1. Evaluation Question 1: In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products.
2. Music Choice A lot of teen movies and high school dramas
have upbeat songs in their opening sequences, often of the pop punk
genre. This sets the tone of the film and lets you know that it is
based around young people. An example of this is the introduction
to the film 10 things I hate about you, which has a song typical of
most teen films, it features Bad Reputation by Joan Jett. You can
see this here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc_UUofTKag This is the type
of music that we chose so the audience knows what to expect from
our film and can identify the genre from the opening sequence.
3. Costume Costume is also important because it is typically
the same, but varies slightly to suggest different identities of
characters. We used costume to suggest our characters stereotypes.
However, with Tee's character we also challenged the forms and
conventions of real life media products. The cheerleader trope
usually is a perfect looking female, with long hair and a short
skirt, an example shown here from John Tucker Must Die. In a lot of
ways we conformed to this, but Tee also has braces, showing she
isnt quite what the audience would perceive as perfect. Also, her
hair is blonde but it is a very white blonde, and she has what you
could call a more masculine hair cut, very short and choppy on one
side, and this challenges the forms and conventions of typical high
school movies, for example the characters in Mean Girls shown
here.
4. Cultural Topics Another typical convention of teen dramas
are the cultural topics of the film. These often include: Proms
(Example in A Cinderella Story) Parties Alcohol and Drugs (Example
in American Pie) Relationships Social Groups and Cliques ( Example
in St. Trinians) Coming of age We focused mainly on the different
cliques, with the contrasting characters, and we also touched on
drugs, with the implied drug use of Jennis bathroom shots.
5. Setting Most of the characters in high school dramas are
teenagers. For this reason they are usually set in schools. We used
corridors to conform to these codes and conventions, so you could
tell what our films narrative is going to be about. Also in teen
movies you tend to get the girls hanging out in the bathroom. We
conformed to this and showed the cheerleader character doing her
makeup in a bathroom. Also, we showed the alternative girl in the
bathroom, but we decided to challenge the codes and conventions by
implying that she is an outcast, and to emphasize this we suggested
use of drugs. Shown are some examples of corridors in Mean Girls
and John Tucker Must Die, and a bathroom in Easy A.
6. Setting Most of the characters in high school dramas are
teenagers. For this reason they are usually set in schools. We used
corridors to conform to these codes and conventions, so you could
tell what our films narrative is going to be about. Also in teen
movies you tend to get the girls hanging out in the bathroom. We
conformed to this and showed the cheerleader character doing her
makeup in a bathroom. Also, we showed the alternative girl in the
bathroom, but we decided to challenge the codes and conventions by
implying that she is an outcast, and to emphasize this we suggested
use of drugs. Shown are some examples of corridors in Mean Girls
and John Tucker Must Die, and a bathroom in Easy A.