What to expect from a Teen Drama

There are several things to expect from a Teenage drama. These run through three main conventions, which are the narrative, the style and the representation.

The narrative in teenage dramas are usually roughly the same. They usually concentrate on certain thing, which teenagers in real life are usually going through. For example, they will use issues such as drugs and sex, which is something that the modern day teenager is becoming more and more involved in. You can see this in dramas such as Sugar Rush and Skins. They both incredibly similar narratives, which are predominantly sex and drugs, which i mentioned before is becoming a more commonly used narrative for teenage dramas. Sugar Rush is based around a girl who is confused about her sex life, which many teenage girls these days are, and skins is based around teenagers who have no time for anything but sex and partying, which in the end ruins their chances of good university, another thing that modern day teenagers are dealing with.

They also concentrate on more main stream issues that are effecting far more people in major ways such as parental issues and social issues with your peers. For example, in skins part of it concentrates on the relationships with the kids and their parents, as it does also in Sugar Rush. In both of these dramas there are teenagers who are suffering bad relationships with their parents, as well as going through hard family times such as divorce and new manage. a common occurrence in the first and second series of skins. They also focus on peer relationships and the ups and downs of them. For example, skins is primarily based around a group of friends, and whats going on in their lives and how they cope with these issues.

The style in teenage dramas are usually the same as well. They are usually shot and edited in ways to make them gripping, and exciting to watch. The cinematography in teen dramas if done as it is in order to make the viewer feel for the characters, and consequently become indulged by the piece. An example of how they do this is to make the film fast paced. this involves three things. The music used, the style of camera shots and the editing style. They will usually use fast paced main stream music which teenagers know. They will also edit the piece quickly, so it is fast and snappy, and keeps the viewer gripped. The camera work will also sometimes by shot hand held, to make it seem more realistic, and again to suck the viewer in, making them feel as if they were there and involved in the moment.

Teen dramas also have many stereo types. They use these stereo types to represent people. For example, they all use the most obvious stereo type for teenagers, which is addicted to sex and partying. Not only is this not only a lie, but they then exagurate the stereo types to an extreme, however people can relate to the ways these characters are represented due to the fact that they are stereo types, and the people who make the stereo types, are the public, who are also the ones watching the dramas.

All these things will be used to make a teen drama, and they will all be evident in teen dramas.