Researching CCR: Question 1

Today I researched the first Creative Critical Reflection question:

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

After researching the coming-of-age genre, I've noticed that many of these productions follow certain patterns. Most of them focus on personal growth, self-discovery, and the struggles of growing up, whether it’s school pressures The Breakfast Club, or family drama Lady Bird. These films usually follow a protagonist dealing that is facing real-life situations that mature them, which is exactly what we want in our film opening.

For our opening, we used some classic coming-of-age ideas:

• A big life event as a turning point- Graduation is a big moment in her life because it means leaving behind everything familiar and starting anew.
• An emotional crisis - Instead of being happy, the protagonist freaks out from all the attention and runs off to be alone.
• Nostalgia and self-discovery - Just like Stand By Me, where the main character remembers an important event from childhood, our character looks through old photos and realizes they aren’t ready to leave their life behind.

We also wanted to do things a little differently. Most coming-of-age productions focus on things like friendship drama or love stories, but our film opening is more about what's going on inside of Piper's head. Although we do have to include the huge life-changing event, our film is more about our character's feelings. We don't have the friendship, family, or relationship drama that most films like ours portray. This is similar to Eight Grade, which focuses more on anxiety and the struggles of growing up rather than the basic dramatic moments that coming-of-age films have.

https://thesixthformreview.wordpress.com/coming-of-age-films/

https://otago.shorthandstories.com/the-evolution-of-the-coming-of-age-film/index.html

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies

https://chsprowl.org/3782/op-ed/the-unfortunate-tale-of-the-coming-of-age-genre/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qEj31Uclw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLREFnFNVUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JEwSi_TjXI