Genre Research

Conventions of a Teen Drama:

• 'real life' or relatable characters and story line, but mostly exaggerated to make the narrative more interesting.
• Cliques and friendship groups and separation between these cliques - nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, stoners, musical theater (actors and musicians)
• Most teen drama films are set in the location of a typical American High School - locker rooms, cafeteria, sports field, auditorium.
• Alcohol and drug use- sometimes being peer pressured into these activities, substance use at parties, emphasis of the novelty of the new feeling of being drunk/ high.
• Teen love- usually the main character having a new/ first love, a summer romance - doesn't always work out as planned.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is a teenage drama film, revolving around a 15 year old, mentally ill boy called Charlie, and his friends Patrick and Sam. The film is set in the 1990s (noticeable from the clothing the characters are wearing in the poster above). You are also able to tell it is a teen drama due to the characters being young (teenagers) and the dramatic narrative.
 The background of the poster looks like the wall of a high school gym which provides evidence for the genre being a teen drama.
The colours used include only black against a bright lime green, and a short quote is placed directly in the middle of the poster. The contrast of the two colours creates foreshadowing for the dramatic narrative ahead and the short quote "we are infinite" shows the basis of the film. we implemented these conventions to our own film poster to reflect the teenage drama genre.

The film Juno is a teenage drama film about a 16 year old girl named Juno who is attending high school and falls pregnant with her boyfriend's baby. This film follows the dramatic life of a pregnant teenager and the challenges and journeys she comes across along the way.
This film has the conventions of friendship groups (Juno is in a nerd clique, whilst her boyfriend and best friend are both the sporty type/ group), the typical high school setting and real life characters.
We implemented this research into Untamed by using a real life and relatable character.

The film Mean Girls is a teen drama which follows the new life of Cady Heron, who once lived in Africa and has recently moved to America and starts at a new high school. This film follows the teen genre conventions by having drug and alcohol use, teen love, cliques, real life characters and being set in high school.