The document discusses conventions used in film openings for romance genres. It provides examples of conventions for setting the scene, introducing characters, using certain camera shots, sounds, and narration. Specifically, it notes that the film opening uses an establishing shot, natural lighting, melancholic music, mid shots of the characters, and narration from the female protagonist to set the tone and context. It analyzes how similar conventions were used in the filmmaker's opening, while also challenging the genre convention of using an enigma about the characters rather than just the title.

2. Conventions of Film Openings:
Enigma
Set the story
Opening credits
Narration
Introduction of main characters
Lighting and music reflects the tone
Set the scene, time and date
Establishing shot

3. Conventions of your Genre:
Enigma on our title
The title was white and curvy but simple
It was set at the park where the couples normally date
Narration of the female protagonist
Introduction of main characters right at the start of our
film
Natural key lighting and melancholic and slow paced
music reflects the tone of our romance genre
Establishing shot to show the location
The rhythm of the music goes with timing of the
opening credits
The female protagonist is portrayed as weak whereas the
male protagonist is portrayed as strong
White background to show pureness and neutrality

4. Films I had in mind:

5. Editing:
 In our film we used dissolve in between of the clips so
the first clip flows with the second one. In our photo
memories, we use fades in transition and focuses at the
female protagonist because we want the audience to
focus on her life. In memories clips, we wanted to have
some grains or a montage transition on the clip like the
one on ‘My Sister’s Keepers’ so it recalls back to their
memories.
 So we have used the same technique on ‘My Sister’s
Keepers’ as we want it to look it’s part of her past.

6. Examples of film editing:
 Most of the romance films use fades in editing because
they want it to look simple. However, other romance
films like ‘Remember Me’ and ‘My Sister’s Keepers’ use
different types of edits as they want it to reflect with
the romance theme or they want it to look different.
 At the end of ‘Remember Me’ it focuses in one diary
and the rest are just blurry. At the beginning of ‘My
Sister’s Keepers’ it uses like a montage edit with grains
because it was about the girl’s past memories.

7. Costumes:
We used casual clothes because their roles are just
living in a simple life like most of the couples are so we
wanted to reflect on it and so the audience could
maybe identify what social class they came from. We
also have some meaning behind the clothes they’re
wearing e.g. Scarlett wearing bright clothes as to show
that she is innocent.

8. Examples of Costumes in Films:
 Most romance films use casual clothing like ‘Love
Actually’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘My Sister’s Keeper’. But in
some films they have a different type of clothing
depends on the characters role and their
characteristics. For example, in ‘Legally Blonde’ her
clothes were top designers and she only wears pink.
And in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, they both wore expensive
material as they come from a rich family.

9. Locations/ Settings:
 Ours was set at the park because it was the easiest way
we could go to and the park is in a good condition.
Also its used in some romance films because it makes
it look more romantic and this is where the couple
dates in reality.
 We used the same conventions of romance genre for
locations because we didn’t want to challenged it as it
would look completely different to our film and
wouldn’t fit in with our genre.

10. Examples of Locations in Film:
 Different locations can be set in different romantic
films but it is mostly set where the lovers are dating.
For example, in ‘What Happens In Vegas’ was set at
the park. In ‘Titanic’, it was set on the boat. In ‘Life As
We Know It’ was set at the restaurant. In ‘Remember
Me’ was set on a fare. In ‘Dear John’ was set by the
beach.

11. Sound:
 The sound that we used in the background was
melancholic, slow paced and low key because we
wanted it to reflect to the female’s protagonist
narration. We had the female’s protagonist narrating
all the way through our film opening because we
wanted her to tell the audience some details about her
life. And for the diagetic sound, we just have Tom says
something to Scarlett because the lines that he said
were important. We did it like that so the audience
could feel the same way to what the protagonist felt.

12. Examples of Sounds in Romance
Films:
Non-Diagetic
 Mostly in romance films they use high key, relaxing, soft
sensual, cheerful music when things are good and when
things are depressing they uses slow rhythm, low key and
melancholic music. For example, at the beginning of
‘Letters To Juliet’ it was slow paced and then it builds up
which makes the audience feel happy. In ‘Titanic’ it was
slow paced and uses low key which makes you feel
depressed.
Diagetic
 Normally in romance films, there are sounds of water
flowing, sound of the cars, people talking in the
background and birds singing.

13. Camera Shots:
 In our film we used establishing shot at the beginning so
that the audience can see the location. But we mostly used
mid shots in our clips because we wanted to capture their
faces but also some parts of the background so the
audience can still see where it was set in. But in some cases
where Tom was sat at the bench, we used close-up shot as
we wanted the audience to focus at his emotional face. By
doing this, it could make the audience sympathize on him.

14. Examples of Camera Shots in Films:
 Close-up shots are mostly used in romance films to
focus on the lovers faces. In ‘Titanic’, they uses mid
shot when they were talking so it captures there faces
and also some parts of the background.

15. Narration:
 We used a narration all the way through our two
minute film opening as we were inspired by ‘My
Sister’s Keeper’ where the female protagonist was
narrating about her life. So we decided to use
narration about Scarlett’s life as we wanted the
audience to know about her a little bit.

16. Examples of Narrations in a Film:
 There are romance films that uses narration like ‘My
Sister’s Keeper’, ‘Twilight Saga’ and ‘Remember Me’. It is
usually narrated by the protagonist talking about their life
or someone else’s life.
 At the beginning of ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, the protagonist
was narrating about her sister’s life. At the beginning of
‘Twilight Saga’ and most parts of the film, Bella talks about
her life and her love for Edward. At the beginning and at
the end of ‘Remember Me’, the protagonist repeats the
same script about “how anything you do in life would be
insignificant, but it’s very important you do it.”
 http://youtu.be/HP4NxUFgFrs?hd=1

17. Characters/ Actors
 We have two main protagonists which are Scarlett and Tom.
Scarlett is innocent and sweet but also weak like most of the
female characters you would see in a romance film. And Tom is
caring and strong like other male characters in romance films. At
the start of the plot, the two couples are happy until Scarlett was
acting strangely.
 We used the same conventions of characters in a romance genre
as we would want the audience to focus on the two people.

18. Examples of Characters/ Actors in a
Film:
 In romance films they normally have a boy and a girl
dating
 Sometimes there’s a love triangle, fighting for the same
person

19. Lighting
 We just used natural lighting as it was set during day
time so there’s no need to add more lighting. The sky
was bright which reflects the mood of the two happy
couples playing about at the park. This also reflect the
innocence of the female’s protagonist characteristic.

20. Make-Up
 In our film, the female protagonist wears natural
make-up as it portrayed her as being fragile. We got
the idea of ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ where the female’s
protagonist sister was ill and she hasn’t put on any
make-up. We used it on ours as well as we want her to
Props
 We were going to use bottles of water for the two lovers to
have a water fight so that it looks passionate. But then the
weather was too cold so we decided not to have it. However,
we use the swings and bench which makes it looks
idealistic.

22. Used, Developed and Challenge:
 We have mostly used the same conventions in romance
film to ours as we have a narration on our film opening
which is the same as My Sister’s Keepers talking about their
life. We used mostly close-up shot and mid shots just to
show their happy faces together at the beginning then at
the end of Tom’s sad face when Scarlett walked out. We
have the location set in a park where the lovers are
normally dating.
 We developed one of the conventions which was the
enigma where we used ours as the title of our film when it’s
normally the character’s actions. We did it like that because
we wanted the audience to think what would happen to
their relationship or what would happen to the female
protagonist at the end of the film.