Mary Santiago with Dominique (Image: ).Īct I begins with the audience meeting Mary Santiago, a senior in high school and an aspiring dancer who works for pop star Dominique Blatt.
Dominique regressively develops throughout this film because she falls from being a pop star to having Mary leave her when she is in serious medical need. Joey progressively develops from losing the reason why he started dancing in the first place to finding his inspiration in Mary. Mary progressively develops from being the orphaned worker of Dominque to not only getting accepted into her dream dance school, but also by winning Joey’s heart. This film utilizes three-act-story structure and omniscient narration, as the movie is told in the third person through a number of characters, including Mary, Joey and Dominique. The spotlight and them being placed center of frame show that amongst the crowd, they are main focus. She is dancing with Joey, an individual that knowing her true identity as one of Dominique’s workers, would have never given her the time of day. This is all too true for Mary, who is not supposed to be at the dance to begin with. Also, everyone strategically wears a mask to hide their true identity. This is done on purpose, as costume designer Kate Main picked the red dress so that Mary would stand out amongst the outfits framed behind her.
Everyone comes to the dance dressed in black or white with the exception of Mary. The next image shows Mary and Joey at the Black and White Ball. Mary Santiago and Joey Parker at the Black and White Ball (Image: )
Mary constantly works to make Dominique look better, even when all she wants is to sabotage her happiness. Irony arises because comparably speaking, she is never the center of attention until the film’s conclusion. Her dancers always walk behind her to show Mary as the center of attention. Mary is placed center of frame, surrounded by backup dancers that help to make her look better. Everyone wears a gold belt around their waists, signifying prosperity, wealth, glitz and glamour, four things Mary does not possess in real life. Mary’s red jacket also stands out against the blue background and her background dancers, who are dressed in all black. The changing colors shows Mary’s distorted reality. A blue background is used with many vibrant colors spotlighted in to highlight the action. A futuristic style of lighting is used to accentuate the dream aspect of this opening scene. This first image is during Mary Santiago’s dream sequence. Mise-en-scene Analysis Mary Santiago in opening scene (Image: ). After identifying Mary is his girl using the Zune she dropped at the dance, Joey and Mary fall in love and inspire each other in their respective music careers. When teen pop sensation Joey Parker (Drew Seeley) attends Mary’s high school in hopes of being treated like a “normal teen,” he meets his mystery girl at the ball. Mary counts down the days until her audition with the Manhattan Academy of Performing Arts. Another Cinderella Story movie poster (Image: ).Īnother Cinderella Story (Santostefano) tells the classic “Cinderella” tale placed in the modern day music business. Mary Santiago (Selena Gomez), a naturally-talented dancer, is an orphaned teenager that works for pop star Dominque Blatt (Jane Lynch).