Portfolio Project Genre #2

 Romance 

Typical target audience of the genre

The typical audience for the romance genre is women aged 18-44. Gen Z is slowly taking more interest in the genre. It is slowly becoming more popular with men, but women still dominate the space. White women are the biggest consumers of the genre, followed by African Americans, Latinas, and Asians.

Genre conventions with content

- Focuses on a central love story between 2 protagonists. 

-A happily ever after consisting of the dream ending for all couples, someone committing and going all in. 

-An emotional sequence of events with heartbreak, longing, and making up. This affects both their professional life and personal life. 

-Incredibly character-driven plots with the story depending on the character's growth as a person to make the right choices and steer the film/tv show in the right way. 

-Typical tropes like enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and fake dating. 

-Internal beliefs or external family are getting in the way of the relationship. A love triangle or homewrecker. 

-Support characters like the characters' friends, colleagues, and family. 

-First meeting, first kiss, and reunion are the most important scenes. 

Genre conventions with techniques

-The forced proximity is a pace-based technique, making the characters rely on and trust each other faster than they would have otherwise. 

-This can speed up an otherwise 3-episode-long back-and-forth into 1 episode, trapped together. 

-The dual pov switches between the characters' individual thoughts of both protagonists, showing what they think of each other. 

-This can help show us each character's goals and intentions with the other. 

-A black moment is a heartbreaking moment to show the viewers that the characters are the furthest away from what they used to be, and then a reconciliation showing their bond is stronger than conflicts like that. 

-Further establishing, next time a petty conflict comes up, it won't be as big as this fight, and it sets a standard that they'll brush over smaller fights unless it's bigger than this one. 

Institutional conventions - narrative image, marketing, etc.

-Character archetypes with one being more passionate than the other, usually the man. 

-Digital platforms like Webtoon make marketing much more interactive, with fans participating in events for exclusive merch. 

-The cover, colors, and font styles make the type of romance it'll be even more evident. The film poster defines the overall mood, tone, and subgenre. 

Two film/tv productions that represent the genre

La La Land (2016)

La La Land is a postmodern musical romance. The 2 protagonists, Mia and Sebastian, bond over their shared love for Hollywood and jazz. It has an old Hollywood glamour feel, adding to the marketing and overall tone of the movie. They had realistic obstacles and a real reason to part ways being financial and career changes. The ending was bittersweet, with both choosing their careers over love.

Titanic (1997)

The Titanic follows Jack and Rose as they deal with not only their feelings for each other but class divide and forbidden love. It's described as love at first sight in the movie. Jack's love feels like a rebellion from roses' overly polished, lavish lifestyle. Jack feels real in a way many of the higher-class people do not. In the backdrop of this romance is a historical disaster, and this love eventually ends in tragedy.

Citations 

For La La Land (IMDb page):
IMDb. (n.d.). La La Land (2016) [Film]. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/ — La La Land is a 2016 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Damien Chazelle.

For Titanic (IMDb page):
IMDb. (n.d.). Titanic (1997) [Film]. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/ — Titanic is a 1997 epic romance and disaster film directed by James Cameron.