IGNZR: What's so Dramatic about Romance?

Romantic Drama Research

Romantic Drama: the divine genre of mixed emotions. You'll feel sad, happy, anxious, stressed, angry, and so much more within a relatively short span of time. It's made to bring you the pleasure and worry of any relationship. You may be asking, "Why do people enjoy Romantic dramas?" Let's dive in.

Content:

Romantic drama films are meant to be piled up of different emotions that make a viewer feel hopeful. There are certain things that allow the feeling to come alive (obviously), such as a heroic figure, a belief, a believable plot, a happy ending, etc.

A heroine is usually involved to draw in a woman and create a sense of infatuation. Fantasy becomes an aspect and the woman is pulled in further.

A belief is just as important. By this I mean a theme, like "love at first sight" or "love has no limits". Beliefs allow room for reinforcement. There's a chance that without any kind of reinforcement of a certain love, different aspects will be paid more attention to, pulling away from the plot.

The drama then comes in. Traits like alcoholism, desperation, anger, heartbreak, brawl are common appearances when watching drama, any kind of it.

It's important to be as real as possible. A film with too much fiction becomes unrealistic for anyone viewing.

Production Techniques:

Camera angles/shots and composition are vital to every scene as everything has a meaning behind it. Producers choose wisely knowing that an angle could generate more power (low angle), less power (high angle), and so forth.

Lighting is important to a variety scenes. Different lighting techniques let different emotions flow. Soft lighting is often used in more romantic scenes, possibly when the couple is having "a moment". Dark lighting could be used in scenes where the couple is arguing and there's a lot of distress.

Music, the key to someone's soul (at least I think so). There are a handful of love songs that are incorporated into love scenes. Whether the song is about heartbreak, meeting someone, or falling in love, it creates a closer connection with the viewers. So much more sentiment comes from auditory cues.

Institutional Conventions:

Romantic drama is marketed in many ways. Here a few:

- Using very well-known artists' music in the background of trailers. Taylor Swift is re-recording all her old albums, and she allows her music to be used for audio in move trailers, so her fans are also drawn to the movie.

- Targeted to adolescent individuals who are looking for experience in relationships (16+)

- Using popular actors and actresses to play roles. Many actors have an established drama they perform best in, so they become known for those movies and become wanted in more, drawing a larger fanbase because these actors have a large following.

Samples:

Dear John, film by Lasse Hollstrom, created by Nicholas Sparks, is a film about a man who comes home from the military to his single, elder father. He encounters a girl at the beach and since the day of, their love story evolves, but they face several challenges along the way. The man, John, finds out his father is ill and begins to frenzy. His girlfriend, Savannah, tries to help them out as she grows very close to his dad, who isn't open with people. However, John is drafted in a war so he moves away, very far. Communication is lost and Savannah soon finds someone else, her soon to be husband. He then gets sick, John returns, and finds out about everything. He's upset but understanding, and eventually, they end on great terms.

The Proposal, film by Anne Fletcher, is about a Canadian woman who needs her green card so she doesn't have to move away. She fake marries her coworker, with no feelings involved, but it turns out they have to have this massive wedding in Alaska with his entire family. They have to pretend to be a real couple; this leads to an amazing love story. She can't be the reason he lies about something so important so she chooses to end everything and fly back home, but he goes to get her as he realizes they're in love (for real!).