Genre Research

The film Juno is a part of the Coming-Of-Age film genre, which is a niche genre that mainly appeals to teenagers and the youth. Although the themes of Juno present a sense of originality for audiences, there is a conventional sense to the film, with aspects of the overall production being highlighted in other films of that genre. 

Production practices do generally appear to be similar in Juno and those of similar products. After looking at the various trailers of these similar products, we were able to conclude that the cast members that are in these films are often similar, with comedies and coming-of-age films having comedic cast members, such as Steve Carrell, Michael Cera and Seth Rogan, along with many others. The nature of these characters, both within these films and as general people, a light-hearted atmosphere is brought to these films, which suits the genre and what is intended to be presented to the audience. In Juno, for instance, the awkward character played by Michael Cera is a conventional personality trait that he holds in other films as well, and so audiences are reassured of a light-hearted atmosphere within the narrative. Moreover, these coming-of-age films are usually colourful and quirky, which again suits the target audience of teenagers and young people. 

In terms of the wider perspective, coming-of-age films are often presented by similar studios and companies. Juno, for instance, is produced by Fox Searchlight, along with Mandate Pictures and Mr Mudd. This shows that a lot of vertical integration would have been involved in the creation of these films, also implying that production budgets would generally be low, and would require extra support from conglomerates, as shown by the involvement of Fox Searchlight. This is the same with other films that we looked at, with Apatow Production studios being a common company in production, along with the involvement of bigger companies, particularly Universal Studios.