Travelling and Arriving

As a class we analysed the opening of The Breakfast Club by John Huges 1985. From this clip we found that the way in which a character arrives to a destination helps create an image for them which is normal stereotypical.

In The Breakfast Club the opening is of teens arriving to their school for detention on a Saturday. Although we found that majority arrive in a car there is a difference within their car models which helps create a character for them. We clearly analysed 5 different stereotypical characters which are to be found in a high school in America. These included;

• The Princess
• The Brain
• The Jock
• The Baskestcase
• The Criminal

The first character to arrive was the princess. She came in a BMW and sat at the front with her father. Her mode of transport helped portray her wealthy family. The camera shot was a mid two shot which helped show her father and capture their wealth as well as emphasise their dialogue. The conversation was about her father not being able to get her out of this Saturday detention which showed that she was the rich spoilt character, a daddy's girl who gets whatever she wants.

The second characters arrival was of the brain. The first shot with the brain was inside the car and showed the brain, his sister and mother all cramped up into the car. This gives the audience that this is possibly a family car and of a lower class to there first. There was a clear comparison between the 2 characters. The car seemed to be beaten up and look like it lacked commitment to keep it intact and of a good standard. This helped emphasise the lower class family feel to the character.

The Third character is the jock who arrives in a jeep. Although the shot begins with the character in the car with his father. We are also able to tell he is of an adequte wealth and this is also portrayed though his dialogue based upon a scholership. The character is shown to feel a slight aggitation from his father which helps portray the typical jock character.

The Fourth character is the criminal who we find to be casual walking across the road even though a car is coming with no absolute care in the world. This helped emphasis his lack of interest as to what is to come and that he is a complete rebel. As we find him walking with no family or interaction with anyone we are clearly able to identify his character.

The last character to arrive is the Basketcase, who also arrives in a car. We are shown no interaction of this character with her family and find that the car leave as she walks ahead to say 'bye'. Also she is sat at the back of the car which came help show tha neglect her character has from her family which is possibly deffered on to those around her as school.

Overall we have found that although the mode of tansport is significant in portraying a character, we cannot completely neglect the camera, mise-en-scene, sound or editing as they helped to also create the stereotypical character and make them possible to be identified by the audience.

As a group, we have found that we would be limited as to what modes of transport we can use to portray travelling and arriving in our own teen film opening. This could be a problem that we encounter however this task has helped us to think of alternate was in which we could use. We figured we'd have to stick to the usual transport of buses, trains, walking and using a pedel bike. However we found that if we do wish to use a car we could possibly find a family member or an older friend who would possibly like to help us with our teen film and therefore we may be able to use a car if needed.