5. Coming of Age Codes & Conventions
Main characters – Teenagers/Young Adults
Locations – School, Parties, Cities
Sub Plots – Abuse, Sex, Bullying, Drugs, First Love, Rebellion
Protagonist and Antagonist
Character – i.e. Misfit, Geek, Rebel
7. Narrative Structure
• Introduction to main characters
(name, age, lifestyle)
• Plot of the story (conflict, love, friendship)
• Cliff-Hanger (outcome, resolution)
The story is of a troubledfifteen (turning sixteen) girl, taken into the home of what could be a new hope.
Our previous research showed the different codes and conventions from American and English coming of age films, the reason being we needed to know the stereotypical themes, storyline and characters featured. Realistically we will be producing an English styled coming of age film, along with being on a small budget we will be concentrating on the themes of social realism. All three of these coming of age films feature ideas which we want to put towards our, for example in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the character of Charlie has a dark background which creeps up on him during the film which we want to similarly use with our storyline. Also, the locations in both Submarine and Fish Tank are the type of locations we would like to include in our film as these two are both English coming of age. ETC…
These are the typical codes and conventions of a coming of age genre which we need to include in our trailer. This is so that it becomes clear to the audience what kind of genre this is, this means we have to cast actors around the ages of 16-18 as that is the target audience for our film. The locations need to match the ages of the actors therefore we may include scenes within a school, party, social hubs and homes. As it’s a trailer, we need to introduce other characters which are in the film. Normally seen in American coming of age film, stereotypical characters are featured i.e. the school geek and rebel which means we need to have contrasting characters to gibe excitement to the story therefore we will be introducing characters such as the Misfit, the ‘Jock’ and the rebel. ETC…
Some pictures of the locations we want to include in our trailer.
