10 key words again.

1) Mainstream: The uncontroversial, generally accepted attitudes, beliefs and values of the majority of the population. .
- Mainstream entertainment and media production tend to be family orientated and unchallanging in terms of representation and content,
-Mainstreamers are individuals who feel comfortable with the status quo and threatened by change.

Link to study? : 'HSM' complies and contrasts to the mainstream...
how it complies: is uncontroversial... Character Sharpay is slightly mainstreamist as she is threatened by the change that is occurring. i.e. her reign of playing lead musical roles being lost.
How it doesn't : Film challenges the status quo.

2) Metonym: Part of a representational image used to stand for a whole in such a way that the viewer is able to construct the rest of the story from the part give,
e.g a smiling policeman helping a child cross a busy road is a metonym for a caring community police force.

3) Motif: a recurrent theme or element that runs through a film and is repeated in a significant way, often expressing a key message.

4) Narrative theory: a type of thinking that seeks to explain narrative structures and their relationship to wider cultural and genre-related factors.
-Narrative theorists seek to deconstruct narratives in order to identify their common characteristics and component elements e,g Todorov and Levi- strauss

Link to study? : Theorists that are applicable to 'HSM'

5) Segmentation: the concentration by individual satellite and cable television channels on one area of viewing such as sport, film. history etc.
e.g cbeebies, Nick TV and THE DISNEY CHANNEL.

Link to study?: As stated about the Disney Channel (the institution behind 'HSM') is an example of such segmentation. (link to audience)

6) Todorov: GENRE THEORIST. Todorov's sequence is made up of propositions outlining a basic state of narration, which is disturbed and then re-established.
-Equilibrium...
-Disruption...
-recognition that the disruption has taken place...
-an attempt to repair the damage...
-a return to some kind of equilibrium.

Link to study: Todorovian structure is applicable to 'HSM' - Why is it used? - easily identifiable making the film straightforward making it appeal to the tweenage TA as its easier to understand.
Equilibrium: Start of school.
Disruption: Gabriella and Troy audition for musical.. Sharpay is jealous and stops gets the drama teacher to change the callback date. A further disruption occurs when Troy and Gabriella's friends hitch a plan to stop them both from performing together.
-recognition that the disruption has taken place: First disruption is recognized through the 'stick to the status quo' number. Second recognition is when the friends realize how unhappy their friends are..
-a return to some kind of equilibrium: Friends confess the truth of their plan and work with Troy and Gab to get into the callbacks. G and T win the places for the musical.


7) Telefilm: A feature-length film made for television.

Link to study: 'HSM' was a film originally made for the Disney channel (economic -low cost link). Third 'HSM' musical however will be shown in the cinema (again an economic link)

8) Youth culture: Any range of youth subcultures from the 1950s through to the present day including acpects of dress, behaviour, music preferance etc.
e.g Teddyboys(1950s)

Link to study?: youth culture has a key role in teen musicals. This is evident in Grease espicialy with J.Travolta and his gang as Teddyboys (iconic of the time) . Importance of youth culture in musicals? possibly as a way of identification.

9) Audience participation: The practice involving the audience to directly participate in the activities that form the basis of the program.

link to study? : Obvious link.. audience in musical films are invited to participate through sing alongs. This is also one of they key conventions of film musicals.


10) Binary opposition: term used by Strauss as part of his argument that narratives are strucuted around oppositional elements in human culture, e.g. good/evil, life/death, night/day.

link to study? : Binary oppositions are apparent in the film between Gabriella and Vanessa..