Film Title Analysis 3 - Freaky Friday

FILM TITLE ANALYSIS 3 - Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday is a coming of age, comedy film. I have chosen this film as it is not only a comedy, but it is about a teenager realising the pains of life and I therefore thing that the film is topical to the task I am completing.
As our Main Task involves creating the first five minutes and opening titles to a new film I have only watched and analysed the first portion of the film to keep my analysis relevant to what I will be doing.

This film is distributed by 20th Century Fox

CHARACTERS:
Anna Coleman= Lindsey Lohan
Tess Coleman= Jamie Lee Curtis
Jake= Chad Michael Murray



THE TITLE SEQUENCE:

In the title sequence of this film we are opened to classical paintings surrounding the theme of a mother and a daughter. Although the audience would not know at this point the direct plot of the film they can then deduce from the iconic, but calming background music and editing style that this is going to be a film focused on relationships. The film's opening does not actually show any of the titles one would expect apart from the declaration of ''Walt Disney Studios presents'', therefore placing more emphasis on the images showing behind and setting the overall tone and mood of the film.

MUSIC
The opening song is the original version of 'Happy Together' by The Turtles as it takes us through the title sequence. But as the title fades through into the film footage and we are greeted with the bedroom of a teenage girl, The Turtle's version of the song suddenly cuts off, and the punk cover of the song by Simple Plan replaces it. This tonal shift in the music shows that this is a coming of age film as the punk cover of the song is a genre of music more related to young people at the time. The tonal shift also presents to us the contrast between the two protagonists, their age and general outlook on life.



ADAPTATION:
The film Freaky Friday was adapted from a classic comedic children's novel written by Mary Rodgers and published in 1972. The film only stays true to the source text in terms of its main premise as, in the book the mother is in fact the perpetrator in how the bodies are switched, whilst in this adaptation it is Lindsey Lohan's character Anna that causes it. Another point of comparison is that Lindsey Lohan's character in the movie is called Anna, which is a clear nod to the original text as in the book the main teenage protagonist was called Annabell.


ROMANCE:
Although the film has some elements of romance in it, such as the mother figure Tess' upcoming marriage and Anna's struggles with her teenage high school crush Jake, there are not many hints of serious romantic elements in the opening of the film.
This movie is meant to focus more on the relationship between the two protagonists rather than external relationships facing them, and these relationships actually seem more like an obstacle to juggle and overcome rather than the grand outcome of the movie itself.

CONVENTIONS:
A common convention of teen films is rebellion. These two in particular are very heavily referenced in the opening of the film.
We are made aware of Annabell's rebellion immediately as we see her struggling to conform to her mother's authority in getting up to go to school. She is extremely stubborn in her ways, and this is seen later on as she cannot choose a radio station, and dresses differently from her mother. Most of the rebellious streaks in the character are made more apparent when juxtaposed with the attitude of her mother.



SHOT TYPES:

The mid shot used to the left shows the protagonist, Tess, in her room. It shows off her in comparison to the rest of her surroundings and puts she and her activities into perspective with the rest of the scene. I believe this shows that she is well rounded.





Meanwhile, the close up shot shown on the right highlights the different areas of Tess' life as she picks up numerous phones. The close shots emphasise each of the phones and therefore, combined with the quick panning and editing shows off the more hectic side of Tess' life.



MISE EN SCENE:
This is the arrangement of everything in a scene.
The mise-en-scene very clearly demonstrate the different characteristics and qualities of the two protagonists. 
For example, Anna's room is very reminiscent of her punk genre based hobbies as shown by the multitudes of posts, photographs and other memorabilia crowding the different shelves of her room, but an aspect to point out in juxtaposition with this is the colour scheme and bedding. A lot of it seems very antique, with pale rose pinks and creams, and does not seem to coincide with t what we are shown regarding Annabelle from the beginning of the film. We may then come to the conclusion through this that Annabelle is either oppressed, or caught in some past hobbies, to which, with the plot and scope of the story is more likely to be the first option.

In contrast, the room of her mother is very plain in furnishings and is filled with a lot of natural colour pallets. This contributes to the down-to-earth nature that her mother seems to possess, and helps allude to the strong divide or feud between the two. Unlike Annabelle, Tess' room is in harmony with itself in terms of the themes of decoration, and none are conflicting or clashing. This alludes to her more-than-perfect life that she possesses. 






And thus concludes my analysis of Freaky Friday