Research - Sub-genre Conventions - Blogging Task 13 & 14

1.       Semantic: the way the film looks – MICRO

2.       Syntactic: the stories the films tell - MACRO

MACRO conventions

-          Who produces it, director, producer

-          Who is the audience?, who is it aimed at?, what themes may attract people?

-          Cast, what is the plot? Characters (what characterization is evident in the film?)

-          In what way will the story be told, what perspective? Flashbacks? Beginning?

Title Sequence: Breakfast Club

Genre: Teen Drama

Sub-genre: High School Drama

Plot:

-          High school detention, Saturday

-          Five students who are nothing like each other, opposites, contrasts  

-          All typical high school stereotypes, in every type of school

-          Question to audience (Why they are at detention on SATURDAY?) (What could they have done?) (What happened?)

-          Starts at what people would expect at the end, ambiguous

Storyline in order:

-          Differing personalities/traits/ideas brings forth strife

-          Stories of how they ended up in detention is told and written on paper about themselves  

-          Students VS Teacher, constant conflict due to teacher being very arrogant, treating them as lesser beings

-          Nothing good will happen with each other, much too different yet that difference leads them to become friends rather than enemies. Plot twist  

Characters introduced as:

-          Brain – nothing more than a person who only possesses intellect and nothing more

-          Princess – cares about herself

-          Athlete –cares about sports, nothing else

-          Criminal –only steals, nothing more than a thief, steals moment she walk in the room 

-          Basket case –mad, uncontrollable

All the characters are presented in a fairly negative way, as they are stripped of all they humanity by replacing names with mere words showcasing their personalities, dehumanizes them to a significant extent.

Camera – Wide shots are used shows all the students as the a whole, which may show how similar they are despite differing personalities. Close ups are used to show each of the characters as individuals which also shows the expressions on their faces. Longshots were used on basket case when he throws his tantrums which show the depth of his rage showing how far he will go such as when he climbs up the staircase and close up are used when he pretends are shows his fight/argument with his dad. Close up and low angle shot is used on the teacher to present him being superior and how angry/scary he can be.

Editing – Jump cuts and match cuts are used throughout, especially when they are arguing with each other so the camera follows their arguments as they are full of intensity.

Sound – Guitar, band, and funk music is used to set the casual mood for Saturday detention. A bass pad is used when basket case is crawling through the vents which matches him as it is very deep and repetitive like a heartbeat which may give of the feeling  of danger and mischief. The dialogue that is used throughout is a mixture of explicit specially for basket case as he is a crazy mad person, a jerk who throws tantrums. The other dialogue used for the other characters is calm and controlled but some people voice sounds worried for example Brain.

Mise-en-scene – Paper is one of the props that is used given out by the teacher, when he asks them to write a 1000 word essay about themselves. Another prop/s is their lunches as it brings up quite a bit of discussion. School lights are used to show each of the students clearly, highlighting the fact they are in school on a Saturday. The body language they use is quite different from one another as they have different personalities. Princess is calm and composed and acts normal, which is the same for athlete. Princess wears a nice dress and nice leather jacket which only emphasises her personality. Whereas athlete wears a vacity jacket showing his love of sports however his body language changes specially when he stands up against basket case. Brain’s body language is very timid showing he doesn’t want to get in trouble and want to get pulled into their arguments and stays out of it. C       riminal is very restricted by sitting very closed in showing her desire of not opening up to everyone else. Basket case is very dynamic specially when he throws his tantrums and starts arguing with everyone else.