Storylines, openings and binary oppositions

Teen films incorporate numerous different binary oppositions, and the best moment to get all of these into focus is in the introduction before the film focuses onto narrower aspects. We studied binary oppositions in 4 different films, and each of these films used over 5 in the opening 5-7 minutes.

10 Things I Hate About You
The first film we looked at was 10 Things I Hate About You y Jill Gunger. The first binary oppositions are apparent from 1:03, when the older sister drives up next to the group of popular girls. The binary oppositions just from this clip are:

• Pop music vs grunge/punk
• clean vs greasy
• happy vs moody
• bright colours vs black
• nice convertible vs old car

When Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets introduced there is an immediate change with how he expected teachers to behave and how the headmistress was behaving. Then, when the person comes to meet him, he describes the different group types, the coffee drinkers, the beautiful people, the Rastas, the Ivy Leaguers and the cowboys.

Ferris Buellers Day Off

Ferris' naughty nature creates vast amounts of binary oppositions. There is the difference between reality and his lies:

sibling rivalry: 

school and home: