Romantic Comedies Research #3

 Romantic comedy trailers use specific visual techniques and editing styles to communicate the genre to audiences. These techniques often highlight both romantic and comedic moments to attract viewers.

The trailer for To All the Boys I've Loved Before illustrates a lighthearted and youthful tone through bright colors and playful editing. Key techniques include: 

• Montage editing showing both romantic and humorous moments
• Pop music soundtrack to create an upbeat mood
• Close-ups that highlight the characters' emotional reactions

The fake relationship idea is also clearly introduced in the trailer to establish the main storyline.

You've Got Mail focuses more on emotional connection and romantic tension. The trailer highlights the relationship developing through anonymous online messages. Techniques used include:

• Establishing shots of New York City to create a romantic setting
• Dialogue clips that reveal the characters' personalities
• Slower pacing to emphasize the emotional storyline

Both trailers show common rom-com visual elements like warm lighting, comedic & romantic scenes, and music that reflects the lighthearted tone.

In my own trailer, I plan to use similar techniques such as upbeat music, montage editing, and close-up shots to highlight emotional reactions.

Romantic Comedies Research #2

 Romantic comedies often use recognizable character traits to make the story easy for audiences to follow. These characters help create romantic tension, humor, and emotional development. 

In She's the Man, the protagonist Viola disguises herself as her brother Sebastion in order to play soccer at his school. This creates comedic situations and romantic complications. Key character traits include: 

• The determined protagonist (Viola) who challenges gender expectations
• The confident love interest (Duke) who initially sees Viola as a friend
• The rival character who creates obstacles

13 Going on 30 uses slightly different character traits: the innocent protagonist navigating adulthood. Jenna wakes up as her 30-year-old self after wishing to be older. The characters represent familiar rom com roles: 

• The naive but kind protagonist (Jenna)
• The supportive childhood friend turned love interest (Matt)
• Social rivals who create tension

From these films, common rom com character types include:

• A relatable main character
•  A charming or contrasting love interest
• A comedic best friend of side character
• A rival or obstacle

The contrast between characters helps create both emotional and comedic moments.

For my own trailer, I plan to include a main character who experiences a personal challenge and a contrasting love interest who helps drive the narrative. I will also include side characters who contribute comedic moments.

Romantic Comedies Research #1

 Now that I've done some research on the rom com genre, it's time to look into more examples of specific genre conventions so I get an idea of what I want to create!

To begin with, romantic comedies usually follow a recognizable narrative structure that combines romance with humor (like I mentioned in my most recent genre research blog post *click here for link*) Rom coms often introduce 2 characters who initially experience obstacles before eventually developing romantic feelings. This pattern is very common in rom com trailers, as well as rom coms in general.

10 Things I Hate About You follows the classic "enemies to lovers" narrative, which is a common idea in romantic comedies. The film focuses on Kat, who dislikes dating and Patrick, who is paid to take her out. The 10 Things I Hate About You trailer establishes the following genre conventions:

• Strong initial conflict between the romantic leads
• Humorous situations caused by misunderstandings
• Development of feelings between the 2 characters

Similarly, 27 Dresses follows another popular rom com storyline: the unexpected love story between 2 characters who initially clash. Jane is a bridesmaid who believes in love but struggles to find it herself. She meets Kevin, a journalist who writes wedding articles. The 27 Dresses trailer establishes the following genre conventions:

• Relatable protagonist searching for love
• Situational comedy; Jane trying on all 27 bridesmaid dresses
• A romantic realization toward end of film

In my own rom com trailer, I plan to include a similar structure by introducing the characters and their initial conflict before hinting at the development of a romantic relationship. I will also include comedic moments to maintain a lighthearted, humorous tone.

Genre Research

Hey blog! It's a new week so that means it's time to dive deeper into my portfolio project... yayy!

Today, we're going to be talking about genre research. Soooo... slight problem... I am not 100% sure that I will be sticking with this genre because I haven't had the time to just sit and brainstorm but for now... my chosen genre issssssss... (drum-roll pleaseee) ...............

ROM-COMS!

If you remember some of my blog posts from last year, I briefly talked about how rom coms are my favorite movie genre! I have never created anything under the rom-com genre so having this much creative freedom finally allows me to make something that I have a lotttt of knowledge about! 

Because romcoms are my favorite genre, I know a lot about them! First off, what are rom coms?

Romantic comedies, (or in other words rom coms) are sub genres that focus on the romantic relationship between the main characters. The target audience ranges from teenage girls to young women. There is always a mix of both lighthearted cute moments, and silly situations that occur. There is also almost always a "meet-cute" which is the exact moment the two main characters meet. It is often in an unusual or "cute" way. Some other things that almost always occurs in rom coms are conflict and humor. These are both things that make a romantic comedy a rom com!

Meet Cute

An example of a meet cute is in the movie, The Wedding Planner. In this film, the two characters meet when Jennifer Lopez's character, Mary is walking across the street, and her shoe gets stuck in between the cracks of a sewer. While this is happening, an elderly guy bumps his car into a dumpster causing it to roll down the street heading towards Mary. Matthew McConaughey's character, Steve, sees this happening and jumps to Mary's rescue by pushing her out of the way to not get hit by the dumpster. This was their meet cute. 

Conflict & Humor

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the perfect example of a rom com with both conflict and humor! Funny enough, this one stars Matthew McConaughey yet again as Ben, as well as Kate Hudson as Andie. In this film, Andie is a writer for a magazine and bets that she can make a man fall in love with her and then drive him away. She acts clingy, jealous, and over-the-top all to sabotage the relationship. At the same time, Ben, an advertising executive, makes a bet with his bosses that he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days to win a big diamond account. As the two characters create this relationship all for a bet, it creates conflict. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is filled with humorous moments like for example, when Andie brings her dog to Ben's work and her dog pees on Ben's table.

Schedule

 A schedule is a MUST for the portfolio project, and because I am working by myself for this project, it might be a little difficult to stay on task with my blogs as well as actually making progress with my project. This schedule will help me stay on top of all of my blogs and on the days that are not scheduled, I can work on filming + editing.

When working on my AS level portfolio project, I also created a schedule, but I did not seem to stick with it so hopefully I do this year!!

Here is the link for it: AS portfolio project timeline

When making my schedule last year. I used a website to help me create one, so I decided to use it again this year! creating a timeline

Week 1 (2/17-2/22)

2/18 make and publish blog post #1 introduction

2/20 make and publish blog post #2 schedule

Week 2 (2/23-3/1)

2/24 make and publish blog post #3 genre research

2/26 make and publish blog post #4 media text research

2/28 make and publish blog post #5 media text research

3/1 make and publish blog post #6 media text research

Week 3 (3/2-3/8)

3/2 make and publish blog post #7 social media research

3/4 make and publish blog post #8 research/planning

3/7 make and publish blog post #9 research/planning

3/8 make and publish blog post #10 group meeting

Week 4 (3/9-3/15)

3/9 make and publish blog post #11 detailed planning

3/11 make and publish blog post #12 detailed planning

3/12 make and publish blog post #13 detailed planning

(On the 9-15, make the three blog posts for week 5 and schedule to publish them with the following dates)

Week 5 (3/16-3/22)

3/16 publish blog post #14 production process

3/17 publish blog post #15 production process

3/18 publish blog post #16 print research

Week 6 (3/23-3/29)

3/24 make and publish blog post #17 production process

3/26 make and publish blog post #18 production process

3/28 make and publish blog post #19 research/planning for CCR

Week 7 (3/30-4/5)

4/1 make and publish blog post #20 production process

4/3 make and publish blog post #21 research/planning for CCR

4/4 make and publish blog post #22 research/planning for CCR

Week 8 (4/6-4/10)

4/6 make and publish blog post #23 reflecting

4/9 make and publish blog post #24 link to project and comments

4/10 make and publish blog post #25 CCR

Portfolio Project Introduction

 Hey blog!!! Guess what time it is......

PORTFOLIO PROJECT TIMEEE!

I cannot believe that the time has come. These past few months have flown by and it is already time to start working on my portfolio project! 

First off, let's introduce the project!

So for this project, there are 4 different options to choose from:

1.) Music promo package   --------------------------------------------->

2.) Film promo package   ----------------------------------------------->

3.) Documentary promo package   ------------------------------------->

4.) Short film promo package   ----------------------------------------->

I am not 100% sure with my decision, but I am pretty positive that I will stick with it.

The music promo package is what interests me the most, but my problem with that one, is finding an artist or band to work with, so I have ultimately decided not to pursue it.

Although I enjoyed the documentary project, the doc promo package is what least interests me, so I have decided not to do it.

The short film package would be my second option because I feel like with enough time and effort, I would be able to execute my very own short film. 

I have ultimately decided to pursue the film promo package because I really enjoyed the last project we did which was called the distribution project. It also entailed creating your very own trailer so I already have some experience with it. Overall, I feel that when creating a trailer, it can be so versatile. There are so many different things to do for it!

Documentary Critical Reflection

 Our documentary In Action illustrates how the class and club, "Latinos in Action" has created lasting changes in students and communities. Within our documentary, we aimed to show why losing it would mean losing an opportunity for leadership, culture, and connection. 

To begin with, our documentary represents the social group, Latinos in Action, a student led organization that supports Latino students. This is done through leadership and cultural pride. Instead of portraying Latino students through a stereotype often used in the media world, our documentary aims to present them as motivated and actively engaged in creating a positive change within their school environment. For example, within our documentary, we interviewed four different students who are apart of Latinos in Action. Even with completely different questions, all four of those students in some way said that they have learned how to be leaders and have bettered themselves just from being in the club. 

I'd say that our documentary In Action does successfully represent the Latino social group, but it does lack some information on the issues revolving the club/class. Unfortunately, Latinos in Action is in the process of getting shut down in some countries because the U.S. Department of Education says part of the program may violate federal anti-discrimination rules. I feel that our documentary does not bring up this issue enough as it is something heavily important within our topic. It is really only brought up once or twice within the interviews and then also again at the very end within the graphic. When critiquing our documentary, Ryan Kearns says, "While the whole aspect surrounding how the club is facing being shut down is super important, I think it should have been brought up earlier to make the whole piece more centered around it." I completely agree with him. I feel that because this aspect is extremely important, it one hundred percent should have been brought up earlier in the production.

Moving on, our documentary is not only targeted towards the Latino community, but anyone in general who is interested in learning more about the club and its impact on people around the world. We ensure that our documentary engages this target audience by providing accurate and interesting information while being inclusive to everyone. For example, when interviewing the Manatee Bay student's mom, we of course wanted to have some Spanish in the documentary as that is a key factor in Latinos in Action, but we still wanted to include the non-Latin audience. To ensure we satisfy both audiences, we had the interviewee respond in Spanish, but we included English captioning for those who do not speak Spanish. This way, the target audience is larger. When critiquing our documentary, Victoria Duque says, "I really liked the interview with the mom in Spanish; it was relevant to your topic." Samara Hernandez says, "One thing I really loved was the interview of a parent speaking in Spanish, it really highlights the effects of this club." Even the interviews that are not in Spanish help engage the audience because they allow the members of Latinos in Action share their personal experiences, which creates authenticity, which ultimately encourages the audience to empathize their experiences.

Research played an important role in shaping our documentary, as it influenced how certain documentary conventions were used and how some conventions were challenged. By researching existing documentaries and looking more into how Latinos in Action is run, my group and I were able to make informed creative decisions throughout the production process. My research process included watching various documentaries such as, I Think This was the Closest to how the Footage Looked, Abstract: The Art of Design, American Promise, and Exit Through the Gift Shop. Watching these documentaries helped me understand the specific documentary conventions. For example, I learned the difference between a direct and an indirect interview because American Promise conveyed both. Another thing is that before doing any research on this specific topic, my group and I had planned to get B-Roll footage of some of the kids getting tutored at Manatee Bay Elementary School. After later research, we learned that it is an entire process that you need to go through in order to get permission, and it was too complicated to succeed in such short amount of time.

In conclusion, I'd say that my group and I did a good job at conveyed the importance of Latinos in Action in such a short documentary. It did of course have its flaws but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.