from my research into romcoms i also found some inspiration from directors such as richard linklater and his 'before' trilogy, marc webb (500 days of summer), and jason reitman (juno). i also took a lot of inspiration from certain actors' performances in other films, such as michael ceras awkward characters in scott pilgrim, superbad, and juno. and also timothee chalamet's portrayal of elio in call me by your name. these films all have a very similar portrayal of the two main roles which i want to include in my film with a different twist.

these films are typically very dialogue heavy, for my film I will be using lots of over the shoulder shots, shot reverse shot, and multiple angles edited together. Im going to include this so that the dialogue scenes feel more dynamic and retains the viewers attention. when it comes to the editing of these scenes I hope to achieve an engaging and stimulating experience for the viewers. however, with these shots I need to make sure I follow the 180 degree rule in order for the scene to not disorient the viewer.

an example of one of these tropes is 'love against all odds' which is portrayed in the notebook - 2004 directed by Nick Cassavetes. The film romanticises persistence to the point of obsession which creates an unhealthy expectation for romance as it can show that obsessive behaviour is okay and eventually becomes a social expectation for romance.

Another common dynamic shown in romance movies where one or both people sacrifice their ambitions and dreams for a relationship. this is shown in the film la la land - 2016 directed by Damian chazelle. despite the two characters nit ending up together and being able to follow their dreams, it can create an idea that romance and ambition are mutually exclusive which could reinforce the idea that one has to sacrifice either their relationship or their dreams instead of being able to have both.

I will use these tropes in the context of two friends to show the audience how unrealistic they are to how romance is in the real world.

In my research I delved into the issues with the rom com subgenre and how I can satirise them in my short film. I believe my research helped me out a lot with developing my ideas and for writing the script so I could follow through on the tropes and character archetypes. however I also believe that my chosen genre and the idea for my film was easily misinterpreted as just being a normal rom com. however I do believe that the message I set out to show in my film of platonic friendships being as important as romance was successful as putting common romcom tropes in the context of a friendship was a very different perspective to most comedy movies.

I think the biggest problem I had in the whole production was my planning and coordination. on the day of shooting we were figuring out what shots to film and how we would shoot them on the day which led to a few issues during editing as some shots were framed wrong and I had to mirror them in post production so I didn't break the 180 degree rule. however this mirroring then ruined the location continuity. but that wasn't a massive issue as it was a forest area so it was hard to notice any changes.

During editing I ran into a few issues such as my computer not running the software which led to me having a rushed rough cut with missing scenes and audio that was too loud or too quiet. however after getting feedback on my rough cut I was able to finish it off and create a Final Cut that I was proud of. the Final Cut did have some issues that I wish I could've fixed such as people being in the background of a couple shots or the film not being as long as I had hoped but I believed despite the issues I achieved what I aimed to do.

Another thing I struggled with in this project was time management. throughout my production I spent too much time on my scriptwriting and my idea development which led me to rush the written work I needed to do whenever I had a chance. in the future I would like to be able to work on this and have a good schedule set out as to not have problems like this in the future.

there werent many problems this week as i had most things done which meant i wasnt rushing for my final deadline and stressing. if i had planned out my project better however, i wouldve had even more time to check everything without rushing my work

from this researching i learnt that a lot of different camera angles and takes are needed to shoot a simple dialogue scene so that it doesnt get boring like a static shot would be. i realised i needed to focus on more camera angles after my previous projects where it was very static which led to people getting bored.

Tutunari, I. (2023). Rom-coms: The distorted reality of love. [online] The Michigan Daily. Available at: https://www.michigandaily.com/statement/rom-coms-a-distorted-reality/.

Jumphost (2017). The problem with romantic comedies. [online] The Queen’s Journal. Available at: https://www.queensjournal.ca/the-problem-with-romantic-comedies/ [Accessed 18 Jun. 2024].

Amaral, C.O.D. (2020). The Temporality of (Serialized) Romantic Comedy. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 13(2), pp.78–89. doi:https://doi.org/10.31165/nk.2020.132.581.

San Filippo, M. (2020) “Radical rom-com: not an oxymoron,” New review of film and television studies, 18(1), pp. 3–7. doi: 10.1080/17400309.2019.1664060.

Babbit, J. (1999) But I’m a cheerleader.

Cassavetes, N. (2004) The notebook.

Chazelle, D. (2016) La la land.

Mottola, G. (2007) Superbad.

Ortega, K. (2006) High school musical.

‌