AS ~ Media Studies: Conventions of a Teen Movie

Narrative:

When watching Teen Movies, there are many conventions a viewer would expect.

Teen movies are usually about teenagers passing through a significant phase in life. This consists of growing up in some way or another. Stereotypically these problems revolve around drugs, sex and alcohol, relationships and parental issues. Usually, At the beginning of the film the character/s introduced will be the main one involved in these problems. We also learn about their personality and type of behaviour where we connect with the "common stereotypes" mentioned above. The story-line at the beginning will sometimes account for what they need to learn. By the end of the storyline, they would have learnt that what they were trying to achieve in the beginning is very unessential due to the corrupt consequences they lead to. Many teen movies are about learning to get along with each other as the storyline might concern the changes between people. In a teen movie, there might be clichéd characters. This means that there will be one character who has an aspiration in

Wants to become

becoming someone else. For example, an unpopular "Geeky kid"-----------> the very popular baseball captain who is dating the best looking girl in college - a.k.a the girl of the "unpopular kids" dreams.

Mise-En-Scene

The movie is most likely always set in a school building, their costumes are very young looking, and they go after the "trendy" look. However, the costumes are worn to suit the best of each ones characteristics. The teachers are usually badly dressed and there is a lot of high-key lighting/naturalistic lighting.

Examples -