For my final project, I would like to create the beginning of a love story. The love story, unlike others, is going to be realistic. The goal is for people to watch this, and relate to the events occurring, not laugh at how unrealistic these events are going to be.
500 Days of Summer, is a great example. The story is about a man going through a relationship. The relationship, was great while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end. In the beginning of the film, the guy struggles to go up to the girl. He has trouble talking to her because he thinks she is out of his league; this is a realistic event, not all men are confident about themselves. It takes him time and trust, to finally be able to maintain a relationship with her. She was good for him because she always challenged him to do things out of his comfort; another realistic aspect of a relationship. Throughout the movies, the previewed multiple fight scene, where the couple were figuring out their differences; This is an important issue that not many movies focus on. Crazy Rich Asians is another example of a realistic Rom-com. The movies is a about a couple who is going to the guy’s home country to attend his cousin’s wedding. Throughout the movie, the couple faces the challenge of getting the mother’s approval; Even though this obstacle is common, it is a realistic aspect of a relationship. Movies neglect to describe the reasons and purposes for the mother’s or anyone's hatred. In this movie both sides of the story is portrayed, the mother’s and the girl’s; this is a realistic aspect of many relationships.
Romantic movies always neglect to show the realism aspect of the relationships, they tend to only focus on the aspects that we want to see. When taking out the realism aspect, we are left with these dream-like, unrealistic relationships that we all wish to have. This tends to create a bias. The representation aspects of the romantic movies tend to shift the audience's view of relationships. For younger viewers, films with such plots effect how they perceive relationships, and it really impacts them in the long run. The effects that come with these film aren’t fair, the idea these films plant inside young people’s mind are far from the truth. Relationships are not what we see in films, and the constant production of them isn’t helping with braking that fact.
Some of the representation aspects are necessary in romance films such as, cliches. The cliches of romantic films are the main aspects of the films. For example, how the couple meets, where they live, the reasons for fights, etc. Although this contradicts what I just mentioned, there is a level to representation. If the couple meets by accident, or if they were longtime best friends, the audience wouldn’t think much of it; or if they lived in New York city, or the suburbs. There are certain aspects of representation that shouldn’t be crossed or overused. The representation that will be challenging to fulfill, is realism. It’s going to be extremely difficult to base the story on realism, the greatest romance film lack the sense of realism. To fully incorporate the elements of realism in romance will be the biggest challenge in my movie opening.
