The Deterioration and Vindictiveness of Regina George

Camera shot and the angle from which a director chooses to shoot from are very important techniques a director uses in order to convey a certain message about a specific character during a scene.

In the hit teen-comedy Mean Girls, director Mark Waters tells the story of a high school girl trying to survive in ''girl world." Waters uses denotative and connotative film shots to show the deterioration and vindictiveness of Regina George.

Mean Girls
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Portrayed as the Queen Bee of the school's most popular (and feared) clique "The Plastics", Regina George's character experiences a rebellion within her clique and suddenly finds herself outside the clique. Mark Waters decides to show the impeachment of Regina in the cafeteria scene when Gretchen and Karen both decide it's time to kick Regina out. Waters shoots Regina sitting down at the table from a high angle shot showing Regina's loss of power. He also shoots Gretchen and Karen standing up from a low angle shot showing the new authority of Gretchen and Karen as they famously say to Regina "You can't sit with us!"

Soon after Regina finds out she has been tricked by to eat fat bars, Mark Waters begins the scene of Regina running and screaming into her room and grabbing the infamous burn book via a long shot in order to establish the location of the scene. He then does a close-up on Regina to show her vindictive face as she says what she is writing in the burn book. The audience gets the idea Regina's writing is referring to Cady, but Waters then does the genius extreme close-up shot to reveal that the person Regina is actually writing about is herself.

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