High School Musical is your typical romance film and uses every cliche in the book while following the traditional conventions. It's created by Disney which suggests that its aimed at children, this would mean that the language will be simple and the acting will be exaggerated (because if the acting was serious then the children would get bored) and the scenery will be colourful and clean.
The film starts with an establishing shot of a ski resort and text on the screen tells us that its new years eve. This is significant because new years eve suggests that something new could happen (which is shown in the first song later in the film) it is also close to Christmas which is a child's favorite time. The next scene shows the audience inside the resort and the audience are shown teenagers socializing and being friendly, the significant part of the scene is the use of props as this is a teenage party and you would expect drugs and alcohol but because this is aimed at a younger audience the teenagers are friendly and drinking juice. The next scene shows the audience the girl that is going to meet the guy of her dreams and live happily ever after, she follows the typical conventions as she seems geeky as she is reading a book while everyone else is partying and perhaps shy. The cliches of our female protagonist help to aid the younger audience as its like a message to them saying its fine to be different, this would make parents want their children to watch the film. The next scene shows the audience the man that will fall in love with the girl from the earlier scene, he too follows the conventions as he is sporty and good looking, we know he is sporty as we are introduced to him while he is playing basketball. The fact that he is sporty means that you could suggest that he is also popular which is another romance cliche.
Overall I think that this is a clever way to open the film as the young audience feel safe and happy that it follows the typical conventions of a romance film.
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