We looked into the different film genres and decided that we wanted to create a romantic comedy. We decided to look at Rom-Com trailers and see what the conventions are two people that are opposite weather it would be social classes, or completely opposite personality’s or they meet in a sticky situation that brings them together. We decided to look into romantic comedy trailers so we could get more of an idea of what was included.
The Ugly Truth
The ugly truth trailer has a variety of different shots from the beginning including a lot of mid-shots in the opening shots of the trailer; from these shots we can tell that the lady with blonde hair is the main character. Throughout this trailer the comedy is evident and we can see that the two characters do not like each other creating a stereotypical Rom-Com convention. This being the two different personalities. The storyline is clear throughout so the audience understands what the story is about and establishes what is happening. There is also a variety of different music in the trailer it is also very upbeat which is another convention of a Rom-Com trailer. There is also a voice over to establish to the audience the famous characters that are in the film, I really like this trailer I think that it portrays the storyline really well and the audience really understands the trailer, I think this is what needs to come across in our trailer so that it looks effective and the audience don’t get confused when watching our trailer.
The Proposal
When we see the opening shot we can already tell what one character is like as we see the alarm clock and he is running through the city showing he is disorganized and scatty. We then see text appear like someone typing on a computer this works really well in establishing the different characters and enforcing the narrative. When we see the next main character we can see that she is more sophisticated and organized with her hair scraped back. So again this is another key convention of the Rom-Com genre with the use of different personalities and social classes. In the trailer we also see the crisis situation, which lands both the characters into the third convention of the sticky situation that is going to bring them together.
Again there are a variety of different shots used and we can see the clear narrative that is included within the trailer the shots help portray them, the audio used within the trailer foreshadows the shots and the action in the trailer for example at the crisis part there is no audio which creates an effect that the audience can listen to what is being said it also creates an awkward silence which is what the characters are experiencing, I think we will have to concentrate a lot in using the music to prefigure the narrative. Again there is also use of a voice over to establish the famous characters within the film.
After watching these trailers we discuss the ideas of the different storylines we could have. After a long discussion about it we decided that we wouldn’t be able to create the comedy elements within the trailers so we decided to do further research into just the romance side of it to see if we could create this the main conventions of romance is people fall in love but something happens in which everything goes wrong and they cant be together this is the main narrative in romantic films. We then decided to look at just romance trailers.
We see the opening shot of her putting a letter on a car of someone’s this starts off the romantic storyline. This then escalates into a series of different shots of them falling in love, this allows the story to get to the point quickly so the audience can understand what the narrative is, we then see a variety of different shots of them in love and happy together. Then the crisis happens and she has to move away this is very clear from the shots used. The music then changes to a slower sadder piano song this also changes the mood of the trailer and the audience automatically start to sympathize with both the characters as they are separated and we want the outcome to be positive we then get a voice over of them enforcing the idea that it isn’t. I noticed throughout this trailer that there were a lot of fading in and out transitions I think that this would be to represent a time lapse so the audience know that when the shot fades back in, it is a different time, place and location. The trailer has a clear narrative and the audience want to find out what happens in the film as you don’t find out if they get together I think it is good to end the trailer on a cliff hanger as this will make the film more intriguing.
As soon as we watched this trailer we felt automatically inspired and wanted to create a trailer like this and of the romance genre so we decided as a group that this would be our genre for our trailer.
