1. What are the conventions of a
school based drama?
By Ellie Addison

2. The Main Characters
• Traditionally in school based dramas there is a
“rookie” or the protagonist who is someone that is
new to the school environment and at the
beginning seems unpopular yet by the end of the
film are seen as the hero.
• There is also an antagonist who is usually a
popular and good-looking boy or girl who
becomes the protagonist’s enemy and usually at
the end of the film becomes the unpopular and
disliked person.
• In many films such as “grease” and “high school
musical” there is a popular good looking boy that
all the girls try to impress. Usually he gets with
the rookies at the end of the film.

3. The Storyline
The narrative usually can relate to many school
children which is their key audience. Normally the
rookie is introduced as being new to the school and at
first seems unpopular. However soon the antagonist
befriends the rookie and tries to influence the rookie /
protagonist to do bad things. The rookie then rebels
and the pair become enemies. The narrative ends with
the rookie becoming popular and falling in love. This
happens in films such as “Mean Girls” and “High
School Musical.”

4. What do we typically see in the
openings of school based
dramas?
After watching the openings to “Lean on me” and
“Dangerous minds” , I made a list of typical things
which the audience saw that related to the school
theme. These were: buses, corridors, classrooms,
teachers, students, different cliques etc.
There were certain diegetic and non-diegetic sounds
which again related to the theme of each film. For
example, “Dangerous minds” used the non-diegetic
track Gangsta’s paradise which related to the violent,
and urban edge of the school. Typical diegetic sounds
was the ringing of the school bell, shouting, lockers
shutting etc. All of these sounds contributed to setting
the scene for the audience.

5. Evaluation of my research
I feel my research and watching different openings to
school based films / dramas has helped me understand
what makes this genre of film so popular and relatable
to its’ audience. When I begin to prepare my main task,
I will make sure my opening contains these
conventions to make it more effective.