COMEDY GENRE ANALYSIS Gregory Doherty HNC Creative Media

COMEDY GENRE ANALYSIS Gregory Doherty HNC Creative Media Production

GENRE v According to my research ‘genre’ is from 19 th century France. v The French for genre is either "kind" or "sort", v It 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.

COMEDY GENRE ‘Comedy’ is a genre readily open to mix with other genres; v Romantic Comedy v Sci-Fi Comedy – Paul, Guardians of the Galaxy v Spy Comedy – Spy v Comedy drama v Black comedy v Improv comedy v Comedy Spoof - Airplane

TARGET AUDIENCES v Genre 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: //visualmemory. co. uk/daniel/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory. pdf

TARGET AUDIENCES v 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 v “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. v Familiarity with a genre enables readers to generate feasible predictions about events in a narrative. v Drawing on their knowledge of other texts within the same genre helps readers to sort salient from nonsalient narrative information in an individual text. ” v http: //visual-memory. co. uk/daniel/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory. pdf

CONVENTIONS OF COMEDY v Characters – Eccentric, wise, popular, or unpopular v Males and Females – Attractive, unattractive, love interests v Outfits – Revealing, colourful, crazy/silly v Sex, Drugs, Violence, Weapons and Money v Settings – Random or meaningful v Scenarios – ridiculous

COMEDY SIGNIFIERS v Camera Techniques v Mise en Scene- placing on stage actors, decor, lighting props, and costumes v Location v Sub-genre Era i. e. Sci-fi Comedy set in the future/Comedy western in the past

CAMERA TECHNIQUES/ CAMERA ANGLES v 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

BUSTER KEATON v For 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

BUSTER KEATON v 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. v 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) v https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=UWEjx kk. B 8 Xs

GUARDIAN'S OF THE GALAXY v Another example would be in The Guardians of The Galaxy: v 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. v 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 v See You. Tube Clip here; https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=NSJe 0 w. Iv 718

L'ARROSEUR ARROSÉ v 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. v “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. ” v (Taken from Wikipedia) https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/L%27 Arroseur_Arros%C 3%A 9

DEVELOPING STYLES v 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. v In Hot shots they included a recipe in their credits.

MONTY PYTHON v The 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. v “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. ” v 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. v https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=79 TVMn_d_Pk v http: //wegotthiscovered. com/movies/hidden-messages-end-creditsmovies/6/

CURRENT STYLE – HOT FUZZ Visual signifers Technical Signifiers v Props v Camera angles v Clothing v Narrative v Location v Establishing shots v Lighting v Characters

HOT FUZZ v In Edgar Wrights movie Hot Fuzz v Clothing – you can tell from the get go we can see a number of different that this movie is about the police, from visual signifiers/ conventions which the flat jackets, Gun holster, police badge include for example; and his full uniform. v Props – a number of items related v Location – you can also tell from the 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. 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.

VISUAL SIGNIFIERS v Lighting – 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.

VISUAL SIGNIFIERS CONT. v Characters – for this movie there is v The rest of the local police service is a Simon Pegg playing the lead role Sergeant bit lazy and complacent and don’t believe Nicholas "Nick" Angel who is a tough, Nick when he is telling them there has smart police officer who knows something been a murder. in the town is seriously wrong. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!) There is Danny Butterman a local police In this action movie there is a group of officer who is the son of town chief bad guys who are part of the Inspector Frank Butterman. (an idiot child local Neighbourhood Watch who probably just got the job as his dad is Alliance (NWA) who act like they are all the chief) saint Theresa but are secretly murderers trying to keep the town “pretty”.

TECHNICAL SIGNIFIERS v At the start of the movie we see v When he arrives at the desk, they use a close Simon Pegg’s character “Nick up of his face – which is a very serious, no Angel” walking into the police nonsense type of face. station looking very much like a v They then use fast paced editing to give a lot of strong figure. They use wide shots information within a short amount of time and in with the main character coming in this they use Low angle camera shots to convey from the background, but you can’t that he is a strong and powerful character. see him clearly giving the sense of mystery. With a slow zoom used in the long shot.

TECHNICAL SIGNIFIERS CONT. . v Through my research I found another great example of the types of camera angles and shots used – v 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. v It uses slow paced editing to hold onto a shot for longer to make the timing more natural.

TECHNICAL SIGNIFIERS CONT. . v 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) v https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=e 8 d. FK 5 n. I 1 YA

NARRATIVE v 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. v 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. v 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.

NARRATIVE CONT. v 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. v “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".

OTHER NOTABLE POINTS v Richard E Grant on Ealing comedy as seen on Sky Gold on the 18/09/16 v On this series Richard E Grant tells us how the genre of comedy can fundamentally change the behaviour of a nation. v 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 GOGO dancing in the 60’s. v A Rock Club opened up with the name of Whiskey a Go-Go. v Richard E Grant quotes; “its charming that the 1940’s Ealing comedy could stake a claim on the swinging sixties”.

CONCLUSION v Overall I feel having Genres are very beneficial within a movie v 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. v 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 v https: //www. quora. com/What-are-the-best-examples-youll-give-for-every-film-genre