Romantic Comedy Research

Romantic comedies are movies with light-hearted emotion centredaround the idea of 'true love' or 'the perfect couple'. Romantic comedies are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as romance films.
The basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources such as Shakespears Much Ado About Nothing. The basic plot is, two people meet, usually a man and a woman and then there is some sort of dilemma or obstacle that the couple must overcome if they want to be together. Almost always the couple will end up together in the end, there are few exceptions of this for example in 'My Super Ex Girlfriend' the two main characters are the initial couple but the 'true love' is between the main male character and his colleague. So instead of the main storyplot being centred around the two main characters compatibility and them living happily ever after, it concentrates on how uncompatible they are and him getting away from her.

Through research i have found that the opening sequence of a romantic comedy usually shows the two main characters before the 'meet-cute' (when the two main cahracters first meet and are attracted to one another) to show how miserable they are or to show there is something missing in their life but when the 'meet-cute' occurs it highlights how goo for each other they are and then the audience are rooting for the couple.
In the 'meet cute' the two characters are usually involved in am embarassing situation or an initial clash of personaility or beliefs. If one or both of the two characters are already attatched the writers leave clues throughtout the film to suggest that the two characters should be together (in the wedding planner, Matthew McGonahey saves Jennifer Lopez from a rolling rubbish bin and then they go on to start to really like each other then she finds out hes married). Similiarly if the two characters dont like each other in the beginning the writer must leave clues to show that they will inevitably end up together (What Happens In Vegas is an example of this).

Other Examples Of 'Meet Cutes:
. It Happened One Night throws away runaway heiress Ellie and world weary reporter Peter together in a dispute over the last seat on a bus.
.Sining In The Rain, the main character is trying to escape fans and find himself in the future love interests convertible
. Notting Hill see's High Grant accidentally spill orang juice over Julia Roberts which leads them into a conversation.

The dilemma in a rom com is usually something to do with the potential couple being of different temperaments or situations. The situation is usually overcome by one of the characters making a big display of his or her affection (America's Sweethearts when Cameron Diaz & Christina Applegate turn up at her love interests wedding). The character is usually trying to win or win back the affection of the other. The dilemma oesnt usually happen until over halfway through the film however the audience should know about the problem while it is uner the surface before the other characters know to create some anticipation of whats going to happen when all is revealed.

The attraction between the two characters must be extablished fairly quickly to avoid boring the auience and the auience should be able to identify with the main characters desire for one another without that the audience will not only lose interest but they will lose sympathy for the characters whihc makes the story irrelevant because the audeience wont care enough to be interested right until the end of the film.

Apart from the two main characters theres usually a best friend of sidekick to the main characters, this character is usually funny and carefree and gives the character love advice. There is also usually a nemesis to the main character who is standing between the two who are in love wether they are aware of it or not (Cameron Diaz in My Best Friends Wedding).

Even though the situation is humorous to the viewers the characters in the film must not fin it amusing. They are supposed to be esperatly in love and it needs to be believeable to the audience!