Romance

The romance genre is a widely recognised genre that has had many entries into it that have received a lot of recognition, as a result the generic conventions of this genre are recognised by nearly everyone.

Generic conventions of romance:

One of the key areas of film is sound and music, and in romance films especially so, they have very recognisably, music, for example 'Notting hill' has a very typical romantic soundtrack, slow paced but happy, creating an air of tension/excitement/anticipation, as well as often creating intimacy within a scene. This is used across all sorts of romance films such as 'The notebook', 'Friends with benefits' and many more across the genre.

Todorov's theory of narrative structure, Todorov proposed that films are structured in three parts, equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium again. Romance films generically follow this structure more often than not, with many films starting out with a happy couple who then end up having some sort of conflict that the main body of the film focuses on resolving and when the equilibrium has been restored the film comes to an end. For example even less traditional cross-genre romance films such as 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the world' follow this narrative structure. With the film starting out with Scott being just an average guy, then meeting the girl, literally of his dreams, he has to fight seven of her evil exes to then finally end up with the girl, this narrative structure is present in a lot of films but especially so in romance films.

Romance films often have a very urban setting, set in a city, sometimes based around a workplace where a chance encounter is viable to happen. For example Date night is based in new York, about a couple trying to enjoy their night and shenanigans ensue.

Often used in romance films is dim lighting to create intimacy within a scene, the image to the left demonstrates how dim lighting is used during intimate moments within the film. Another thing that is commonplace is using dark places with natural light bursting through in intense but small amounts, also demonstrated in the image below.

 

Romance films are fairly difficult to do within the limited time frame that a short film allows for, this is because of the need to connect with the characters, if there is no time for the audience to connect with the characters they will not engage with the film or really care about what happens to them at the end of the film, so making effective use of screen time and creating meaningful and deep scenes that will engage the audience is essential.

Romantic comedies however, might be easier, as this sub-genre aims to create a feel good feeling and engage the audience differently by making them laugh. Obviously writing good comedy is difficult in any film and would be a challenge, but is probably more suited to a short film. This allows the audience to care for the characters by making them likeable and funny rather than trying to get the audience to empathise and sympathise with the characters in emotionally complex situations which requires more of a connection to the characters.

http://shortsbay.com/film/vicky-and-sam
The short film link posted above is a short romance film called 'Vicky and Sam'. It is about three film writers in a diner that are trying to think of a romance film idea and everything they pitch becomes real life, including what happens between the couple Vicky and Sam and this eventually involves the writers and the couple's stories entwining and coming to a close after the couple and the writers have been through a couple tricky situations.