15.1.19 -21st century musical films

21st Century Musical Films

Musical film as a genre: Musical film is a genre in which songs sung by the characters and is sometimes accompanied by dance. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the films characters. Musical film is usually a natural development of the stage musical with the emerge of sound film technology. The viewer becomes the diegetic audience as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. 

Generic Conventions: For the main narrative of 21st century Musical films, songs are typically sung by characters to advance the plot and develop the films characters or themes.  Singing in a movie isn’t what makes a musical , for it to be a musical characters must be expressing emotion through song and  dance. They convey their thoughts and feelings (diegetic).

Mise en scene: Typically in musical films, emotions are expressed through lighting for example in the greatest showman in the first song “the greatest show” the lighting starts to become darker as it’s realisation to the audience that it is just A dream , this conveys the feelings in that moment. How at the time that  the character is thinking or feeling. The costumes within musical films are usually well thought out and sometimes exaggerated for example the phantom of the opera the protagonist wears a. Mysterious mask along with a black cloak , costume is something that pleasures the audience. Musicals based on real stories (biographical )such as bohemian rhapsody the costume choices were really well thought out and exaggerated costumes was necessary. Sound is typically background music of the musical soundtrack which would then usually follow with a song where the characters would then sing and dance .

Camera: Close up shots are mainly utilised in musical films , for example to emphasise feelings again in high school musical 3, when Troy and his team aren’t winning it does a close up with a beating heart sound to increase the tension . Close ups are very helpful in musical films during songs so that is why they are commonly used. Shots to set the scene are also used quite frequently in musical films as most films start with a song. The shots within musical films follow a similar structure to any other genre of film however the shots are more emphasised when it comes to a song or dance.

Audience Pleasures: A finale song is a typical convention of musical films that please the audiences. This is because it is usually the song to clarify that everything is happy again and it is where the audience have anticipation from wanting a happy ending. Another convention audiences would expect from a musical film is a villain or villains , this is seen in mostly every recent musical film for enchanted it being the evil witch, high school musical - sharpay and finally hairspray it being Amber. These conventions keep the audience happy and encourage a successful production aimed at the target audience.In complete contrast , you wouldn’t typically see very realistic storylines as it isn’t realistic to break out to song and dance to express different emotions.