Clueless

Clueless (1995)

As the movie starts the song ‘Kids In America’ begins to play which immediately suggests to the audience the film is going to set in American and based around children/adolescents. The first shot is a high angle shot of a car with a bunch of teenage girls in, this makes the audience feel as if they are looking down on the girls and would suggest that the people within this car are going to be the main characters. We then have a mid-shot of young girl who is very well dressed carrying lots of shopping bags we immediately think she will be posh and bratty, a mid shot is used here so we can see her facial expressions, smiling and smug. This is set during the day as we can tell by the lighting this implies that this girl is of schooling age. After this there is a mixture of social events where this girl is in the middle of the crowd for all of them, this suggests to the audience that she is very popular and liked by everyone. When the music stops playing it changes to a voice over of the main character as if she is addressing the audience this makes the audience feel much closer to her and more involved with the story. The girl is very happy and open with her body language highlighting the fact she is wealthier and her ‘normal’ routine of picking her school clothes differs hugely from other peoples. While she is still talking we move to a high angle over the shoulder shot of her dad so we can see the large house and the maid they have working for them, this implies they are rich and do not have time to complete basic tasks so have got someone to do it for them. The use of the close up emphasises how the daughter believes she can do anything she wants and sucks up to her dad in order to get her own way. Then a mid shot is used of the car that her dad brought her suggesting she is very spoilt and gets anything she asks for. As the daughter always refers to her father as ‘daddy’ it makes it clear that she sucks up to him for her money and is always kind to him so when she asks for something he is more likely to say yes. She is a very carless driver which suggests she does not care about her own or others property. Also her friend lives in big house suggesting that she only likes to associate with people of the same class as her. This is a very typical school drama film based for children and teens.