Comedy Genre Analysis Gregory Doherty - PowerPoint Presentation

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ComedyGenre Analysis

Gregory Doherty

HNC Creative

M

edia Production

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GenreAccording to

my research

‘genre’

is from 19

th

century France.

T

he

French for genre is either "kind" or "sort",

I

t

is any category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.

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Comedy Genre

‘Comedy’ is a genre readily open to mix with other genres;

Romantic Comedy

Sci-Fi Comedy – Paul, Guardians of the Galaxy

Spy Comedy – Spy

Comedy drama

Black comedy

Improv

comedy

Comedy Spoof - Airplane

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Target AudiencesGenre is very important to both film producers and film audiences because for the producers – they need to engage to their target audiences in order to make sure their film is successful, whilst the target audience needs to be interested in and engaged in the genre so that they go and watch the film and actually enjoy watching the film.

“Genre provides an important frame of reference which helps readers to identify, select and interpret texts.” Daniel Chandler

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf

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Target Audiences

At the same time as being a good frame for a viewer – sometimes a genre could be completely different to two different people so could cause confusing for some viewers for instance the film Guardians of the Galaxy which I will mention later I would consider it a comedy sci-fi if you ask me what it was however on Netflix it is listed as sci-fi action/adventure. I think this is what Daniel Chandler is trying to say in this following quote

“Assigning a text to a genre sets up initial expectations. Some of these may be challenged within individual texts (e.g. a detective film in which the murderer is revealed at the outset). Competent readers of a genre are not generally confused when some of their initial expectations are not met – the framework of the genre can be seen as offering 'default' expectations which act as a starting point for interpretation rather than a straitjacket. However, challenging too many conventional expectations for the genre could threaten the integrity of the text.

Familiarity with a genre enables readers to generate feasible predictions about events in a narrative.

Drawing on their knowledge of other texts within the same genre helps readers to sort salient from

nonsalient

narrative information in an individual text.”

http://

visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf

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Conventions of Comedy

Characters – Eccentric, wise, popular, or unpopular

Males and Females – Attractive, unattractive, love interests

Outfits – Revealing, colourful, crazy/silly

Sex, Drugs, Violence, Weapons and Money

Settings – Random or meaningful

Scenarios – ridiculous

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Comedy Signifiers

Camera

Techniques

Mise

en

Scene- placing on stage actors, decor, lighting props, and costumes

Location

Sub-genre Era i.e. Sci-fi Comedy set in the future/Comedy western in the past

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Camera Techniques/ Camera Angles

In the ‘olden days’ of comedy films (which can be still seen today), the camera angle is very important in comedy films; it could make or break a scene, so lots of wide shots would be used when filming. This was to let the audience see the whole picture

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Buster KeatonFor example in an early Buster Keaton film in which he jumps on the back of a cars tyre, if the camera was filming from the side of the car you as the viewer don’t see the scene properly

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But if the camera was angled behind the car you can see the whole scene with Buster’s face and you can see what is happening – when the car drives off and Buster is still holding onto the wheel not moving.

This scene is explained very well in ‘Every Frame a Painting’ video called ‘Buster Keaton – The Art of The Gag’. (Scene explained at 2.31)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWEjxkkB8Xs

Buster Keaton

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Another example would be in The Guardians of The Galaxy:Using the wide shot you can see the focus would be on the front of screen but ‘we’ the audience can see an ‘it’s behind you’ scene setting up behind them.

A good example of this would be in the movie - ‘The Guardians of The Galaxy’ in which the main characters are at the front of the screen plotting a jail break, whilst ‘we’ the audience can see one of the characters ‘Groot’ in the background getting the piece of equipment that they need

See YouTube Clip here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJe0wIv718

Guardian's Of The Galaxy

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One of the earliest known comedy films was a short French black and white film called L'Arroseur

arrosé

 or The Sprinkler Sprinkled first screened on June 10, 1895. Which has a slapstick kind of humour to it.

“The film portrays a simple practical joke in which a 

gardener

 is tormented by a boy who steps on the 

hose

 that the gardener is using to water his plants, cutting off the water flow. When the gardener tilts the nozzle up to inspect it, the boy releases the hose, causing the water to spray him. The gardener is stunned and his hat is knocked off, but he soon catches on. A chase ensues, both on and off-screen (the camera never moves from its original position) until the gardener catches the boy and administers a 

spanking

. The entire film lasts only 45 seconds, but this simple bit of 

slapstick

 may be the forerunner of subsequent film comedy.”

(Taken from Wikipedia)

https://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arroseur_Arros%C3%A9

L'Arroseur

arrosé

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Developing Styles

Films like Hot Shots, Top Secret, Aeroplane and Naked Gun were among pioneering movies to make fun of everything in it including the credits to the film.

In Hot shots they included a recipe in their credits.

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Monty PythonThe Monty Python films used olden style techniques but brought their own techniques which are used today.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

with their off the wall credit sequence that fires joke after joke at the viewer is another great example of comedy genius

.

“Starting with unusual ‘Swedish’ subtitles, the gags become more and more strange until a title card apologizes for the fault in the subtitles, informing viewers that “those responsible have been sacked.”

When problems persist, a further announcement is made, stating that “those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.”

etc

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79TVMn_d_Pk

http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/hidden-messages-end-credits-movies/6/

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Visual signifersPropsClothing

Location

Lighting

Characters

 

Current Style – Hot Fuzz

Technical Signifiers

Camera angles

Narrative

Establishing shots

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In Edgar Wrights movie Hot Fuzz we can see a number of different visual signifiers/ conventions which include for example;Props – a number of items related to the police force

etc

and in a particular scene there was a metal bin that is flung at Danny’s head for a bit of Comedy action.

Hot Fuzz

Clothing – you can tell from the get go that this movie is about the police, from the flat jackets, Gun holster, police badge and his full uniform

.

Location

– you can also tell from the beginning the movie that it was about the police from the location in a police station at the start, you also can tell later in the movie that there is a bit of a mystery to the movie from the change of location to the small town.

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Visual SignifiersLighting – there is a number of different lighting used in Hot Fuzz to create the mystery in one of the scenes they used

Diagetic

lighting from Lamps

etc

to give the effect that they are in a rural place. But at the start of the film they used high key lighting to give the scene the brightness you would expect at a police station in the middle of London.

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Characters – for this movie there is Simon Pegg playing the lead role Sergeant Nicholas "Nick" Angel who is a tough, smart police officer who knows something in the town is seriously wrong.

There is Danny

Butterman

a local police officer who is the son of town 

chief Inspector

 Frank

Butterman

. (an idiot child who probably just got the job as his dad is the chief)

Visual Signifiers Cont.

The rest of the local police service is a bit lazy and complacent and don’t believe Nick when he is telling them there has been a murder.

(SPOILER ALERT!!!!)

In this action movie there is a group of bad guys who are part of the local 

Neighbourhood Watch Alliance

 (NWA) who act like they are all saint Theresa but are secretly murderers trying to keep the town “pretty”.

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At the start of the movie we see Simon Pegg’s character “Nick Angel” walking into the police station looking very much like a strong figure. They use wide shots with the main character coming in from the background, but you can’t see him clearly giving the sense of mystery. With a slow zoom used in the long shot.

Technical

Signifiers

When he arrives at the desk, they use a close up of his face – which is a very serious, no nonsense type of face.

They then use fast paced editing to give a lot of information within a short amount of time and in this they use Low angle camera shots to convey that he is a strong and powerful character.

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Through my research I found another great example of the types of camera angles and shots used – It uses Match on action cuts which is done by a camera at a wide angle establishing where they are, then cut to another shot to show the different position of the scene.

It uses slow paced editing to hold onto a shot for longer to make the timing more natural.

Technical Signifiers Cont..

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As I mentioned before this scene uses fast paced editing to show a lot of information within a short amount of time another good example of this would be when nick is moving to Sandford

. You see him go from a big city to a rural area – we can tell his journey by the train is a busy one in the city then changes to a much quitter one, his mobile phone signal Vodafone gets much worse showing he is leaving civilisation. The taxi he got in at the beginning is a city cab then changes to a small town cab, and arrives in the middle of nowhere in the rain (Lighting very dark – shows his mood)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8dFK5nI1YA

Technical Signifiers Cont..

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Narrative

Nick

is a very good police officer who is promoted to Sergeant and then transferred to a quiet town because he is making his colleagues look bad in comparison to him.

Hot Fuzz is very reminiscent of Hitchcock’s – Rear Window in the way no one will believe Nick when he is telling them that it was murder. So he has to deal with it himself.

The Narrative throughout the whole movie is of comedy, it is mysterious with the different “Accidents/Murders” but still has all the comedy aspects you want in a action comedy – for example when Nick is constantly saying that it is murder not an accident the rest of the police station are joking and mocking him saying “murder” in very funny accents

.

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There is some aspects of a western in this film also – Nicks Character is like a Sheriff/White Knight coming through the town on a white horse to clear the town of its scum.“It takes elements from Edgar Wright’s final amateur film, 

Dead Right

, which he described as being both "

Lethal Weapon

 set in Somerset" and "a 

Dirty Harry

 film in Somerset".

Narrative Cont.

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Other notable points

Richard E Grant on Ealing comedy as seen on Sky Gold on the 18/09/16

On this series Richard E Grant tells us how the genre of comedy can fundamentally change the behaviour of a nation.

He shows us a clip of the comedy “Whiskey Galore” which was remade for the French market as “Whiskey a Go-Go” and was so popular it introduced drinking whiskey to the French nation and also instilled the popularity of GO-GO dancing in the 60’s.

A Rock Club opened up with the name of Whiskey a Go-Go.

Richard E Grant quotes;

“its charming that the 1940’s Ealing comedy could stake a claim on the swinging sixties”.

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Conclusion

Overall I feel having Genres are very beneficial within a movie

For example genres target certain audiences for instance a “Family Movie” removes much of the violence and sexual content so that children and parents can view the film together and not worry about any inappropriate scene, so this makes it easier for parents in deciding what to watch in the cinemas.

Similarly the “teen” film is more of a romantic comedy, slasher horror, or coming-of-age films, and is designed to appeal to an adolescent audience, so you know what you are going to get when you go and see it.

A forum I came across during my research which shows how a community of film watchers can grow from deciding which film is the best for each genre

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-examples-youll-give-for-every-film-genre