1. FILM
DIRECTOR
PROJECT
BETH FLETCHER

2. JOHN HUGHES
• John Wilden Hughes, Jr.
• February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009
• American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
• Directed and/or scripted some of the most
successful films of the 1980s and 1990s…
• He is known as the king of teen movies as well as
helping launch the careers of actors including
Michael Keaton, Bill Paxton, Matthew Broderick,
John Candy, & “The Brat Pack”

3. FILMS:

4. TRADEMARK
CHARACTERISTICS
• The majority of Hughes' films were set in the North Shore
suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area.
• In certain films, the setting is specifically identified as the
fictional town of Shermer in Illinois.
• Another element that remained consistent through all of his
movies was a strong emphasis on pop songs and music
cues.
• He also frequently employed several filmic devices such as
characters breaking the fourth wall; additional scenes under
and/or after the closing credits; non-linear montages; and
using a freeze-frame as the closing shot before the end
credits.
• Several of his films including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The
Breakfast Club have an extremely short time span, in both
the entire film takes place over the course of a day.

5. THE BREAKFAST
CLUB
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen
coming of age comedy-drama film written
and directed by John Hughes.
The storyline follows five teenagers (each a
member of a different high school clique) as
they spend a Saturday in detention together
and come to realize that they are all deeper
than their respective stereotypes.
Critically, it is considered to be one of the
greatest high school-teen films of all time, as
well as one of Hughes' most memorable and
recognizable works.

6. “ SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1984.
SHERMER HIGH SCHOOL, SHERMER,
ILLINOIS. 60062.
DEAR MR. VERNON, WE ACCEPT THE
FACT THAT WE HAD TO SACRIFICE A
WHOLE SATURDAY IN DETENTION FOR
WHATEVER IT WAS THAT WE DID
WRONG…WHAT WE DID WAS WRONG,
BUT WE THINK YOU’RE CRAZY TO
MAKE US WRITE THIS ESSAY TELLING
YOU WHO WE THINK WE ARE. WHAT DO
YOU CARE? YOU SEE US AS YOU WANT
TO SEE US… IN THE SIMPLEST TERMS
AND THE MOST CONVENIENT
DEFINITIONS.
YOU SEE US AS A BRAIN, AN ATHLETE,
A BASKET CASE, A PRINCESS AND A
CRIMINAL. CORRECT? THAT’S THE WAY
WE SAW EACH OTHER AT SEVEN
O’CLOCK THIS MORNING. WE WERE
BRAINWASHED…”

7. FILMING
Despite his lack of experience as a filmmaker Hughes managed
to win the investors over with his argument that due to the film's
low budget of one million dollars and its single-location shoot,
the risks involved were minimal.
Shooting began on 28 March 1984 and ended in May of that year.
Filming took place at Maine North High School in Des Plaines,
Illinois, the same school used for some of the school-based
scenes in Hughes's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which was released
just a year after The Breakfast Club.
Some of the posters on the walls during filming of The Breakfast
Club were still there when Ferris Bueller was filmed.
He shot the two films back to back to save time and money, and
some outtakes of both films feature elements of the film crews
working on the other film in each case.

8. SYMBOLISM:
• Significance of the setting:
This film is almost entirely dialogue. It takes place in a Library.
Libraries are collections of words - just like dialogue. But you
won't perceive any of the words in a Library unless you seek them
out - like the Character's thoughts.
• Significance of costumes- (the costume designer Marylin A
Vance, was also the designer for several of Hughes films
including Pretty in Pink, Unlce Buck and Ferris Bueller)
The costumes are colour coded to each character so that they are
easily distinguished and recognised by the audience. It also helps
to define how they are from different high school cliques.

9. FILM POSTERS:

10. FERRIS BUELLERS
DAY OFF
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 teen comedy movie written and
directed by the legendary John Hughes. It's considered one of the best
films of the eighties, and has been very influential.
The film follows Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), a senior in high
school, who pretends to be sick and skips school for the day. He's able
to convince his neurotic best friend Cameron and his carefree girlfriend
Sloane to come along with him. The three of them take Cameron's
father's prized car, heading out to Chicago to spend one more day
together before graduation. However, his principal and his younger
sister are hot on his trail, ready to prove that he's skipping school..

11. During the film, Bueller frequently
breaks the fourth wall by speaking
directly to the camera to explain to
the audience his techniques and
thoughts.
Hughes wrote the screenplay in
less than a week and shot the
film—on a budget of $5.8 million—
over several months in late 1985.
Featuring many famous Chicago
landmarks including the then Sears
Tower and the Art Institute of
Chicago, the film was Hughes' love
letter to the city: "I really wanted to
capture as much of Chicago as I
could. Not just in the architecture
and landscape, but the spirit.”
Released by Paramount Pictures on
June 11, 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day
Off became one of the top grossing
films of the year and was
enthusiastically received by critics
and audiences alike