Romance Deconstruction

Definition

Romance films are romantic love stories that are recorded in visual  media that focus on passion, emotion and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main protagonists and the journey in which they take together.

Conventions of a Romance film

• Normally a good looking and well known actor to play the main male role within the film. An example of this is from the film ‘Charlie St. Cloud’, the main male protagonist is the young male actor Zac Efron, a well known and popular actor amongst the teenage female audience. You can identify the importance of the main protagonist for this genre through the poster, as it has a large close up image of the actor, not only this the poster also includes the name of the actor in large capital letters above the title.
• Romance films are regularly set in large and well known cities with an establishing shot at the beginning to identify where exactly the story is located. This makes the story more relatable and convincing as the idea of an ‘accidental meeting’ is used often throughout the romance genre. An example of this is the ‘Back up plan’, the main two protagonists accidentally meet in a taxi when it suddenly begins to rain. A sudden and unexpected meeting with someone commonly happens within larger and more populated cities.
• Another frequent convention is the props used. In the romance genre there are a few typical props you can expect to see throughout the film, for example you may expect to see some form of gift that will be given to the main character. ‘Love Actually’ regularly does this throughout the film as some of the main characters give flowers to their loved ones. The giving of the gifts is typically associated with the genre as it is the reflection of romance.

Posters

The NoteBook

• The two main protagonists cover the entire poster, their faces are not in the complete centre of the poster. The use of the ‘golden rule’ forces the audience to look around the image and to read the text surrounding the characters.
• The tagline is located at the top of the poster sating “Behind every great love is a great story”, this instantly tells the audience that this will be a romance film as it talks about a “great love”.
• The colours used are commonly seen within romance films as they blues and greens have connotations of a calm and relaxed atmosphere. The colours in the poster are soft and suggest a happy feel to the story line.
• The lighting is bright to show both the characters in full light, this also conveys a happy feel in which the characters are happy together.
• Names of the actors are a unique selling point that attract fans of certain actors, for example Ryan Gosling is a very popular actor who has also been seen within romance films such as ‘Crazy Stupid Love’. Though this film is more recent then The Notebook it would still attract people who enjoy his films.
• The image of the couple shows that they are in love as the image shows both characters very close together being very intermit. Not only this, they have used the prop of a wedding ring which is clearly visible to the audience, this suggests that there will be a happy ending at the end of the film.

Bridget Jones's Diary

• Tag Line states that “All women keep score… only the great ones put it in writing.” introduces a comedic value to the film, not only that but also suggests that she with a couple of people. This also corresponds to the image that is bellow the tag line. There is another small line bellow the title saying “Uncensored. Uninhibited. Unmarried” this shows that it also has a comedy aspect.
• The image shows the main female protagonist in the center of the image with two men behind her, both of these characters only shows half of their faces suggesting that both men are on equal terms.
• The title and the image correspond as the title is Bridget Jones’s Diary, the audience would assume that she is Bridget Jones in the center. She is holding a bright red diary, the colour red has connotations of danger and lust, this could give an insight in to what the character writes within her book. Not only this, in the background there is some watered down text. I assume this would be something she has written within her diary, not only this the text is also in the style of handwriting.
• At the bottom of the poster is a strip of a complete different colour, this attracts the audiences attention and give information about the producers of this film. They include names of previous and very popular films, this would appeal to a wider targeted audience as fans of these films would be more inclined to watch the Bridget Jones’s Diary.
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