Analysis: Never Been Kissed

Never been kissed, is a teenage romantic comedy film based around a girl in her early twenties which works as a reporter for a newspaper article called Chicago Daily. One of her tasks was to do a column on what the cool high-school youths are doing. The only way she can find out is if she goes undercover, as a student herself, this is good in a way that she got to have a fresh start to do things differently, because when she was a teenager, she was a geek.

I analysed this extract in terms of camera shots, angles and composition, Mise-en-scene, Sound & Lighting.



In this extract, the introduction shot is of an extreme wide shot, we see a sports ground, where a baseball game is taking place because we see the supporters at a distance. The director uses this shot to show where the scene is taking place, and what the audience can expect from this scene. This is used for effect because the audience feel as though they have front row seats to the game itself, it also shows the different personalities in the high school itself, because we see the 'jocks' in action, this builds a cheery atmosphere amongst the supporters, this also rubs off on the audience watching the extract. Shortly after, the camera starts to tilt (up to down) as it focuses on the back of a female which casts a shadow, as she's standing alone watching from the sidelines. The director uses this for effect to show that she is an unhappy loner, this makes the audience feel sorry for her, as they ask themselves the question of, why is she alone? A little later, the camera begins to pan across the thousands of fans attending the game. The director uses this in order to show us the crowd, as they get excited to watch the game. The audience get a sense of excitement as the tension begins to build.

The location seems to be Chicago, where, the majority of the scenes take place in a journalism office where the main character works, but the beginning scene was at a baseball match, in what looks like a school. Another mini-scene occurs at her house, in the living room. Whereas the last scene takes place in a meeting room in the Chicago Times building. The costumes used in the extract are smart clothing, because it's an office job, therefore they needed to dress smartly, males would wear suits, whereas, females would wear skirts, tops and blazers. They wear those types of clothing because they are workers in a very posh journalism company, so the staffs need to represent this (verisimilitude.) The props used in this extract are, filing cabinets, computers, folders and desks filled with papers, this symbolizes verisimilitude, because those are the normal conditions when working in an office. Also, we see the game-score board to show the amount of time left for the game. The opening sequence used this type of mise-en-scene to show the audience where the film is going to take place, and what type of film it's going to be. It can also be for entertainment purposes and verisimilitude of what a journalist undergoes in order to be successful.

Lighting:
* Bright, natural light used in the majority of the scenes.
* Dark lighting used when introducing the main character. At the start of the scene.

Diagetic Sound:
*Crowd Noise in the game scene.
* Dialogue - conversations between characters.
* Voice-over - of the main character informing us (the audience) about herself.
*Phones ringing in the office.

Non Diagetic Sounds:
* The opening credits begin with a song called "Catch a falling star" this gets the audience in the mood, this carries on until it begins to fade into the background, when the girl (main character) comes into focus.
* Drumming beat begins when the main character and her boss are talking about the deadline for the report which he expects her to complete. This stops when camera turns its focus onto a colleague which has a cup of tea/coffee in his hand, giving a very sarcastic expression.
* A sad and slow song starts to play when the main character and a colleague are eating in the cafeteria, as she talks about her fear of being fired. It sets the atmosphere. This makes the audience feel down, and they begin to sympathise with her feelings.
* The scene where she is at her house, the song choice changes to "People say I’m crazy", this song stops the moment where there is a meeting room scene, where the boss slams the walking stick on the desk in order to get the attention of the employees.
* In the last scene there is an upbeat tune, which makes the atmosphere feel erratic and fast paced. This makes the audience feel as though they are hanging off the edge of their seats.

I have learnt how to broaden my analysis skills, although I did not see anything that we could use in our film idea, because it was targeted at an older audience I thought, because she was in a working job but she goes back to school for a while just to do a report. So the only thing we might use is the fact that most of the film will be shot at school, the rest would have to be shot at Adnan's house in order to fit into what we are doing. But overall, it was a good opening sequance to analyse.

By: Miami Mansour