Analysis of High School Musical - 2006 - Kenny Ortega

High School Musical was released in 2006 and it is set in modern day America. The target audience is children, the age certificate for this film is U which shows that it is suitable for children to watch without supervision. The use of language is simple and has complete lack of swear words, the characters are easily understood and the romance that occurs is almost a childish romance, which would be expected so that younger children and teenagers would understand and possibly relate to. It is also accentuated with bright colours of clothing and the general set up of the scenes, this would be more appealing for children as it would be attracted to it. High School Musical was produced by the ‘Disney Channel’ which is a channel dedicated to children, again showing that the target audience for this film is children.

The structure of this film is, Linear Narrative, this is shown through the way the film is ran in chronological order, and does not go back in time but it is all set in modern day. Because of this structure, it is much easier for the audience to understand, and as the audience is mainly children, it will not confuse them and it is kept simple. The exposition of the film, is when the two main characters meet, Troy and Gabriella, and become friends through singing showing the nature of the film as it starts off as a song. The smaller climax of the film is that, as the two groups of friends do not agree with their ‘friendship’ and decide to make them fall out, this means that Troy and Gabriella do not talk and this makes them both really down and upset, however the main climax of the film is when the basketball game and the scholastic decathlon coincide and are arranged to be happening at the same time as callbacks for the winter show. The smaller resolution is when the two groups of friends decide that Troy and Gabriella are happier when talking and going to audition, so they tell them that they set it up for them to fall out, and the resolution for the more major climax is that they decide to ruin the scholastic decathlon and the basketball, so that they can audition. This structure has become more popular with films set in modern day as it is a more simple structure for the audience to follow.

The scenes I am focusing on from High school musical are two scenes that show the romantic feelings between Troy and Gabriella. The first scene I have chosen shows Gabriella expressing her emotions for Troy and what she will miss about him. This scene is meant to be an emotional one and this is portrayed perfectly by the mise-en-scene and the setting that she finds herself in. Gabriella is shown walking through empty corridors, this reflects her inner emotions to the outside world. Believing she has lost Troy she feels lonely. Another code that is used is the use of colours, they are very cold, like pale blues and greys, which also helps emphasize her feelings. A lot of the camera angles used were wide shot to show her and the surroundings, however some did show only her face to give more of an impact on the audience as you see her emotions more up close, also a lot of her movements were exaggerated, as they are in so many musicals. The editing techniques included a variation of overlapping scenes, there was one I remember which had Gabriella next to a big poster with Troys face on and as it zoomed into his face, she moved on and it overlapped to another shot where she was alone but Troys face was still slowly overlapped. All of these techniques seem to happen in most musicals that involve some sort of romance, they fall out and then there is this ‘depression’ and then they make up. These kind of scenes contrast with when the romantic couple make up and everything is fine, because the lighting, mise-en-scene and over all setting is more colourful and upbeat.

The main theme of High School Musical, is obviously teenagers lives, with school life, friendships and of course romance intertwined. Many musicals seem to focus on love, and it it was one the main conventions applied within them, it is what helps keep the audience interested. High School Musical has not been remade, but it is a Trilogy, so that this one has been carried on with the same idea theme of ‘love’.