Director Study

For this task, I researched into a director that is famously known for directing coming-of-age. I chose to do John Hughes who wrote, directed and produced blockbuster hits such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty In Pink:

John Hughes
John Wilden Hughes Jr is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was most famous for writing and producing Home Alone 2 and then directing, producing and writing Ferris Bueller's Day Off  and The Breakfast Club. 
John Hughes's first credited screenplay, Class reunion, was written while he still worked at National Lampoons magazine; the film was classed as a disastrous attempt to duplicate the success of Animal House. The next screen play that Hughes wrote was National Lampoons Vacation (1983) and was said to 'put the Lampoon back on the map'. along with more success from his script 'Mr Mom', John Hughes recieved a three movie deal with Universal Studies. John Hughes's directorial debut was a coming-of-age film; Sixteen Candles.
John Hughes films are usually recognisable for his signature trademarks as he usually; set his films in the chicago area, uses a close up shot of 2 of the characters locking eyes. Most of his films end in a freeze frame, most iconically the freeze frame of John Bender (Judd Nelson) holding his fist in the air walking across the field at the end of The Breakfast Club. He is also commonly known for writing roles for John Candy, Anthony Michael Hall and casting members of the brat pack. 
As his films are usually fun and light-hearted, such as The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck, the target demographic would be C2, D and E. John Hughes is well known for targeting a young adult demographic and portraying the struggles of teenage lives realistically and empathetically, he was one of the very first writers that portray the teenagers in the film that voice the struggles they face for example in The Breakfast Club they deal with the issue of pressure from parents and the battle to form their own individual identity. Ferris Bueller's Day Off confronts the problem of growing up and becoming independent, deciding your future and going different ways. 

A lot of John Hughes films go straight into the film and do not have much of an opening sequence, I find this much more effective at engaging the audiences attention as they then want to know what happens in the rest of the film as the earlier the film begins the earlier you gain interest as if there is a long section of credits the audience could get bored and stop watching. In a few John Hughes films that are primarily targeted at a teenage audience, begin with an opening monologue such as The Breakfast Club and most notably Ferris Bueller's Day Off, these monologues tend to include the opinion of the main character or voice a universal feeling of the target teen audience.

John Hughes formed a close bond with Molly Ringwald and often cast her as the lead role, John Hughes films that she starred in included Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Pretty In Pink (1986).

Learning comment: From researching John Hughes, I have learnt that he is famous for directing and writing some of the most well known coming of age films such as 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', 'The Breakfast Club', 'Pretty in Pink' and 'Sixteen Candles'. I have also learnt from completing this task that he is known for his trademarks that represent to the audience that it was John Hughes who either wrote and/or directed them. Trademarks such as a freeze frame at the ending of his films, the most famous of which, at the end of 'The Breakfast Club' where Judd Nelson is walking across the field and it freezes with his fist in the air. He also was well know for casting Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and John Candy. 
I enjoyed researching John Hughes and recognised a lot of his films that I didn't know that he wrote. I like the idea of having a trademark and therefore researching him was extremely helpful and will help when I plan and design my own opening sequence.

Here are a few examples of the opening sequences for the films John Hughes wrote; 'The Breakfast Club', 'Sixteen Candles' and 'Uncle Buck'.