Genre Journey

 There are so many genres to choose from horror, sci-fi, or even musicals... but honestly, I am a classic type of girl. I've been looking into some coming-of-age films which seem like an obvious choice for a teenage girl but I have a couple of good ideas.

When researching some coming-of-age movies and shows I looked into my favorites Girl Interrupted, Words in the Bathroom Wall, and 13 Reasons Why. 

All these movies and shows are coming of age yet they are different than the typical Disney Channel Original. These focus heavily on mental health which is what I am planning on doing. By focusing on mental health these coming-of-age films have a sense of suspense to them. After diving deeper into these films I've learned a new genre that fits all the films which is Psychological Fiction.

Psychological Fiction focuses heavily on the mental lives of its characters, often it's a narrative genre that focuses on what is happening to the main character. All three of these shows and movies are Psychological Fiction because, in each of them, you get a voice-over from the character explaining why and how they feel about their given situations. Psychological Fiction allows for a deeper understanding of a character and puts a whole new perspective to the show. In my film opening, I plan on using the Psychological Fiction voice method to go into detail about the main character's struggle with mental health, like in Words on the Bathroom Wall where the main character Adam talks to the audience as if they are his therapist. I plan to have my main character talk to herself or her diary which will allow her to express all her emotions just as Adam did in the movie. Another part of most Psychological Fiction is the mental health aspect, Girl Interrupted does an amazing job at showing different characters that struggle with mental health issues like Daisy who struggles heavily with OCD and we see her go through stages of trying to get better but it's not something she can fix, in my film opening I want to show the effects of mental illness in young teenagers and I am inspired by Girl interrupted and want to show the good and ugly parts of mental health. So after researching coming-of-age and Psychological Fiction films and shows and learning how to combine the two like the films I've researched I now can start putting my ideas on a piece of paper where I can start writing the beginning of my film opening.