Genre and Convention

Teen films are usually aimed at people aged 12-21. This is a general audience that becomes more specific depending on the genre of the movie. The main setting for teen films are the home, school, sport locations and other locations. Specifically:

• Home - bedroom, back/front garden, dinning room, basement/attic 
• School - classroom, bathroom, entrance, hallway, canteen, teachers office, main hall
• Sport locations - basketball court, football pitch, bleachers (America), changing room, track field 
• Hangout/Other - shopping centres, fast food restaurant, other countries, job locations, exhibits

In a lot of films there are characters that fit a certain stereotype. A lot of these apply to American teenage films set in high school as the characters often belong to a clique. Some conventional characters are:

• Bully - either male or female, picks on people who are tagged geeks, outcast, or normal
• Jock - portrayed as mean, wears letterman jackets
• Popular girls - mean or stupid, stereotypical girl appearance; pink, styled hair, stylish clothes
• Geeks - outdated clothes, usually wearing glasses, weird hair
• Perfect girl - stylish clothes/hair, nice personality, sometimes ditzy
• Normal - often the main character, normal clothes and hair, no defining qualities
• Outcast - often the main character, weird clothes, cold personality

In teen films, there are some themes that are consistent in most of them. They usually contain themes like family, adventure, violence, relationships and sometimes death. Most teen films mainly deal with relationships and family whereas less of them look at death or violence; it depends on the genre. She's the Man is an example of a high school teen movie which deals with relationships and the complications. Another theme in the movie is family, focusing on family pressure and teen rebellion. It also contains drama which is normal in any teen movie. Warm Bodies is a teen thriller, romance film. In the film the themes of violence, death and relationships is constant throughout. The Avengers is a prime example of a teenage action movie. The main theme in this movie is violence and also adventure. A typical teen film often contains violence and the main characters reaction to it.