Costume
I believe that the main purposes of costume is to represent characteristic and demographics, reflect the message of the piece and to show how a character feels. This includes both the items of clothing as well as the colours and accessories.
Costume is very varied for the romance genre. It often depends on what sub-genre the film falls under. However for most romance films the characters will just wear casual clothing such as jeans and t-shirts/coats. This is because the typical characters are often teenagers who tend to be portrayed as wearing casual clothes. The costume could be business wear depending on what the narrative consists of or the character demographic. For example, if the film is set in a city location and includes working men and women, then they will be likely to be wearing business wear in the trailer. This is because in romance films the costumes tend to be predominantly representative of the character’s personality and how they fit together, along with the mood of the piece. They are also very reflective of the contextual to what is going on in the films. For example, usually when the characters go out on a date (conventional content of romance films) they aim to look their best, therefore they tend to wear formal attire. The males tend to wear suit and tie and the females a dress. For a working city male, the suit will most likely be black, whilst most other working status males will tend to wear blue or another alternative pattern, based on characterisation and demographic. The females here are often clothed in a red dress, holding sexual connotations as well as love and danger, which can each be applied in the film, usually foreshadowing later events. When a woman wants to appear “sexy” or mysterious, she will often be seen wear a long coat or fur, which both hold sexual connotations yet cover her up physically portraying both purposes. REMEMBER ME, TITANIC, LOVE, ROSIE In teen films there tends to be a lot of focus on stereotypical teen costumes such as hoodies, trainers and school uniforms. A lot of their clothes tends to be very representative of demographic and characterisation and very period based. A lot of these costumes are similar to the costumes of social realism films, however in these there tends to be less focus on the representation of cliches and various costumes tend to be much more similar. TITANIC, KIDULTHOOD |
Makeup
The females makeup various considerably in romance movies depending on the plot, characters and the context within the film. When there is an insecure woman or a woman who is hiding something, she tends to wear dark heavy makeup and bold lipsticks, however, when on a date it is interesting that someone who is comfortable with their male counterpart tends to wear much more subtle and arguably more flattering makeup.
TFIOS |
Props
Depending on what is being shown within the trailer can depend on the amount of props and the props which will be appropriate to the sequence. In a genre such as a horror, close-ups of props such as knives, hammers etc, will be shown to the audience to help establish the mood and atmosphere. In a romance a lot of the time this is often used too. Props are an essential part of a trailer, especially when using close-ups or mid-shots. This is not so much the case if a lot of long shots are being used as the props may not be noticed and are only important in the case of continuity editing. The props often help to draw the audience in by creating tension or connoting to a particular aspect of the genre. Some props shown in the trailers of romantic genre are very significant in the rest of the film or the storyline. Flowers are a prop conventionally used in romance trailers/films because they symbolise beauty and have connotations of love and affection. Giving them as a gift has long been considered to be a romantic gesture and therefore they are used as a way to emphasise romantic feelings between characters.
Props in general often hold representative or reflective connotations in their use and this is especially true in romance films. In stereotypical romance films there is often the presentation of flowers, which is a convention of romance as well as connoting to fragility, life and beauty. There are also quite often gifts of jewellery or chocolate, usually as a reinforcement of reactionary views as it is from the male to the female. Finally, a lot of the romantic films still seem to use notes as a functional prop in order to communicate between the romantic couple, despite modern advances in technology. This can be seen in DEAR, JOHN where the notes are the only thing that they are able to use to communicate due to John being in the army, and the audience witness the very romantic conversations between them. This is possibly indicative of the idea that romance is dead or dying due to modern movements. A CINDERELLA STORY is quite oppositional to this where the characters meet through conversing online on a forum accessed on mobile phones. Whilst this is now a fairly outdated film in terms of technology, it is generally considered a modern take on the Cinderella fairytale and is made to seem very realistic. This relates to conventions of social realism and teen sub-genres as they tend to include predominantly very functional props, such as car/ house keys, cameras, technology, schoolbooks, etc. Both sub-genres are often also associated with alcohol and drugs. KIDULTHOOD |