Genres + Openings: Codes + Conventions

To clearly understand how the genre Rom Com open's their movies, i have watched many examples and are trying to find the common Codes and conventions. I am going to post all the film i will discuss here first. And link them to thier imdb page and include the directors and year of release. so everytime i reference one of the movies later on i dont have to include the link then.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) Judd Apatow
The Break up (2006) Peyton Reed
Hitch (2005) Andy Tennant
Four Weddings and a funeral (1994) Richard Curtis
10 Things i hate about you (1999) Gil Junger
Runaway Bride (1999) Garry Marshall  
John Tucker must die (2006) Betty Thomas
Love Actually (2003) Richard Curtis
Moonstuck (1987) Norman Jewison
Young in Revolt (2009) Miguel Arteta

Production titles.
  
 - Over all the production titles i have seen i have seen a variety of 3 things that are common.
1. Some films have just got the plain production logo playing before the film kicks off. This is the norm in most films. Such as Runaway bride, where the normal "Touchstone" and "Paramount pictures" production title came up.
2. The normal production title comes up but with music/sound coming from the film itselfs. A example of this is Young in Revolt. In this you can hear the character played by Michael Cera doing some that i won't discuss on here. During the production titles.
3. For this kind of production title i saw, what happens is no title credits come up, but instead just plain white text on black background. Example of this is "Channel 4 news" at the start of Four weddings and a funeral.
      - Quite often they is one or two production credits at the start as well as having sometimes a mixture of production credits and just company names in black text.

Normal Titles

    - Out of all the rom com openings i have watched i noticed that the majority of them contained titles for the different actors aswell as producers and directors in the opening. though a few films didnt have them. One of these is Young in revolt where they don't come in till 10minutes into the film.
  - The majority of time the normal titles are usually just white writing (because this makes it look clearer) on top of the clips. The 40 year old virgin does this, As the character is getting ready for work. the different titles are appearing alongside him.
 - Some of the normal titles are just on black backgrounds. John Tucker Must Die where at the start it does this.

Exposition

   - Exposition is a large part of the openings of rom coms, as alot of them are the main characters trying to explain thier pasts, and what is going on.

- Mise en scene

Mise en scene are sometimes used to create exposition aswell as character progression. In both Young In Revolt and 10 Things i hate about you. Different things are being shown to show the type of people the characters are. In young in revolt as he is explaining his past and his story they are shots in his room of objects such as Vinyl records of his favorite band and in 10 things i hate about you it shows her car in relation to other cars to show the kind of person she is.

- Narrative

  Narrative is a huge part of the openings to rom coms. Hitch / Young in revolt/ John tucker must die/ Love Actually all use this. It is used as its a very good way of filling the audience in with what the idea of the film is. What the plot line is up to date. and what the characters are thinking. Its a useful device that is used alot in teenage rom coms.

- Subtitles

   Subtitles are not used in any of the rom coms i have watched. Though if i do find some i will talk about them.

Character Progression

Character progression is a huge part of rom coms. As the idea of the film is that a few characters will change over the course of the film. Quite often in the opening character progression isnt shown because the director wants the audience to know what the character is like before he changes over the course of the film.

Plot lines

     The plot lines in openings of the film belonging to the rom com genre, usually follow the norm of the boy who liked the girl. But the girl is with the jock. And by the end of the film the girl is with the normal boy.
     This plotline is easily seen in John Tucket must die. where the main girl (though the idea is swapped so the normal girl liked the guy but he guy is with another girl) talks about how alone she is. and how she likes this guy. Its also relevent in young in revolt apart from the story dosen't include the girl till later.
     In Moonstruck and 10 Things i hate about you. It dosen't even talk about relationships or show them in any way. In both, a character is partly introduced but the boy or girl of the opposite sex isnt. In Moonstruck romantic references are made in the form of establishing shots of lit up manhatten. But 10 ten things, doesn't even make any reference to the romantic genre.
   In a few rom coms, Relationships are already established and the film is about a breakup and getting back to gether or other ideas. The two films i watched that suit this are The breakup and Runaway bride. In the breakup the opening is a guy fliritng with a girl. Then pictures of them in a relationship while the rest of the film is based on them breaking up. Runaway bride's opening is the bride running away from a wedding on a horse. so a relationship has already occured.
    Lastly two of my examples (hitch and love actually) both involed a 3rd party talking about relationships in the opening. Using narrative. Later on in both of these films the characters find love.
   Lastly a well used opening technique in rom com openings and opening the movie with a character waking up, This is seen in 40 year old virgin

Music

    My last point is the music. In all but one of the examples i watched (young in revolt) they was music. But in the rest the music used was to do with the themes in the movie. For example in the runaway bride the lyrics in the music were to do with running away. Usually the films have used songs written before the film. For example hitch uses Wonderful world by Sam Cooke and The breakup used a Queen song. Unfortunatly i can't use real songs but one example i watched used a made up song to fit the clip. Which doesn't involve lyrics. The 40 year old virgin does this. aswell as FWaaF and partly in Young in revolt.