Research About Genre Conventions

      Today will mostly be a recap of some of the information that I've researched for my films genre. My partner and I decided to do a typical high school,rom-com style of film but with a darker,more horror-like underlying aspect.From what I could find around the internet,there really isn't another film like that in today's market which can be good and bad at the same time.The good aspect is that there isn't any room for copying or being mistaken for copying another directors work as well as having no other expectations for the genre.The only bad part about it is that there isn't another film to compare ours to to see what that film might've done wrong or right.Personally,I like the "going in blind" aspect primarily for the freedom to do something new and innovative with the genre.

      To start off my research,I decided to look up some typical conventional characters or settings for a teen film (which is the right genre term for this style off film).And the ones I came across were not surprising at all,seeing as how a lot of these character archetypes can be highly noticeable in any high school setting.Here's just a short list of some of the more major or popular archetypes for a teen film:

The Cheerleader: Airhead,ditsy,has no ambitions,usually popular
The Nerd/Geek: Usually socially awkward,can't talk to girls,straight A student,usually in a dress shirt and bow-tie with glasses
The Jock: Strong and tough,dumb,popular as well,has the power to easily influence others,can sometimes be the romantic interest of The Cheerleader character
The Outsider: Doesn't fit in with any of the normal cliques or stereotypes,usually seen alone or will maybe have one close friend
The Drama/Theatre kid and Band-Geek: I'm mapping these two into one category since these two will usually be seen hanging out together. They're both typically eccentric and flashy,definitely breaking out of the norm
The Rebel: This is the guy/girl you'll see that has their feet propped up on their school desk and leaning back in their chair.They'll usually have dyed hair,dark clothes,piercings,leather jackets,definitely standing out in the clothing department.
The Queen Bee: The girl that's at the head of the "popular crowd" hierarchy.This is the character that gets every other popular kid below them to do whatever they want,be it mess up the protagonist's plans or whatever it may be.They'll also happily manipulate anyone they wish to do their bidding for them.

      For our film/film introduction,I would like to avoid these archetypes or at least make them believable.Obviously these are all vastly exaggerated stereotypes,so I feel that if they were toned down,it would make our film more grounded in reality and make those characters more likable and grounded.Hopefully in our 2-minute time-slot we would be able to introduce at least one or two of these more realistic conventional character types to more-or-less ground our film in a more believable state.