Analysis of the opening scene from 

‘to all the

boys I've loved before’ and ‘the half of it’. 

Many teen movies have the same things in common

for example most the time they have the same stock
characters such as the mean girl or the popular
one which are most often found in the teen genre.
Using these types of stock characters makes it easier
for the audience to notice that the genre is a teen
film. Using codes and conventions also helps us
realize the type of film it is by the type of sounds
used e.g., music, the settings and many more. 

In ‘to all the boys I've loved

before’ it starts off with the protagonist, Lara Jean, in her room as an introduction to
herself then after she goes downstairs to eat with her family before she is ready to
go to school. Then the scene moves onto her explaining a bit about her friend then
we see them both sitting on a school bench eating together. The school bench is a
symbol for a high school as they appear in many teen films and when they are seen
they are mostly shown with friends sitting down together so it shows a bit of
friendship in the movie and gives a little bit of an idea of the protagonist's type of
friends. Later on, in the film we see her in school admiring her crush down the
corridor until she accidentally bumps into a girl, we would associate to be the
‘mean girl’ but also ‘popular’ in the movie as the way she approaches the situation is
unfriendly and she's quite mean towards the protagonist as they had a past
together but unfortunately had fallen out. They are surrounded by lockers which also
symbolize a high school since we would expect to see students near them putting
away books, they are mostly seen in American high school movies as well as the
benches. In most teen films such as this movie there is always a lot of drama to do
with romance. In most teen films such as this movie there is always drama to do with
romance, the whole film is based on the main character who's love letters get mailed
to each of her five crushes and there's a lot of decisions she has to then make.  

The movie ‘the half of it’ has some similarities compared to ‘to all the boys I've loved
before’. It is a typical teen movie about a girl, Ellie who makes extra money from
doing peoples homework for her students, then one day a boy approaches her and
asks to pay her if she writes a love letter for his crush then she ends up falling in love
with his crush. Already we can see it has romance involved which is seen in a lot of
teen movies just like ‘to all the boys I've loved before’. Linking this movie to
Todorov's theory it is told in chronological order. In the beginning we see
the equilibrium is her going to school like a normal student and doing peoples
homework for them then further on in the movie the disruption happens where she
starts to catch feelings for the guy, she's helpings crush. Then towards the end the
problem is sorted, and everyone moves on. As we can see in this teen genre the
movie goes in chronological order just like any other teen film which is another way
the audience can identify its genre as a lot of them have the same story line as
well. In both movies they start of in the beginning explaining a bit about themselves
using a voiceover for narration, this puts us the audience in their shoes to see their
point of view on things which makes us understand a bit of their life and in ‘the half
of it’ it would make us sympathize for her and her lifestyle. The difference between
the two is the in ‘to all the boys I've loved before’ the music is upbeat and gives a
positive mood implying the main character is happy however in ‘the half of it’ it
starts off with slow calming music implying she plays a calm character who might not
be as popular and might not be living that much of a happy lifestyle but an average
one. Already as we can see the music gives us hints on the type of character they
would be. 

In many teen films there are stock characters being played which I had mentioned
before. One character being played in ‘to all the boys I’ve loved before’ is the ‘mean
girl’. The one who plays the ‘mean girl’ in most teen movies are often white females
who are considered popular in their high school or are well known to everyone
typically for their looks. They look how society expects women to look, dressed
feminine and wearing makeup to look more appealing to attract men. Most the time
they play the role of being vein and stuck up because they think they are better than
everyone else, this is because most the time they grew up in wealthy backgrounds
which gives them a boost in society on having a better life
and being more privileged than others because of their wealth status. Another stock
character mostly seen in teen films is the jock who is the male character, most likely
an athlete, who is often muscular and considered the popular guy who everyone has
a crush on. This character is sometimes who the main character will fall in love with
because of the way he looks, it is attractive and a manly thing to be when you are
muscular. In ‘to all the boys I've loved before’ she sends letters to men who have
these features, the masculine manly figure which makes it hard to decide who she
really likes. Moving onto ‘the half of it’ the jock in this film is the guy who goes to
Ellie for help, he is athletic and good looking which is why his crush has interest in
him in the beginning.  

Overall, many things such as romance, drama and stock characters such as the mean
girl or the popular one is seen in teen films. Using codes and conventions such as
sound, mise-en-scene, narration and many more, gives the audience an idea on what
the film may be about and it's also easy to identify the genre since these things are
seen a lot in teen genre movies.