Individual Post 15: Pick a title sequence from either High School or Youth Drama and analyse camera, editing, sound and M.E.S

Individual Post 15: Pick a title sequence from either High School or Youth Drama and analyse camera, editing, sound and M.E.S

Title sequence: The Breakfast Club.

Sub-Genre: High School.

Genre: Drama, Comedy.

Camera: The camera angles and shots in this scene give a lot of insight into each character’s feelings even when they are not talking or being spoken to.  When the camera is focused on each character it is an eye level shot, implying that every character is actually on the same level even though they have put labels on themselves for their social standings. Allison acts as a bystander in this scene and is not very active in the discussion; the camera is only on her when she is talking.  The camera lingers on Andrew when he says his lines so as to show that he is thinking about what he is saying and that he is feeling conflicted about his past views.  When other characters are giving lines, the camera sometimes briefly pauses on Andrew so that the audience can see his reactions and thoughts.  For the majority of Claire’s lines, the camera does not focus on her, but instead on the reactions of the other characters.  However, when she brings up a new point the camera returns to her as a close up shot to show her full emotions and that she is being very honest.  When John is yelling at Claire, the camera moves to a wider shot of her so her full body language is shown to the audience who can recognise her anger, vexation and annoyance.  John does not speak at the start of this scene but his face is shown so that the audience can see him considering the ideas of the others and his reactions.

Editing: The shot reverse shot is the only major technique in the opening scene, when the teacher is addressing the students and telling them off. There is very little use of transitions, slow/fast motion or any significant shots.

Sound: The opening scene of the movie is filled with mostly soundtracks from the

80’s, including songs like "Don’t you (Forget about me) – Simple minds “Waiting" – E.G daily. The opening scenes contain a mixture of non-diegetic and diegetic sounds.  Diegetic sounds include car doors slamming shut and sounds of them eating their lunch. The dialogue in the opening scene is limited as it is mostly the use of music and soundtracks.

Mise-En-Scene: The props include food and cigarettes and vehicles such as cars. The first thing we see is a classroom with computers in it and the narrator tells us that

this is supposed to represent ‘a brain’. The next part of the school that we see is an empty locker room with some sort of sports kit and this is to represent ‘an athlete’ as told to us by the narrator. The next part of the school that we see is an office, a ‘guidance counselors’ office to be exact which seems to have some sort of psychological tests on that are used in therapy for people who need mental help and this is supposed to represent ‘a basket case’. We are then shown a banner, which says ‘vote for prom queen’ and the narrator, tells us that this represents a ‘princess’ and the last prop that we see is a locker, which someone has, wrote ‘open this locker and you die fag’ and this is to represent a ‘criminal’. All of these props foreshadow the personalities of the characters that we are eventually going to meet. The costumes do contrast. Bender is dressed in scruffy and untidy clothes; meanwhile characters like Clair and Bryan are wearing smartly dressed attire. Lighting seems to be very dark in the school, suggesting that the mood in the school is very miserable and gloomy.