ALL TALKResearch on teen comedies for short film Genre Assignment

By Jo Manning

Key Concepts

Ideology

Media Language

Audience

Genre

Media Institutions

Narrative

Representation

Comedy Genre•Comedy film is a genre of film in which the

main emphasis is on humour

•Films in this style typically have a happy ending (the black comedy being an exception).

•One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies.

•Comedy, unlike other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comic transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity.

•While many comic films are light hearted stories with no intent other than to amuse, others contain political or social commentary (such as Wag the Dog and Man of the Year).

Audience People of all ages watch comedy films, although different things suit different ages. For example, Monsters Inc, was aimed at a younger audience then American Pie was. American pie was aimed at people over the age of 15 due to it’s sexual references and language content, where as Monsters inc was suitable for all ages, although maybe not appealing to those between 18 and 25.

Sub-genre: Teen Comedy

• Also known as teen films or teen epic’s. The plot it normally based on special interests of teenagers such as :

• Coming of age•Rebellion•First loves•Conflict with parents or teachers•Teen Angst•Alienation

Comedy on TVAs well as researching comedy films I have also been looking at comedy on the television. There are many different types such as :

•Sketch show comedy•Comedy Drama•Stand-up Comedy•Improvisational comedy•Game show comedy •Animated comedy

From researching a few of these ideas I decided to look more into comedy drama and sketch show comedy. This is where our inspirations for our short film come in.

Examples of Research

The Inbetweeners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjrpyfK2TAo&feature=channel

Peep Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOCzN5a19o

IdeasAfter researching the teen comedy films and comedy on TV it’s helped us get ideas for our short film such as:

• Setting the film in a school to relate to teenagers(Inbetweeners)

•Using believable school ‘stock’ characters such as ‘the geek’

•Everyday school situations

•Try to appeal to the teenagers with out being crude or swearing

•An idea from Peep show, is to have a voice playing over the shots being the guy thinking out to himself.

•Quite a lot of close ups showing the characters expressions (Peep Show)