For those who aren't familiar with the musical, I'll give a quick summary of the general plot.
Hairspray takes place in 1962 Baltimore. It stars a fat teenage girl, Tracy Turnblad, who dreams of dancing on the Corny Collins Show. She becomes an overnight celebrity, as she's soon regarded as trendsetter for dance, and fun and fashion. However, Tracy soon starts to realize that just because she made it on the tv show doesn't mean all is fair and equal, and she begins to fight for integration, which gets her in a world of trouble. Still, she never backs down and since this is an uplifting movie from the 80s/2000s, she gets what she wants. Now, that's the most basic of summaries and it lacks all the little nuances and what truly makes it great. Just know I cannot recommend Hairspray (2007) enough, so I most certainly recommend you give it a watch. It's available on both Amazon and HBO Max (as well as the bargain bin at Walmart most likely). Anyway, as far as the actual history portion of this project goes, I first did a lot of research on the history of Baltimore and segregation before I watched the movies so I could fairly judge each movie on their accuracy. After watching all three movies, I then made a google slide presentation about how I would make a modern reboot of the movies, discussing how I would capture the context and themes of the times. I came to the ultimate conclusion that I really wouldn't make a modern reboot, as it's theme of hope for the future is admirable and most certainly needed in these times, but it's a lot more complicated since we still haven't solved our problems with racial justice. However, it's themes of hope and "awakening" to the modern world certainly still checks out to the modern day. Tracy was never a harmful person, but she was oblivious and she learns that because of the position of power she was given, she needs to use it to help those more marginalized than her gain equality, no matter the risk. Plus, it's themes of body positivity is undoubtedly uplifting and good-- especially because it isn't sectional. |
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For the english portion, I aspired to look at how the plot evolved with each retelling of the story, from '88 to '07 to '16. This meant I had to watch each (legally) filmed version of the story. Since a whole plot is a lot to handle, I also decided to narrow it down to how the characters evolved. I first put this all into a chart so I could organize my thoughts into notes. After that I turned it into a script for a youtube video, basing it off the format of youtubers like Schaffrilas Productions and Overly Sarcastic Production's "Trope Talk" videos.
The script took roughly 23 pages, as I found myself having lots to say on each character and symptoms of storytelling problems each presented in the different films. My conclusions were interesting and perhaps a little self affirming as I found the 2007 version the best of the three. It was interesting to see how storytelling and progression isn't linear, and how something that can be done right in the past can be ignored in the future. Of course, I didn't find the 2007 perfect, it still struggles with white saviorism, but I do believe it to be the most entertaining and well balanced of the three, as well as the most uplifting-- something I'm sure you'd agree with if you read the analysis or the chart. If you're to take anything away from this project, it should be "go and watch the '07 Hairspray asap because it's amazing". |
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For the art portion, I knew what I wanted to do from the start: costume analysis. As such, I took hundreds of screenshots of all three movies, getting a good feel of the color palettes and fabrics the three of them used. I also made sure to do plenty of research into sixties fashion so I would also get a sense for what's accurate or not.
I then combined all of my knowledge into a google slide that pointed out signs and details that make it obvious when each movie was filmed versus when it was set. Overall, as one might expect, the '88 was the most obvious, but that doesn't mean '07 and Live! were completely scot free, as I pointed out. Still, it was really fun to have an excuse to talk about one of my favorite movies and to truly appreciate just how gorgeous the '07 is in terms of costuming. |
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