CCR Question #1 Research

Hey blog!

Today I'm going to be researching for my first question of the Creative Critical Reflection. 

The first question is "Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" 

I think the best way to research how to answer this question is by breaking it down into subquestions and then answering them with researched, thoughtful answers.

Here we go!

1. Which conventions define a typical teen sports comedy, and how do they set audience expectations?

Teen sports comedies typically include:

• An underdog protagonist, like JD in "Airball," who starts off not very skilled, creating a narrative of overcoming odds, much like Daniel in The Karate Kid (1984)

• A mentor figure, such as Coach Marcus, guiding the protagonist's growth, like Coach Carter from "Coach Carter" (2005) but more comedic and less serious.

• Focus on friendships or team dynamics, seen in JD's interactions with teammates.


• Humor from the character's struggles, like JD airballing a shot or struggling to bench the bar.

2. Why focus on personal or family-based pressure instead of a wider social or systemic issue?

Choosing personal or family-based pressure, like JD's struggle with his brother's legacy, keeps the story driven by the character. It also is way more relatable to teens, as according to the abstract of The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence: Neural Evidence and Implications for a Value-Based Choice Perspective on Motivated Behavior, "Adolescence is crucial for many aspects of developing self and identity, including commitments, personal goals, motivations,[...] and [adolescents] are more concerned with and interested in others’ perceptions of self." Tackling an issue that directly deals with JD's sense of his self is relatable to all teens in some way, as everyone has to go through becoming who they really are. Also on a more fundamental note; given the two-minute runtime, broader social issues would be hard to begin to address. 

3. Which existing underdog stories inspired your approach to representing internal struggle on screen? 

My approach to JD's internal struggle draws from the character of Zuko from"Avatar: The Last Airbender" (redemption arc). These inspire a focus on character development and a man vs self, seen in JD's journey to define himself beyond his brother; although in the opening itself, JD is still locked into the paradigm of proving himself and living up to the standards his brother set. Although not as extreme, mise-en-scene defines both characters. In Airball, the set design with the basketball memorabilia and photo in JD's room manifests his obsession externally, while Zuko's character design includes his iconic scar, he is literally marked by the scar of a banished prince.

Although not directly answering this question, I also found in my research that audiences root for underdogs because we project our struggles onto them. JD as a character is the underdog, and his process of individuation and the struggles that come with it mirrors/represents the teen audience's own struggle broadly, and for some teens (who feel like they're in the shadow of their father/mother/sister/brother) it specifically mirrors their own. 

4. Which conventions do we use or challenge from the researched films? 

We use some norms like the mentor figure (Coach Marcus) and an underdog protagonist (JD) who starts off not very skilled, but instead of making the movie about him overcoming his lack of skill, it would be about how he realizes that he doesn't have to be like his older brother and can forge his own path. The conflict is more internal than external, even if the viewer doesn't realize it themselves at first. 

This should be enough to answer Question 1.

See you next time!

Works Cited:

Pfeifer, Jennifer H, and Elliot T Berkman. “The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence: Neural Evidence and Implications for a Value-Based Choice Perspective on Motivated Behavior - PMC.” PubMed Central, 8 Feb. 2018, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6667174/.

Stromberg, Joseph. “The Science of Why We Love to Root for Underdogs.” Vox, Vox, 20 Mar. 2015, www.vox.com/2015/3/20/8260445/underdogs-psychology.