Romantic comedies originated in Shakespeare's plays in the late 16th century. They focus on the developing relationship between misunderstood young lovers. While often seen as "chick flicks", rom-coms target both female and male audiences aged 13-17 with conventions like attractive leads and school settings. The basic narrative involves two people meeting and being separated by an obstacle before realizing their feelings for each other and overcoming challenges to be together, typically with a happy ending. Character archetypes commonly seen include jocks, nerds, rebels, and outsiders who take on roles like villains, helpers, or the prize to be won. Iconic visual elements include settings like parties and bedrooms, costumes that identify social groups,

1. Genre Research: Rom-Com

2. History Development
A romantic Comedy is defined to be "a general term for comedies that deal mainly with
the follies and misunderstandings of young lovers, in a light‐hearted and happily
concluded manner which usually avoids serious satire“. Shakespeare was the first writer
to create a romantic comedy in the late 1950’s. The plays he wrote were ‘A Midsummer
Night's Dream’, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘As You Like It’, and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Romantic
comedies focus on misunderstood young lovers and they don’t use any serious mockery.
It was not until the medieval times that romance was taken seriously. Comedies since
ancient Greece have often incorporated sexual or social elements.

3. Audience
Rom-coms usually get classified as being ‘chick flicks’ as people believe they are for
females, which makes them partially right as they are more aimed at females aged
between 13-17. They target their audience by using key conventions which will catch the
attention from the target audience by using ‘cute guys/pretty girls’, ‘young teenage
characters’ and using a school as a setting.

4. Narratives
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on
romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. The basic story
line for a rom-com is:
1. Two people meet (usually a man and a woman)
2. They part due to an obstacle
3. At first they don’t believe they like each other or something is in the way, such as one of
them has already got a partner
4. The audience is then given obvious signs or clues to show that they clearly do like each
other or would be good together
5. Whilst they are apart, one of them or both start to realise they do like each other or
would be good together
6. This leads to them trying to find each other to be together (which would have obstacles
on the way)
7. The finally meet up once again and declare their love and is usually a happy ending

5. Typical Character Types
Character types in rom-coms usually follow a similar pattern:
• The jock/cheerleader (popular ones)
• The princess
• The joker/funny one
• The geek/nerd
• The rebel
• The misfit
• The average boy/girl
• The new/boy girl
• The loner
• The band geek
And these characters usually all play a different role:
• The villain- struggles against the hero
• The despatcher- informs the hero and sends them off on their task
• The helper- helps the hero in quest
• The princess/prize- who the hero wants but cannot reach due to the villain
• Her father- gives the task to the hero/identifies the false hero
• The doner- prepares the hero or gives the hero a magical object
• The hero- reacts to the donor, weds the princess
• The false hero- takes credit for the heroes actions, tries to take the princess

6. Iconography
There are many key iconography's used in majority of the rom-com films, these include:
• Setting: In rom-coms the setting is usually based where teenagers are most likely to be.
Places such as parties, school, a bedroom etc. This will attract the target audience more.
• Costumes: These are used to show the audience which character belongs to what group.
For example in a high school a nerd would be wearing maybe a shirt and glasses, whereas
a popular girl would be wearing make-up, short skirts, low cut tops etc.
• Sound: In a rom-com sound is used to draw the audience into the film, usually new music
that is in the charts is used and the music tends to fit in with the character types. Also at
the beginning it is normally a voice-over explaining the main characters situation.
• Shot types: usually at the end of all rom-coms the final shot is of the couple in the centre
showing the audience their happy ending.