The Runaways

The Runaways is about Joan Jett and Cherie Currie’s adventures throughout being in the first all girl rock n roll band. This movie was inspired by the book Neon Angel a Memoir of a Runaway, written by the lead singer of The Runaways, Cherie Currie. Writer and director Floria Sigismondi uses many different techniques throughout the movie such as composition, camera movements, and framing. There are tons of close up shots in this movie. I think those are the most frequently used throughout The Runaways. Since this movie was based on real people, they worked very hard to make the actors look as much like the real people as possible (they did a phenomenal job!). I think this was why they stressed the close up shots, to make us focus on what they looked like. To give a few examples; they use medium close up shots in the scene when Joan Jett and Kim Fowley first meet Cherie Currie, an extreme close up of Cherie’s eyes when she is in the shower after she has a fight with the band, and a close up of Cherie when she lights a cigarette backwards while going to audition for The Runaways. They also use look space in several scenes; when Joan and Kim first meet Cherie, and when Marie visits her twin sister Cherie at a drug rehab facility. Another technique used was the tracking shot; when Kim Fowley walks into the club to find Cherie, and when The Runaways flee from their first gig at a house party about to be broken up by the cops. A 360 degree dolly shot is used when The Runaways are performing “Dead End Justice”. A pan movement is used when Joan is in her room making the famous Sex Pistols shirt. Lead room was used when Joan was leaving her first guitar lesson. Most of the time, there were normal angles. Deep depth of field was used when they were climbing the Hollywood Hills. A zoom lens was used when Joan first meets Kim and Sandy outside of a club. These techniques were constant throughout the film, with the exception of a few. Again, their goal was to convince us that they were really Joan Jett and Cherie and Currie, as well as some other characters, and they certainly achieved it! The Runaways is in theaters, so see it now!

**There isn’t a mention of the other Runaways (Lita Ford and Jackie Fox) in this blog entry because there was an emphasis on Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. Sandy West was portrayed in this movie more than the Lita and Jackie, but not as much as Joan and Cherie. Lita and Jackie wanted nothing to do with this movie. They couldn’t even get the rights to use Jackie’s name, so they made a fictional composite bass player named Robin Robins, who had three lines in the entire movie.

View the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHpEJ749TRM


Joan Jett
Kristen Stewart




The Real Runaways