Genre Conventions: Romance

General movie trailer conventions that I discussed in my last blog post are usually the same for all trailers. However, each genre has different conventions within movie trailers that help appeal to their target audience. Since the trailer I am planning on creating revolves around found-footage of a love story, it is evident that the genre I am working on is Romance.

As promised in my last blog post, I will research the desired time length for a trailer within my genre. Before I do that though, I have to research on the romance genre in order to gain a better understanding of my genre.

The romance genre is a broad genre that consists of multiple different sub-genres:

• Romantic Drama Movies: The plot of romantic drama typically revolves around two people – to date, predominantly a man and woman – as they overcome obstacles which prevent them finding true love. An emphasis on the film’s score is deemed to be common in the genre, as are happy resolutions at the end of the movie. 
• Examples: 
• Casablanca (1942)
• A Walk to Remember (2002)
• Rom-Com Movies: Traditional romance blended with elements of comedy, often seeing the leading love interests placed in bizarre circumstances or being subjected to gross misunderstandings. Nearly always resolves with a happy ending. 
• Examples:
•  Clueless (1995)
• Love Actually (2003)
• Chick Flick Movies: Often seen as a derogatory term, the phrase ‘chick flick’ denotes any romance movie perceived to be aimed predominantly towards a female audience. Romance may not be strictly necessary as a central theme. 
• Examples:
• The Notebook (2004)
• The Fault in our Stars (2014)
• Romantic Thriller Movies: The romantic thriller sub-genre, as the name implies, mixes tropes common to both action movies and traditional romance. The romantic plot is usually set against high-octane action or adventure – as a result, it can cross over into numerous genres. 
• Examples:
• Knight and Day (2010)
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

Out of these sub-genres, the found-footage love story falls under the categories of Rom-Com, Romantic Drama, and Chick Flicks. Isabella and I have decided that for our idea, it is best that we fall under the Romantic Drama genre. 

Romantic Drama often centers its narrative action on a romantic conflict. In our story, the conflict we have chosen to portray is death. Isabella and I have decided that the husband is going to die, and how his death affects their love story and the footage that is found by their child.

Moving on to trailer times, the romance genre typically has regular length trailers, averaging to around 110 seconds, or one minute and 50 seconds. Stephen Follows, the british film producer that i discussed in my last post, created a graph, showing the average length of each genre's movie trailors. 

As you can see, the romance genre sits well in the average times along with various different genres.

Knowing the average times of romance trailers really helps kickstart this project, but i'm not 100% ready to start creating this masterpeice. In the next blog post, I will research the target audience for the romance genre and how that effects romance trailers, and will come to a conclusion on my film's target audience, so stick around!

- AC

Zeke. “Ultimate List of Film Sub Genres.” Student Resources, 17 Mar. 2015, www.nyfa.edu/student-  resources/ultimate-list-of-film-sub-genres/.

“How Long Is the Average Movie Trailer?” Stephen Follows, 17 July 2017, stephenfollows.com/long-average-movie-trailer/.

Movie Trailer Conventions

Now that I know the overall idea of what I am going to create, it is now time to work! But, success and an amazing project does not come with work alone, it requires research. Though I have some overall foundation of knowledge over movie trailers, further research would help me immensely. Let's start researching!

So what exactly are the typical conventions of a movie trailer?

Thanks to an educational source, Film Education, I was able to play a matching game that taught me the essentials for movie trailers. As you can see if you click the link, I had to match each phrase with each trailer convention, in order to fully understand movie trailer conventions. In case you were wondering, it took me a couple of tries to get it all correct, but hey, it really helped me learn!

All movie trailers, if not most, incorporate the use of voice-overs, characters, key points, dialogue, dramatic angles, action, music, the title, and montages.

As the Film Education mentions:

• Voice-overs are used to tell the story and give credit information
• The characters, usually the main ones, are showcased throughout the trailer
• Key points are sometimes conveyed through on-screen words
• Conversations between characters, or dialogue, usually consist of one-liners
• Dramatic angles aid in showing dramatic events or characters
• The action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen
• Music plays an important role in creating the atmosphere
• The title may not appear until the end of the trailer
• Montages are often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous, or fast-paced aspects of the film

These are all aspects of a film trailer but in order to include all of these elements, there must be a time limit. With that statement comes the question: How long are film trailers?

Well, based on a study done by Stephen Follows, a British film producer, the length of each movie trailer differs, ranging from as short as 11-second teaser trailers to much longer eight-and-a-half-minute-long trailers. According to Follows, the average length was one minute and 54 seconds long. This information was based on a chart, which Follows had created, shown below. 

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Without knowing this information, I would have been completely lost when making my trailer! As you can tell, research really is important! Now I know that my trailers should be somewhere from one minute to two minutes long. But does each genre have a different average trailer time? We'll have to find out! See you next time!

- AC

“Teaching Trailers Spring 2013.” Film Education, www.filmeducation.org/teachingtrailers/secondary/conventions.html.

“How Long Is the Average Movie Trailer?” Stephen Follows, 17 July 2017, stephenfollows.com/long-average-movie-trailer/.

The Inspiration

Behind every masterpiece, there is an inspiration. Fortunately for my group mate and I, we discovered our inspiration almost a week ago while watching movies together.

On Saturday, February 24,  Isabella and I decided to get together for a movie night at her house. After spending a few hours scrolling through YouTube videos and random films, we gave up and just chatted the night away. After an hour or so, her mother came home and joined in on our conversation and had mentioned that she was in the mood to watch a romantic comedy. I had suggested watching the film, Home Again, which I had seen previously with my mother. Knowing this romantic comedy was the perfect movie for the night, we sat down and began to watch it.

The film, which I will not explore in too much depth, revolves around the life of a 40-year-old woman and how her life changes when she crosses paths with three young men, all looking to pursue a career in the entertainment field in California. Our inspiration directly came from one of the scenes of this film. In the scene, the three young men are sat down with a producer, who is giving them feedback on their film script and theme. The producer was not fond of the men's movie idea and pitched them the idea of a found-footage love story instead. As soon as my group mate and I heard that idea, we sprung off the couch and yelled, "THAT'S IT!"

After discussing the pros and cons with Isabella, such as the genre of this idea and how well they work with the traditional movie trailer conventions, we decided it was a perfect overall idea. After spending hours over discussing the possible plot ideas, we decided that we wanted to portray this love story through footage found from the lover's child. Now all that's left to do is further research the typical conventions not only for movie trailers but for romance films. Let's get this show on the road!

- AC

Project Outline

Guess who's back with another blog post! 

Below, I have listed an outline for my project in order to organize myself and be effective with my time management skills - feel free to check it out! Keep in mind, this schedule is subject to change, but hopefully, I am able to stick to my plan!
Project Outline

• Week One: 02/26/18 - 03/04/18
• Blog Posts (5):
• Introduction
• Outline
• Inspiration
• Research - Movie Trailer Conventions
• Research - Genre Conventions

• Week Two: 03/05/18 - 03/11/18
• Blog Posts (5):
• Research - Target Audience
• Idea progress and changes
• Final Idea Plan
• Planning (storyboarding, script)
• Planning Part Two (casting, shooting schedules)
• Meeting with group mate - 03/09/18

• Week Three: 03/12/18 - 03/18/18
• Blog Posts(5):
• Filming Day One
• Filming Day Two
• Filming Day Three
• Reflection on key moments
• Changes to project (if any)

• Week Four: 03/19/18 - 03/25/18
• Blog Posts(4):
• Editing Day One - with group mate
• Editing Day Two & Three - with group mate
• Reflection on key moments/Project Progress
• Changes (if any)

• Week Five: 03/26/18 - 04/01/18
• Blog Posts(4):
• Rough Week Ahead (group mate will not be in town)
• Research - Movie Poster Conventions
• Movie Poster planning
• Movie Poster Construction

• Week Six: 04/02/18 - 04/08/18
• Blog Posts(4):
• Research - Movie Website Conventions
• Website planning
• Website construction
• Reflection - The End is Near

• Week Seven: 04/09/18 - 04/14/18
• Blog Posts(5):
• Final Comments
• Last Minute changes (if any)
• Final Project Links - all components
• Creative Critical Reflection
• The Goodbye

- AC

Welcome!

Hello my fellow blog readers,


The time has come! For the past year, I have been anticipating the start of this portfolio project and cannot wait to see how it turns out. This year in AICE Media Studies A level, I have decided to take on the challenge of option 2: the film promotion package.  Though it may be one of the harder projects due to multiple different aspects, I am ready to embark on this challenge and push myself to make the best possible work I can produce. Since I will not be working alone this year, my groupmate, Isabella Espinosa, and I are determined that we can conquer this film promotion package together.

The ideas that are swirling through my brain are endless, so stay tuned to find out more details regarding my project!

- AC