Ferris Bueller's Day Off

1. In the opening shot of Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off the audience are
shown a long shot of a fairly large
suburban house in the USA. In
front of the house are three cars,
one of which looks quite sporty.
From this we can assume that the
owners of this house are quite
rich or well-off in terms of money
as they can afford such luxuries.
This shot is also an action code as
it gives the audience an
impression of where one of the
film’s settings is. It may also be
seen as an equilibrium as at the
moment everything seems calm
and nothing is out of the ordinary.

2. In the following shot we are then
introduced to the character of
Ferris. In this shot, Ferris is
represented as weak and quite
vulnerable – seen through the
extreme close-up shot of his to
emphasise his stunned expression.
As a result the audience
immediately symphyses with his
character due to his vulnerable
state at the beginning of the film.
The diegetic sound used in these
seconds also reinforce the
vulnerable state that Ferris
appears to be in, as his parents
sound genuinely worried about his
apparent vulnerability.

3. In this shot we see that the
representation of middle-aged
parents is one of gullibility and
elements of naivety. As a result of
this, the social group in response
may suffer from a decrease in
respect and conformity from the
younger generations such as
teenagers like Ferris.
The parents’ clothing seems to
further indicate that they have a high
standard of living, however the
decorations and mise-en-scene in
Ferris’ room suggest that he is an
ordinary teenager. The posters and
colour scheme of his bedroom,
shown from a wide-angle shot,
indicate a normal schoolboy.

4. The representation of the next
character is very different to the one
we are given of Ferris despite them
being of a similar age. In this shot,
the female character who we
assume is Ferris’ sister is represented
as very stubborn and disapproving.
We know this because of her tone of
voice as well as her head actions and
various facial expressions. This
representation is exploited by
creative use of a range of close and
medium shots. An example of binary
opposites is clearly used effectively
here as well (brother vs sister) which
is a common use in films within a
family household.

5. In this shot we are given an
extremely contrasting representation
of Ferris to the first one we saw.
Rather than unwell and vulnerable,
he now represents quite a lot of
teenagers of his age group –
mischievous and disobeying. As an
audience we now know much more
about him as a character than we
previously did. From his lying
persona, we have a basic
understanding of what to expect
from his character throughout the
narrative. Teenage audiences may
relate to having tried/thought about
doing this before a school day, and
are intrigued to find out what
happens next as a result of Ferris’
manipulative ways.