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.