Soooo we decided to change our idea from a crime drama to a romantic comedy because it was just getting too big and too hard to do in the time we had and it was just too much politics. (: Our new idea is an indie British film but is different to other well-known romantic comedies and the films that inspired us were films like 500 Days of Summer, How To Be, Away We Go and Paper Heart.
500 Days of Summer is a boy-meets-girl film and is in a non-linear narrative so it's not a typical beginning-middle-end film. Its not in order but audience know which of the 500 days it is. It also skips some days too, so the typography/graphics don't come on screen consecutively, day 1, day 2 and so on. Some days aren't mentioned at all because it would take too long to show what happened in each day.
The title is a play on words because the female protagonist's name is Summer and the story follows the 500 days that the male protagonist knows Summer. It is also released in the Summer and is a film set in a summery location in the city. Tom is the male main character and he works in a greeting card company thinking of designs and text that goes inside the card. Summer is his boss' new assistant and he falls in love with her immediately but she doesn't believe in idea. The film begins with a disclaimer: "Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely accidental ... Especially you, Jenny Beckman ... Bitch." suggesting that it is based on the co-writer, Scott Neustadter's real-life romance.
This is unconventional because its in a non-linear format and because it doesn't have a happy ending. Most boy-meets-girl stories do have happy endings where the couples get together in the end but the narrator at the start does say in the trailer, 'You should know up front, this is not a love story.'
The trailer starts with the moment Tom and Summer first talk to each other in the left when she comments on his music. It starts with a medium close up and then a long shot when she walks out of the lift. This is to show the first time they talked to each other as the film is about their relationship. And then the 'Fox Searchlight' comes up as the music starts. It is upbeat music - the intro to 'Us' by Regina Spektor and the visuals show the two main characters when they were younger whilst the narrator says 'This is the story of boy meets girl' and introduces the characters about what they thought love was.
It also uses typography and graphics on screen, mainly blue on black, to show what day it is and to show that it was the 'Official Selection Sundance Film Festival'. Towards the end, there's a quick montage sequence of their happy times and then the name of the film is shown. After that, some movies put another scene at the end which makes people want to watch it, like a funny scene in comedies or a final action scene in a sci-fi/action movie. In this one, there's a conversation between Summer and Tom about Sid and Nancy who are infamous for their relationship which didn't exactly end too well.
Summer - "We've been like Sid and Nancy for months now." Tom - "We have some disagreements but I hardly think I'm Sid Vicious" Summer - "Noooo, I'm Sid." Tom - "..Oh, so I'm Nancy?"
This is intertextual to Sid & Nancy's explosive relationship and suggests its Summer who's leading Tom on, and we know that. But Tom doesn't, and its up to him to learn it the hard way because he insists Summer's the one for him.
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