Genre & Conventions

A teen film is a film genre targeted at teenagers & young adults, usually based on a plot which can be related to people of a young age such as;

-First love
-Conflicts
-Alienation
-Crime
-Aspirations & goals

Below are 4 examples of teen films which include some of the above conventions:

Rebel without a cause (1955)













Grease (1978)

Love and Basketball (2000)

My Brother the Devil (2012)

A variety of teen films are divided into 'Subgenres' such as horror, romance, action or comedy which all don't appeal to teenagers/young adults. For an example, Romance could be more appealing to an older age group of 25+, whilst horror is more likely to attract the younger generation.

Locations that are usually featured in a teen film are;

-Teenager's bedroom

-Canteen

-School/Classroom

-Basketball Court 

-Shopping/Sports centre

-Parks/Neighbourhood

-Party 

Project X, Bring it on and Mean Girls are examples of teen films which include the 'typical' above locations.

Characters that feature in teen films are usually influenced by stereotypes, however the typical characters that are seen is:

-The 'over confident' character, who is usually miss/mr popular.

-The 'underestimated' character, who becomes the favourite by the end of the film.

-The 'love interest', who is the crush of the main character.

Below is the trailer to the film 'Mean Girls', the trailer displays a range of characters that are featured within the film which also reflects characters that are usually seen in a range of teen films.