Figure 10.1. Watch this 4:48 minute clip from Hairspray; “Hairspray – Good Morning Baltimore (Official Movie Clip) [Youtube Video].” Standard YouTube license.

Let’s start by watching the opening sequence of Hairspray (Mundo Platônico, 2011). What do you see?

The scene opens with an aerial shot: The frame is filled with rows of symmetrical 2 and 3 story buildings with black roofs and walls in shades of butter yellow, brick red and terracotta. There are only two blocks that have any trees. The light is bright, like morning.

The camera slowly zooms in closer as the first drumbeats start… Thump, thumpthump. Thump, thumpthump. Thump, thumpthump. A revving motorcycle, a screeching cat and honking cars fill out the rhythm, Thump, thumpthump.

The camera zooms close enough to one street corner to identify that the buildings are classic row houses. High density urban housing that dates back to the turn of the 20th century. The distinctive chunky round cars on the street indicate that this film is set in the late 50’s or early 60’s.

The camera zooms in on the corner house, which looks to have a business attached to it. A white paperboy drops a daily newspaper on the stoop as he walks by. The paper lands with the beat of the drum.

The camera continues to zoom in until the headline and the top half of the folded Battimore Sun completely fills the frame to reveal the date: May 3, 1962. The bolded headline reads, “Barnett Defies U.S., Bars Negro From University.”

Horns and piano add melodic themes to the rhythm, which moves towards a crescendo with the next series of shots: First, a white women in an apron scrubbing the stoop next door, then two young white women in short curly hair and cropped “peddle pushers cross a busy street, then a young white man lifts up the security gates that protect the windows of a record shop as more people walk by, then a close up of a shop window with a neon sign turning on to say “Beauty Shop”, as the music continues to build, and then two Black men deftly shining shoes. It’s morning and the neighborhood is waking up.

The camera moves out for a symmetrical hip level shot of the shoe shine: on the sidewalk in front of a shoe repair shop, two white men sit elevated on a shoe shine stand. One, in a brown suit trousers is completely concealed by a newspaper, the other in green trousers, a short sleeve button-down shirt and a battered felt fedora reads a racing sheet. Their shoes are attended to by the only Black people we’ve seen so far: two men, the younger seated in front of the customer with the hat on a spindly iron stool that looks like it might have come from a soda shop. He is well dressed in gray trousers, a gray green cardigan and a leather flat cap. His brown leather shoes shine in the morning light. To his right sits an older man, perhaps his father, carefully cleaning newspaper-guy’s shoes. He is seated on a metal chair with a floral seat and backrest, suggesting part of a dining set. He is wearing loose fitting brown trousers and thin suspenders over a clean white button down shirt. His dark brown leather shoes and his felt pork-pie hat are as impeccable. The customers do not interact with their attendants as they work in such intimate proximity. In the foreground, to the right is a parking meter, with a red “expired” flag. The camera zooms out as the younger man snaps his shine cloth to signal another job well done.

Another aerial shot draws our attention back to the corner building and zooms in to reveal that the shop on the corner is called “Hardy Har Har” and advertises“Fun” on a placard in the window. The camera quickly zooms in and pans to a casement window on the second floor. We are taken, with the morning sun, into a bedroom.

Another symmetrical hip level shot reveals a single bed with a bookcase headboard, topped with an old and much cuddled stuffed dog, between two, matching end tables, with matching pink lamps. The bed has a single occupant, coved by a bright pink bedspread concealing a large person except for plump fingers and a lot of hair. The sleeper starts to shimmy in rhythm to the music.

The camera pans left to a ringing alarm clock. It’s 7am. The orchestral strings build towards the anticipated crescendo as the camera pans back to a close up of the sleeper’s brown eyes blinking open as a drumbeat announces her waking. She has creamy white skin and brown bangs.

Quick as a shot she turns off the alarm with her dimpled hands, and throws off the cover with a drumbeat punctuated snap not unlike the shoe shine cloth snap.

Horns drive the music as a series of quick, tight shots unfold: bobby sock-clad feet sliding into fuzzy mule slippers – snap! A plump arm sliding into a crisp white sleeve – snap! A lacy sailor collar being tied above a full bosom – snap! A snug yellow and blue plaid pencil skirt zipping up over round hips – snap! The now familiar hand picks up a can of hairspray – no snap this time but the hiss of the hairspray as the camera zooms in on the spray can filling the frame with thick mist.

The thick uneven turquoise text appears in the mist and fills the frame to announce the title of the film:“Hairspray.”

The mist clears to reveal the once sleeping girl facing her dressing room mirror. The camera shot of the mirror from behind her captures her perfect up-flipped bouffant from both front and back. The girl begins to sing the opening number, “Good Morning Baltimore!”

Mise-en-scene is a French term that means setting the stage. In filmmaking and theater, mise-en-scene refers to the composition of elements in a scene or sequence of scenes. Mise-en-scene includes the arrangement, or composition of the setting, props, lighting, music, costumes and characters. Every element of a scene is carefully planned. Paying attention to how a scene visually and musically unfolds can enrich our understanding of the narrative. By first describing and then analyzing the mise-en-scene of the first sixty seconds of the opening sequence of the 2007 musical remake of John Water’s beloved camp comedy, Hairspray, we discover hints and clues that tell us about the world that the lead character is waking up to.

For example, the row houses tell us that the story is set in a densely populated urban neighborhood; the cars and clothes suggest the era, the newspaper confirms the date and the place, the activities tell us its morning, and the alarm clock tells us the exact time. Together these elements fix the story in a specific time and place.

The newspaper also tells us about the political climate of the time and place. The struggle for civil rights was at the top of the newspaper and the brief expired parking meter in the shoeshine scene indicates that time is up for the racist scene unfolding at the shoeshine stand, foreshadowing that in this story, racism will not prevail.

The record store and the beauty shop hint that music and hair are important themes. The neighborhood, the location of her home above a shop, her bedroom, her morning routine, her wardrobe and most importantly, her hair also show us who she is, even though we don’t yet know her name.

In her bedroom she is surrounded by artifacts of childhood and waking up to adulthood. Here is a working class, feminine presenting white teenager, greeting her morning with confidence and energy. She is stylish and competent, having mastered the most popular and flamboyant hairstyle of the era. A big girl with big hair and big dreams ready to take on a world that is stacked against her because of her size and her social status.

That’s just the first minute of the film!

Communication Studies, Cultural Studies and Media Studies are interrelated academic disciplines that consider how systems of power, meaning and culture are created, reproduced and contested in film, music, art and literature. In this chapter we will apply the tools borrowed from these disciplines to consider how gender and sexuality are created, reproduced and contested in film and popular music. Because gender and sexuality are intersectionaly constructed, we will also be looking at race, class, ability and other markers of social location.