Aice Media 25-26: Portfolio Project Genre #1

It is now the start to my Final portfolio Project. All the posts until now have helped me learn and understand different lessons and techniques for this Portfolio Project. From now on all my posts are going to showcase my research, planning, brainstorming and behind the scenes of my final 2 minute film opening I will be creating.

I am first starting with developing what genre my film will be, one genre i am interested in is coming of age. Coming of age is a genre i have watched for a very long time and the lots of the films are very interesting because they are targeted to you specific age range. The coming of age target audience is teenagers and young adults (ages 12-mid 20s). Coming of age films have different content for different ages since the age range is large.

Its content focuses on themes such as self-discovery, family relationships (parent-child),peer pressure, gaining independence, sexual awakening and more. All these themes relate directly to people’s everyday life and can be something someone is experiencing allowing the audience to be engaged to the film more. Along withy the themes specific techniques are used to be able to get the topic across. Coming of age films are very dialogue driven, using internal monologues and conversations between characters to further develop the character. For visuals, everyday landmarks are the way to go. Highschools, bedroom scenes, parties, driving, etc. are often used to convey familiarity to the audience. Close up shots to evoke emotions are essential for showcasing the character’s personality and emotions they are going through. Lastly for soundtracks, it is important to use nostalgic popular music tailored to the target audience.

Institutional conventions: Coming of age casts adolescents and young actors to convey reality. Film posters emphasize frienships, usually with a group of friends and a protagonist “leading them”, or being excluded by them in some sense. O ther posters constitute a family or sibling relationships as well.

One Popular coming of age film is mean girls which includes a friend group excluding the protagonist and we take a journey to discover the protagonists self identity through the use of funny jokes and sacarsm of their generation.