Genre

The genre we have selected for our opening sequence is ‘Romantic Comedy’, we opted for this as it is a genre that we both thoroughly enjoy and think would be fun but challenging to tackle. Romantic Comedy consists of light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals.

The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two protagonists, usually a man and a woman, meet, part ways due to an argument or obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two protagonists meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes the two protagonists are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner, or because of social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are; in fact, attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. The protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external issues that come with being together. However there is always a grand gesture where love is declared and the film ends happily.

We are obviously not going to use a plot line as in depth as the one featured above as we are only creating a short film opening, however another element of romantic comedy that was brought to my attention when researching is that of opposites, in every Romantic Comedy there is consistently characters that possess opposite attributes, this is also known as a binary opposite. Strauss believed that the world was split into a series of binary opposites. Meaning that essentially one thing can only be defined in relation to something it isn't. An example of this would be that a fat person is only fat because there is a thin option. I have noticed that this idea runs through almost every Romantic Comedy, there are never two characters that are in the slightest bit similar, they are always over the top opposite caricatures. I decided to research this further:

All the above Romantic Comedy films feature binary opposites-

Mean Girls- Unpopular and Popular

Legally Blonde- Smart and Dumb

17 Again- Young and Old

Freaky Friday-Insensibe and Sensible

Pride and Prejudice-Poor and Rich

Did you Met The Morgans?- Country Folk and City Slickers

The Proposal- Laid Back and Uptight

Shallow Hal- Fat and Thin

John Tucker Must Die- Beautiful and Ugly

From the evidence above we have decided to base are opening around two binary opposites.