Romantic Drama Target Audience

          When is the last time you heard your guy friend talk about a romantic drama film? Almost never. This is because most Romantic Dramas focus and revolve around the life and perspective of a female, therefore, attracting a larger female audience. When the movie is about a woman many other women watching that movie can relate to the character. Whereas, a guy watching may not understand certain female problems. Movie's sometimes show a perfect relationship and story therefore women sit and watch and wish for that. Most romance films are targeted to females because they rely on the stereotype that women are more empathetic than men.

          For many movies it is pretty obvious they will focus more on a girls life even by just the cover design. Movies such as Clueless show the main character(a female) on the front cover with her friends. The words are also fit the girly and pink woman stereotype. This automatically attracts more females since it's something they want to relate to. The movie To A ll The Boys I Ever Loved Before shows only the main character (a female) and she is surrounded and wearing feminine colors. The blue heart behind her is also an indication that the design is targeted for women. For the movie Mean Girls, the whole cover is pink including the costume design for the characters. On the cover There are four girls, this will automatically make a young woman want to pick it up.

Character Planning and Development

         My partner and I have been working on a Romantic drama film opening that focuses on a teenage romance. In the majority of romance dramas there is always a conflict in the relationship. The problem is either with one person in the relationship or between both. Our romance will revolve around our two main characters, Lia and Aaron. Some examples of romantic dramas are The Notebook and Titanic. In both of these movies there is a family disapproval of the character's relationship. However, with this film opening we want to focus the problem with Aaron and his personal life.
         Lia Adams, is going to be a social and friendly girl however, not a popular girl. For her character we want her style to be grungy and girly. For her style, we looked at costume design inspiration from Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You. Some 90's trends we want for her character are mom jeans, crop tops, high tops converse, flannels, hair scarfs, and plaid skirts. Her music taste is going to be 90's grunge. For makeup we are going to keep her look natural since makeup looks in the 90's were natural. Makeup items popular in the 90's were lip gloss and eyeliner. For Lia's room we need it to match her personality and style. On her walls she is going to have band posters and posters of 90's guy celebrities. When introducing her character in the film, we want to start off by showing the audience what type of person she is from her music taste.
          Aaron Quinn is going to be our male main character. He is going to be the new kid that moved to Florida from California. Aaron is going to move into Lia's neighborhood and that when she first sees him. Aaron's style is going to be a bit more basic as compared to Lia's style. Aaron is going to have an opposite personality from Lia. He is going to be more quiet and reserved. Since he is the new kid he is not going to have many friend's at first. Aaron is into rap/hip-hop, especially rap from the west coast. He listens to artists such as Tupac, Ice Cube, and Ice T. For Aaron's outfit it's going to be kept very simple by just having him wear jeans, white shirt, old school vans, old school converse, and crew necks. This basic trend was popular among guys in the 90's. Aaron is also going to Aaron is going to be dealing with a conflict , however, we still haven't decided what conflict to have him dealing with. Aarons room is going to be more simple and more put together in order to reflect his character.

Costume Design Planing

   

           For the film opening, since our film is about a teen romantic drama we decided to get inspiration from 90's films. Our film will be taking place in the 90's. We decided on this decade since many styles from then have returned and are trending today. Iconic clothing items such as mom jeans, plaid, scrunchies, denim jackets, tiny sunglasses, neon, and grunge style are making a comeback. These clothing trends are especially popular amongst teens and young adults. Many of these styles are being worn by young influencers and supermodels today. This 90's trend is most popular amongst girls, since it's advertised more to them from young influencers they look to for clothing inspiration. The clothing brand, Brandy Melville targets young women from ages 16-25. They sell many 90's inspired pieces. Another clothing brand that targets that same age group is Urban Outfitters. However, they sell to both males and  females. This whole vintage vibe has become a present day aesthetic.

 

          For our female character, Lia Adams, we are making her style grungy yet still a little girly. We looked into 90's movies, Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You  for costume inspiration. In these movies plaid and other patterns are used to develop the characters. In the movie Clueless, character costumes are one of the most important aspects of that film. Like Clueless, we plan on focusing a-lot on costume and trying to make it as relatable to the 90's as possible. The character of Lia is gonna be into wearing plaid skirts, distressed mom jeans, band tees, chokers, flannels etc. For the hair we plan on following 90's hair trends such as crimping and crazy up-do's. Another hair trend popular in the 90's was the use of hair scarves or bandanas to pull back or create a headband for the hair. To add to the girly grunge style her clothing color palette can consist of red, pink, and black. In t.v. shows such as Friends, we also got inspiration from the character Rachel. Below she is seen wearing some popular outfits. Along with that the act of layering clothing was a huge trend in the 90's and still is today. Below are some pictures we gathered for costume design inspiration. 

            For Aaron,  since he is the opposite of Lia he is going to have more of  a basic/ laid back 90's look . For his costume color palette we are going to rely on blues, grays, and whites. Unlike Lia's grunge style, Aaron is going to be into 90's rap. We are going to give him more of a "skate-boarder" look. For inspiration, we researched clothing inspiration from young celebrities, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt. A popular trend for men in the 90's was the "denim on denim" look. Crew necks and baggy jeans were popular amongst men as well. Like the female trends, these male trends are popular today as well. Below are a couple of inspiration pictures we gathered for ideas. 

Learning How to Plan and Construct a Romance

         After conducting research behind the Romance genre writing process, I learned that in most romance films the audience go into the film already knowing two characters are destined to meet. When writing a Rom-Com, usually one of the characters has a conflict in their life that gets in the way but in the end gets solved. In many great rom-com films, two different personalities come together and end up working together and balancing each-other out. Characters should be unique and complex. What most people think of when they hear romantic comedy is a man and a woman sharing a cheesy and cliché love story. However, some of the most successful romantic comedies are hybrids, movies that have expanded their audience by mixing with other genres. Romantic comedies can be action-adventures, sports comedies, ghost stories, political, satirical, period pieces , crime stories, teen movies and more. This kind of cross-genre mixing has kept this genre successful for decades.                  

                                                                    Casablanca(1942)                              
             

        Not all romance films start of as love at first sight. Sometimes, making the characters hate each other will give the romance more room to bloom, but they can also have lukewarm, mixed, or one-sided feelings. Even though they aren’t pursuing a relationship, external forces bring them together. They might partner to accomplish a joint goal, attend the same school, or be hired to investigate each other. Something to take into mind when writing a romance is to avoid giving the audience the wrong idea about a character. It's important to avoid giving a character unhealthy behavior. You don’t want your audience to decide that your character or characters are terrible people. Unfortunately, it’s common for male love interests to be outright abusive to their partners. As time passes, more and more audience members will feel disgust when relationships aren’t equal. It's important to avoid this pitfall by checking over your character interactions.

Titanic(1997)

Genre Research

Romance Genre

        Romance films are love stories that focus on the relationship between two characters. Romantic films usually explore the important themes like; young love with older love, love at first sight, unanswered romantic love, sentimental love, obsessive love, etc. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus. Oftentimes, lovers in screen romances face obstacles and the hazards of hardship, finances, physical illness, racial or social class status, occupation, psychological restraints, or family that threaten to break their union and attainment of love. The tone of Romance film can vary greatly. Whether the end is happy or tragic, Romance film aims to evoke strong emotions in the audience. Different sub-genres of Romance include Historical Romance, Romantic Drama, Chick flick, Romantic Comedies, and Romantic Action Comedies. 

Historical romance is focuses the setting in a historical time in history or just a period in history. An example is the movie The Duchess.

Romantic Drama usually revolves around an obstacle thats coming in between two people.Music is usually incorporated to point out the emotional mood. In a romantic drama it normally does not specify whether a concluding romantic union in between the two major characters will take place. An example of this is The Fault in Our Stars.

Chick Flick usually refers to films that attract mostly female viewers. Although many types of films may be directed towards a female audience, the term "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that contain personal drama and emotion or themes that are relationship-based. Chick flicks often are released around Valentine's Day. An example of this is The Notebook.

Romantic Comedies films are films that deal with love in a light, humorous way. Humor in every movie tends to be verbal, situational, or a low-key variety.  In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, like-able, and seemingly meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance. A perfect example of this is the film, The Big Sick.

Romantic Action Comedies  are comedy films that blends with action and romantic comedy films. The well known example of this is the movie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Music Blog Post

Pop Genre
Pop music is popular music that originated in America and has now spread, reaching different parts of the world. The pop genre originated as a combination of different music styles. Today, styles such as urban, country, rock ,dance, and Latin are all incorporated into the pop genre. Pop music is mostly popular among the younger generations. It's popular among Millennials by 40% and amongst Generation X by 27%. The whole purpose of pop music is to appeal to a general audience. Therefore, the use of a mainstream style and a simple song structure is typically used. Some of the most famous pop songs tend to have a catchy chorus and hooks. The pop industry is heavy on recording, technology, and production, rather than live performance. Some of the most famous pop artists consist of Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Kesha, Justin Bieber, and the list goes on.

Marketing Trends 

Snapchat Filter 

Since pop appeals to a younger audience, what better way than to market and promote through social media. It is popular among pop artists/bands to post  of audio or a music video on instagram to promote their new or upcoming music. Pop artist Harry Styles, used a trail of clues through videos, corners of the internet and social media in order to get an interactive scavenger hunt. Another marketing trend pop artists use is to promote their music through twitter and snapchat. Through Twitter, artists usually create a trend among their fans and create hashtags. This allows fans to interact with the artists/bands and at the same time spread and promote new music releases. Through Snapchat, pop artists usually create filters with a snippet of their song. When used the sample of their song is played on a loop. An example of this was when pop artist, Calvin Harris first promoted his song "Slide" through Snapchat, by creating a filter. A marketing trend not only popular with pop but with many other genres is creating merch that shows the artists/band's name or a symbol that represents the band. Trending dances on TikTok, is another marketing trend for the poop genre. Vinyl sales is something that is trending among the younger generations since it gives a vintage aesthetic. Pop album vinyl sales are the second most popular at 25.6%.


Development of the Band's Brand
To develop the brand of my band, my group and I started off by creating a symbol that is meaningful and relates to the band name. Having a symbol allows fans to feel connected and tied to the band and band members. The name of the band is spelled Romat!c Di^ision, because if you were to align the arrow from "Di^ision" to the exclamation point in "Romant!c", you create the band symbol. The purpose of this is also so the fans feel connected because they know something others don't know. Since our band is of the pop genre, we decided to use the bold colors red, black. These bold colors are popular among artists/band themes because when used together they are eye-catching. We also used white as part of our theme colors to balance out the bold red and black. These theme colors are also seen throughout the website and merch that I created. To promote the band we created social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. On Instagram snippets of the music video and new music announcements were posted. On snapchat, we created a filter that plays our music when used. To further reach our target audience, we created a trending dance on TtikTok. In order to get local recognition we made a local tour in Florida and made a list of venues were we were going to perform. In order to make our music more accessible we made sure our music was available through digital distribution and also through physical vinyl copies.

Marketing Products
To further promote my band I created a website thats associated with the theme colors. On the website you can learn about the background of the band, performance locations/dates, album releases. On the website, links to the social media accounts are included in order for quick access. On the website there is also a shop tab where the costumer can purchase merch. The merch includes hoodies, shirts, hats, phone cases, and vinyl albums. There are two different designs on the merch. One is a design of the band and the other is the design of the new album/local tour.

Sample Merch:

Representation Analysis

  In the axe body spray commercial, since the target audience is men, the advertisers used women in bikinis to specifically target men. In this advertisement women are shown hunting down this man that is spraying himself with axe body spray. The women are shown running and competing like animals. The final message in the advertisement is "Spray More, Get More", this message represents an unrealistic expectation among men and women. This message is giving a wrong idea of women's role in society by trying to say that women really care if a man is spraying himself with axe body spray. Moreover the advertisement is sexualizing these women, when really don't have to be that exposed. This commercial is setting an unrealistic representation of women, because not all women have a model shaped body. Not only are the women being poorly represented but the men as well. The commercial only shows one male and one body type. When people are faced with these representation examples, they are going to feel pressured into looking like the people in the commercial. Not only will people feel the pressure but they feel like they have to look like image society represents in order to fit in. Through out the advertisement there is not enough of diversity in race or ethnicity. The majority of the women running are caucasian.

In the tide ad, a mother is shown wearing pink and dressed very girly. However, her daughter is seen wearing cargo shorts and playing with building blocks. The mother wants her daughter's clothes to ruin in the wash because she wants to dress her daughter in the feminine and girly stereotype. The mother expresses her femininity by wearing pink, white, and a dress. The color pink is used to represent femininity, innocence, and sweetness. The daughter is wearing all green with a camouflage pattern. The green camouflage pattern and baggy clothing in this advertisement represents masculinity. According to the final message in the advertisement, "Style is an option.  Clean is not", the advertisers are letting the audience know that the mother doesn't show a realistic representation of all females. The message is that people should be able to dress how ever they want to no matter what gender they are.