Hello and welcome back today!
For today’s blog I’m going to be answering the question, “How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?”
Now I've already talked about genre conventions in one of my earlier blogs, so I'll try not to bore you guys too much with that.
SCRIPT:
my product features a mix of conforming and challenging elements when it comes to CoA conventions. When you think of coming of age movies, you often think of jocks, cheerleaders, school settings, malls, etc.
My film contradicts these expectations since they are only ever seen at the park and don’t appear to have a specific cliche. And you may be wondering, “why?” well I’ll tell you. I really wanted to illustrate the characters as young, immature, naive, and unsure of their place in society; and what better way to do that than to show them holding onto childish habits. The playground is often associated with innocence and children, so when this symbol is combined with the heavy themes displayed in the opening, it sets up the coming of age genre of journeys to self discovery, and shows the dark side of teenage life and grief.
However, my opening still features your typical conventions in terms of aesthetics. The film features bright colors with 2000’s inspired styles, not to mention the makeup and bright colors of Viv and the setting around her creates that typical dreamlike facade sort of look.
Though, that quickly dissipates once her friend dies. Although, that also feeds into another genre convention.
Coming of age films are notorious for showing the messy sides of adolescence, and sometimes it tends to be on the more dramatic side. This can be seen in films like The Outsiders or The Perks Of Being a Wallflower. My opening I would say is a happy medium between the two sides of the spectrum. The beginning starts out colorful, happy, and dreamlike. Until, everything goes wrong and we begin to see reality hit Viv in the face.
My opening represents teenage girls and simply teenagers in general. In media we often see teens being mischaracterized as heavy drinkers, disrespectful, rebels, etc. While these things do happen in real life, most teenagers spend their days chilling with their friends. This film is meant represents the calmer side of teenage life and how much friends have an influence on your life and the decisions you make (to an extent).
Moreover, my opening is meant to represent teen mental health. Teenagers often go through a lot of stress and struggles that they keep to themselves. I believe that it is important to see all sides of adolescence, especially in coming of age movies because while these films can be fun mall runs and late nights with friends, life isn’t always like that. The message throughout this film is about self discovery, Blair was Viv’s other half and vice versa. Now that they’re losing each other they have to learn to be their own people, accept the past, and spend the time they have left to the fullest. While in real life this isn't so literal, but there will come a time when friends and loved ones come and go and we need to learn to accept the change and better ourselves from the experience we gained.
XOXO,
Gossip Girl
Sources:
Metcalfe, J. (n.d.). What is a coming-of-age movie? Medium. https://medium.com/coming-of-age-with-film/what-is-a-coming-of-age-movie-7ebf1121ca1c
Glazier, J. (n.d.). Conventions and iconography of the coming-of-age genre. MindMeister. https://www.mindmeister.com/714294408/conventions-and-iconography-of-the-coming-of-age-genre
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Coming of age. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_age
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Teen film. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_film
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