The group we want to represent in our project are teenagers in high school. There are a substantial amount of movies and shows that portray teenage students going to school, and then having a life of their own after school. The teens would be shown partying, having adventures, solving crimes, and anything else other than studying or doing homework. The teenagers in the real world do homework when they get home from school, and are rarely seen not doing any work whatsoever. In drama films, the teachers do assign work, but the students are almost never shown doing it, as if it magically does itself while they are out doing other things.


In the show Gossip Girl, which is based on the lives of Manhattan’s elite, the teenagers who go to a private school are never seen studying. The students go to school and hang out with their friends, boy/girlfriends, or cause drama in between friend groups. They are never seen in their room doing homework. IN fact, when it was time to take the SATs, they paid people with a fake ID to complete the exam for them. Another show in which teenagers are never seen doing homework is in the show Elite. This is a show in spanish in which students from a different schools of lower class, join a rich high school which causes conflicts. In class the students are given homework and projects, but after school they are busy doing other things. The teenagers have fights, they plan robberies, plan parties, and even kill someone. The teenagers never touch a pencil or paper in their own homes.


I think that this representation is more than wrong. Teenagers in real life try extremely hard in school and barely ever go out during the week. The fact that teenagers are depicted as slackers but they still succeed, is very disrespectful to all the hard work that students put in to reach their goals. I would retain all of the activities, because even though the representation is unfair, it makes the movie/show entertaining. I would, though, challenge the fact that they don’t do any homework. Moreover, I would show the teenagers doing some homework, or talking about the fact that they did homework, and I would leave the exciting drama representation that keeps the audience hooked.

Genre: Drama

Genre Conventions:


Content:
Drama films tend to illustrate real-life situations and incidents. They portray reasonable and expected characters as well as realistic settings and story plots. There is usually a build up of suspense and tension until the climax, which keeps the audience wanting more. Drama films aim to move the audience emotionally. The main focus of the drama genre is based on any type of conflict, difficulties, struggles, or pain.

Production techniques:
The mise-en-scene of drama films are represented by the dull lighting that is used. It makes the audience feel a sense of tension that portrays a gritty and bleak nature. There are many types of angles and camera movements that are used, as well as close ups of characters. The high and low angle shots are used to depict the strength or weakness amongst characters. The props that are typically used are guns, alcohol, drugs, knifes, and phones. The common settings for drama films are schools, ghettos, streets of neighborhoods and run down neighborhoods.

Film example #1:

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
Gossip Girl is a good representation of the Drama genre because it is about the scandalous lives of Manhattans’ elite. Out of all of the wealthy families, the Humphrey’s aren’t one of them. Dan Humphrey is an outsider who started a blog called gossip girl so that he could feel like he was a part of it all. There is a lot of school drama and also parent drama. Throughout all of the seasons the tension only ended when the show terminated, because of how the director planned the plot.

Film example #2:

10 Things I Hate about You (1999)
10 Things I Hate about You is a good representation of the Drama genre because it is about a teenage girl that isn’t allowed to date. She has a sister who is very boylike, and as her father thought, she would never go on a date with a guy. He placed the condition that if she boylike sister begins to date, so can the other sister. As expected the sister made sure to find them both dates, and the boylike sister fell in love with the guy.