Amita RajGuru, Post 3

Class Act, 1992, Randall Miller

Let it never be said that the comedic style of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air couldn’t be replicated. Straight from the start of this movie, Class Act comes across as any stereotypical teenage movie from the 90s. It’s a fitting description too as Fresh Prince’s Karyn Parsons was in it. It’s something that would have been on Nickelodeon, even though it supposedly played on HBO. Beginning with a series of establishing shots, followed by pan shots, over-the-shoulder shots and lots of dolly shots, the directorial choices help make the movie cheesy. The first interesting two-shot at the beginning of the movie happens when two characters, Blade and his lawyer, are shown to be arguing on two sides of a wall – but this quickly reverts to over-the-shoulder shots.

A humorous and yet cliché camera technique used at the beginning of the movie starts on people’s feet and moves upwards as they walk around the corner – which happens a mere 8 minutes into the movie. Also, when the camera tilts up to see the group of teenagers, the camera remains at a low angle – this would normally make them more formidable, but their overdone actions and movements only end up making them look silly – which may be intentionally humorous.

The plot really begins when Blade and Duncan meet and start their friendship, and this is documented with several medium close-ups and moving shots, such as when they go to a club for the first time together. The camera follows them in and then gradually shifts to a full shot of the whole dance floor, only before jumping to a montage of close-ups and medium shots of people dancing. This acts as an introduction to Duncan’s first time experience in the club.

The pace of the movie speeds up when frequent cuts are used. For instance, when Blade is trying to teach Duncan how to speak less “intelligently”, the camera shifts to different over-the-shoulder shots as each character speaks. The camera angles, combined with the content of the dialogue creates fast paced humor.

A particularly cliché but classic point-of-view shot is used when Duncan is playing football – the camera takes on the football’s perspective as it flies towards him to catch. It adds a little bit of humor to the scene but and is a change from the general types of camera angles used thus far. The point-of-view shot also reappears briefly when Blade is walking up to Ellen’s house and the camera takes on his perspective for a few seconds. This effectively personalizes the moment for that character to the viewer – as if the viewer is walking up to the house.

To show the viewer small bits of action from around the classroom, moving pan shots are used, and tend to stop on the main conversation at hand. For example, this is how the classroom scene is introduced when Duncan and Damita are discussing a frog for biology. This is visually stimulating for the viewer because of the different mini-scenes that are seen before settling on the main characters in it – such as when Popsicle is examining a frog through magnifying glasses humorously.

Similar to the bulk of the movie, the end is made up of moving two-shots and full shots, with quick cuts to speed things along. After a slow motion sequence, and a little comedy relief, the movie ends on a cheesy note with a full shot montage of Duncan explaining how the other characters’ lives turned out – cheesy, corny, but personalized for the viewer. Good old teenage 90s fun at its finest.