SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Simpson Chin Jiunn Yih

STUDENT ID NO: 0318154

FILMS SELECTED: High School Musical & Camp Rock

WORD COUNT: 824

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH

SEPTEMBER 2014

What is a musical film? Musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the

characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing.

The two greatly known musical films in the 21st century are probably High School

Musical and also Camp Rock. High School Musical was released back in 2006 and

Camp Rock was released back in 2008. Both movies received great results in terms

of views and likes. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the storyline or plot

between these two movies.

Firstly, the encounter between the male and the female lead. In High School

Musical, the male lead, Troy Bolton, met the female lead, Gabriella Montez in a New

Year’s Eve party while singing karaoke together. They were attracted to each other

after singing together. Troy and Gabriella both exchanged numbers before going

their separate ways. One week later Troy goes back to his high school, East High, in

New Mexico to find that Gabriella is a new student there. They quickly become close

friends. On the other hand, in Camp Rock, the encounter between the male lead

Shane and female lead Mitchie was not that smooth. Mitchie, an aspiring young

musician who hopes to become a professional singer pleaded to go the camp “Camp

Rock”. However her parents are unable to afford the tuition. Then, Mitchie’s mother

decided to cater food for the camp thus allowing Mitchie to join. However she has to

help her out in the kitchen. In the evening, Mitchie played the piano and was singing

her own song in an empty cabin and it was overheard by Shane. Before Shane

realise who the singer was, Mitchie left swiftly because she has to help out in the

kitchen. Shane fell in love with the voice without knowing who the singer was. He

then spread the words of searching for the girl with “the voice”.

Secondly, the differences between their rivalries. In High School Musical, the

main rivals of Troy and Gabriella are Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan. The twins

are very talented in singing and also they are awfully rich. When Sharpay and Ryan

overheard Troy and Gabriella’s practice, they thought that they are really great and

they started to worry. So they decided to change the competition time to coincide

with both the basketball championship and the science tournament so that Troy and

Gabriella were unable to participate. Then, in Camp Rock, after knowing that Mitchie

was the girl that Shane was looking for, Theresa, the daughter of the famous T.J

Tyler and also a fan girl of Shane who wishes to impress him, used different

methods of having her eliminated from the competition, the Final Jam. She hid her

expensive bracelet inside Mitchie’s bag and accused her for stealing it. When the

instructor confronted Mitchie, she denied it. Then after they found out that the

bracelet was really with Mitchie, she was disqualified from the Final Jam.

Thirdly, the differences between how they win their competition. In High School

Musical, Troy and Gabriella managed to overcome the issue of the time callback with

the help of their friends. They were actually a little late for their performance and

Ms.Darbus did not allow them to sing, at first. Then their big friends started to swarm

in and occupy the theatre for their performance. Nothing much that Ms.Darbus can

do, she allowed them to sing. Troy and Gabriella both performed very well and they

got a huge response from the crowd as well as Ms.Darbus. Sharpay and Ryan did

well in their performance but Troy and Gabriella did better. And this is how they won

the competition. However in Camp Rock, Theresa always wanted to impress her

mother. Her mother always seem too busy and all Theresa wanted was a little

attention from her. During her performance, she noticed a familiar face in the crowd.

It was her mother. She was so happy and it boosted her performance. However

during the peak of her performance, her mother received a phone call and was not

unable to focus on her performance. Instantly, Theresa lost focus and fell down

during her performance. She was humiliated. She stopped her performance halfway

and ran back into the curtains to cry. This gave a bad impression to the judges and

her score fell sharply. Then it was the end of Final Jam and finally Mitchie can

perform. When she performed, Shane finally found the girl that she has been

searching for the whole time. With both songs having the same key, they combined

their songs and her performance became a double sing. The response from the

crowd was great and they ruled the Final Jam.

Although there are differences between these two musical films, they are great

movies with a lot of values to learn from. We should continue to support the

production of musical films so that they will produce better films in the future.