Gossip Girl Relevant Background Information Actors Artifacts
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Assignment One Lauren Ferrell Gossip Girl Relevant Background Information The show is set in New York City on the Upper East Side in the year 2007-2008. Some important locations in this series is: Grand Central train station where Serena van der Woodsen arrives at, Brooklyn where Dan Humphrey lives, Constance which is the school that they all attend, and a party venue in the Upper East Side where Blair Waldorf has the Kiss on the Lips party. The series is based off of the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar. The first observation that I did is on the first show in the series titled ‘Pilot’. The second observation that I did was on the second show in the series titled ‘The Wild Brunch’. Finally, the third observation I did was on the third show in the series titled ‘Poison Ivy’. Actors ❖ Serena van der Woodsen is the main character of the show. The ‘it’ girl of the Upper East Side. Serena left town the year before and when she shows back up everyone is trying to figure out why she ever left in the first place. Mistakes from her past are haunting her and she is now back and trying to make amends with everyone and forget about everything she did in her past. She is worried about her brother and the relationship she has with Blair Waldorf, her best friend. ❖ Dan Humphrey is considered the outsider character because he is not rich or considered important like everyone else. Serena van der Woodsen is his main focus, whom he has had a crush on for years. He is having to constantly remind everyone of who he is and he has to work twice as hard for everything he does at school, and still doesn’t get noticed. ❖ Blair Waldorf is Serena van der Woodsen’s best friend. Her and Serena are in a constant competition for who is the ‘it’ girl on the Upper East Side. Nate Archibald, Blair’s boyfriend, is considered the ‘Golden Boy’ of the Upper East Side. Everyone considers them ‘The perfect couple’. She is also the queen of schemes. ❖ Nate Archibald is Blair Waldorf’s girlfriend, Chuck Bass’s best friend, and the ‘Golden Boy’. He is always getting into the middle of things while he’s trying his hardest to avoid them. He has a thing for Serena but denies it to everyone except to her. ❖ Chuck Bass: He’s Nate Archibald’s best friend. His dad owns a major company so he’s one of the richest ones. He has no interests other than girls and partying. He is always causing trouble, or helping cause it. Artifacts ❖ Cell phones: Everyone is connected through their cell phones to get Gossip Girl blasts sent to them. They can instantly know the latest gossip as soon as it comes out. They send tips in and she posts as she gets them so that everyone can know what the popular Upper East Siders are doing at all times and locations. ❖ Gossip Girl’s narration: While watching the show, Gossip Girl’s voice narrates what’s happening and will give you extra information on things that are happening. She is making a constant connection about things that happen and she is Assignment One Lauren Ferrell always making predictions and asking questions about what you think will happen from events that go on. Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 1 Observation 1 ❖ 3 mins: Serena van der Woodsen is on a train that arrives at a station in New York. Gossip Girls voice comes on as the narrator and says “Hey upper east siders. Gossip Girl here, and I have the biggest news ever. One of my many sources meLanie91, sends us this… Spotted at Grand Central, bags in hand, Serena van der Woodsen. Was it only a year ago our “It” girl mysteriously disappeared for “Boarding School”? And just as suddenly, she’s back. Don’t believe me? See for yourselves. Lucky for us meLanie91 sent proof. Thanks for the photo, Mel.” Then Rufus appears and he yells “Dan! Jenny!” and Dan and Jenny are walking through Grand Central. They hug and Rufus asks them how their mom is doing. They say fine and he asks “Like maybe I never should have left Manhattan fine, or taking time out from my marriage was the best idea I ever had, fine?” Then they leave to go home from Grand Central. Dan spots Serena walking through Grand Central. Gossip Girl’s narration comes back on and says “Spotted-- Lonely Boy. Can’t believe the love of his life has returned. If only she knew who he was. But everyone knows Serena. And everyone is talking. Wonder what Blair Waldorf thinks. Sure they’re B.F.F.s, but we always thought Blair’s boyfriend Nate had a thing for Serena.” It shows Blair at her house setting up for a party when she receives the text that Serena is back. Blair’s mom shows up and tell her that if she is going to wear one of her designs to at least get it properly fitted first. Nate is shown talking to his father and some other men about college. He suggests other colleges than Dartmouth and his father tells him no that Dartmouth is far away enough for his mother. Blair shows up and asks to borrow Nate. Chuck Bass is shown sitting on a couch with two girls and he calls after Nate to ask him if he wants some fresh air. Blair pulls him into a bedroom. ❖ 5 mins: Blair has pushed Nate into the bedroom and she tells Nate that she’s ready and wants to do it now. Nate was confused because he thought she wanted to wait. Gossip Girl comes on and says “Better lock it down with Nate, B. Clock’s ticking.” Then people at Blair’s party start seeing the gossip girl post about Serena being seen getting off of the train at Grand central. It then jumps scenes to Serena getting out of a car at an unknown location. It then jumps back to Blair and Nate saying they love each other, because Blair has her suspicions about Nate and Serena. Serena shows up at Blair’s party and Blair’s mom spots her. Her mom knocks on Blair’s door and tells her that Serena is back. As Serena is walking through the party and people are making comments like “...But I heard she was pregnant.” and “No, but it’s rehab. Sign me up for that.” and “She looks good.”. Serena finds her mom at the party and greets her. Serena asks her mom “So where is he? They haven’t let him out yet?” and her mom replies with “Let’s not discuss that right now okay? I thought you might want to see some of your friends.” ❖ At 11 mins: Serena and Nate were looking at each other across the room when Blair opens a door and comes in between them. Blair hugs Serena and talks about how Assignment One Lauren Ferrell good it is to see her. Blair’s mom invites Serena to stay for dinner and Serena declines and says that there’s somewhere she has to go. She leaves and yells back that she’ll see Blair at school tomorrow, so Blair assumes that she’s back for good. Blair’s friend asks if she knew she was coming and Blair replied that of course she did and that she just wanted it to be a surprise. Gossip girl comes in and says “Word is that S bailed on B’s party in under 90 seconds, and didn’t even have one Limoncello. Has our bad girl really gone good? Or is it all just part of an act.” Serena walks into another room and a receptionist says “Young lady, you can’t be here. Visiting hours are over.” and Serena replies with “I’m family. He’s my brother.” And it shows a young boy laying in a hospital bed. The boy, Eric, wakes up to see his sister who was just gone for almost a year laying beside him in a chair sleeping. Eric wakes her up and she apologizes for being a terrible sister to him and that she wishes she would have been here for him. He talks about how there must be a lot of rumors why she’s back and she replies that none of them mention him, because he doesn’t want anyone to know what he did. He says “Just like mom wants”. Thier mom walks in talking about how she wishes Serena would have stayed at home last night. Serena tells her that she was going to ask the doctor if she could take Eric to breakfast and her mom says that she’s just going to get him a croissant from down the street. Serena gets up and walks after her mom and asks what she has told people where Eric is. Her mom replies with “His Aunt Carrol’s in Miami”. Serena gets mad and says “So you’re hiding him? He tries to take his own life and you’re worried it’s going to cost you mom of the year?” Her mom leaves the hospital. Cuts to Dan, Jenny, and Rufus in their kitchen. Rufus is in a magazine as #9 in the top 10 forgotten bands of the 90s. Jenny says that it would only matter if it was on Gossip Girl and Dan makes a comment about how he doesn’t read Gossip Girl.