Task 5- Director case study

I have chosen to study John Hughes because he directed a couple of classic coming of age films, these are the Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

John Hughes was born on February 18th 1950  in Lansing, Michigan, United States and  died on August 6th 2009 in Manhattan, New York, United States. He was 59 years old. He was married to Nancy Ludwig and they got married in 1970 and didn't divorce. She became a widow when John suddenly died and she hasn't re-married. They had two children, James Hughes and John Hughes.

He wrote a few books these are, Maid in Manhattan, National Lampoon, Puppy Love, Coal Chain Logistics, Beethoven and Beethoven 2nd: The Movie Storybook.

His most famous films are The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink and Weird Science.

This is my entire Voki script:

In this interview John Hughes talks about the casting in The Breakfast Club.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/08/molly-ringwalds-revealing-interview-on-john-hughes-not-being-lindsay-lohan-and-more/61085/

This the link to an interview by Molly Ringwald's about John Hughes. In which she talks about him as a director and how he made her a star by putting her in three of his films, which shows that he uses some actors multiple times.

Hughes sets a lot of his films in high schools. A common theme of the films were teenagers, all of the protagonists are teenagers. The style of films he made were coming of age films where the protagonist was a teenager. Hughes also tries to include elements of comedy in all of his films.

Learning Comment

From doing this task I have learnt that it is okay to use the same actors multiple times as thew audience learn to expect before the film even starts. They can tell what genre it is. Some actors are famous for doing certain genres for example Will Smith is very famous for his sci-fi films. A lot of John Hughes' films are set in school or have links to a school. I could use the school facilities to imitate his work.

Task 1- Famous opening sequences

Famous openng seuecnes - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Task 4- Famous producers and distributors

Task 2- Time line of famous coming of age films

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/1342055/edit

This is a screenshot from my timeline. It shows eight coming of age films which are all famous and a brief description of them.

Learning comment

From doing this timeline   I have gained a brief insight into the plot of some of the most famous coming of age films.and I have learnt about some key conventions of opening sequences like showing the names of the main actors/ actresses and to show the protagonist and male the audience try and empathize with them in the opening sequence to make them more likable.

Creative task 2- Match on action film

This is our match on action film.

The film was good overall but se improvements could be made, for example some of the shots are too long. This can disengage the audience. In a couple of the shots, you can see the person filming it through reflections.

Learning comment:
From doing this I have learnt about different techniques i could use, when filming my opening sequence. I also learnt that you must carefully position the person filming, as you don't want them in the reflection. I will also make sure i limit the amount of time each shot lasts for, as this can bore the audience.    

Task 3- Conventions of an opening sequence

Conventions of an opening sequence juno from Josh Griffiths

Conventions of an opening sequence ferris buellers day off from Josh Griffiths

Learning comment

From doing this task I have learnt some key opening sequence conventions, for example actors and actresses should be named in the opening credits. As well as institutional information and other credits like costume designer, etc. I have also learnt that I must draw in my audience when making the sequence and I must be careful to make sure that I engage my target audience.