The Maturity of Adolescence

 The Maturity of Adolescence

    Growing up, all we want to see on the screen is a character that acted like us, talked like us, screwed up like us, and lived like us. I'm at the point in my life where I can't see myself in kids' movies anymore, but the adult world feels too large and scary to conquer. At 16, going on 17, I feel there's no better genre for me to research than the teen comedy, a mirage of adolescent mistakes coated in hilarity and issues that only a younger audience could relate to. So let's take a deep dive into the vibrant, colorless world of teen comedy. 

    Between the ages of 13 and 19, humans grow the most in their lives. Exiting out of those awkward tween years where you know you're not a kid anymore, but you can't help but long for the days when you'd play with dolls and go to recess with friends. In these years, you get a unique opportunity to explore who you are without major repercussions. You can explore new identities, make mistakes, and meet new people. In the mid-'80s, the genre experienced a flurry of new ideas that were able to perfectly capture the teenage experience. Through the strong themes of aimlessness, rebellion, resentment, and angst, these films just "got" teenagers. But what specifically made these films so classically relatable and timeless? For that, we have to take a look at the:

Content

    A simple plot structure is almost always found in the teen comedy genre. Due to the nature of the audience's age (that being teenagers), the structure is slimmed down to its basics as to not confuse the audience. 

    A teen comedy movie usually starts by introducing a character(s) as one of the following stereotypes: The Loner, The Popular kid, The quirky kid, The nerd, or The hopeless romantic. Directors can play around with these tropes, but they serve as guidelines that most films follow in the genre. These archetypes of characters provide the groundwork for common themes and arcs found in teen movies. Some common arcs are the quest of popularity, searching for love, making new friends, or seeking new experiences.

Ex: "Superbad" (2007) introduces its main characters as social outcasts and losers in its opening scene. This develops their characters so we can follow them as they navigate high school popularity together.

       The emotional feelings of characters are also explored in teen comedies. While the films carry a lighthearted tone, writers often try to include a message of loyalty, hope, and a lingering question of what life will bring. This can be exhibited through dialogue and storytelling by deep conversations, self-reflections, or consequences to a character's actions, but it's most commonly explored through:

The Production

    Teen Comedies are commonly lit naturally so the audience can resonate with it more. They are also lit with bright, warm colors to reflect the whimsical wonder and joy that comes with experiencing new things. By using these warmer tones, it creates a sense of nostalgia that draws audiences to the production across generations.

"The Kissing Booth" (2018) uses warm orange light to symbolize a calmer, exciting chapter in the character's life.

    Darker scenes in these films where characters face consequences are typically lit with more blue and harsh light to reflect the dire situation the subject is facing.

     Sound is vital to creating the atmosphere of a teen comedy. Popular songs are usually found in these movies to reflect the music taste of the audience. By incorporating pop music into its production, teen comedies inject a sense of "now" into the film that helps it relate to the audience.

              Do Revenge (2022) features many popular hits of the early 2020s to engage its audience

Marketing

    Up until the early 2010s, teen movies were marketed with basic posters featuring a cast of characters. This presents the movie as something the viewer could relate to, and watch with their friends. However, with the rise of social media, a new trend emerged. 

    Teen movies now have a heavy presence on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. They thrive off creating niche fanbases that watch the movie and spread the word around on their socials. This provides free PR for a production company and makes the film feel more grounded as it was recommended by peers instead of a big studio. 

Samples

 Superbad (2007) is a coming-of-age story about 2 friends navigating their last weeks of high school. The two main characters, Evan and Seth, are inseparable, but faced with the impending doom graduation, they lash out and attempt to fill their lives with superficial things like parties and flings. By the end, they realize that their friendship is what means most to them, and find solace in knowing they'll have each other to rely on for life. The pair are the quintessential "losers" of high school. They don't have many friends, they don't go to parties, and they haven't had girlfriends by 18. The character's arcs subvert the genre by building up a story where the audience thinks our characters will accomplish these goals, but instead, we find them choosing their friendship over what they had thought was all they wanted. The film is lit with warm colors, but when the characters face a more serious situation, they're lit in a harsher blue tone. The film includes popular songs that match well with the time, and fit into the party atmosphere of some of the story. The film was marketed to the age group of teens and young adults who saw the trailer as something they could relate to. The awkward position of the characters on the poster and the minimalist design help develop this idea.

Ferris Bueler's Day Off (1986) follows Ferris Bueler, a senior in high school, who skips a day of school with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron. The film is wrapped in themes of rebellion and teenage angst, and lit in warm tones to reflect the nostalgia of playing hooky and having a day out on the town. Ferris is portrayed as "The popular kid", and his outgoing personality is paired opposite of Cameron's "Shy Guy" archetype. The character's arcs fit neatly into the genre, as Ferris learns the importance of the people he surrounds himself with, and Cameron learns the importance of living on the wild side once in a while. The film includes popular 80's hits, and a fun parade scene with loud, upbeat music that showcases Ferris' outgoing personality. The film, billed as a classic summer teen flick about a popular high school boy, fills the role well, and it's simplistic poster featuring Ferris in a "cool guy" pose helps add to the theme. 

Teen Comedies I recommend:

Mean Girls (2004)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

American Pie (1999)

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Sources:

https://screenrant.com/most-used-teen-comedy-tropes/

https://collider.com/superbad-high-school-comedies/

Representation in Media

     Hello again! Today, I will be discussing representation in one of my favorite shows, Brooklyn-99. Brooklyn-99 is a show that stretched 8 long seasons from 2013 until 2021. The time in which it premiered saw many different social movements rise and enter the public sphere like the #metoo movement, the Black Lives Matter movement twice, and the Obergerfell v. Hodges decision, legalizing gay marriage in the United States in 2015. As a show with a tremendous public following, and one covering the always divisive topic of the American law enforcement system, it did its best to represent different groups in its cast of characters and the stories it told.

   The cast of Brooklyn-99

 

   Brooklyn 99's pilot episode is standard stuff for your average workplace comedy, but sets itself apart as the pilot draws to a close. In a serious conversation with their new superior officer Captain Raymond Holt, detectives Jake Peralta and Rosa Diaz learn their captain is gay. The powerful scene reveals the motive behind Holt's strict policies. He tells the pair he's afraid of making a mistake, as he feels a man of his identity, someone who is not only gay, but black, two historically underrepresented groups, does not have the same luxury of slipping-up as others do. He's served a lifetime in law enforcement, and only now, later in life, does he get to lead a precinct of his own, While other sitcoms of a time in which gay marriage had yet to be legalized in the United States might've strayed away from this topic or made fun of the character, Brooklyn-99 sticks to its morals, portraying the characters excepting Holt into their family, and embracing his identity. It's thanks to majority rule this scene was able to happen at all. Twenty years prior, a leading character in a popular show being a gay black man was unthinkable, but thanks to weakening social stigmas, the show was able to tell the story they wanted to tell, one that was as entertaining as it was important. 

    The show also makes a point to not tokenize its characters, including multiple actors of the same ethnicity in the show. A prime example of this is the "Sleuth Sisters" Amy Santiago and Rosa Diaz, both Latina women serving as detectives within the precinct. After the show concluded, Stephanie Beatriz who portrays Diaz on the show, revealed she thought either she or her co-star, Melissa Fumero, who plays Santiago, were going to be fired after the pilot episode wrapped filming, saying in an interview with Entertainment Weekly "Well, there's no way that they're going to keep both of us. We're going to shoot the pilot. Somebody somewhere is going to say, 'Well, why do we need both of them? We have one. Let's slot somebody in this other slot.'" As opposed to looking at us for our abilities as actresses. You would never look at a show and go, "Well, we've got one white actress — we don't really need two." You wouldn't do that. But there was a time when you would do that with actors of color. I really did think that." The pair stayed together, and dominated screens for eight years.

    

A lone protestor confronts a line of police in Baton Rouge (2016)

        After a series of violent killings by police, including the murder of Alton Sterling at the hands of the Baton Rouge Police Department, nationwide protests in opposition to the police erupted. As a show centering around police and their everyday activities, the showrunners of Brooklyn-99 felt it was not only important, but necessary to construct a storyline that acknowledges these protester's feelings, not offering the solution, but recognizing the problem, and promising to do better. In the episode, Sergent Terry Jeffords is stopped by a cop in his own neighborhood while searching for his daughter's lost stuffed animal. The cop reasons that Jeffords looks like a suspect from a crime he's investigating, generalizing him, and detaining him after Jeffords is rightfully apprehensive about the cop's attempted arrest. It's only after the cop is made aware of Jeffords position within the NYPD that he lets him go. The incident causes Jeffords to take action, filing a complaint against the officer. The comlplaint drives a rift between him and Captain Holt, who firmly believes in changing the system from the inside, telling Jeffords that doing anything that could put his current position at risk may render him unable to affect change. The two argue, but after Jeffords revealed he became a cop because he wanted to be a superhero, and a hero wouldn't let a bad guy get away without reprimand, Holt comes to the realization that he worked so hard to earn his position so he could help people like Jeffords in a meaningful way, so they file the complaint. Jeffords loses out on a job opportunity because of the incident, and while not explicitly stated to be the complaints doing, the experience shows that while fighting injustice comes at a cost, the product is a more just world in which racist officers like the one that stopped Jeffords would think twice before generalizing a group again.

                                                  Jeffords tells the precinct of his experience 

            After seven seasons of wacky hijinks and important conversations, Brooklyn 99 returned after an extended COVID-19-related hiatus for its 8th, and final season. However, fans were shocked to find the precinct wasn't the same as when they had last left it. Series favorite Rosa Diaz, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 and the nationwide reckoning of police violence, leaves the force to become a private detective. She reasons that her talents would be better served in a space not responsible for the killing of innocents. The move sparks an intriguing storyline in the show, one that posits the question of how cops with no ill intentions are supposed to go about their duties under an institution as historically racist, violent, volatile, and discriminatory as the American law enforcement system. The season sees the squad trying to affect change from within as now Seargent Santiago and Captain Holt propose a reform program that reduces instances of armed officers interacting with civilians, saving lives in the process. The storyline in the final season is indicative of the series as a whole, one that doesn't punch down in its comedy, but lifts up while pointing at the injustices we face. The show serves as a blunt reminder of the issues we face as a country, issues people from all backgrounds deal with daily, and the show doesn't shy away. It faces these problems head-on, showing them to an audience who may not be aware. By highlighting these versatile issues and representing all kinds of people, it creates an atmosphere in which we can have a meaningful discussion about our problems, and work towards a future where we can live peacefully, and where understanding each other is not a rarity, but the norm. 

    

Sound Scape

     Hello again! I have just completed my third project for my media studies class, and I'm excited to share my thoughts. 

    In this project, I was tasked, alongside a partner, to create a minute to two-minute-long soundscape with no video involved, using 4 foley sounds we made. I learned a lot from the project, like how important every detail is regarding sound editing. Everything had to sound perfect for our story to make sense. Speaking of our story, it centered on a subject at a carnival playing a game. When planning, we wanted to fully immerse the listener, so we decided to make it seem like they were walking through the scene. We started off with a rollercoaster rushing by, followed by game bells dinging, carnival music, and balloons popping. As the story flowed, we increased the volume of the games as the character got closer, all to make it seem like the listener was walking through our soundscape. 

    We organized the outline into separate parts, and split them evenly. Each part had 6 or 7 sounds we wanted to incorporate in that specific section. This made it so that when we were editing in Adobe Audition, we already knew what sound we were putting in and where they were going to go. 

    I liked how our story flowed, and made it feel like the listener actively participated in the scene, but I would've liked to branch out our story, as half of the scene is one action of playing a game. This was undoubtedly a cool moment, but I felt that we should've let it be just that, a moment, and moved on to something else after that. 

    Overall, this project has helped me learn the importance of sound in media and taught me effective ways to utilize it in the future. If you would like to give it a listen, click the link down below!

Sound Scape