2. Narrative
• In many school based drama, the narrative
is based on conflict and involves
characters competing against each other
to gain something or someone.
• We see this in many American school based
films.
• It usually involves a ‘rookie’ or the
protagonist arriving new at the school, and
conflicting with the ‘popular person’ or the
antagonist. By the end of the film, the
rookie finds their identity and all the
issues are resolved.

3. WE SEE THIS IN…
• High School Musical
• Mean Girls
• Grease
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
• A Cinderella Story

4. • The narrative is also often based on
romance. Very frequently the rookie falls in
love with the antagonist’ boyfriend, the
‘popular’ guy, who is firstly portrayed as
distant and unfriendly, but by the end of
the film the Rookie helps him to ‘rediscover’
himself and the protagonist prevails over
the antagonist.
• Humour can also play a big part in school
based dramas. As we see in 17 Again,
American Pie and Mean Girls they are
primarily comedies. School based dramas
are rarely heavy, and are normally witty and
light-hearted.

5. WHY IS THIS APPEALING?
• The main task in producing a film is to
appeal to your target audience. School
based dramas are extremely successful-
look at Glee for example which is now a
worldwide phenomenon.
• But why?
• A teenage audience can relate to the
difficulties and hurdles of ‘high school’.
• There is also an element of escapism
into a world that is actually not realistic
to the real world of school

6. Characters
• As we said earlier, there is usually a
protagonist, who is usually new to the
school and starts off unpopular, and an
antagonist, who is usually the
popular, good-looking one.
• These stereo-typical characters create
an easy narrative, that can work over a
range of storylines, and that are
recognisable to the audience, and
therefor have a higher chance of being
successful.

7. For example…
Mean Girls is a typical example where the Antagonist befriends
the Protagonist- here we can see the contrasts through there
costume, body language, and even the setting. These all create a
clear vision to define a character, and as they are polar opposites,
help to create an interesting narrative.

8. MUSIC & SOUNDS
• Music and sounds help to create an
atmosphere, and also define the genre.
• Diegetic sounds, like banging of lockers,
shouting of children, alerts of mobile
phones, all help to create a realistic
school setting.
• However non diegetic sounds, like the
soundtrack of ‘Gangstas’ Paradise’ at
the beginning of ‘Dangerous Minds’ help
to give the audience an insight into the
themes (for example, a corrupt school in

9. Subverting the Genre
• Subverting the genre is a mechanism of
using anti conventional, and non
stereotypical characters, narratives,
and themes within a certain genre, to
surprise the audience, and hopefully
intrigue them.
• This has been used particularly in school
based dramas, where the narrative is
used to support the non stereotypical
characters and themes, and make the

10. To me, Glee is a prime example where the characters
are not at all what we are used to seeing in school
based dramas, especially American ones.
All different races,
Glee, however, i
sexualities,
s an example
religions, and
where this
professions are
worked and
shown in the
now Glee is
characters, which,
I think, is the main hugely
reason why Glee successful. The
has become such representations
a phenomenon. of students was
Every member of changed.
the audience can
probably relate to This is an example of subverting the genre, as no
one character, other programme or film has ever included this much
and the diversity before. Sometimes, by subverting the
experiences they genre, you lose your audience as they do not
go through. recognise the themes, narratives and storylines.

11. Another examples of where
representations of stereotypes has been
challenged is ‘Beastly’.
• In this film, the most popular boy of the school has a
spell cast on him to turn him ugly, and he has a certain
amount of time to start acting ‘beautiful’ from the
inside out otherwise he will stay like that forever.
• The representations of what it means to be
‘beautiful’ in todays society are challenged in
this film, and I think that the story is meant
to send a strong message across to the
audience.

12. Overall…
• I think that most school based dramas use
the same ingredients when it comes to
narratives, settings, music, themes and
characters.
• However, as we have seen, some dramas
are now pushing the boundaries and are
trying to create non-stereotypical
characters and narratives that are not
recognisable to the audience.
• Either way you must ALWAYS appeal to
your target audience.