Americian Teen Comedies

For my Independent study I have to write a 3000 word essay on a certain topic of media(Film, television ect) I have chosen to focus on films.

For my Independent Study, I am focusing my study on American Teen Films such as “She’s The Man” which deal with their plot synopsis being based on traditional Shakespearian plays. I will be looking at the common themes, wider context and using my key concepts to answer my question in depth.

GENDER
“She’s The Man” is a film that was produced in 2006 which offered a new version of a popular Shakespearian film “Twelfth Night” which portrays the ideas of American films and the culture which surrounds prep schools in America. But it also shows the problems which can be caused through gender. For example, the problems which are created when Violas football team is cut as there isn’t enough budget in the school, which outrages the girls team. The girls team go to the by straining and ask the coach if they can try out with the boys team, this request is basically laughed at by the coach as well as Violas boyfriend Duke, who the previous day at the beach told Viola herself that she is a much better player than anyone else on the boys team. This is an obvious sign of sexism which is clearly portrayed throughout the film. This is an important issue from the film as sports in American high schools are highly important as part of the education. This shows that the girl’s football team is seen as less important to that of the girl’s team and therefore can be cut. This again could fit in with stereotypical views of both men and women: men are the ones who are meant to be involved in sporting activities and be driven by them and women are meant to be more study orientated and not so focused on sport.

SHAKESPHERE
The fact that the film has been based on a popular Shakespearian film does start to make me wonder why this has been done. An idea why this purpose could have been achieved is to make the traditional Shakespearian plays able to relate to a younger audience, which “She’s The Man” has been able to do. By basing it around teenagers in a fashionable and giving the audience a situation to aspire to, the Shakespearian play looses its traditional roles and values which in turn make it develop a new audience. This could make teenagers develop interest and want to read the play script in the format that it was traditionally written in.

A successful film which has been based on a traditional shakesphere film is “Ten Things I Hate about You” which was based on “Taming of the Shrew”


REPRESENTATION OF TEENAGERS
This film is a typical representation of teenagers, especially the way that they are portrayed in American films aimed at a teenage audience. For example, the cliques who are in American High Schools are well known and are obviously shown through The Illyria Boys, which are the men’s football team in “She’s The Man”, who are visibly shown to be the jocks.

Stereotyping is also evident in this teen film to show the ideas of what typical types of teenagers should be like.

REPRESENTATION OF AMERICIAN FILMS
“She’s The Man” is a typical American teen comedy. It shows the views of “everything being happy in the end” by a resolution in the film. It light-hearted humour which is used throughout the film is also evident to show it is for a teenage audience.

MEDIA LANGUAGE
Cinematography Sound Editing Mise en scène
Anything interesting in this film?

INSTITUTIONS
Actors/Producer/Director
GENRE
What is it?
A hybrid film, with varrious generes including rommance, gender issues,relationships, school-based drama.
Evidence?
Conventions?
REPRESENTATION
School
Relationships
Gender
Football
AUDIENCE
Teenage Girls aged 12+
IDEALOGY
What messages/values are conveyed?