Romantic-Comedy

Genre
A romantic comedy is a mix of the genres a romance and a comedy. They are light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centred on romantic ideals of finding true love. A dictionary definition is that a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. They are sub-genre of comedy films as well as romance films. The romance in the film is also limited and isnt as full as would be in a just romance genre.

Audience
The main target audience for Rom-Coms are females who are teenagers or young adults. They are stereotyped as films which are chick-flicks because woman are seen as the audience who are interested in romance and love, they also enjoy having a happy ending. Males who are in a relationship may watch the film due to going with their partner but otherwise men generally wouldnt chose to watch the film. The audience for a romantic comedy is a quadrant audience 12-80 because it is suitable for the majority of the family due to the film being based around events usually which occur within a family, also it is mainly suitable for teenage girls or couples due to the nature of the film as they find these genres more interesting than males who may not find love at their interest.

Representation
The representation of characters differ from each romantic comedy film usually the film connects towards the audience as most of the audience will use or can relate to the stereotypes. In a rom-com the male main character is either really attractive and out of the league of the girl therefore the girl is chasing after the man or the male main characters is not your average attractive man who may be unpopular but the man chases the female. For example in about time, Tim the male main character is ginger with pale skin who may be looked at unattractive or unpopular and very shy. The representation of age is usually used as during the film the parents of the female or the male main character are usually there to offer advice along the way, this shows people who are older being more experienced, wise and careful when making decisions. Also the film is either more female or more male based for example Brides maids is more female based which shows female dominance showing them to superior whereas other rom-coms may be more male based depending on this is the events of the film vary.

Narrative
The narrative of rom-coms always tend to have a happy ending, they end with a couple falling in love, with a happy ending. They generally always finish happy, during the narrative there are problems which target the relationship between the couple they have to tackle through these problems to have a happy ending. These problems vary from problems with family members, other woman/me, or friends.

Genre Evolution: Romantic-comedy

1. The forms finds itself Girl Shy 1924. A romantic comedy starring Harold Lloyd and Jobvna Ralston. 2. The Classic Four weddings and a funeral- 1994. A classic British romantic comedy, directed by Mike Newell. Pretty Woman 1990. A classic American romantic comedy, directed by Garry Marshall. 3. Stretching the boundaries Knocked up 2007. A American romantic comedy, directed by Judd Apatow. Brides Maids- 2011 4. Parody My Big Fat Greek Wedding- 2002. 5.Homage Love Actually -2003, directed by Richard Curtis.

Rick Altman
Semantic Syntactic