Conventions of a school based genre
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Transcript of Conventions of a school based genre
Narrative• In many school based drama, the narrative
is based on conflict and involves characters competing against each other to gain something or someone.
• We see this in many American school based films.
• It usually involves a ‘rookie’ or the protagonist arriving new at the school, and conflicting with the ‘popular person’ or the antagonist. By the end of the film, the rookie finds their identity and all the issues are resolved.
WE SEE THIS IN…
• High School Musical
• Mean Girls
• Grease
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
• A Cinderella Story
• The narrative is also often based on romance. Very frequently the rookie falls in love with the antagonist’ boyfriend, the ‘popular’ guy, who is firstly portrayed as distant and unfriendly, but by the end of the film the Rookie helps him to ‘rediscover’ himself and the protagonist prevails over the antagonist.
• Humour can also play a big part in school based dramas. As we see in 17 Again, American Pie and Mean Girls they are primarily comedies. School based dramas are rarely heavy, and are normally witty and light-hearted.
WHY IS THIS APPEALING?
• The main task in producing a film is to appeal to your target audience. School based dramas are extremely successful-look at Glee for example which is now a worldwide phenomenon.
• But why?• A teenage audience can relate to the
difficulties and hurdles of ‘high school’. • There is also an element of escapism
into a world that is actually not realistic to the real world of school
Characters• As we said earlier, there is usually a protagonist, who is usually new to the school and starts off unpopular, and an antagonist, who is usually the popular, good-looking one.
• These stereo-typical characters create an easy narrative, that can work over a range of storylines, and that are recognisable to the audience, and therefor have a higher chance of being successful.
For example…
Mean Girls is a typical example where the Antagonist befriends the Protagonist- here we can see the contrasts through there
costume, body language, and even the setting. These all create a clear vision to define a character, and as they are polar opposites,
help to create an interesting narrative.
MUSIC & SOUNDS• Music and sounds help to create an
atmosphere, and also define the genre.• Diegetic sounds, like banging of lockers,
shouting of children, alerts of mobile phones, all help to create a realistic school setting.
• However non diegetic sounds, like the soundtrack of ‘Gangstas’ Paradise’ at the beginning of ‘Dangerous Minds’ help to give the audience an insight into the themes (for example, a corrupt school in this particular film)
Subverting the Genre
• Subverting the genre is a mechanism of using anti conventional, and non stereotypical characters, narratives, and themes within a certain genre, to surprise the audience, and hopefully intrigue them.
• This has been used particularly in school based dramas, where the narrative is used to support the non stereotypical characters and themes, and make the drama successful.
To me, Glee is a prime example where the characters
are not at all what we are used to seeing in school
based dramas, especially American ones.
All different races,
sexualities,
religions, and
professions are
shown in the
characters, which,
I think, is the main
reason why Glee
has become such
a phenomenon.
Every member of
the audience can
probably relate to
one character,
and the
experiences they
go through.
This is an example of subverting the genre, as no
other programme or film has ever included this much
diversity before. Sometimes, by subverting the
genre, you lose your audience as they do not
recognise the themes, narratives and storylines.
Glee, however, i
s an example
where this
worked and
now Glee is
hugely
successful. The
representations
of students was
changed.
Another examples of where representations of stereotypes has been challenged is ‘Beastly’.• In this film, the most popular boy of the school has a
spell cast on him to turn him ugly, and he has a certain amount of time to start acting ‘beautiful’ from the inside out otherwise he will stay like that forever.
• The representations of what it means to be ‘beautiful’ in todays society are challenged in this film, and I think that the story is meant to send a strong message across to the audience.
Overall…• I think that most school based dramas use
the same ingredients when it comes to narratives, settings, music, themes and characters.
• However, as we have seen, some dramas are now pushing the boundaries and are trying to create non-stereotypical characters and narratives that are not recognisable to the audience.
• Either way you must ALWAYS appeal to your target audience.