The document discusses conventions and elements of romantic comedies. It proposes a plot where the main protagonist, who is one of four best friends, falls for one of the girls in the group. This causes problems and ruins their friendship. The narrative aims to subvert conventions by having the male protagonist need saving and the female be the hero who resolves the issue. It also discusses the categories romantic comedy narratives fall into, selecting the "Slumming It" type where class differences cause conflict.

2. Narrative
• In a rom-com, a narrative will most likely always consist of a man and
woman. We are going to stick to this as we want a typical falling in love
scene, but a way of going against this convention is to add same sex
couples to this, this would show the variety in the film industry and the
non-judgment
• A typical plot would be a girl meets boy and falls in love circumstance, but
we are going against this convention and swapping it around. We want a
four best friend plot, but the main protagonist who of which is a boy, will
fall in love with the girl, sending the 4 way friendship in to meltdown and
ruining it, this would create both comedy and romance within the film
• There are two different types of theories applied to a rom-com; Todorov’s
Equilibrium which will be explained in the following slide, and also Propp’s
Character Types. In a typical rom-com the male is seen as the hero, and the
girl as the princess, but in our case these roles will be swapped as we want
to male to be portrayed as needing saving from the dilemma he has put
himself into, and the girl being the hero and resolving the problem

3. Todorov’s Equilibrium
EQUILBRIUM DISEQUILIBRIUM NEW EQUILIBRIUM
Main
Protagonists all
friends
Problem is
solved, they all
become friends
but the couple
has become
official
Main
Protagonist
confesses his
love to one of
the girls he is
best friends
with
Problem
happens
Problem
resolved

4. Sound
• They are also known to start off with a voiceover as
dialogue from one of the protagonists, in our case we hope
that it is from the main protagonist which is one of the
boys we are using as an actor, this gives you their point of
view so the audience can get an idea of what type of
character he is
• The dialogue is also important as it tells the audience
watching the film about the situation at that very moment
and it may also hold the comedy factor within the sub
genre, we will be sticking to this convention
• Music normally in a rom-com includes very meaningful
lyrics relating to love, we will be sticking to this as we have
chosen to use ‘Better Together’ by Jack Johnson

5. Lighting
Typically a Romantic Comedy would have lots
of high-key lighting and natural light, this
would reflect the mood of the characters in
the situation. There is also no sad or horror
scenes, so there is no need for low key
lighting, the only time it could be used is if
they went on a walk at night, but that would
still use natural light. We are sticking to this
convention as all of our scenes will be in
daylight, whether it be outside or inside

6. Location
A rom-com like LOL or Notting Hill are set in big
cosmopolitan cities like New York and London, and
how they find love in the bustling city. We are going to
break this convention as we are going to be filming in a
characteristic English village, due to our narrative
being the fact that the man and woman are already in
the film and are the main protagonists, they are not
going to find each other and fall in love which is what
happens in most rom-coms, they have already met. We
hope that the audience we are targeting understand
this and hope they take on board the reason why we
have chosen this sort of location

7. Costumes
The costumes of the characters would usually be
smart and also quite sexy, as they are trying to
make themselves appeal to the opposite sex and
catch their attention, but in our case, due to the 4
protagonists already being friends, they don’t
need to try and impress each other, so they will
all be in normal everyday attire. The main
protagonist doesn’t fall in love with the girl
because of her style, it is because of her
personality

8. Target Audience
We are sticking to the representative age gap
of 15-25 which is what a rom-com falls into,
but we are increasing the income bracket to B-E
due to using a more sophisticated, English
Institution and the fact that we want to
portray within our opening sequence the
affluent backgrounds our protagonists come
from. We will also be sticking with women
being our primary audience and male being
our secondary audience.

9. The 6 categories of Romantic
Comedy
A romantic comedy is among the most unoriginal of genres,
with elements that consistently contribute to successful
films. Among other things, a rom-com hero must pursue his
love interest, a crisis which could become devastating.
Within these heroes are different elements of conflict which
forms the foundation of the narrative itself. These different
elements fall in to six categories:
1. Secrets & Lies
2. The Imposter
3. The Magic Spell
4. Peter Pan & Wendy
5. Slumming It
6. The Long Haul

10. Slumming It
Slumming It is the most common category of British
Romantic Comedies, where the conflict frequently
stems from class differences. This is the category we
have chosen to place our hero from our film into, this is
due to using a British Institution. Also we want our
plot to be that the four friends are together, but then
the main protagonist who in this case is the hero but
then does fall into Propp’s character type of the villain,
falls in love with one of the girls, which sends the
friendship up in the air and splits them all up.
However, he does manage to resolve his dilemma and
by the end of the film the problems are all solved.