Mean Girls Shot by Shot Analysis

The film starts with a low angle shot, giving the impression that the parents are looking down at a small child. The camera then tilts to their level, as the protagonist of the film, Cady, stands up. This gives the film a comedic effect, as the people watching make assumptions about the age and height of the character, and are then proven wrong. The shot is then projected over the shoulders of the two parents, at Cady's face. A medium shot then shows the whole family, and then medium close ups as the father takes the picture. A wide shot is used to also show the house as well as the family as the voiceover starts.
In the shot of the girl at the spelling bee, the camera zooms into her face until it is at a close up. The shot of the five boys is a medium shot, and doesn't change in that clip. The next clips are stills, as if they are photos of her life in Africa. As Cady walks into school, we are shown another over the shoulder shot, this time only her mum's shoulder. It also does a few brief point of view shots as Cady walks into the crowd, then flicking back to a medium close up with selective focus on her face. As she walks into class, there is another over the shoulder shot of her over a classmate's shoulder. this continues as she talks to the classmate, then goes to an over the shoulder shot of the classmate from Cady's shoulder, then to a wide shot of the two standing in class as people go past.