2. What the Genre is... Teen Comedy: Teen films (also called teen movie or teenpic) is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst and alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped or trivialized way. Films in this genre are often set in high schools, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes are also common, as are nudity and crude forms of humour.
3. Who Watches This Genre..? The obvious answer to this is of course teens, however, this genre also manages to stretch to a younger and older age range around the teenage years. For example 11-21 year olds. I think a good example of this is Bring It On. Bring It On is a 2000 film about two competing high school cheerleading squads, starring Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, and Gabrielle Union. It was directed by Peyton Reed and written by Jessica Bendinger. This genre is good for us because we feel our audience will be around the age of teenagers.
4. What Are The Conventions Of This Genre? Codes and conventions of the teen film genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties and all-night raves, losing one's virginity, relationships, social groups and cliques, and American pop-culture. The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include: The Jock The Princess or The Plastic The Geek The Rebel The Misfit or The Outcast The Average Girl/Boy (the boy/girl next door) The New Girl/Boy Apart from the characters there are many other codes and conventions of teen film. These films are often set in or around High School as this allows for many different social cliques to be shown. This is different in hybrid teen films, but for the classic romantic comedy teen film this is almost always the case.
5. Examples of Texts... Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s. Also known as Cosmo, its current content includes articles on relationships and sex, health, careers, self-improvement, celebrities, as well as fashion and beauty. Published by Hearst Magazines, Cosmopolitan has 58 international editions, is printed in 34 languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries.
8. Example Film Clips... Mean Girls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFP68RpX1Fg&feature=related The Princess Diaries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cuh_4IiSnI
9. Example Music Videos... Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AHzIq_n-DQ Paramore - Misery Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQnwQ6JtySc
10. How Are We Going To Apply This To Our Video..? Our music video is about a girl who gets what’s coming to her for treating other people like they are below her. She uses men and looks down at other girls. We are going to apply the conventions of a teen movie by having teenage actors, setting it at a gig full of teenagers. Also the main character will be exaggerated and at the end of the video will be attacked in a very high school prankster way. However ours will be ever so slightly darker than the average teen music video. It will be aimed at older teenagers. We are going to bring in elements of sex and seduction, cheating and revenge.
