Rom-coms are the kinds of movies that you can watch all year round given that there is variety of them set in specific seasons, time stamps, holidays, etc.
Romantic comedies, also known as rom-coms, are a sub-genre of comedy. Movies in this genre usually focus on a humorous, light hearted plot centered on romantic ideology such as love at first sight or love can surpass anything. They are very easy to follow and a fun movie to either laugh at and also cry about. Watching random strangers fall in deep fondness over each other makes the audience release oxytocin- aka a love hormone. It can feel as if you are falling in love with the main characters on screen. It makes whoever is watching it feel attached to the characters and relieved or/and happy when the main couple gets together.
Content
Rom-coms usually follow the journey of a couple falling in love and working through obstacles. Some simple blueprints of almost every Rom-com are that they start with introducing the protagonist and the love they meet cute (an amusing or charming first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship between them), like meeting in the office, reaching for the same pairs of gloves or even running into each other in the elevator. Anything that can overshadow a growing relationship between the two characters.
Later the audience is able to see their flourishing relationship in front of them could be done with a montage of small cute clips of the couple enjoying time together or also shots of them building their relationship. Until a big obstacle is revealed that could prevent them from being together. The big obstacle is used to build tension between the characters and create a “will they, won't they” moment for the audience. This event ranges from a big secret the protagonist was hiding from the love interest or a new person who came to mess their relationship up. This usually opens the doors for the main character to come in and swipe the love interest off their feet with a big sweet ending, proving their undying love.
Production technique
An important part of Rom coms productions is lighting. These movies mostly utilize High-key lighting to present the leads in the best lighting possible. Given that the world where these beautiful people are living is perfect, everything has to be bright and colorful to display a cheerful theme. This type of lighting is also usually used in comedy movies for an even light on the characters.
(500) days of summer cute meet
Another part of the production is the music used. Songs used for these movies are likely to be recorded and released before the movie was created meaning they aren't scores. Editors usually add cheerful background music for many shots, quirky love songs for any montage of the couple and romantic romantic songs for the end of the movie. Overall, all the music used in Rom-coms have a common theme; love.
Marketing
These movies are usually marketed towards young women usually around the age of 13-20. It's no secret romantic movies are marketed towards young women while action movies market to men, but why. From a young age girls are pushed into an ideal world full of beauty, romance, prince charming and pretty dolls. It could be said that romantic comedies manifest the idea of security, happiness and success to the women viewers. It might also just be because rom-coms contained light-hearted funny storylines that women used to get away from reality.
Numerous rom-com posters indicate romance in different ways. A common theme shown in the color palette is usually shown in these posters given that they mostly contain reds, whites and pinks in the posters. Majority have the main couple interacting in a way, showing their chemistry, either posing back to back, both looking at the camera, or holding each other intimately. Using this trick shows that there is going to be a romantic relationship between the couple
Two weeks notice showing the main characters back to back
Samples:
The film How to lose a guy in 10 days follows the story of Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson), a writer unable to create new content for her new piece until she comes up with the great idea to write about how to lose a guy in 10 days, which her editor loved. Andie goes to a bar to find the perfect guy to conduct this experiment with, here enters Ben Berry (Matthew McConaughey) who is overly confident that he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days. Clearly the movie takes a span of ten days where Andie is doing anything she can to make him break up with her, like leaving her personal things all over his house, making plans about the future too soon, and a lot more crazy things. While Andie is doing all this, Ben is trying his hardest to ignore it and be as romantic as possible for 10 days. At the climax when all the secrets are revealed Andie decided to move away to New York but Ben cant let her go without her knowing that he fell in love with her. The movie is filled with cheesy comedy, romantic moments and a quirky bet.
Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is very different compared to her fellow classmates, yes she is beautiful, clever, and smart but she wasn't interested in any boy in her school, none of them caught her eye. The polar opposite of her younger sister Bianca Stratford (Larissa Oleynik) , a popularity obsessed 10th grader whose house rules are that she can’t have a boyfriend until Kat dates. So strings are pulled and bets are made on Camron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who had a big crush on Bianca the second he set eyes on her. Soon Kat and Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), the aggressive, rebellious teenagers who scares everyone off, cross paths and who used to take out Kat. What he doesn't know is that he will eventually fall in love with a different side of Kat Stratford that nobody has seen. While Cameron tries his best to get Bianca to notice him. This production follows two couple instead of one, and doesn't fit in an excellent way.
Suggested Rom-Coms
Flipped (2010)
Fools rush in (1997)
Crazy, Stupid love (2011)
Life as we know it (2010)
Valentine's Day (2010)
To all the boys I loved before ( 2018)
