Genre Choice and Research ❤️

 ROMANCEEE

Mariana and I already knew our genre since we decided to do a short film. After speaking with our teacher, we realized our concept was a bit too long, more like a whole hour movie, as opposed to a short film. Now, we’ve decided to narrow down our idea, this will be spoken on in further postings. :)

This week, I’ll be researching the genre conventions of romance, as well as study specific films that I believe are similar/inspiration for our short film. 

GENRE CONVENTIONS: 

Each genre has their own conventions or themes, topics, situations, traits and more. When thinking of the romance genre there are very niche conventions, depending on the time of romance. For instance, there’s romantic comedy, romantic drama, romantic fantasy, romantic musicals, historical romance, etc. Mari and I have specifically picked romantic drama. This is clearly different than a historical or comedic romantic film.Despite the fact that they may have different elements, they all focus on one thing, love.

In order to achieve “love” romance films use a variety of technical elements, mis-en-scene choices, and situational approaches. 

Mise-en-scene: Beginning with costuming, romantic genres tend to have very cliche costume choices. The man is usually either smart looking (button down/professional) or bum looking or sporty (sweats + graphic tshirts) and the woman usually stays sophisticated (dresses/girly clothing). Women usually wear accentuation clothing, elegant, or “cute” clothing. This idea really depends on where the film takes place, as well as the development of the characters. For example, in our film, our two protagonists aren’t going to wear either of these things mentioned, however, they will still fit the convention. This is because the main character that is a female will dress beachy but still girly and the male sporty with his bathing suit and most likely a graphic top. 

For makeup, characters in romance movies usually stay neutral throughout. The only times bold colors such as red (which signifies love), is used, is when the protagonist is actually “ready” to go out. This goes for consuming as well. Red lip within romance films is used to give the female a sensual role. 

Technical Elements: 

Lighting- Lighting is CRUCIAL to set out the appropriate tone and feeling of a romance film. In romantic dramas, there’s usually a mixture of multiple lightings. The primary lighting used for romantic dramas, is natural lighting with warmer tones to convey softness and love. Like the notebook for instance. 

Lighting usually shifts from natural to lowkey/high key lighting, depending on the situation. The use of high key lighting symbolizes elation, boldness, and romance, of course, while lowkey lighting typically are used during scenes with rendition or dramatic scenes. The lighting of films acts as a way of communication, that’s why it is so crucial. 

Sound- All types of sound is important in romantic films. Diegetic sound of ambiance, for instance, of birds can make the scene feel lighter/calmer and happy. When layered with soft music, a whole romantic tone is set. 

Composition- shots vary throughout romance films, however, they heavily use close up shots in order to show the emotion and expressions between the characters in love.

Typical love tropes-

• Love at first sight
• Opposites attracted
• Forbidden love
• Love through obstacles
• Happily ever after
• Etc

We have chosen the love at first sight trope where our two main characters fall for each other immediately. 

 We’re so excited to further develop our story and implement some of the conventions mentioned.