Download
1 / 10
100 likes | 135 Vues
Romance. History of the Romance/rom com film. Romantic comedies started in the late 1590s and Shakespeare was the first writer to create them. These plays include; A midsummers nights dream, Twelfth Night, Much Ado about nothing.
E N D
History of the Romance/rom com film • Romantic comedies started in the late 1590s and Shakespeare was the first writer to create them. These plays include; A midsummers nights dream, Twelfth Night, Much Ado about nothing. • Romantic comedy is a genre with lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. Another definition suggests that its primary distinguishing feature is a love plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled.
Sub-Genres of the Romancefilm • Historical Romance • This is the one that most people who know nothing about romance think they know. The “bodice rippers” they call them, but really it divides itself into its own categories. There are as many different kinds of historicals, corset wearing and not. RWA (Romance Writers of America) classifies it as any novel taking place before 1950. If you know anything about history, that’s a lot of years. Lots of them do take place in regency England, but there are others in a variety of other countries, centuries, cultures, from Medieval to World War II, from India to the U.S., with everything in between. And more. There’s so many I’ve never read. Imagine it and it’s likely been written. • Contemporary • A novel set from 1950 to the present, according to RWA (Romance Writers of America). This one divides itself up in massive variety as well. There’s sweet and dark and comedic and tragic. There’s urban and travel and small town, an endless different settings and cultures. It contains a large variation in heat level or sensuality, and an even larger variety of tropes (recurring themes or devices, example: friends / enemies to lovers). • Erotic Romance • Not to be confused with erotica, with the “A” on the end. They are two different things. RWA defines erotic romance as, “Novels in which strong, often explicit, sexual interaction is an inherent part of the love story, character growth and relationships and could not be removed without damaging the storyline.” Quite simply, the novel’s plot turns around the physical relationship of the characters. I’ve written a lot in this subgenre, so I know more about it. For the curious, I wrote on some writing techniques for writing plot driving and character developing loves scenes. Erotic romances can take place in a variety of settings. They can be contemporary, historical, or paranormal. • (Note: Yes, this is the subgenre of the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey, but be careful not to assume that all erotic romance involves BDSM. There are plenty of ways to write character growth and plot through a sexual relationship without it. This subgenre is different from erotica because it still has an HEA (Happily-Ever-After) and centers around a core romance relationship. Erotica does not require a happily-ever-after or a love story and so is a separate genre from romance all on its own.
Sub-genres of the Romance film • Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements • Previously known as the “Inspirational” subgenre, it’s grown into a much broader definition of a novel where the spiritual journey of the characters is an inherent part of the romance. I confess this is the one subgenre I’ve not read any books in so I can’t make much comment, but I’m happy to quote RWA that, “These novels may be set in the context of any religious or spiritual belief system of any culture.” And so the possibility of variety is as great as any romance subgenre. • Suspense • The suspense category is romance dressed up in mystery, thriller or suspense format. The suspense elements are integral to the plot. They have qualities of those other genres of fiction but with a central romance plot. My new book is a thriller about a stalker and so falls into this category. Often it involves, a crime, detectives or police work, but not always. A mystery or bad guy of some sort is frequently included. • Paranormal • You’d think this one would be straight forward. They’re all vampires and werewolves, right? Nope. Think settings of science fiction or fantasy, any world with extraordinary elements, magical or technological. Again, it’s a central romance that turns the plot, but the paranormal elements are inherent and the story would not work without them. • All of these subgenres contain a variety of “heat levels,” the industry term for degrees of sensuality. They can be sweet or closed door, they can be high heat and ultra-sexy. Though if they get super explicit, they fall into the erotic romance subgenre. They come in a variety of lengths, frequently in long novel format, but novellas are also popular and many write shorter stories or anthologies. • One last note I’d like to emphasize, the romance genre represents a broad diversity of cultures, and not every romance is written for a heterosexual couple. There are LGBTQIA, polyamorous, and more. • I’ve left a lot out, and I’ve given none of them their due justice. The hard part as a writer is knowing where your book fits amidst the options and how to market it toward the audience it needs to find.
Iconography of the Romance film • Romantic genres tend to consist of love stories, often featuring affairs or other forms of heart break. The two main characters often end up being together at the end, after some crisis. The characters often being a female and a male, although films have been made different which fit under the romance genre, which feature two females falling in love, or two males. Most romantic films consisting of two characters searching for love, and finding their soon-to-be partner in some unexpected place, for example; they meet in an elevator, on a train, or bump into each other on the street.
Iconography of the Romance film • IconographyMost iconographic aspects to see in romance films are; The big kiss scene at the end • Happy ending (the characters find a happy ending either way) • There is always an antagonist, who attempts to break up the relationship (or a disaster which causes the two main characters to not be together) • Happy music is always played at the end of the film (in a few cases a recent pop song which really doesn't fit in)
Actors/Directors associated with [genre] films • Leonardo DiCaprio • Kate Winslet • Hugh Grant • Julia Roberts • Ryan Gosling • Rachel McAdam's • Meryl Streep
Box Office – Top 10 films of the Genre • The Theory of Everything · Gross revenue: 123.7 million USD • Love Actually · Gross revenue: $248.5 million USD • Me Before You · Gross revenue: $208.3 million USD
