping all the clever pupils and calling them nerds but to be clever they do not have to be a nerd as this film shows this moral when Cady is a really clever student at mathematics but degrades and dumbs herself down all for a boy. Gaunlet states "even though they have gotten stronger, teenage movies some how start to undermine the work of feminists have out in to try and better the representation of women" this portrays women becoming more independent over the years and breaking away towards the maths competition and achieving it.

Using words like bitch, tramp, bitch, slut or whore, however, tells others that it's completely okay to view girls in this way showing how in Mean Girls they would call each other bitches, sluts and whores to establish relationship to one another, 'Boo, you whore' but it only makes it worst for girls themselves as it gives more reasons for anyone else to to call you a whore. As well as this also represents to the audience how the ideologies and values represented in today's society has changed. This symbolizing them shown as stereotyped housewives as she fulfils all the housework and family duties in the film you see her making food for the whole family and sitting around the table and eating, whereas Regina's mother is represented as a modern mother where she I adapting to become more of a 'cool mother' and be like her daughter. This is clear to us as we see this as she is wearing 'pink' and it  illustrates 'teenage girly' colours as well as a tight top with a lot of makeup on and she also appears to be bothered with her appearance a lot including her hair, targeting as a sex object for male gaze on the other hand though Cady's mother is more simple, not concerned with her looks and dresses inappropriate. Also showing Regina's mother is single mother bringing up her children without their father. This clearly demonstrates how women on a whole have become stronger and much more powerful enough to not need to rely on the male.

Women stereotypically are good mothers or bad, shown in contrast to both a mother's Candy's mother being the good role model for her daughter as she's always does the right thing and whatever the best is for her daughter. However, Regina's mother in this case is a bad role model for her daughter as she has no rule boundaries and let's her daughter live a free life with no discipline what s ever.

Teenage girls have a dual personality, they are no longer perceived as 'daddies little angels', in fact they are ever changing  becoming much more independent and choose to make their own decisions. This is presented through as shown as Cady is a new girl adapting to a new school environment from in the past of home schooling with her mum, however as she studies her life gets influenced by behaviours represented by the Queen bees and wanna bees. As instead, she lies to her parents to throw a house party without them knowing as well as failing in school in result of a jock boy to like her. As the film is based upon main protagonists how she adapts to the new school from her home schooling, as its surroundings is different. We see the film is thought from Cady's point of view and she sees school life; this gives the audience her prospective therefore are chosen to side with Cady. Throughout the film, we see the camera work shown to how they portray the main characters, therefore for example when the Plastics are presented through a tilt up camera work shown in slow motion, the main purpose is to draw attention to the main focus (the main characters).

In conclusion, the movie shows the different moral beliefs and ideologies to social events occurring in teen's lives and how women are stereotyped in the society. Mean Girls demonstrate the way how women have become extremely independent over the years and will continue to progress within the judgemental society.

Representations and Stereotypes

Representations and Stereotypes

Representation is a portrayal or description of a particular group or individual is a certain way.

Stereotype is a widespread, fixed and exaggerated yet fixed pre-concieved image or idea on a particular group or individual. These views are usually generalised and distorted.

The stereotypes that I noticed in Not another Teen movie:


The pretty ugly girl
The popular jock
The nasty cheerleader
The cocky hot guy
The sexy nymphomaniac
The token black guy
The obsessed best friends
The stupid fat guy
The desperate virgin
The overly sensitive guy
The wannabe
The perfect girl
The foreign exchange student
The beautiful weirdo










Some stereotypical characters in Not another Teen movie, 'shorthands' to identify them and examples in other films:

The Jock
This character is usually good looking and has a groups of friends that also know they are good looking. They are always wearing their jock jackets and they have perfect hair. This character also usually has a girl that fancies then but they don't like.


Examples: 
Troy Bolton (High School Musical)
John Tucker (John Tucker Must Die)










The Nasty Cheerleader/Popular girl
This character is commonly blonde and has two sidekicks that are always on either side of the main girl. Also, they are stereotypically dressed in pick and wearing short skirts or other exposing clothes. their popularity is envied by other girls in the schools and they also think they are liked more than they really are.

Examples:
Regina George (Mean Girls)Sharpay Evans (High School  Musical)








The Geek
This is the character that always has glasses and are always (unrealistically) holding books. They are badly dressed and sometimes would love to lose their virginity like the popular characters. They usually have bad hair, bad teeth and a unorthodox sense of humour.


Examples:
Chuck Sherman (American Pie)
Fogell (Superbad)







The Rebel
The rebels usually wear dull colours and do not dress the 'normal' way. They always rant about how they do not conform and how much they hate the 'normal' people in their high school. They are not very popular, they commonly only have one close friend.

Examples:
Janis Ians (Mean GIrls)
Tami (Another Cinderella Story)







The Pretty Ugly Girl
This character commonly has glasses, their hair tied up, smartly dressed and they are usually brunette. They aren't really popular until they take of their glassed, let their hair down and dress more lie the other girls, and this is when people notice them and the character begins to be well known.

Examples:
Mia Thermopolis (Princess Diaries)
Gracie Hart (Miss Congeniality)

What a stereotype is and examples of how they are represented.

What is a stereotype?
Stereotypes are typical generalized representations of a person which can be presented to the audience through the behaviour, attitude and the appearance of somebody. These are represented through to us in many ways which then reinforces to become a cruel belief in the society.

Not Another Teen Movie is one of the teen movies that presents stereotypes throughout the movie showing us the popular, perfect, geeky/intelligent, the fat guy and the cheerleader group.

The first representation we come across is the cheerleaders. Cheerleaders in movies, just like in this movie are always seen wearing their known jersey costumes with pompoms in their hands to perform a mini dance performance with. That is how we identify the cheerleaders in a teen movie in general. Examples from other teen movies that portray cheerleader are also; High School Musical and Mean Girls. 
.

 

Another typical stereotype portrayed in Not Another Teen Movie are the far too intelligent geeks. We can identify the typical 'geeks' in teen movies because in most cases they tend to wear thick black glasses and mainly filmed in the school classrooms, studying hard whilst everybody else messes about with their lives, those whom have no intention of being successful.  Examples from other teen movies are, Katy in Mean Girls who is seen as a smart, isolated girl by others because she is intelligent enough to be alone without needing any bodies company. Social network also portrays the typical 'geek' as he is extremely bright.

 

Not Another Teen Movie also presents the popularity of certain characters in the movie. For example, we are able to spot them instantly by the reaction we receive from other characters facial expression  in the movie as they pass by. 'Popular individuals' (the group of girls) always tend to be together to present the fact that they are the popular ones in the school because they believe they've achieved something great when in fact, it's utter ignorance. This way, we are able to identify them in any teen movie such as; Mean Girls, Grease - Sandy and the Princess Diaries.

 

One other major stereotypes we see in teen movies including in Not Another Teen Movie are the 'perfect girls/girl' and they tend to be filmed in slow motion to draw attention to their charm and enthusiasm.They also are disrespectful individuals as we also can spot these from Mean girls again aswell as the Heather Girls which are both significant portrayals of 'perfectness'.

A final stereotype I've looked at was the 'fat guy' stereotype which occurs in Not Another Teen Movie aswell  as Meangirls (the over weighed boy) whom people mistreat because of his weight they do not take him seriously and always make fun of the individual because in the society's eyes, over weight people are worthless which again is a common in teen movies. The location they are filmed in are mainly in schools, humiliated in front of many people.

Stereotypes in teen films.

One major character stereotype teen films include are the jocks.
Jocks are typically male, usually seen to be wearing letterman jackets or sporty clothing, have cool hair and genuinely have very high self esteem and lots of confidence.

Examples include:
- Jake Wryler from 'Not Another Teen Movie'

- Troy from 'High School Musical'

Another stereotype in teen films include the academic students, or the 'nerds.' This stereotype applies to typically boys and usually show them as being really into school and caring about their grades as that is the opposite of a jock's attitude.

Examples include:

- Will from 'The Inbetweeners'

- From 'Napoleon Dynamite'

Another male stereotype is the sensitive fat guy. They are the kind of characters that are the emotional shoulder to cry on for other characters in the film.

Examples include:

- Damian from 'Mean Girls'

Different female stereotypes in teen films include:

- "Plain Jane"
The unpopular girl who no one notices yet once they make an effort, everybody notices.

Examples include:
- Bella from "Twilight"

- Janey from "Not Another Teen Movie"

The next stereotype is the Cheerleaders. They always support the school's sports team and are always seen wearing cheerleading outfits and carrying pom poms.

Examples include:

- "Hellcats"

- "Not Another Teen Movie"

And another female stereotype includes the Popular Girls. They are stereotypically portrayed as very mean to everyone else in school, they are usually blonde and tend to have a sidekick alongside them that agrees with everything they do.

Examples include:

- Regina George from "Mean Girls"

- Sharpay from "High School Musical"

Binary Oppositions in Teen Films

How are binary oppositions established at the beginning of Teen Movies

Binary oppositions are a couple of concepts that are related but have opposite meanings. It is the system where two things are defined and set off against each other and they are two terms that contrast each other like, on/of and up/down. Binary oppositions help structure a film.

In teen movies, there are some common binary opposites that are usually shown in high schools, such as, popular vs unpopular, rich vs poor and beautiful vs ugly and this is also shown in the cliques in high schools, for example, the hotties, jocks, clever kids and the Goth. Clothes, music and dialogue assists the viewers in noticing the opposites. Binary oppositions are made to keep a storyline moving forward as it creates a sense of drama in the film because we see the oppositions going against each other.

The Teen Movie my group assessed: Twilight

In the beginning of Twilight, there are a few binary oppositions that are established such as boy vs girl trough showing Bella and Jacob. Able and disabled is also shown through Jacobs dad and Bella and it is exaggerated through Bella looking down upon Jacobs dad. Other oppositions that are shown is popular vs unpopular and hot, sunny environment vs dull, brown environment.



Another Teen movie: You got served

The binary oppositions that I noticed in the opening of this film is, girls vs boys, good vs bad, old vs young, winners vs losers and performers vs audience. The boys and girls is shown when they are going head to head while dancing and good vs bad is shown when the two boys go to a man to do something to get money. These are things that we notice will run throughout the whole film.

How are binary oppositions established at the beginning of a teen movie?

The first teen movie opening I looked at was Twilight.

One binary opposition set up in Twilight is the location. Twilight follows a girl named Bella who moves to her dad's house in a new town and starts a new school. Where Bella's mum lives you can see palm trees, cacti and sunshine shining. Also, in the background when Bella's mum drives her off, you can see a beach in the background. On the other hand, where Bella's dad lives the audience can see a damp looking road which shows that it has been raining and overall the scenery of the town Bella's dad lives in is very dark and dull.

A crane shot and a match cut are used to show the transition between both locations and to show the binary opposition. Bella's mum lives in a hot and bright environment whereas Bella's dad lives in a cold and dull environment.
An interesting binary opposition shown is part of Bella's voiceover. She calls her mum "mum" but calls her dad by his first name, Charlie. This gives an insight to Bella's relationships with her parents, she is closest to her mother and her dad is basically a stranger to her that she doesn't know him as her dad.
Another binary opposition shown is when Bella is entering the school, one boy in a group of 3 or 4 people comments on Bella's car to which she, shyly, says thanks. This shows the boy is popular compared to Bella as he is part of a group whereas she is on her own.


Another teen movie I looked at was The Social Network.

The opening scene of The Social Network is a 10 minute conversation between Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, and his girlfriend. The conversation takes place in a bar and eventually leads to the couple breaking up. 
One binary opposition I found was Mark Zuckerberg was dressed informally, wearing a GAP hoody, in a formal place whereas his girlfriend was wearing formal clothing in the formal place. Shot reverse shot is used a lot in the opening scene to show the conversation. 

Gizem Kirdagli - How are binary oppositions established at the start of a teen movie/film?

Binary oppositions are a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. These are common in teen films and usually feature at least 3 binary oppositions. Common oppositions in teen films usually associate with popular vs unpopular, rich vs poor, beautiful vs ugly and old vs young. An example of binary oppositions in a teen film is in '10 Things I hate about you', where we see different groups of teenagers in high school which follow groups such as: popular group, clever kids, rasta's, coffee drinkers etc. We also see a clear divide in groups of people when a group of 'popular' girls pull up in a blue convertible whilst another character is driving an old car playing rock music and wearing all black, this is a clear opposite and a binary opposition. The colours and music also reflect the oppositions.

 Another example of binary oppositions in a different teen film is 'Romeo and Juliette" where we see 2 gangs montague vs capulete and the binary oppositions in these gangs are: Montague are white American whilst Capulete are Latin American and we also see a difference in costume, montague wear Hawaiian shirts and are casual and on the other hand Capulete are wearing sophisticated clothing and seem much richer. Binary oppositions are made to keep the story moving forward, it creates a sense of drama in the film because we see these oppositions going against each other creating a story line. 

Another example of opposite binary oppositions in Twilight where we see the disabled man on the the wheelchair whilst the other characters are perfectly able to walk. The wheelchair shows us that the man isn't able to walk unlike others, who are able to walk. We also see that Bella's mother's home environment is extremely warm compared to Bella's father's home environment which is cold and makes the audience feel un welcome.  The cactus and the sun suggests that the weather is quite hot and the clouds indicate the gloominess of the scene as they are quite dark. The final binary opposition we come across in the opening sequence is a voice over in the the scene where Bella refers to her mother as "mum" and she refers to her  father as "not a hugger" which shows us that she has unconditional love for her mother but her father has disapointed her in the aspect as he never presents his love through 'by hugging' her as she would like him to. 

Storylines and Plot in Teen Dramas - Twilight

The Storyline set up in our introduction, introduces the character Bella who moves away from her mother's house and permanently lives with her father.  She also decides to attend to a new school with her new car that her father brought for her as a present.

The binary oppositions set up in the film are; Bella's mother lives in a warm, sunny environment whilst her dad lives in a dull, cold environment. Bella's mother also comes across as living a modern lifestyle when her father lives in the suburbs. We also come across a disabled character (Jacob's dad) when all the other characters are well.

Mise en scene 
Bella's  mother's envirnment is rather bright and warm and we can tell this by the cactuses in the scene whereas  her dad's area is dull and chilly. We can tell this by the way the clouds appear really dark, which gives an impression to the audience of a dull, moody scene is expected.
Another Mis en scene we've come across was the boy's wheelchair which shows his disablity whilst everybody else in the scene is perfectly able.

Editing 
The scene of when Bella gets out of the car and walks along, we spot a shot-reverse-shot. This shows contrast between the popular kids and the new lonely girl but also shows that she is an outsider in the new environment.

Sound
There is a voice over in the opening that is sound, and in the voice over she talks about her mum and dad in completly different ways. She says she has to leave her 'mum' who is 'loving' but she refers to her dad as 'Charlie' and says he is not a hugger. This shows us that she doesn't want to go and live with her dad and she's prefer to stay where her mum is.

Camera
Low and high angle shots are used in the opening of Twilight. This is shown when Jacob's dad is shown in a wheelchair and Bella comes out to see him and in this scene Bella is shown in a low angle shot whereas the disabled character is shown in a high angle show. This shows that Bella is an important character in the movie as she is looking down at people and Jacobs dad is an irrelevant character.