Formal Film Study

BEST TEEN FILMS

Clueless, Breakfast Club & Mean Girls

     

 The style and coloring of both Mean Girls and Clueless where very bright and colorful, while Breakfast Club was slightly darker with less bright colors. One aspect that made both Clueless and Mean Girls so bright was the clothes used. Both movies had girls wearing lots of pinks with crazy and fun accessories. Therefore, this made practically every scene filled with color. The story telling of each movies were all very similar in a way that they had a narrator. Both Clueless and Mean Girls had the main character's thoughts narrating the movie. Breakfast Club had one of the several main characters narrate the beginning and ending of the movie. However, Breakfast Club didn't rely on narrating like the other two. 

All three movies had a lot of characters and story lines, which made editing very important. A lot of the time scenes would jump quickly in order to keep up with the story. Also, it would jump from character to character quickly so you could keep up with what each was saying. None of the movies had special effects, but one thing that was interesting in Breakfast Club and Clueless was the sound. Both movies had a lot of background music and songs. This made both movies more fun and exciting to watch. However, Mean girls barely had music. 

All these movies have a message of not giving into peer pressure or changing who you are to fit in. I feel this closely relates to any culture/teenager, because teens constantly change who they are to fit in. All movies had a character who pretended to be something there not that made them unhappy. I feel this is an extremely strong and important message to send teens. In the end of all movies, when the characters gave up on trying to fit in, each character was happy. This then influences our society to be yourself no matter what. This is an indirect message, however, because they never come out and say "be yourself and you'll be happy", they just show it through the story line. 

All three of these dramas also had parts where characters told their peers personal things about them. In each of these scenes the camera was in a close up of that character's face. This heighten the dramatic aspect, and made me more interested in what the character was confessing. Also, it made me connect with the character, because i could see their face so clearly. One example of this was in the Breakfast Club when they were sitting in a circle. One character was confessing why he got a detention, and it was a reason the truly bothered him. As the camera moved around him slowly you could see the pain building in his face as he began to relive the incident. I felt as if i was there with him feeling the pain. I felt this was an extremely powerful scene, and the close up shot is what allowed it to have such an impact.