The Breakfast Club Cinematography Review

The Breakfast Club written and produced by John Hughes and is cinematographer by Thomas “Tom” Del Ruth. Thomas Del Ruth is an American cinematographer. A cinematographer is the chief over camera crews working on a film, television production or other live action piece and is responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to an image. Tom has much recognition for not only cinematography but as camera operator, assistant camera, and producer too.  Some of Tom’s notable works are the television show “ER” (1994) which he worked on three episodes and is the director of photography, “Quicksilver” (1986) as a cinematographer, The Breakfast Club (1985) as director of photography, and most recently “Flipped” (2010) as a cinematographer as well.

            The editing style of The Breakfast Club is classic along with realism. I say that it is realism because they are five teenagers in detention trying to get through the pressures of being a teenager and family issues. The Breakfast Club is mainly filmed at eye level, long shot, and close up. Long shot is during the scenes that show all the characters as well as the rest of the scene. Eye level is how we would see it as if we were really talking to the characters, and how we see it as we are watching it. Close up is when the camera gets close to one specific character. An example of this is the scene where Claire, Bender, Allison, Andrew, and Brian are sitting on the library floor as they are revealing information about themselves the camera moves from each character to another. When Claire is talking the camera is on her, then it switches to Brian and so forth. By doing this we not only see which character is talking but we also gain a sense of their feelings and emotions too.

            The lighting in The Breakfast Club is very traditional, very high key lighting. Meaning that there is a lot of bright lights and not very many shadows, or if any at all. The lighting works very well with the film because even though The Breakfast Club is a drama as well as a comedy the lighting worked even as the camera went on a specific character as they are speaking. The outdoor scenes in the beginning and end of the film were filmed with traditional lighting, unlike the indoor scenes that used artificial lighting, such as lamps and lights. The Breakfast Club is filmed in color and there is no need for a 3D or special effects crew because there isn’t any 3D or special effects in the film.

            The camera and lenses for The Breakfast Club is supplied by Panaflex Camera and Lenses (as Panavision). The film negative width is 35mm. The lens manufacture is Panavision Lens Maker and the film print maker is Eastman Color Print 5384/7384. The cinematographic process is spherical. The Breakfast Club is filmed at slow stock, meaning that the camera captures the colors without washing them out.