Romantic Comedies.

Before looking at the opening of romantic comedies, I have to understand the conventions of the genre first. so i picked 7 films to look at. I choose:

• Friends With Benefits (Main roles- Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis)
• Crazy Stupid Love (Main roles- Ryan Gosling, Emma stone and Steve Carell)
• Made Of Honour (Main roles- Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monogan)
• Maid In Manhattan (Main roles- Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes)

However, after watching these films I realised they were all based around adults falling in love, and this does not apply to us since we will be using teenage actors. Therefore I also looked at:

1. Angus Thongs And Perfect Snogging (Main roles- Aaron Johnson and Georgia Groome)
2. Juno (Main roles-  Michael Cera and Ellen Page)
3. Cant Buy Me Love (Main roles- Patrick Dempsey andAmanda Peterson)

Once watching atleast half an hour of each film I started to notice a common trend in all of them. They all have the Todorov narrative, this is where the film follows this pattern:

1. There is a clear state of equilibrium. (A calm)
2. There is disruption.
3. There is recognition of the disruption.
4. There is attempt to restore the equilibrium.
5. A new equilibrium is achieved.

Some narratives are:

1. The basic narrative of a Romantic Comedy is that two characters, usually a man and a woman, meet somehow, part ways due to an argument or other problem, then in the end reunite.
2. Sometimes they are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner, or because of social pressures or positions. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. (Like the film The Proposal).

Lastly, once watching all the films I noticed many common trends:

1. Two protagonists, one male and one female. Are not in a relationship.
2. Often set around the femail. Her POV.
3. Normally set in a urban environment, centred around the work place where a chance encounter would happen.
4. Deny they love each other.
5. Often some sexual innuendo script.
6. They always get together in the end.

Setting
Romantic comedy films are usually set in big/well known cities such as London, New York City and Los Angeles. There are however some rom-coms that are set in small and sometimes unknown locations, this is usually somehow linked to the plot of the film.

Lighting
Romantic comedy is an uplifting light-hearted genre, so there is generally high key lighting throughout the film; this produces a very flattering, natural effect which also matches the general mood of the film. Typically in rom-coms there is a point where a relationship faces some challenges, in these scenes, the lighting tends to changes sometimes to lower key, simply to mirror the mood of that point in the storyline.