RomCom Trailer Length and Conventions

Here I am going to look at the average length of a RomCom trailer and analyse a few RomCom trailers. This will help me to decide how long my trailer will be and what to include in it.

Love and Other Drugs

This trailer is 2:36 minutes long

Starts off with production logos, then male lead and his typical life, 'Meet Jamie' comes on screen. Music is faster, then he meets female lead, she doesn't fall for his tricks. Music changes to be more meaningful. Shows how happy they are together, sadness, then break-up. Shows actors names at end, then title and release date. Ends on a funny bit. 

Lighting is typical sunny daylight, soft. There are lots of reverse shots, two shots, long and medium close-ups. 

There is a mix of voice overs and 'real' sound. 



Friends With Benefits

2:39 Mins
Starts with age certificate, then 'Bad relationships' shows, followed by the male and female roles breaking up with their respective partners. Then 'Good Friends' followed by the leads together, and their agreement to be friends with benefits, which links the title into the trailer. Humorous bits come after, then the music changes to be more meaningful. 'This July' shows when it comes out, 2 more music changes. 'Friendship' precedes shots of the two of them together, 'Is a Four Letter Word' comes next, more shots of the two of them, then them apart, supposedly broken up. 'Friends with benefits' describes the name of the film, a humorous bit, then 'July 2011' shows the release date again, to ensure the audience knows it. Trailer ends on a humorous bit.
Medium close-ups and long shots are most popular, as well as reverse shots.
There is a mix of voice overs and 'real' sound.
Lighting is mostly soft daylight, but there are a few evening scenes.

13 Going on 30

2:34 Mins Long

Knocked Up

2:31 mins
Age certificate & production logo. Happy music, female role in everyday life, it is very professional, 'This is Allison's life' shows. Cut to male lead in everyday life, music change, it is much more boisterous, 'This is Ben's life' shows. They are both very happy, each one goes to the same club, they meet and hook up. 'Their story was supposed to end' shows, then the tow of them, 'After one night'. Morning after confirms what happened. 'But eight weeks later' she calls him, they meet, she tells him she's pregnant, followed by everyone's reactions to it (they are negative). The two of them try to make it work. Shows how everyone is helping. Then humorous scene, followed by title & release date.
Mix of voice over and 'real' sound.
Medium close-ups, long shots and reverse shots are mostly used.
The lighting is soft daylight, and darker night scenes.

Monster-in-Law

2:30 mins



The Wedding Planner

2:30 mins

Yes Man

1:53 Mins



Shallow Hal

2:06 Mins

Production company logo. Happy music starts. Shows male lead in normal life and his problems. Music changes, shows change to see girl's inner beauty. Two of them together, happy. Humorous scene, then title, then cut back to scene. Credits and release date. 

Medium close-ups and long shots.

Soft daylight lighting, mixed with darker indoor night lighting.

Voice over and 'real' sound.



27 Dresses

2:31 Mins

Age certificate. Shows female lead 'The dress is perfect', cut to her in wedding dress. 'The cake is wonderful' cut to her with wedding cake. 'The wedding is all set' cut to people sitting down at wedding. 'There's only one problem' cut to her in dress, a call woman says "it's the bride". 'She's just the bridesmaid' cut to wedding, she is pushed down by another woman trying to catch the bouquet. Music change, introduce male lead as he helps female lead up. Shows them together, they don't get along. Production company logos show. Cut to female lead in her bridesmaid roles, then to her in everyday life. She loves boss, boss meets sister, they hit it off. Shows lead planning sister's wedding to man she loves. Shows male lead giving her inspirational speech, then actors names. Shows the two of them together. Humorous scene, and finally the release date. 

Mix of indoor night light and soft daylight.

Mainly long shots, reverse shots & medium close-ups. 

Voice over and 'real' sound.



Definitely, Maybe

2:13 Mins

From those which I have analysed I have found that:

a mix voice over and 'real' sound is used frequently, 

there are often written interjections, 

the lighting tends to be soft daylight,

medium close-ups, reverse shots and long shots are used most often,

the trailer usually starts by showing the two of them separately, then ends up showing the two of them together,

the trailer often ends on a humorous bit,

the production company logos and age certificate are shown at the beginning,

the release date and title are shown at the end.

I will take these into account when I produce my own trailer. 

The average length of the trailers is 2 minutes 41 seconds long. I will make my trailer approximately this length.





The Target Audience of RomComs

I have researched the target audience of RomComs, here are my findings:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-opening-our-eyes-2011-07.pdf
This graph is from the BFI (British Film Industry) and shows the results of a survey completed to show all preferred film type/genres of citizens in the UK.

This graph shows how popular each genre of film is in the UK, as you can see RomComs are the preferred film type of just 22% of men, but for a massive 55% of females RomComs are the preferred movie choice. The survey also shows that whilst for 39% of white people RomComs are the preferred choice, 54% of the ethnic minority group preferred RomComs.
This graph presents the fact that RomComs are more popular with women and with ethnic minorities.
It also shows that RomComs are the 8th most popular genre of film in the UK, with comedies being the favourite genre of 69% of UK citizens.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Portrayal_Vs_Betrayal_2011.pdf
This table shows age and gender against genre of film.

As you can see according to this table RomComs are the 7th most popular genre of film, with the main audience being women aged under 35 with a total of 61%. The second most popular audience was women over 35 (at 47%), therefore it may be worthwhile have them as a secondary audience for my trailer.
Comedy is first, again with the main audience being women aged under 35 (at 78%). However, comedies are much more popular with men, having a 53% total of males under 35 (compared with a 16% total in RomComs), and a 63% total of males over 35 (compared with a 24% total in RomComs). This makes me think that to appeal more to a male audience I need to direct my trailer more in the direction of a comedy whilst still keeping to the ideals of a RomCom.
Taking this in to account I will direct my trailer to appeal more to women aged under 35, but over the age of 12 as most people who independently choose which film to watch are over the age of 12, having been given the independence to go out by themselves or with friends and having more money to be able to go to the cinema with and buy films.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-opening-our-eyes-2011-07.pdf
This Graph is from the BFI (British Film Industry) and shows the results of a survey completed to show the aspects important in the decision to view a particular film.

This shows what decisions people make to watch a film. 68% of UK citizens found that an interesting storyline was important, this was the most important thing to UK citizens, being the most popular answer. The genre of the film comes next (62% chose this) so my genre of film (RomCom) would be 8th most popular in the UK if people went by this decision only. Recommendations by family/friends was 3rd most important, meaning that if a family member or friend went to see the film and told others to go and see it as it was good, then those people (60%) would most likely go to see it.
Many other things were important to me in the survey results so without going in to detail I shall list the things which I will take in to account when creating my trailer:
An interesting storyline; Genre; Actors (making sure they can act well); Spectacular visual/audio experience; Music in the film.
 These things I feel are important as I can make sure that they are good when making my trailer. Other things, such as recommendations by friends/family I cannot really control, except to make my trailer well so that people would want to see it and thus recommend it.

Top Grossing Movies of 2012

Rank	Movie	Release Date	Distributor	Genre	MPAA	2012 Gross	Tickets Sold
1	Marvel's The Avengers	5/4/2012	Walt Disney	Adventure	PG-13	$623,279,547	78,301,450
2	The Dark Knight Rises	7/20/2012	Warner Bros.	Action	PG-13	$448,139,099	56,298,881
3	The Hunger Games	3/23/2012	Lionsgate	Thriller/Suspense	PG-13	$408,010,692	51,257,624
4	Skyfall	11/8/2012	Sony Pictures	Action	PG-13	$293,729,570	36,900,699
5	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2	11/16/2012	Lionsgate	Drama	PG-13	$287,756,286	36,150,287
6	The Amazing Spider-Man	7/3/2012	Sony Pictures	Adventure	PG-13	$262,030,663	32,918,425
7	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	12/14/2012	Warner Bros.	Adventure	PG-13	$246,289,507	30,940,892
8	Brave	6/22/2012	Walt Disney	Adventure	PG	$237,236,938	29,803,635
9	Ted	6/29/2012	Universal	Comedy	R	$218,665,740	27,470,570
10	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	6/8/2012	Paramount Pictures	Adventure	PG	$216,391,482	27,184,859
11	Dr. Seuss' The Lorax	3/2/2012	Universal	Adventure	PG	$214,030,500	26,888,253
12	Men in Black 3	5/25/2012	Sony Pictures	Adventure	PG-13	$179,020,854	22,490,057
13	Wreck-It Ralph	11/2/2012	Walt Disney	Adventure	PG	$177,319,916	22,276,371
14	Ice Age: Continental Drift	7/13/2012	20th Century Fox	Adventure	PG	$161,168,962	20,247,357
15	Snow White and the Huntsman	6/1/2012	Universal	Adventure	PG-13	$155,136,755	19,489,542
16	Hotel Transylvania	9/28/2012	Sony Pictures	Comedy	PG	$145,706,677	18,304,858
17	Taken 2	10/5/2012	20th Century Fox	Thriller/Suspense	PG-13	$139,076,968	17,471,980
18	Lincoln	11/16/2012	Walt Disney	Drama	PG-13	$138,675,219	17,421,509
19	21 Jump Street	3/16/2012	Sony Pictures	Comedy	R	$138,447,667	17,392,922
20	Prometheus	6/8/2012	20th Century Fox	Horror	R	$126,477,084	15,889,080
21	Safe House	2/10/2012	Universal	Thriller/Suspense	R	$126,181,630	15,851,963
22	The Vow	2/10/2012	Sony Pictures	Drama	PG-13	$125,014,030	15,705,280
23	Magic Mike	6/29/2012	Warner Bros.	Comedy	R	$113,721,571	14,286,629
24	The Bourne Legacy	8/10/2012	Universal	Thriller/Suspense	PG-13	$113,203,870	14,221,591
25	Argo	10/12/2012	Warner Bros.	Thriller/Suspense	R	$109,317,698	13,733,379
26	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island	2/10/2012	Warner Bros.	Adventure	PG	$103,860,290	13,047,775
27	Rise of the Guardians	11/21/2012	Paramount Pictures	Adventure	PG	$94,552,084	11,878,402
28	Flight	11/2/2012	Paramount Pictures	Drama	R	$92,234,057	11,587,193
29	Think Like a Man	4/20/2012	Sony Pictures	Romantic Comedy	PG-13	$91,547,205	11,500,905
30	Life of Pi	11/21/2012	20th Century Fox	Drama	PG	$88,226,096	11,083,680

Taken from http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2012/top-grossing-movies

This table shows the top 30 highest grossing movies of 2012, with the romantic comedy film 'Think Like a Man' coming in at 29. This is quite low in the chart, however, the genre of comedy, which RomComs are a sub-genre of (as well as romances), came in at number 9 with 'Ted' hitting the top 10 highest grossing films of 2012.
This could show that if I focus more on making the film funny and a little less on the romantic side then more people might go to see it. Because of this I will endeavour to make my trailer more funny thus appealing to more people.

To conclude I have found that the target audience of RomComs (and thus my target audience) is women between the ages of 12 and 35. However, to appeal more to men as a secondary audience I will increase the comedic side of my trailer as this genre was most popular with men, this will give me higher views as I found that both men and women enjoyed comedies.

Story Decision

I have decided to use my 2nd story idea, however, I may tweak the storyline slightly as my project progresses.

I believe that this is the most realistic of all my story-lines to create using my very small budget and fits in best with the genre conventions of RomComs. I want it to be an indie produced film, (as my small budget will not allow me to produce a mainstream RomCom.) so it will have certain elements that are supposed to be bad.
Here's how it fits in with my summation of RomComs:

1. Boy meets girl (or girl meets boy) - Girl goes to heaven and is allocated a boy angel 'buddy' who shows her around
2. They hate each other (or at least don't get along) - She hates him, he hates her
3. They both start to realise their love for each other - They fall in love but don't properly realise it
4. One of them moves away/starts a relationship etc (something that moves them apart) - She comes back to life and is pulled out of heaven
5. The protagonist's friends/parents/sibling (or whoever else they hang around with) asks them why they aren't with the other person. - God, to both the boy and the girl (as the doctor/therapist), helps each of them to realise they loved the other.
6. That same person helps the protagonist to realise that they are in love (However, steps 5 and 6 the protagonist can do on their own) - As above.
7. Protagonist goes and wins the heart of the other person. - The boy begins to send the girl gifts to help her find him, she eventually realises it is him and goes to him, breaking through the dimension boundary. He becomes human so they can be together.
8. It's a happy ending for everyone (except, perhaps, for the person who the loved person was in a relationship with, and if there was a bad guy keeping them apart then they would probably be punished) - 1 year later they are at their wedding.

Movie Poster Research

For one of my auxiliary tasks I'm going to make a poster to promote my film.
This post shows my research of movie posters, I'll choose the ones I like and post them on here:

First of all I've got Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
I really like this poster for its colour scheme; sticking to a mainly auburn spectrum which enhances the 'old' feel of it (as the film is all about ancient things (Jones is an archaeology professor, not your typical one though)) and makes the writing 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' stand out really well.
I also like the fact that in the centre of the page stands the main character in his character's pose, and also the way that the lesser characters are on the outside, making it clear that they aren't as important. The cartoon style of the page fits in with the other 'Indiana Jones' posters and carries on the tradition of this. I like this cartoon style as it is different to most film posters, and gives it an '80s' feel (Many film posters in the 80s tended to be in a cartoon style).

Next up: The Goonies

An iconic film from the 80s, The Goonies' poster fits in with the film well, giving a taster as to what the film is essentially about: a group of kids in a cave. The treasure map beneath them also hints at treasure so again gives an insight in to the storyline of the film. This poster tells the audience a little without giving too much away, and the cartoon style again gives it a very '80s' feel. I like the way that the film's main characters are 'hanging' across the page as it gives the poster depth, however, the ones at the bottom aren't very visible. On a poster though, I suppose that they would be enlarged so you can actually see them, so this would be ok. The writing is also very neat to one side of the page.

Vertigo

An Alfred Hitchcock film this, so as you would expect this poster is a bit psychedelic to fit in with his mind. The red background hints at a violent film, and the title 'vertigo' along with the twisting picture and falling people shows it to be off-balance. It's simple but effective as the white on red stands out well and catches people's eye.



Singing in the Rain:

A classical musical, this singing in the rain poster features the umbrella from the title song. This poster is very simple with vertical black and white bars above the umbrella as rain. The writing is also drawn downwards, giving the impression that it is part of the rain, thus making it fit more cohesively with the rest of the poster. 

The very simple colour scheme of only black, white and yellow ensures that there is not too much going on in the poster and keeps the whole thing very tidy. I like the simplicity of this poster as it doesn't give too much away and leaves the audience guessing. 

However, I do think that it is a good idea to have the main character(s) of the movie on the poster as it shows the audience who is in the film.  

The Lion King:

This poster is really clever for its use of background. I love the way that the poster is nothing unless it has the large picture of the lion as its background, this could hint that a pride is nothing without its 'lion king' as where there is no lion background there is nothing. The colour scheme used here is really simple, sticking to mainly warm colours to fit in with the African setting, with the striking white to make the colours stand out more. The title of the film is also quite simple, with a simple font in white writing. Because of the small size and lower-corner placing of the title, however, I don't think that people would see it very well, as a poster though, it would be enlarged and thus would probably be big enough. 

Love and Other Drugs:

This poster (and also the name) very clearly shows that this film is a RomCom. The placing of the characters shows the 'love' part of the title and the background colour of maroon also hints at 'love'. 

The white writing against the dark background ensures that it stands out well, thus making sure that its audience sees it. 

I like the placing of the actors names to either side of the title, as they are both well-known, it draws in more people to watch the film. 

For my own poster I like the idea of using the main characters from the film and having their names on the poster along with the title and release date etc. Although I like the cartoon style displayed in 'The Goonies' and 'Indiana Jones' I believe that for a RomCom poster it will be better to not use this style but simply have a 'real' style, with little effects added to the poster. Most of these posters stick to a simple colour scheme, so I too will have a colour scheme to my poster depending on which story line I choose. 'The Lion King' poster used a cut-out style in the shape of a lion, fitting in with the characters of the film, I like this idea but I am not yet sure how I would use it in a poster for a RomCom. 

4th Story Idea

• 2 friends (a girl and a boy) are talking online on a video call, they do this everyday before they go to bed.
• They are finishing their call and the girl goes to sleep.
• She hears a strange noise but passes it off as her dog in the house.
• Camera goes to the boy getting ready for bed, his window flies open.
• He looks outside for anything that might have done it but nothing is there so he passes it off as the wind and goes to bed.
• The next day they go to work in their separate towns, shows them at their everyday lives, nothing strange.
• They talk again online before going to bed. However, their connection is bad.
• Again they both hear things but ignore them.
• The next day things seem to go out of place, things go wrong and the girl sees cuts on her collar, the boy notices bruises which have appeared all over his legs.
• They talk at night and tell each other about their day and their strange injuries.
• Their connection goes really bad, and a loud squealing noise comes from their computers. The door behind the girl opens and a shadow comes through it.
• The boy warns the girl and tells her to get out of there.
• The shadow envelopes the girl and she disapears, screaming.
• The boy shouts, cursing himself for not being able to help her. The scene ends on him.
• The girl wakes up in a field in the middle of nowhere. There are numbers and sequences floating in a wall in front of her, seemingly stretching on forever, it curves, giving the impression that it encloses the area.
• The girl tries to go past the wall, but she can't, the wall bounces her back and gives off a tech-like screeching noise. She is trapped.
• A robotic-like insect creature comes out from the wall, screeching, more follow it.
• The girl backs aways on the floor, terrified, and starts to run away.
• The boy spends his entire day trying to save the girl, looking for help on the internet and desperately looking for the thing which might have taken her.
• Eventually, after days of looking, he is contacted by a voice on a telephone. He is creeped out but the voice offers to help and gives a meeting place.
• The boy goes to the cafe where the voice said to meet and a waiter comes up to him and takes his order.
• The owner of the voice approaches the man, calling him by name. They talk, he knows how to save her, however, there is a chance she will be killed and the creatures of the area will be released.
• Girl is still trapped, she is living in terror, hiding from the creatures.
• She hears a voice, telling her what to do, it guides her to a hole in the ground where she can see the boy and the man. They pass a ladder through and she escapes back to her world.
• Later she is living her life as normal, the boy and her are getting married, it is their wedding day.
• The film ends with one of the creatures screeching at the camera.