Abril's Diary of Media: November 2020

A romantic comedy film is one that mainly focuses on a humorous plot centered around a romantic idea. Usually these movies portray a rather hilarious relationship between two people who faced various obstacles, which creates the humor in the film, and at the end of the movie end up together. This genre excels at getting the audience to relate on the plot. It creates a most likely fiction scenario, but due to the romantic plot, allows the audience to relate on the feelings being expressed.

Content:

Many of the techniques used in romantic-comedies include: flipping conventions, reversing gender roles, and the extreme circumstances. All of these techniques are often used to create a scenario where the directors often work with.

Flipping conventions is a technique used when the two main love interest do not end up together. This is an action not seen as often that often create a sense of distraught to the viewer. In most films, the characters are content for each other's happiness even thought they feel shattered. This often creates a sense of reality for the viewer. Usually, woman and young girls are the ones who are the most attracted to this film genre; due to this, the use of a flipping convention where, the strong and passionate relationship is broke off by one partner, usually creates this sense of reflection on the viewers. This is the part of the film where the audience can connect themselves with the way the character is feeling, therefore making the movie even more appealing for them to view, since they can reflect their emotions and connect them to theirs.

EX: The film 500 Days of Summer uses flipping convention since the main character, Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), falls in love with this woman Summer (Zooey Deschanel), however later in the movies after their summer, she breaks up with him.

Reversing gender roles is another technique seen in multiple romantic comedy films. This technique uses characters who are composed by qualities that different them from the gender role that their society has imposed upon them. The use of reversing gender roles is usually the aspect that creates the comedy in these films. Due to that, viewers have a pleasant time watching a film that correctly often reflects the typical genre attitude but in opposite roles. This creates the comedy to the film and often makes it more entertaining, since it creates that diversity in it.

EX: In the film Made of Honor, the director uses reversing gender to creates the bridesmaid to have a negative connotation and rather masculine personality, in order to have a more likable perspective towards the male lead.

Lastly, romantic comedies more often use extreme circumstances. When using extreme circumstances the director has created an odd relationship between the two main love interests. It adopts strange circumstances for the two protagonists. Usually scenarios like these, bring the humor in the movies. It is rather unrealistic to see extreme opposites in people come together and form a relationship. In the example below, Pretty Woman, it is almost unseen to see a businessman fall in love with a prostitute. However, this plot is so different to what romantic comedies often present, that it is a more appealing story line and works efficiently almost every time.

EX: In Pretty Woman, the directors used extreme circumstances since the plot is surrounded by the idea that a wealthy businessman falls in love with a prostitute. The use of of extreme circumstances makes the audience engage more in the story since this plot id never seen in reality.

Production Techniques:

Throughout the production of romantic comedies, most films used different angels and shots top create that sense of unity and intimacy between the two love interests. These can vary from using two shots, close ups, mid-shots, long shots, and extreme long shots. All of these shots create that sense of romance in most of these movies.

By using close-ups, the director is aiming to create that sense of intimacy he wants to aim for by emphasizing on the character's emotions and expressions. Close-up shots are always used to create that connection between two characters. In these films, the director uses this type of shot to create that connection and relationship between the two love interests.

EX: In the film 10 Things I Hate About You, we see a compilation of close ups that create the connection between the main love interest.

We can also observe in various films, the use of a two shot. Two shots are often used to illustrate the actions between the two character. It not only establishes that connection, but what type of relationship both characters have.

EX: In the example above, No Strings Attached, we see that the director decided to use a combination between a two shot and a medium shot to illustrate the relationship between the two characters, By the way this is illustrated we can assume that these two subjects have a tense relationship and are someone having a relationship.

Lastly, in most romance comedies, the use of extreme long shots illustrate the setting of the pice but they often show it in a more romantic way. For example, as seen below, we see a long shot extracted from the film Mamma Mia!, where the director decided to include this shot in order to establish the romance of the film. This shot illustrates the church where Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) will marry her partner, but later in the movie ends up being the church where Donna (Meryl Streep) married the man who has been the love of her life all along.

EX: In the film, Mamma Mia!, the director decides to incorporate this shot to illustrate the romance there is throughout the movie. He incorporated a long shot which emphasis on the church and the wedding that is about to happen.

Marketing:

The audience predominant for this film genre is woman and girls. Due to the excessive use of emotions, these films appeal more to woman and they can interact with the plot better than man. Even though these movies are entirely enjoyed by the population as a whole, they are mainly targeted for the stereotypical woman; the use of the meet-cutes, the classic handsome man, and the typical guy-chase-girl airport scene, all points out to the answer that females are the ones more invested in them than man.

Many romantic comedies films, use the same theme when creating their eye-catching posters. Several well-known films use images where both characters are presented, and usually they are connected. The connection varies depending on the plot, but most of the time they leaning towards each other, facing opposite directions. This is often used to indicate the contrast between the characters. It indicated that these two characters have different personalities, which due to a certain plot where connected. Moreover, many of these covers have both subjects connected by an extraneous variable; that could be a certain piece of clothing that one character in wearing, a string, a certain pose, or even a certain object. The use of feminine colors and attires are used to create the mise-en-scene of the movie, and create the tone that the film holds.

Samples:

In the film Pretty Woman (1999), is the story of a Hollywood prostitute who falls in love with a New York businessman, whom which she had a intimate night with. The poster includes a picture of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere leaning towards each other but facing opposite sides. They are only being connected by the tie that Richard Gere has on, which indicate the plot of the movie: they were connected because Julia Roberts plays a prostitute in the movie and ends up in Richard Gere's suit. They tie indicates wealth, emphasizing on Gere's character. Furthermore, on the right of the poster, we see the use of two very feminine fonts in the color pink, which is known to represent a more feminine connotation. It is easy to infer that due to the audience marketing, the colors that prevail are those that would appeal to woman more than using dull colors which would appeal more to a male audience. There's a high contrast between the characters, since they are using for the most part black attire, and the title. Usually film covers are one of the most important aspect of the marketing of a film. Most of the time, viewers will decide if they watch a film or not, depending in the way the cover is being carried. A minor detail, that is certainly important when analyzing the cover and the marketing being done as a whole, is that the attire of Julia Robert, which if we take a further look is the same dress that she was wearing when she met Richard Gere (Edward Lewis_) in the film, was altered to the color pink. In the film, the dress in blue, but due to marketing techniques, the producers changed the color of the dress to appeal more to the cover.

In the film Four Christmases (2008), is the story of an unmarried couple who has to spend a quartet of family get-togethers, together. The poster for the film, uses different techniques to make it more appealing to female viewers. For starters, the use of the contrast between the subjects and the background is one of the biggest things this poster contains. As we can observe, the background is very limited; there's is nothing more than just a white background, which is intended to not only create that contrast between the characters, but to brighten up the picture. Woman are more attracted to light-opening pictures. The use of the white background is strategically used for woman's appeal. Also the use of those bright colors. The director and producers chose to include both colors red and green to create the plot of the movie; this film takes part during the holidays which was created efficiently by the color scheme and the use of the ribbon. Like I mentioned before, most films use some extraneous variable to show the connection between the two subjects. In this example, the use of he ribbon is used to show that these two subjects are "rapped around" and stuck in a situation that is not entirely appealing to them. The movie evolves around the idea that they are an unmarried couple, and the irony is that they had to spend the holiday together. This ribbon shows the attachment they have, and the relationship they hold. Lastly, the use of the presents that the actress, Reese Witherspoon, is standing on, could potentially indicate the confidence that this woman has. We can infer by their facial expressions, that Vince Vaughn, in the movie, is not completely happy with the situation he is in. On the other hand, the actress is not either, but they way she is being portrayed in the cover shows that confidence, and "woman power" she holds, which also appeal to woman's feelings.

Some Romantic-Comedies Movies to consider:

Father of the Bride (1991)