Storylines, Openings+ Binary Oppositions

Princess Diaries use various ways to establish the binary oppositions in the opening scene. They introduce the characters which means we could straight away establish the relationship between the main character and another character just by seeing how they get along with each other. Through the opening one of the main binary oppositions we have are mainly popularity vs non popularity. The main character Mia is so to say 'invisible' to her school mates and classified as unpopular and not very appealing in the way she looks however, we have the popular group of girls that are the opposite which are very pretty and girls who immediately get attention if they're in your presence. Here it is obvious that another binary opposition we have is 'beautiful girls vs ugly girls'. Another thing you would notice in a high school is that typically the popular and non popular girls don't get along with each other and this is exactly what occurs in the movie which establishes conflict between the two separate category of girls. Without binary oppositions it wouldn't bring the movie forward with interest and engagement as it shows us what the main differences are. Usually when popular girls get attention from the crowd, they are extremely confident in their surroundings as they're used to being noticed however, the unpopular girls would be fearing more with how people will mock them if they're openly exposed in a situation for e.g. stand in front of a classroom and speak as they consider themselves as not important to the society. This therefore establishes the binary oppositions with confidence vs nervous. Lastly, the last binary opposition I found in Princess Diaries is 'royalty vs non royal'. The grandma of the main character is the Queen which we could therefore see the difference between popular girls in a high school and a queen that is responsible for the whole country they live in themselves.

In '10 things I hate about you' is another typical teen movie where the mis en scene is usually based in a high school.