Literature review

Almost everyone likes to watch a comedy movie because it’s great fun and it’s something that people end up talking about by saying stuff like ‘oh have you seen this scene or can you believe what they did?’ So since I am doing a comedy short film I will be asking the question what makes something funny?

Well there’s always an occurring theme in this and there’s one in particular called Benign Violation Theory and this was created by Peter McGraw who is a psychology professor and the director of the humour research lab. So it’s quite simple, you have two parts to it the Violation part and the benign part.

So the violation part to this is all about how you say something that is not meant to be spoken about and you’re going to get some giggles out of it. But it has to be harmless, and that is where the benign part comes in because of that we know that the person or animal is ok so you don’t feel bad for laughing.

Comedy also has that surprise element to it, so when it comes to pranks, harmless ones, then you would be shocked first and then go into a laughing fit.

So to my understanding comedy is almost always about something bad happening which makes you laugh but it’s not something too extreme to the point where it no longer becomes funny and can cause backlash.

Locations

Picture 1 is of Hartsdown park/Tivoli woods.

Picture 2 is of Margate beach Picture 3 is of Hartsdown

parkThese are the few places that I would like to film my short film in. As the woods is mostly always quiet I want to do it there because it’s out of the way and I believe it can really help with one of my scenes. The beach is quite open and it goes quite a bit of distance, also depending on what time of the day it is people don’t like to go out later because it’s colder by the beach. The park is a place that will be easy to film in because its right next to the woods and you rarely get a lot of people on there. I asked a group of people if these locations best fits my description and they agree that these places are best for my film and that all I need would be in those locations. Most of my scenes would be filmed in these three areas as it’s easy to access and it’s close to me.

Props

Props are a big thing when it comes to a production. Certain productions have occurring objects and I would like to see what occurring object is used in comedy films. This is a short list that some people have thought about.

Banana skin on the floor. Fish slap to the face. Tomatoes chucked at a terrible comedian on stage. And pie to the face.

These were the many things that they found was an occurring theme in some old comedy films. Another thing was the whole waking up the next morning to either find that you stole an animal or you stole a baby but that is a bit too far for a production like mine.

Narrative

When it comes to television programmes/ film comedies they are similar, it is usually based around a group of friends or just a group of people and they are living their life, doing every day to day things. You would get the few odd jokes or a moment when something happens causing them to be in trouble which triggers an audience reaction such as laughs or gasps.

Character

I have asked a group of people the question is a younger person more suitable than an older person? This was their response. There was a mixture of responses. One said that you’re going to laugh more at a younger person getting hurt than an older person because their more fragile. Others had said they would laugh at both but when it comes to an older person they will start to wonder afterwards if the person is ok and if they’re seriously injured. One also said that if they know it was staged then they would find it funny.

Camera

I wanted to go for a few natural looks and do the usual long shot, mid shots etc. I want to do stuff like the 180 degree rule and match on action. I want to capture it so that when it’s at the right angle you can only see me fall whereas on the other side there could be some kind of mat to keep me from hurting myself.

Lighting

I want to make my film look as natural as possible so I wanted to use the natural light from the sun but I also don’t want it looking too blue or too yellow so I need to work on my colour balancing.

Sound

I would need to makes sounds such as slapping, water sounds, sounds of leaves etc. so I would need to use stuff such as maybe just my hands, water in a bucket or a bottle, a bag and many different things.

Editing

When watching videos online it tends to show people doing something such as falling over and they would replay that back but in slow motion to make it seem funny so I wanted to edit that and see what the outcome is to see whether it was something I liked or not. I will edit it to see the fall at a different angle to the way I’m walking

Why does slapstick comedy work for this narrative?

Slapstick is known as physical humour or physical comedy and it’s known as stuff like smacks in the head, poking in the eye, falling down, banana skins and many other things. My film is kind of like that except I want the scenes to be natural looking. Another thing when it comes to slapstick is that it usually is about the character not talking and you see the comedy through their actions.

What is the competition?

I believe that Mr Bean is similar to my film because it has that whole stupidity to it. Both films are about someone who is clumsy, take Mr Beans Holiday for example an unfortunate event happens leaving him in a certain situation and it’s the same with me where I say hello and an unfortunate event happens.

Costume

Exploration of suitable costumes for my main female character – The girl who is very clumsy. My research question is what costume would make someone look clumsy? I want to find out which costume looks best, so I asked a group of people which costume appears to look clumsy.

I got these three photos that looked responsible, these were also taken at my main location which will be a woody are

Picture 1 Picture 2

Picture 3

I showed this to a group of people. I cropped the head off so that they would only have to look at the costume and not go based off of what the person looks like or what they’re doing. They felt that picture 1 is more of a lazy person who spends time inside a lot. Picture 2 was found to look more mature and the type of person who doesn’t hang out with friends much. So that left me with picture 3, they found that picture 3 looked more like the type that would hang around friends, they look like they’re wearing a funny top and don’t mind getting messy.