Opening conventions
Box Office: $1,110,000
Budget: $3,000,000 (estimated)
Running time: 3:06 minutes
Summary:
In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.
The first shot that we see is a shot from behind - a girl tying her hair up with a red scrunchie. This suggests that the colour red has some significance throughout the film. The colour red represents the colour of love, but also blood. We can connote that the film may be a romantic film with a twist. There is non-diegetic music playing in the back ground. The music playing is called "Que sera, sera" which in translation is "what will be, will be". This suggests that that anything could happen - often later on in the film the protagonist dent want to kill the girls but ends up doing it anyway. The title 'Heathers; is in serif text. This suggests it is a romantic genre. It is almost as if the title has been written. the fact it is in pink suggests it is about the female generation in high school.
There is then a panning shot over to a clique of girls, in what looks to be a high class setting. We can donnote that the girls are surrounded by a white picket fence and are sitting surrounded by red roses, another symbolism of love and blood. Each girl is wearing similar clothing but each has their own colour. The establishing shot here gives us an idea that they are a group of upper class girls who are very close friends.
This screenshot shows a different angle on the girls. There is a panning shot getting closer to the girls. Giving us an idea that they are surrounded by the little white fence. Everything seems normal and nice- typical high school clique.
The girls then stand up simultaneously and walk together in a line. As the audience we wonder how they are going to get out of the surrounding plants and fencing. They find an easy solution. The girls simply walk on top of the flowers. Killing them. We see a medium shot of their legs standing on the flowers carelessly. We can connote from these violent actions that the girls may not be what they seem.
There is then a tracking shot from the left of the girls. From within the bushes. Almost as if we are watching the girls from the bushes. giving a sense of creepiness. We see they are wearing different colour. we can connote that the girl in the middle is the 'main girl' because of her placement in the scene. The middle. she is also wearing red, which seems to be a main colour of the film. We can see the title beginning to come up on the screen throughout. It is is sans-sarif text which is different tot the title 'Heathers'. The titles are white with a red shadow. White symbolises perfection and innocence. however the colour red shadowing the white letters suggests something twisted about it, we can make a connection between the 'Heathers" clique and the text type of the titles.
The camera then pans over to front facing the girls; however we still don't see their faces up close. We see their feted croquette balls and sticks, each in their own colour. The titles are surrounding the the balls. The smaller ext is much like the initial text in a writing font. Showing the contrast.
We see yellow heather go first. Suggesting she isn't the most important. We can connote that the film was set in the late 80's due to the clothing. All wearing very feminine bright coloured clothing.
We then get a close shot of the yellow heather with the red heather in the background. She is in every shot. Implying that she is a main character. The hair is a key suggestion of what era this is set in. The hair is large. There is also the first sound of diegetic dialogue. "Dammit". you don't expect this word to come from an upper class girl from the 1080's. Again giving a hint of a a twist on the typical clique in a high school in America.
Yellow heather then says "It's your turn Heather". the girl in the red then laughs and says "It's not mine!" as if they should know she was going last . The order of what they hit the ball could give us an insight to what happens to each character. (Which dies first).
The green heather is distracted by reading the book "Moby dick". The intertextuality here suggests that a character has a distinct connection to the main character of 'Moby Dick'. The protagonist goes insane about trying to kill the whale. The book is about obsession and insanity. What we don't know yet is that the main character of 'Heathers' interacts with a boy who has psychological issues and becomes obsessed with killing this group of girls. It ends up driving her insane and she tries to kill the guy she is with. We don't see where the two heathers who have been hit the ball. This is narrative ignigma. We assume that they are hitting the balls through he gaps. However we find (after the red heather goes) that they are aiming the ball for the protagonists head.
The red ball hits her right on the head, where as the other two miss. This suggests that the girl getting hit on the head and the red heather will be the two contrasting characters.
The next piece of language is "dear Diary". This links back to the sans-serif text of being writing. The girl is centre screen, which we can connote means she is the protagonist. Or what seems to be the protagonist.
