A boy and girl meet and fall in love, but often they cannot pursue a relationship until the hero undergoes a minor change, or overcomes a minor challenge.
Their relationship is often close to perfect, influenced by cultural ideologies at time, but the pair a separated as disequilibrium occurs.
The hero then completes a full transformation, often from a boy to man, before the couples relationship is rekindled, forever.
How has the genre changed over time?
- Cultural Ideologies:
-The prince and the Princess
-The stable boy and the rich girl
-The dangerous male and quiet female
-The successful (older) man and the ambitious (young) woman
-Best friends falling in love
Subgenre
There are many sub-genres of romance films, and it is important to distinguish between them. These are.. Romances & Romantic Comedies (romcoms)
- Both Romantic comedies and Romances are about two people falling in love, but they are different.
- It is possible for a movie to be funny, but not be a traditional romantic comedy. What is the difference? In Shakespearean terms comedies have happy endings and tragedies have unhappy ones. But for modern romances and rom-coms it is a little murkier.
- Romantic comedies always end with the couple together. No exceptions. Think about it. Meg always ends up with Tom. Hugh always ends up with his co-star.
- Romances have the risk of heartbreak driving the story. Will the two lovers get together or be torn apart? The stakes are huge.
- In romantic comedies the question is not whether the lovers will get together, but how they will recognize that they love each other. The danger is hurt feelings and miscommunications, never heartbreak. That is part of the appeal of the genre, a guaranteed happy ending and love triumphant.
- The obstacles keeping the lovers apart are much smaller in romantic comedies. It’s often that one or both are afraid to tell the other how they feel (Two Weeks Notice, Made of Honour) Another common obstacle is a bet or a lie (How to Lose a Guy, Failure to Launch)
- The obstacles in romances are much bigger – a sinking ship in Titanic, World War II in Casablanca, societal prejudice in Brokeback Mountain. Even smaller scale stories have big obstacles. The gulf of class differences in The Way We Were and An Officer, A Gentleman, Family disapproval in Moonstruck.
Top romcoms include Bridget Jones' Diary, Love Actually & Notting Hill
There are also numerous other films with substantial romance intertwined into the narrative. Examples include- Armageddon, Grease etc
Below are numerous trailers we looked into for inspiration
Valentines day teaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSS-QPdiiiY&feature=related
Love Actually trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCkFTyADJ0
P.s I love you trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNxdc-wlw4&feature=related
The Last Kiss teaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mjTCXMWsf8
Teaser trailer analysis/deconstruction:
- Teaser trailers for Romance films are quite hard to come across - Most rely heavily on non-diegetic sound such as music tracks- e.g Black Eyed Peas- ‘I gotta feelin’ in Valentines day -
Cast/character driven- Introduces the characters and focuses on relationships between them - Often a huge use of comedy too- “ No wonder I'm alone on Valentines day. My closest relationship is with my Blackberry… Thank god it vibrates” - Sound cuts after a joke is told, for the audiences reaction.
Love actually trailer- 1.35 in Valentines day- 1.10 in - Leave imagination and tries not to disclose much narrative. Valentines day trailer- Bradley Cooper shown flirting with air hostess etc but turns out gay in the film. MASSIVE SHOCK - Happy and smiley - Shows a range of different relationships and ages “It’s not like I’m gonna sleep with one person for the rest of my life, I mean, who does that?” “Crazy people like us” - Almost always has a voiceover/narrator - Often from the main characters POV - Often have ‘screen legends’ text on screen.. - Many films are based around holiday periods that bring families together. Such as Valentines day & Love Actually - Often starts with setting the scene, and occurs throughout whenever location is changed - Involves pets-More appeal - Love orientated!
Benefits of choosing the romance genre:- Could possibly appeal to a wider audience. You either love or hate certain horrors. Less offensive than horror films -
Audience/age appeal- Most romances are rated certificate 12, whereas in horror you lose a wide audience - It’s something different to what most other groups are doing, which gives us individuality
Constraints of choosing the romance genre: - Acting often needs to be of a high quality, so actors and actresses could be hard to find - Furthermore, the actors & actresses need to be conventionally good looking - Relationships can be hard to forge and made to look realistic - Could be too repetitive & predictable. Many rom coms are very similar. - Horror could be easier- more impacting, and can give more of an instant thrill. Also, horror stories are often more basic. With horror, we could have more immediate impact in a short time
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