American Pie Beta House analysing.

Last Media lesson, we were told to bring in DVD that fits our genre and may help us with our own Film Opening which was Teen Comedy. We decided to bring in American Pie Beta House.

Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.

Conventions

The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally,they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'

The boy then goes on campus, and decides to go into the toilet, and again, in a funny situation, the bathroom is a Unisex one. As he goes to the urinal, a girl walks in (this fits into the stereotypical boy meets girl scenario, with a comedic twist) to use the shower (this also could influence our opening because, from this opening, we know they decide to introduce the love interest early on, and we can now decide, if we choose to have one, if we want to introduce it in our opening).


He then continues to use the urinal, the women then opens the shower curtain slightly and asks him to pass her the shampoo, he agrees and turns back around, then out of nowhere appears a naked women, and, understandbly he is shocked, so shocked indeed that he urinates all over his trousers and the shampoo (another funny moment which could help us in our film because we can now be sure what they expect people to find funny)

As he runs out, embarrased, back to his dorm room, he walks in on his new dorm mate having intercourse with his girlfriend. He looks shocked and walks over to his clothes and changes his trousers, just as he is doing this, the girl starts choking on the gum she is chewing, the man then leaps onto the bed and starts giving her the Heimleich Manouvere (from behind), the use of the low angle mid shot makes it look like some sort of sex position, as we see this, his best friend and father walk in, and in a odd chain of events the father high fives the man, and the best friend looks rather disgusted (as this is a unusual situation, the audience would find it funny because it is so out of the ordinary, this could also influence our film because we could add unusual situations which would make the audience laugh at the humour)

This was the end of the opening for this film. From the opening we as a group learned many things that may influence our film, that sex, unusual situations, and embarrasing things are all stuff that the audience find funny and interesting.

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Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)

Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)

Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)

Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)

Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)

Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)

Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)

Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)

Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)

Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)

Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)



Titles

The titles fade in and our big and brown, and in a very informal font, this shows the audience that what they are about to watch isn't going to be anything too serious, and isn't going to require alot of thinking. They however, don't show the actors names, they show the companys that help make it. The only exception to being big and brown is the typical American Pie logo, which is red.

Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's, who enjoy slapstick comedy, and know that they can come one afternoon and not have to think to greatly, just laugh along.


Representation
The representations of people and places in this film don't differ greatly to those of any other average teen comedies.

The men in this film are represented as being sex mad, and are only doing what they are doing to get laid by the opposite sex. They are also represented as only caring what girls look like rather than their personality.


Girls only after money from Geeks, and will do anything in their power to get what they want, much like the men. So girls are stereotyped as people who're gold diggers, only after what they think they need.


Both sexes are represented as wanting to have a good time, either partying, getting stoned or having sex. This is typical of a comedy as they all normally feature drug abuse, or rapid partying.