ROMANTIC COMEDIES GENRE RESEARCH
CONVENTIONS OF ROMANTIC COMEDIES:
- "A funny movie, play, TV programme about a love story that ends happily"
- Two characters usually meet, part ways due to an obstacle, then reunite
- They usually confront challenges to their union
- Sometimes hesitant to be romantically involved as not liking each other or social pressures
- Screenwriters hint clue they are a good love match and attracted to each other
- Protagonists often seperate or seek time apart to sort out feelings or deal with external obstacles
- Meet Cute: Screenwriters create humorous sense of awkwardness between two partners potential, an embarrassing situation or by comical misunderstanding or mistaken situation
- In many Rom Coms, couples are from polar opposites: situations, social statuses, temperaments. Meet cute pushes them together
"TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU" CLIP ANALYSIS:
This movie is a very popular high school romantic comedy, and through its opening sequence portrays the key ideas and stereotypical features that is seen in the romantic comedy genre. Throughout the opening sequence a score is played that is a diegetic, upbeat song. This helps to highlight how everything is seen to be going well, yet is contradicted by a sudden change in the score of a song that is very carefree and portrays the ideas of life being rubbish, hinted from the lyrics, “I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation.”. Through the use of an establishing shot at the very start of the titling sequence, this helps to suggest the specific target audience of the movie. The shot shows an overlook of the city, which highlights the setting of the movie, and also shows teenagers on their way to school. This shows that the movie was produced for a teenage audience, especially as it’s based in a high school. Teenage rom coms are known to include parallel characteristics between characters in the movie. In this sequence this is highlighted significantly through the use of the scores and camera shots. A group of girls are shown, who are presented to be the stereotypical popular and pretty girls, whilst then the shot focuses on an individual girl, who is presented to be quite rebellious with no dress sense. This helps to highlight the theme ideas of the main character being seen as out of place, yet the audience always favour them. Through the actual titling it also helps to highlight the nature of the movie and genre. The titling is creatively shown to be scribbling handwriting with bold colours. This connotes the idea that the movie is a teen movie. Also the use of a close up on the prom poster helps symbolise the love element of the movie. However the main character is shown to be not interested by it at all and rips it off the wall. This suggest s that she is uninterested in love, which suggests the storyline to be how love will be hard to find.
BY TEMITOPE SIJUADE
This movie is a very popular high school romantic comedy, and through its opening sequence portrays the key ideas and stereotypical features that is seen in the romantic comedy genre. Throughout the opening sequence a score is played that is a diegetic, upbeat song. This helps to highlight how everything is seen to be going well, yet is contradicted by a sudden change in the score of a song that is very carefree and portrays the ideas of life being rubbish, hinted from the lyrics, “I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation.”. Through the use of an establishing shot at the very start of the titling sequence, this helps to suggest the specific target audience of the movie. The shot shows an overlook of the city, which highlights the setting of the movie, and also shows teenagers on their way to school. This shows that the movie was produced for a teenage audience, especially as it’s based in a high school. Teenage rom coms are known to include parallel characteristics between characters in the movie. In this sequence this is highlighted significantly through the use of the scores and camera shots. A group of girls are shown, who are presented to be the stereotypical popular and pretty girls, whilst then the shot focuses on an individual girl, who is presented to be quite rebellious with no dress sense. This helps to highlight the theme ideas of the main character being seen as out of place, yet the audience always favour them. Through the actual titling it also helps to highlight the nature of the movie and genre. The titling is creatively shown to be scribbling handwriting with bold colours. This connotes the idea that the movie is a teen movie. Also the use of a close up on the prom poster helps symbolise the love element of the movie. However the main character is shown to be not interested by it at all and rips it off the wall. This suggest s that she is uninterested in love, which suggests the storyline to be how love will be hard to find.
BY TEMITOPE SIJUADE
"LOVE ACTUALLY" CLIP ANALYSIS:
Love Actually is possibly the best and most well known British Rom-Com ever. The whole title sequence is clips of people meeting loved ones as they come out of the arrivals gate of the airport. Everyone who is coming out is extremely happy and possibly crying with emotion as they are seeing the people/persons they are being met by. Most of the sequence is played in slow motion which is very effective as it causes you to really take notice of the intimate moment the two people are sharing. There is also titles that come on very slowly and this adds to the slow pace of the movie and are also in quite plain font so as not to distract too much as the director wants you to feel like you are part of this intimate moment between the two people who are being reunited. There is also a voice over from a male Character (whom we find out is Hugh Grant) who talks about love and the experiences it brings- voiceovers are very common features in Rom-Coms as it helps you to form an attachment to the character and that's what the director always wants to do, form emotional bonds between the audience and the characters. The fact that there is the use of people of many different ages is to show that love is part of everyday life for all of us and this point is emphasised with the sentence at the end that is both spoken and written " Love Actually is all around."
BY SAMUEL AUSTEN
Love Actually is possibly the best and most well known British Rom-Com ever. The whole title sequence is clips of people meeting loved ones as they come out of the arrivals gate of the airport. Everyone who is coming out is extremely happy and possibly crying with emotion as they are seeing the people/persons they are being met by. Most of the sequence is played in slow motion which is very effective as it causes you to really take notice of the intimate moment the two people are sharing. There is also titles that come on very slowly and this adds to the slow pace of the movie and are also in quite plain font so as not to distract too much as the director wants you to feel like you are part of this intimate moment between the two people who are being reunited. There is also a voice over from a male Character (whom we find out is Hugh Grant) who talks about love and the experiences it brings- voiceovers are very common features in Rom-Coms as it helps you to form an attachment to the character and that's what the director always wants to do, form emotional bonds between the audience and the characters. The fact that there is the use of people of many different ages is to show that love is part of everyday life for all of us and this point is emphasised with the sentence at the end that is both spoken and written " Love Actually is all around."
BY SAMUEL AUSTEN