Oliver Tate is the 15-year-old protagonist of the film Submarine. He has two main goals: losing his virginity and keeping his parents together. He has a destructive relationship with his parents and an unconventional one with his girlfriend Jordana. While he exhibits some stereotypical teenage boy behaviors, he also cares deeply for his family and girlfriend. Charlie Kelmeckis is the 15-year-old protagonist of Perks of Being a Wallflower who narrates his story through letters. He comes from an upper-middle class family and struggles with social anxiety and the lingering effects of childhood abuse. He forms close bonds with friends Sam and Patrick who help him come out of his shell.

1. CHARACTER
CONVENTIONS.

2. OLIVER TATE.
• Oliver Tate is the main male character in
Submarine. He is a 15 year old boy who has
two main objectives in his school year; to
loose his virginity and to keep his parents
together. Living in a middle/working class
house hold, he is an explore, according to
the young and Rubicon's cross cultural
consumer characterisation. He is shown in
the film to try different and new thing, for
example listening to French music and
wearing hats.
• Tate has two main relationships throughout
the film/trailer. An obvious, but
destructive relationship he has is between
him and his parents. Often they are his main
focus, as his mum reconnects with a former
partner. He has to try and keep his mum in
the family, get though to his dad and have a
relationship with the “girl of his dreams”.
Jordana is the second relationship, which is
very unconventional. After meeting under a
bridge, the two kiss while Jordana takes
pictures. She is very controlling and
unforgiving at the beginning, entail he
softens her up and gets to know her more.

3. • The stereotypes of a teenage boy (stereotypes
are not just held about minority groups) are
some what broken in submarine. Stereotypes
include that boys are smelly, mean, rude,
lazy, sex mad and dumb. One of Perkin’s
assumptions is that not all stereotypes are
false, which is clear when Oliver partakes in
acts of bullying. However he makes up for
this when he shows how much he cares about
his family and Jordana. A part of the plot is
that he wants to loose his virginity, which
could mean that he is taking part in a widely
held view of teenage boys. However thought
the film it becomes less important, as he
just wants to make Jordana happy and be
around her.
• The character dynamics are interesting as the
two main characters, Oliver and Jordana, seem
like binary opposites. Strauss said that we
need binary opposites in media to make the
audience understand the narrative better. It
relies heavily on our ideological values and
beliefs-knowing what is “good” and “evil”.
They are opposite because Jordana’s character
is essentially a bully and although Oliver
contributes to the bulling-he is apologetic
and stops. Where as Jordana shows no remorse.

4. • Oliver is always seen wearing his navy blue
duffle coat and carrying a brown leather
satchel style bag. Under this is his school
uniform-white shirt, tie and black
trousers. This instantly shows the audience
that he is in school and gives them the
ruff age of Tate (if it was not specified
in the narration). The constant use of the
coat is really powerful; I think it
represents safety and security, linking one
of Maslow's basic needs. The coat links
Oliver to Jondana, as she is also often
shown wearing a bright red coat, with the
same styling.
• His facial expressions consist of confused,
sad, angry and content. You never really
see him smiling or laughing. Oliver has
really good posture, and walks as if his
knows where and why he is heading to a
place.
• The props are age appropriate, they use a
polaroid camera, rather than a DCLR.
Although polaroid/vintage style cameras are
coming back into fashion.

5. PROPP'S THEORY.
Oliver is the hero of the
narrative, according to Propps
character types. Thought the
film he is seeking friendship
and love with the “princess”
Jordana. She could be seen as
his “reward” after his hard work
being more sociable. Oliver’s
dad is a mixture of the
character types, as he hinders
his quest for Jordana by
distracting him (false hero),
but towards the end he helps
Oliver regain his confidence.
Tate’s mother is the
donor/dispature. The villain is
Mrs Tate’s love affair, who
lures her into cheating on her
husband. The princesses father
is Jordana’s dad, who welcomes
Oliver into the family and share
privet information about the
family, after his wife dies.

6. CHARLIE KELMECKIS.
• Charlie is the main protagonist character in
Perks of being a wall flower. Throughout the
film he narrates what's happening to him though
a series of letters he writes to an anonymous
person. Charlie stats of being 15, but by the
end of the film, he is 16.
• Charlie lives in a large house with mum, dad,
and older brother and sister. The oldest is in
collage and the sister is about to leave for
further education. This shows us that Charlie is
upper middle class, as we see no stress over
payment of collage fees. He, like Oliver Tate,
is classed as an explore, due to the fact that
he is a student.
• Charlies family is portrayed as somewhat
dysfunctional, yet very loving and strong.
Charlies father is very distant as his attention
is focused on his older children. However they
do have fun together sometimes. His mother dose
not play a huge part, as the main motherly focus
is on the aunt, who passes away on his birthday.
However we later learn that she molested Charlie
and that is why he struggles with being social
and often blanks out of conversations.

7. • Charlie is very sensitive, shy and
comfortable with his sexuality (not
afraid/ashamed of performing in the Rocky
Horror Show or standing up for his homosexual
friends) compared to the stereotypical
stereotype of males. Usually men/boys are
portrayed as tuff, unforgiving and brutish-
especially in teen and young adult scenarios.
• Charlie becomes extremely close to Sam and
Patrick, this is strengthened by the use of
advertising styles (always shown standing
together as three on posters/DVD covers etc.)
They share with him his first experiences,
such as weed, a kiss (both male and female)
and alcohol. They also bring him into their
group of friends, where he has his first
relationship, where he learns that he should
be honest rather than nice.
• A huge relationship that is frequently touch
one is the one with is dead aunt. Jump cuts
of past experiences with her are shown
thought the film. It is unclear from the film
what actually happened between them-all the
audience knows is that it has effected him
deeply and effects his present and possibly
furture relationships.

8. • Charlies costume progresses and adapts thought the film as
he becomes more confidante and comfortable with his
friend. Starting with very bland, simple cloths (T-shirt
and hoody). Then moving on to Christmas, when he is given
a suit, which he wears to school(and continues wearing it
despite teasing-which shows his progression and growth as
a character) He also pitches in with the Rocky Horror
Show, where his dresses up like a women, and has to parade
around half naked and walk into the audience. Unlike
Oliver Take, who wears the same thing in also most ever
shot.
• One of Charles major props are his writing materials, pen
and paper(keeping old school-showing that he doesn’t have
the latest technologies e.g phone/laptop-not widely
available during the time the film was set). This is
similar to Oliver who writes on his type writer.
• Charlies facial expressions are usually over whelmed,
surprised and grateful. Mid way though, once he made
friends, he was more smiley and laughing more, after this
however we see him getting angary and violent for the fist
time.
• I feel like this film has no drastic binary opposites,
such as good and evil, which are highly contrasted. we are
lead to believe that there is a huge difference between
Charlie and his friends because Charlie is hinted at to be
mealy different. But as we learn about the characters,
there isn't this strict value of sane and insane, but a
spectrum. Which I think is good in this type of film,
which explores mental health and the affect past
experiences have on people, that people aren’t either
effected or not. We can take this style into our shot
film(the main character is struggling with things-but so
are other people, maybe not is the same way or as
violently but they are still dealing with things). This
can be seen went Charlie and Sam have their first kiss,
and Sam shares about her past.

9. Charlie is the hero, and his
“quest” is to be more sociable,
make friend and to be Sam’s
girlfriend. Sam is the
princesses as she is desirable
and very closed off. I think the
villain is Mary Elizabeth as she
“actively blocks the hero's
quest”, forcing herself on
Charlie, creating an orquad
relationship that ends badly.
Meaning Charlie is forced out of
the friendship group, putting
him back to how he started the
school year. The donor and the
helper is Charlies English
teacher, he gives him the
confidence to read and write,
and wear his suit. Patrick is
both the dispatcher and the
father, as he helps Charlie
understand Sam more, but at the
same time protecting her. The
false villain is Brad as him and
his friends beat up Patrick for
being, even though he has been
in a long term relationship with
Patrick.

10. JIMMY.
• Jimmy is the main character in Quadrphenia,
set in London 1965. Thought-out the film all
he wants to do is listen to music, be with his
friends and ride on his scooter.
• Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially
his parents and his job in a company's mailing
division. He comes from a low working class
family, as all three members of the family
have a job, and jimmy is not in further
education.
• His relationship with his dad is not good as
they do not understand each other. His and his
mum’s relationship falls apart at the end of
the film. His relationships with his friends
is really strong, as they all like the same
things-mod culture. He is not as confident as
the others, especial when you see him in high
demand social situations. All of his friends
manage to “get” girls, escape the police in
the riot, stay in the clubs and have a good
work and home situations.

11. • Jimmy is a very stereotypical mod (not all
stereotypes are false – Perkins
representation theory), this is represented
not only thought the way he acts, but his
clothing. He is all ways seen in his long,
army green coat as well as a sharp suit; even
when he is not in formal situations.
• His main props are his scooter, which he
rides every where, and cigarettes. As this
film was set in the 60s all the props had to
be appropriate, for example he could not have
pulled out his IPod and listen to music, it
would have been played on the radio/record
player.
• Jimmy was mostly angary and intensely happy,
flicking between the two drastically. For
example when his sees a mod that he looks up
to’s scooter, he is really existed. But when
he finds out he works as a bell boy, he
steels the scooter.
• Jimmy is binary opposite to his family.
Depending on your point of view whilst
watching, you could think that his parents
are “evil” and jimmy is “good”. As a person
of a similar age I think that his parents are
overly harsh. But I think a parent would
think that jimmy is out of control.

12. Jimmy is the hero, as
the main protagonist
character, he is
trying to restore is
equilibrium. However
this is unachievable
because of his mental
illness. His parents
are the villains, as
they don’t help/supper
him though out the
film and throw him out
at the end. The false
hero is his friend to
takes his girlfriend,
who is the princess.
The donor is sting, as
he “gives Jimmy hope
and pattion for being
a mod.