Holiday Task

Analysis of a teen film I have watched

 

 

 

Over the holidays I have finally watch the teen movie 21 jump street.  21 jump street is a 2012 American action comedy film produced by and starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum which are two typical characters you would see in a Teen movie, as Channing Tatum is made to pose as the popular kid and Jonah Hill as the Nerd.

 

The film follows two police officers who are forced to relive high school when they are assigned to go undercover as high school students to prevent the outbreak of a new synthetic drug and arrest its supplier. I thought that the plot alone of the film made it relate really well to teens, teen films also like using school stereotypes and humour to draw the teenage audience in, something I think this film did very well.

 

I thought the movie was well filmed using a variety of shots throughout. From Extreme close ups to long establishing shots. Using effective two shots and POV shots. The filming of this movie was engaging and therefore thanks to the variety of shot types I didn't get bored and the movie was comfortable to watch.

 

Overall I enjoyed this movie very much and I think it related really well to teenagers, therefore obviously chosen its target audience well, and was a successful teen film.

 

The trailer 

 

 



Identification of stereotypes in teen films

Stereotype - a widely held but fixed and over simplified image or idea of a particular type of person or a thing.

In Not Another Teen Movie uses many stereotypes that have been created in other teen movies. 

Such as...

The Pretty Ugly Girl

The Popular Jock

The Slutty Girls/Cheerleaders

The Perfect Girl

The Token Black Guy

The Wannabe

The Nasty Cheerleader

The Stupid Fat Guy 

The Cocky Blonde Guy

The Obsessed Best Friend

Intertextuality - Not Another Teen Movie uses examples and stereotypes from other movies like 10 Things I Hate About You, American Pie, The Karate Kid and many other teen films in order to humour the audience with the already made cliches.

NOT JUST ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE

STEREOTYPES 

A widely held but  fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

In  'Not Another Teen Movie' stereotypical characters include:

The stereotypes used such as the jocks, cheerleaders, lesbians, popular girls, nerds, hippies, dumb blonde, wannabe, the ugly girl, fat guy, the virgin, the slutty girls and lastly the black guy are in almost all teenage movies. This enables the movies to put across an over exaggerated image of high schools and teenagers.

Intertextuality: 

The relationship between texts/cross-refrencing. 

Intertextuality is made apparent in "Not Just Another Teen Movie" as there are a range of films of which are shown above which are parodied in the film. 

The makers are cross-referencing. 

In addition, the film uses narratives and shortcuts from other movies to portray the stereotypes.

THE TRAILER:

Holiday task - The Hunger Games

A film I watched during the holidays was The Hunger Games.

This is an adventure, thriller, sci-fi film based around the story of Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete. They are required to fight to the death until there is one remaining who will be crowned the victor.

I found The Hunger Games very interesting, as they are in a fictional place, which differs from usual teen movies, set in schools or in the home environment. As one boy and one girl are chosen to compete, this brings up the idea of romance between the two which of course conforms to the stereotype of young romance. Katniss and Peeta fall in love with each other.

You can now buy The Hunger Games on DVD and Blu ray, but before you do that, watch the trailer first:

Bling Ring

What i have found about The Bling ring is that it was based on true story. These are the characters that were played for the movie about the true story that happen. This is a Teen drama movie that is stereotypically on teenagers of how we are.

As you can tell, this movie has strong: Themes, Mise-En-Scene and Character to make this film into a teen drama movie. This picture all go along with Theme, as you can see, they way they dress suggest that the theme would be about Fashion. 

This will go under all 3 feature 

Bling Ring

Bling Ring

is a teen film with crime and drama included. it is inspired by real events, in which a group of teenagers use the internet to track celebrities to burgle their houses.

this does conforms to the stereotype of teen films and their stereotypes such as..

the theme of clubbing/dancing is used throughout the film

also, the ideology of celebrity, their fashion and their lifestyles are glamourized

the use of drugs, smoking and alcohol throughout is significant

Locations used in Bling Ring are conventional of those of a teen film

It is set in the high school, the family homes, the celebrity homes and occasionally the beach.

BLING RING

The trailer:

The Bling Ring is a teenage drama that exaggerates the stereotypical lives of teenagers. It is based on a true story about a clique of teenagers who burglarised famous people's houses in an attempt to be like them. 

Themes include:

• Relationships.
• Difficulty fitting in.
• Drugs/Alcohol.
• Partying.
• Celebrities.
• Cars.

But overall, money.

Locations include:

• High school.
• Beach to smoke secretly.
• Family/Celebrity homes - here there is a contrast within personalities. For example, the protagonist is well behaved and sensitive at home; whereas at the celebrity homes he is quite comfortable after a while to steal.

The music is very up beat and the film signifies that teenagers know all the words to loud, stereotypical songs released by artists such as M.I.A and Rick Ross.

The characters are stereotypical teens as they are portrayed as young and reckless together with acts of rebellion. The parents are presented as dumb, annoying and very naive.

Storylines and plot - binary oppositions

Genre and Sub genre task

Teen Films

Teenage films are a film genre 

targeted at teenagers and young adults.

The plot is usually based on things such

 as first love, rebellion, conflict with parents,

coming of age, isolation or popularity.

 

They are often presented in a stereotypical

 way and are normally set in high schools 

staring characters which are teenagers themselves. 

Often staring an attractive guy or girl. 

Films in this genre are often set in 

high schools, or contain characters 

that are of high school age. 

Sexual themes are also common, 

as are crude forms of humour.

Teen Films

A teen film will be a film that will be targeting the teenagers and young adults as audience. The audience for those who watches teen film would be teenagers as they are the targeted audience.

For example, this is 21 Jump Street, a teen film, that marjority teenagers would watch because of Channing Tatum. Since 21 Jump Street is a Action/Comedy film, this is a typical teen film

The common sub genres for teen film are: Teen - Horror, Action, Comedy, Crime and Adventure. 

This Scream, a typical teen horror film. 

Teen Films

Teen films are usually very cliche and almost always contain romance. Teenagers in films have always been portrayed as disobedient, violent or romantic as well as trying to appeal to a friendship group or clique.

Teenagers in films can sometimes 

be perceived as having a low

IQ or 

limited vocabulary.

In addition, teenagers are perceived as young people that only go around having sex. This entails sub-genres as some teenaged films may be romantic comedies etc.

Moreover, if the teen isn't a sex addict or violent, they must be on drugs. Most teen movies put this across and this is a usual stereotype of teenagers in movies.

Together with the aspects of violence, romance and drugs, teenagers are shown as people that hate everything. This being the reason why they're so 'rebellious'.

Films that emphasise these stereotypes include Kidulthood, Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging, and Mean Girls. The trailers are above.