B- Teen Research- 'The Breakfast Club' film opening.

'The Breakfast Club' (Hughes, 1985)

• The first shot in the opening of the film is a quote which is then 'smashed' and glass shatters fly across the screen, this reinforces gender stereotypes that teenagers are violent and disruptive. There are then symbolic icons of a typical school such as a MS of the clock followed by a shot of a corridor and a canteen. These set the scene and reinforce the icons of typical school scenes.
  
• The characters in the opening of the film are each given a separate identity firstly the voice over talks about the brain, which is teamed with a shot of a classroom. Here is a still shot of the character which this is reference to...

• Next the voice over talks about the criminal which is put with a shot of graffiti on lockers, again reinforcing the idea that teenagers are disruptive and introducing the characters. Here is a still image of the character of the 'criminal' as you can see from the cigarette in his hand he is following the typical stereotype of a 'criminal'

• There is also a shot of a prom queen poster and the voice over talks about a princess this reinforces the popular girl stereotype and introduces the audience to the idea of that type of character. The shot below shows the jock and the princess characters.

• Then the voice over talks about a jock, the image to represent this is trophies and a sports locker room which captures the audiences attention and follows the iconic genre images.

• The character exposition is then reinforced further by the imagery of the parents cars and the conversations within the cars. The princess character turns up with her dad in an expensive car, her dad is wearing a burberry scarf to connote their wealth and they are both well spoken. She also does not think that she deserves the punishment, this is shown through her dialogue.
• The next character turns up in an older car which seems cramped and small inside connoting the idea of them being less wealthy. His mum it lecturing him and telling him he deserves it which is juxtaposed to the previous character showing their differences.
• The next car is a 4x4 which connotes a manly and big car this reflects on the character who is dressed in a baseball jacket portraying the idea of a 'Jock'. The dialogue between the boy and his father also reinforces this idea as they seem to be having a man to man talk.
• The next two characters to turn up are ignored by their parents one is dropped off but ignored and the other walks in on his own. These again reinforce the stereotypes of different teenagers. Here is a picture of all the characters in which you can see their different styles...

• Overall the different characters in the opening of the clip represent the different stereotypes of teenagers therefore following the genre of teen drama.