Research: Romance analysis; The Holiday

The holiday trailer

 The trailer sets the scene by showing the snapping points of the 2 main characters lives that stimulate the events of the film. The main characters are very likable and going through tricky situations that women can relate to. This reaches out to the target audience (of predominantly women) as they can see themselves mirrored in the main characters. The audience therefore are emotionally connected to the characters and are made to want to see the film to see how the characters handle their situation.

Soft faced pace music in the background lightens the feel of the trailer and suggests comedy elements to the film, this is backed up in the way the characters react to their extremely negative situations. The voiceover gives more insight to the plot and helps create a picture in the audiences minds.
Here a medium shot of one of our characters shows her reaction as the shot zooms in to a close up of her expression as it changes from joy to the opposite. This makes the audience feel like they are experiencing the same hurt panic, making it a very effective way to get the audience involved in the film as it makes them feel connected and involved in the characters situation.
The mise-en-scene of both characters surroundings are the complete opposite, which contradicts their situations as these are very similar, this means that a wider range of the target audience will see themselves represented in the characters, which is one of the main reason that people watch such films.

The trailer uses typical romantic clichés such as 'as one door closes another door opens' to suggest to the female viewers that what is happening to the characters in the film could really happen in real life, this gives the feel good factor which is then linked to watching the film, hence forth making the audience more likely to enjoy it and want to watch it.

As the trailer continues the music gets louder giving the trailer a lighter feel, possibly mirroring the moods of the characters as their situations improve by the entry of new love interests.

During the phone conversation between 3 of the main characters fast edits and close up images show facial expressions and show more of the comedy elements of the film. This also gives an insight into the drama of the film, the abrupt stop of music draws more attention to this.

Close ups of the main characters are presented on screen with the names of the actors/actresses next to them, showing that they are a key selling point of the film and attracting fans of the individual actors/actresses.

Actresses such as Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are well known and established within the genre, so are likely to attract a large audience.

The screen then cuts to the film title with a white background so it stands out to the audience and makes it stick in their minds.

The nationalities of the main characters being American and British attracts audiences from both countries, especially as it shows very stereotypical scenes from both countries. American is shown as hot and sunny with large houses and movie star lives, and England is shown to be snowing and cute with little towns and cottages with open fires.

Romances films tend not to follow narrative theories as closely as action or thriller films, however this film does show slight similarities to Propp's theory. However on the whole it seems to have an original plot that doesn't stick to the rules or stages of most narrative theories.