Teen drama research

Overview

A teen drama is focussed at teenagers and young adults where the plot of the film is based on interests of teenagers such as first love, conflict with parents, rebellion and friendship whilst experiencing other teen issues. Films in this genre are often set in high schools or contain characters that are currently in high school. Dramatic themes such as alcohol/drugs, poverty, moral dilemmas and violence are usually used.

History

The genre wasn't created for the first 45 years of television, and hit our screens in the early 1990's with the popularity of the T.V series 90210. After television writers and producers realised how much of a success the show was, they realised the potential for this new genre. Other T.V series' such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creak were created and became very popular as well as more recent recent series' such as Gossip Girl, Skins and One Tree Hill which have also become very successful. In the 1970's Grease was a huge hit about a relationship and there friends set in a high school, with drama's along the way such as pregnancy and crime. Other popular releases from the 90's are The Craft, Hairspray, American Pie and Dirty Dancing. More recent films such as Bring IT On, Mean Girls, Dare, John Tucker Must Die and Jennifer's Body have also created huge hype and success.

Sub-Genre

A lot of teen based films have had popular themes such as action, comedy, musicals, science fiction and fantasy.

Examples

The 2004 American teen comedy/drama Mean Girls created massive success worldwide producing $129,042,871 in box office sales. It is focussed on a new girl at school and describes to us how high school social cliques operate and what affect they can have on other people. The film introduces different cliques such as the 'nerds', 'jocks', 'desperate wannabes', 'art freaks' etc- but focussing on 'the plastics' (popular girls). The new girl Cady was warned to avoid 'the plastics' however doesn't listen and gets roped into there group, however this causes relationship problems, broken friendships and becoming in trouble at school on the way. I think this film is a great entertaining insight into high school life, which teens in particular would enjoy and be able to relate to.

The very popular teen drama T.V series Skins has so far released five series' which is shown on E4, winning BAFTA and NME awards. It shows the lives of a group at college friends in England. Many powerful issues have been explored such as drug abuse, mental issues, dysfunctional families and death. The characters all are different different sex's and races, coming from very different families with various problems. Each episode is usually focussed on a difference character overcoming a certain issue/ problem. Due to the explicit and shocking content of the series it is rated an 18 and played late at night. I believe this modern day series isn't the type of series that you can watch and relate to every single episode, however it gives us an insight into young adults issues and problems that they could come across in life, which sometimes may be relate-able.