Ferris Bueller Makes Everything Count

There’s an old saying in the storytelling business. Well, if the truth be told, maybe there is and maybe there isn’t, maybe I am making this nugget of perceived wisdom up and jotting it down for the first time. Either way, here it goes…

MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT

In my role as a script and story editor, I often work with young and / or inexperienced writers. A natural part of their maturation process, in learning their craft and finding their own, true voice, is teaching them about the high real estate value of every space on a blank page. Or, to put it another way, emphasising the importance of the idea you commit to paper. Does it advance the plot? Does it reveal something new, interesting or surprising about your characters and the situation they find themselves in (ideally it should service all three).

The aspiring storyteller shares a lot in common with a precocious young child. They possess a near inexhaustible reservoir of energy and enthusiasm. They have plenty to say for themselves, but no real focus or understanding of the phrases – but why would your hero do that? And pace yourself. 

When writing a story, be it a poem, play, novel, comic book or feature film (and let’s throw rap onto that list – a cool concession to show the kids that I’m still down and hip with what’s going on in the modern world), a constant consideration for the author must be the following questions.

• Is this scene really necessary?

• If I were to remove it, for any reason, would my story still make sense?

Now, if the answer to question one is no and the answer to question two is yes, your next course of action should be abundantly clear. When attempting to hammer this point home with young and inexperienced writers, I always encourage them to view the matter from the audience’s point of view. Their patience and indulgence for irrelevant and extraneous detail is remarkably low. The risk of losing their attention and investment in your story raises exponentially, by the second, if you’re subjecting them to a scene that they interpret as boring, indulgent or irrelevant.

This harsh but undeniable fact, is one of the hardest truths for a aspiring young storyteller to embrace and assimilate. Us creative types – with notable exceptions – are commonly predisposed to the romantic notion that anything that spills out of our brains, down onto the blank page, is a magical blend of ethereal elixir and spun gold, sent down from the shining pillars of heaven itself. More often than not, however, the exact opposite turns out to be the case.

GET TO THE POINT

STOP WASTING MY TIME

CUT…TO…THE…CHASE

The last of these well worn out and oft spoken phrases, actually originates from the golden age of Hollywood. Illustrating perfectly, the low tolerance any audience we hope to capture and entrance has for us going around the houses and failing to get to the point!

To my mind – and please forgive me for being old and crusty with my references – a peerless example of the brand new maxim (I am claiming as my very own) make every word count comes in the 1986 comedy classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.       

Written and directed by the late, great John Hughes, the high priest of angst-ridden teen odysseys from the 80s, especially those involving kids from the sprawling suburbs of Chicago, the movie is an absolute masterclass in not wasting a moment of its runtime. Not a single line of dialogue or visual gag feels extraneous or out of place. Hughes manages to squeeze every single drop of fun, silliness and irreverent comedy out of the material on offer. A testament to the purple patch he found himself in after promising but uneven Sophomore efforts like Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club. 

I won’t break down the entire movie to argue my point. Instead, I would like to focus on a long scene / sequence that occurs towards the end of Act Two. 

Ferris Bueller, the ultimate 80s cool kid, has feigned illness and played hooky from high school in order to coaxe his morose and downbeat best friend Cameron Fry into coming with him on a joyful jaunt to the city of Chicago. Sloane Peterson, Ferris’s girlfriend, makes up the unlikely threesome. Ferris’s motivation is simple and straightforward. Cameron is in a serious funk. Bullied by his father, invisible to his mother. Permanently under the weather and starved of any shred of optimism about his future. Ferris decides the only remedy for Cameron is to show and get him to experience all of the good things that life has to offer.   

They visit an art gallery and see a Picasso. They go to the top floor of the worlds tallest building (at the time!). They catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field and enjoy fine dining at a restaurant overseen by a comically snotty maitre de. 

On their way back to the parking garage (otherwise known in civilised Europe as a car park 😂) to collect the iconic red Ferrari owned by Cameron’s father, Ferris enthuses about the most wonderful day they have had. Cameron glibly dismisses this notion, responding to Ferris’s question over what he has seen today with the dismal words ‘nothing good.’

This sets up the showpiece sequence. It opens with Cameron and Sloane wandering through a packed, Chicago city street. Ferris is notably absent and a parade is underway. German American Pride Day – if you will. While Cameron is bitching and moaning to Sloane about Ferris abandoning them, the polka classic Danke Schön pumps up, and we hear but do not see Ferris as he states the following… 

Ladies and gentleman, you’re such a wonderful crowd, we’d like to play a little tune for you, it’s one of my personal favourites, and I’d like to dedicate it to a young man who doesn’t think he seen anything good today. Cameron Fry, this one’s for you.

We then see that Ferris has (somehow) found his way onto a parade float, surrounded by a host of pretty young ladies wearing leiderhousen, and accompanied by a smiling old frauline working an accordion. 

The broad story point, throughout the entire sequence that follows, is that Ferris proves definitively to Cameron that life IS good. But, it is within the execution of this ambition, that John Hughes creates and arguably delivers the most iconic and impactful sequence of his entire and highly successful career. Let’s go shot by shot to illustrate the point. 

GOOD things in life.

1. Ferris lip syncs on a parade float and enchants the crowd.
2. The German American dignitaries in the grandstand go from bemused and befuddled to casually onboard and supportive with this high jacking of their celebration. 
3. Ferris performs, charms and gets the assembled crowd clapping and singing along with him.
4. We then have a cut away to Cameron and Sloane chatting and strolling through the streets of Chicago. Cameron admits his sincere admiration for how easily Ferris navigates and masters all of the challenges in life that he finds so stressful and insurmountable. Sloane listens kindly and offers counsel. The key story beat is when Cameron confesses he has no clue about his future and Sloane responds that she feels exactly the same. This sweet exchange ends with a debate over the likely future of Ferris, to which Cameron offers a funny and comically endearing (and most unlikely) of outcomes. He’s gonna be a fry cook at Venus. No sooner has this remark ended, when the song on the parade float (unseen) switches over into Twist & Shout by The Beatles.

And NOW, ladies and gents, we are really off to the races. Each and every shot in the sequence that follows, hammers home exquisitely what the central tenant of the movie is all about – that LIFE IS GOOD. Let’s walk through them…1111hhdheheheh

1. Ferris lip syncs to John Lennon, twisting and shouting with great aplomb.
2. A marching band dances out of in front of the parade float, playing along with the song.
3. Construction workers, up high on scaffolding, twist and shout and dance along.
4. Ferris, his backup lederhosen girls, the marching band, and the boisterous crowd dance and groove enough to make the base of the parade float wobble up and down.
5. A crowd of dancers, in phalanx formation, move from left to right across a city plaza we can only assume is in visible and audible distance from Ferris’s performance. 
6. Ferris lip syncs on.
7. The phalanx boogies down the steps of the plaza, clicking their fingers in time with the music. 
8. They turn sideways in unison and do the chicken.
9. The crowd abandon the parade barriers and begin to swarm in, surround and dance joyfully around the float.
10. A chap wearing a leather flat cap gyrates straight into camera – as though Ferris’s performance has infected his mind, body and soul with the most blissful of possessions. 
11. Cut back to Ferris. His John Lennon impression furnishes an acrobatic, high leg kick from a lederhosen girl that swoops over his ducking head.
12. We then see a shot of three rear ends in line (one fella and two ladies) dancing to the music. It was the 80s – after all. Such gratuity was vanilla and commonplace at the time!
13. Cut back to Ferris. His dancing girls are so excited by now that they are randomly star jumping into him with excitement. 
14. Cut to a chubby, bearded guy in the crowd, wearing a life preserver and what looks like a Shriners hat. He is grooving left and right, eyes closed, happily trapped in his own personal heaven.
15. Quick cut back to Ferris, swamped by his euphoric dancing girls.
16. And then we get a clean pan across the crowd. We see triplets, beaded and middle-aged, wearing dark grey business suits with red ties, twisting and shouting, with a fourth fella, ALSO wearing a business suit, who bears more than a striking resemblance to the triplets, but is clearly just another attendee at the parade!
17. Another quick butt shot – almost a reprise of the one identified earlier.
18. Back to the dancing phalanx, now pointing screen right.
19. Now into the grandstand, full of elderly German American dignitaries – twisting and shouting to beat the band  (the chairman of this gang, wearing a light blue suit with papers in his hands - being the particular treat!) 
20. IMPORTANT POINT TO MENTION
    at this stage of the sequence…
    The song is building out of the rudimentary guitar solo, right into the unforgettable Ah, Ahh, Ahhh, AHHHHHH middle eight 
21. Phalanx dancing crew – hands up in the air.
22. Cameron and Sloane boogying – Cameron cut loose of his angst and neurosis and totally embracing the moment. 
23. Back to the phalanx crew.
24. Then a quick cut to some fella or lady (no matter how often I rewatch, I can never be sure) CARTWHEELING through the air!!
25. Window washer – specialising in skyscrapers, on the job and in his harness, twisting and shouting at the risk of his own life – two hundred feet up in the air! 
26. The Phalanx crew let loose with a guttural ‘Huh’ and perform an about face and coordinated dance back up the plaza steps. 
27. Adorable baby in a double Dutch jersey waves hands up and down.
28. Leading into various and wonderful faces from the crowd – a toothless old man, a lady with thick glasses, an African American man with Elvis hair! All of them…
    Ah
    Ahh
    Ahhh
    Ahhhhing
    UNTIL…we hear that iconic John Lennon scream!
29. The most memorable and well timed of these cutaways, is the little African American boy, on his Dad’s shoulders, who has a seriously nonplussed look upon his face and is covering up his ears to drown out the zenith of this communal singalong. 
30. We cut back to the city street. Ferris on the parade float – bouncing up and down through sheer joy and excitement. And the watching and dancing crowd have by now fully invaded and surrounded him as centrepiece.

• Ferris milks it big time… come’ on, come’on, come’on, come on, baby now! 

1. Cut to Ferris’s loving Dad. Minding his own business and working in an office on the fifty-ninth floor of a nearby skyscraper. But distracted, hearing the commotion down below. 
2. Quick cut back to Ferris.
3. Quick cut back up to his father, twisting and shouting with joyful abandon. Surrendering (almost) immediately to the feel good bug of the moment.  
4. Back to Ferris, grooving, owning it, while the crowd are now on the verge of swamping and overtaking his parade float.
5. Cut to a wide shot of the crowd in rapture.
6. Cut to a closeup of Sloane, shaking her long brown hair, looking perfectly lovely and in love with our performing hero. 
7. Back to Ferris. Dancing girls bouncing all around him.
8. And now he lip syncs and builds up to his big finish. Stamping his feet and SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, BABY NOW-ing (😵phew!)
9. AND…. after the last round of Ah, Ahh, Ahhh, AHHHHs…
10. Ferris feints and falls over (backwards), caught and held in place by his faithful dancing girls while the watching crowd – that seemingly now numbers the entirety of the greater metropolitan Chicago area, cheer and applaud him in appreciation. 
11. A silver sceptre is thrown on stage. Ferris catches it effortlessly and salutes his adoring crowd one more time.

Of course, I fully understand the irony of me taking you on that very long-winded walkthrough to illustrate my point. But please trust me, dig out and watch the Twist and Shout sequence on YouTube. If you can identify a single wasted moment in the entire six minutes, you are a better person than me – and Ferris Bueller.