What is Genre and what is a Teen Drama film

What is Genre?

 What is genre? Genre is simply a term that refers to two things: category and type. In relation to film, it helps organise different films by grouping them based on what they are about and how they look. Genre is an important aspect of a film that helps with the making and marketing of a film. Producers use genre as an easy-device to make a film suitable for a specific audience. This also makes audiences decisions easier as they can choose a film they want to see based on the type of film they like.

Film genre can be referred to in two ways, semantic and syntactic. Semantic is the way the film is seen or looks like. Syntactic is the story the film tells. This theory is by a theorist, Altman.

Codes and conventions refer to the use of features that are similar in films of the same genre. This allows an audience to easily identify a type of film and distinguish the differences between this film and another. Genre gives people, such as us, an expectation that we assume will be adopted in certain films. Our expectations of genre will make us expect to see and think about what will happen in a film. People tend to enjoy films that comply with the code of genre or challenge it.

What is a Teen Drama film?

Teen drama films tend to have common storylines, characters, settings and locations. These types of films often have very similar aspects that are easily recognised by an audience. Teen films involve teenagers and usually revolve around the concept of coming of age. The conventions that are often found in teen films are:

·         Characters: Adolescent characters

·         Location: High schools, homes or streets

·         Storyline: Peer groups & friends challenging a figure of authority

·         Authority: Teachers and/or Parents

·         Contemporary popular culture: Popular music

·         Plot: Romantic interest

These types of films, of the same genre, are not always portrayed in the same way. Sometimes they may be slightly different, which is known as sub-genres: youth and high-school genre. Sub-genres are another way audiences categorise teen films.

Teen drama title sequence institution research

I analysed title sequences for both high school and youth drama films. I recorded my analysis in a grid. As you can see, high school dramas have more credits than youth dramas. This is most likely due to the budget; high school dramas are mainstream and more popular than youth dramas. This leads to them being more funded than youth dramas. High school dramas get a lot of help, financially. However, youth dramas tend to be independent.

10 things I Hate About You	My Brother the Devil
Budget: $16m (estimated) Box Office: 2,271 Type of release: Wide	Budget: $650,000 Box Office: 2 Type of release: Restricted