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!