Although I couldn’t be present at my final media artefacts screening, I certainly think that it engaged with a core concern of considering how comedy functions within different genres of media, specifically the short film format. Although our film, Trip Up, fits within the ‘comedy’ genre, the creative process of setting up the comic frame and brainstorming different scenarios that allow for humour was vital in establishing audience engagement. The key idea of a group of friends being high on a hallucinogenic drug whilst being faced with a handful of testing scenarios, gave our group the perfect structure to engage audiences with a unique narrative whilst implementing the theories of humour we had learnt in class. We then worked in ideas such as incongruity (the pirate appearing on the beach), absurdity (the crazy delivery guy), and benign violation (Kevin Killing the delivery guy) which intensified the comedic nature of the film, and by effect increasing audience engagement.

If we had more time to work on the film, I would put more effort into every aspect of the process – particularly the production days and post production. I think that if granted more time whilst filming the project, we could have experimented more with camera angles, camera movement, and set design. Focusing on more experimental methods could define our film more so as a lysergic/’stoner’ comedy and really added to the trippy vibe we were going for – think a more toned down version of Gasper Noe’s Climax or Enter The Void. Additionally, I think that more drafts of the film, and even a few test screenings could have helped us better complete the final cut. Some scenes could be given more attention in regard to their place in the film – such as the delivery guy scene, which is quite fast paced and tense, this could be more focused on and conveyed through rapid cuts of extreme close ups and more experimental angles  (also tying into my first point of getting more coverage on shooting day).

Operation Superstar was a film that I really enjoyed watching from this studio. The way that the group considered how comedy could be applied to enhance and contribute to the overall quality of what was mainly a coming of age story was really impressive and entertaining. Harry being characterised as the more intense and dedicated friend, while Fergus was more stoic and laid back, was clearly understood and believable. A line that comes to mind is when they walk past the homeless guy – Harry asks Fergus “Give a homeless guy a Northface puffer and you know what he becomes?”, to which Fergus replies “Warm?” – This gives awesome insight into the characters and their mindset whilst also being a hilarious line.

Rogue was another film I found super entertaining. I think this group did the best job at genre hybridisation – a key idea explored throughout the semester. The film employs key conventions of a spy/action flick, with the inclusion of fast paced chase scenes – whilst characterising the lead as goofy and seemingly incompetent to complete the task at hand, which sets up numerous gags throughout what is at its core an action film.

The studio tasked with organising and running the end of semester film festival did an amazing job. I imagine that some of the studio’s key idea’s were to organise funding as well as promote the festival, in order to achieve a financial return. This explains the film trivia nights that the organisers hosted in the months/weeks leading up to the festival. The trivia night would both generate funding for the festival, whilst also promoting it to members of the public who might otherwise not be aware of the event. I saw multiple social media posts and posters along Swanston St, promoting the trivia nights and explaining their purpose.

Reflection 1

Reflection 2

Reflection 3

Reflection 4

Reflection 5

Final Reflection

At the beginning of this studio, I had no idea how in depth we would research the basic ideas of humour and why people find things funny – mainly because it was never something I had really thought about myself. However after completing the first weeks module, I was led to consider some of the reasons people laugh; because they’re nervous, Because they hear something surprising, because someone is suffering who deserves it (Simons, 2023). The following week, we discussed the theory of benign violation in more depth. This is the idea that a general rule for what is considered ‘funny’ must abide by these three laws – a) the scenario is appraised as a violation, b) the scenario is appraised as benign, and c) that both appraisals are occurring simultaneously (Warren, McGraw, 2015). After exploring both this idea, and the idea of incongruity, I began to take more notice of the things I found funny, trying to apply these theories to what I was laughing at in every day life. In doing this, as well as practising through the weekly assignments, I certainly notice these concepts being applied to my groups final media artefact, Trip Up, Where the whole premise of somebody going missing is a violation, and the mode that the story is told renders it benign. In addition to this – the films plot points involving murder (of the delivery driver), and the effects of having an intensely bad drug experience (Kevin disappearing into the ocean, a random pirate appearing from nowhere) relate back to these theories of incongruity, absurdity, and benign violation. Without the theory explored earlier in the semester, I don’t think our artefact would have been able to effectively portray the comedic elements that came with our films general plot. In addition to Trip Ups comedic elements, I believe it captures audience attention through its cinematography, particularly the scenes that take place on the beach and in the tunnel, as well as its relatively simple and easy to follow narrative, which also allows the jokes to land effectively.

Although I am really pleased with this project, if I had more time I would definitely focus on set design, locations, filming style, as well as Millie Bobby’s story line. For the set design and locations, I think we could have focused more on creating a consistent world that the characters live in. For example, the living room that the film begins in could have been set up more like a ‘man-cave’, with posters on the walls and household items following a specific lysergic style and colour pattern. Additionally, if we had more time to research and receive the correct approvals, we could have found some interesting places around the city to film more trippy sequences similar to the tunnel and beach scenes.

More time to experiment with different filming techniques could have greatly enhanced the overall quality and ‘look’ of our film. This could include anything from upsidedown/spinning tracking shots, to experimenting with focal length and camera angles. Similar to how acclaimed film director, Gasper Noe, Builds his Mis-en-Scene through camera movement, lighting, and choreographed movement, as opposed to just space containing characters and objects (Firdaus, 2023), our film could have developed its own style and world through employing a similar focus.

Finally, If given more time, I think our film could have been greatly enhanced by giving Millie Bobby a more detailed and enhanced story line (which was mainly restricted due to a lack of time). Our group had earlier ideas of giving Millie a wild adventure, where she ends up in a completely absurd environment (net fishing in the high seas, exploring the amazon etc..), which would have also tied in well with the theories of humour studied earlier in the semester.

Beginning the semester making individual media artefacts was really beneficial in developing my understanding of the theories of humour we were investigating, mainly because it took me a while to think of something that aligned with the particular weeks theory. However from week four, when I began to collaborate with other students, my understanding of these theories was only strengthened. I felt that the variety of ideas had a snowball effect, where the quality of our sketches continued to increase the more we brainstormed. Other group members ideas also assisted me in understanding theories in a more timely manner, as I could quickly recognise how they aligned with the theory we where investigating. It was also I these weeks when I collaborated with K, and we found that our senses of humour aligned pretty well – helping us make the decision to collaborate for the final assignment. The collaboration process worked really well during the making of Trip Up, where between the five of us, somebody was always able to power us through a stage of writers block, often through building off ideas of other group members. An example of this is when we couldn’t figure out what the boys would be doing in the tunnel. Ben and I suggested that Kevin hums a song/lullaby that weirds out Josh and Adam out. Unable to think of any material, Giorgio suggested we take inspiration from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory chocolate river scene, in which Willy Wonka sings an eery tune. The main learning point I will take out of Trip Up‘s collaboration process, that we did not focus enough on, is the importance of delegating specific roles to group members. This could have involved our group making decisions on a director, producer, and sound director – which would have allowed us to have a specific focus shooting day, as opposed to everyone being responsible for all aspects of filming, which at times made things a bit difficult.

Bibliography

Firdaus, I. (2023) The Cinema of Gaspar Noé: A Poetics of Transgression, pp. 218–254.

Simons, S. (2023) Six small essays about comedy, Humorism. Available at: https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/ (Accessed: 31 May 2024).

McGraw, A.P. and Warren, C. (2015) ‘Benign violations’, Psychological Science, 21(8), pp. 1141–1149. doi:10.1177/0956797610376073.

Reflection

Our group finalised preparation for filming on Monday, when we met up in class to become familiar with our sound recording equipment, as well as scouted our locations. Both proved to be extremely useful – particularly checking out a filming location we had in mind (Caufield racecourse) for out tunnel scene. Once we got to the racecourse, the tunnel we had in mind was under construction, so we looked around for another one. Luckily we found an awesome replacement on the racecourse that was multi-coloured, working even better than the original. This scouting also gave us the opportunity to find a quiet spot on Brighton beach.

Filming began on Wednesday, although this day was mainly spent becoming practically acquainted with the filming equipment and our process of filming scenes. This was made particularly more difficult to figure out due to our group only having five members, and many of those earlier scenes feature four characters, making it hard to capture sound. I also think we made a mistake filming with lapel mics on the first day – as a boom mic would have been much more practical, and also would have avoided interference with clothing. It also did not help that our boom pole was broken. We did decide to switch to a boom mic after our outdoor scenes, which made our filming a lot more efficient, as well as (hopefully) enhance the quality of the film. Despite this minor setback, we successfully filmed our beach scene and arrived perfectly on time during sunset.

On Thursday, our group had to move relatively quickly, with equipment needing to be returned in the early afternoon, as well as crew not having more available days to film. This was quite disappointing, as although we got a decent amount of coverage for our film, and completed all of the intended shots, we didn’t have a lot of time to experiment with angles and camera movement. This was particularly noticeable during our filming of the Millie Bobby’s trip scene around Josh’s house. I feel that for a lot of our filming days, I kind of led the direction of shooting – although I also think that establishing solid roles for each member to stick to prior to filming would have been really beneficial and made our filming a lot more efficient.

Reflection:

This week, our group was successfully able to finalise our script, plan shooting days, and sort out what equipment we need for filming.

The week began with our work in progress presentation – which served as a good wake-up call to focus on translating our ideas and intention into the script. Although we received terrific feedback, particularly on my script writing and general idea for the film, I do think we were a bit misunderstood in terms off the style we are going for – purely thanks to our lack of planned explanation.

On Wednesday, the group finalised the script through bouncing ideas off one another for particular circumstances the characters may find themselves in. I found Hannah’s feedback particularly useful in this practise – as she advised us to make the absolute most out of the absurdity our idea carries. This led mainly helped us in breaking through sections of the script we felt creatively blocked at – particularly during the beach scene, when a pirate randomly walks into frame and Kevin walks into the ocean. We realised we did not need to be so strict on how our story reaches an end – and that the potential for fun and incongruity in our fundamental idea is what we should focus on when coming up with our idea, as opposed to following a strict narrative structure. This also led to the idea of ‘killing off’ Kevin at the beach,  only to add him in a post credit scene; we built his character to be completely absurd, so why not extend that trait as far as we can?

This week our group aims to completely finish our filming, so that we can begin editing with a comfortable time before the due date. K was great last week in organising what the group needed to film – this also helped us understand which scenes we wanted to experiment with our filming techniques (use of fish eye, disorienting camera movements) – so I feel confident we will be as organised as possible, come our filming day on Wednesday.

SCRIPT

Week 3 Reflection

Beginning this week, our group had solidified our short films narrative, characters, and key plot points.

On Monday, we began class having a basic idea of the story our film would tell, as well as the characters in the film. We got quite stuck when trying to brain storm our sequence of events, about half way through. We were encouraged to practise the brainstorming exercises , and jot down any idea, line, shot, or action – as this could break our creative block. In doing this – we successfully broke through and thought of an entire different story, whilst keeping a few key ideas we had conceived in the previous week. The story we were able to conjure up is definitely more complete and enticing than what we previously had – which was more the combining of scattered, less related ideas.

It was then time to write the vomit script. I took on this role and jotted down majority of the script before Wednesdays class. I found this exercise quite difficult, as although I was technically meant to continue writing, and not pause to think of dialogue/jokes, I found myself pausing for more basic action and dialogue – although I still left a lot of blank space for possible jokes and action. Obviously the vomit script was not 100% considered in terms of dialogue and what best suites the characters personalities, but it was definitely a good place to start.

On Wednesday, our group went through the script and began filling in the blanks, and working through logical issues relating to dialogue and key plot points. One of these issues was figuring out how the drug taking is initiated. We worked through a few possible causes and agreed that Kevin should be the one who pushes for the crew to take the drugs – as it gives us the opportunity to present his character as a more cocky, pushy, and generally annoying personality. Another key event we worked through was the conversations being had when the friends are waiting for the drugs to kick in. I was really happy with what we came up with – particularly the dialogue leading to Millie getting up and leaving. I feel that we are drawing from many theories and methods of comedy, and that our film is shaping up to be a lot of fun for audiences, particularly thanks to how we can experiment with the influence of drugs on the characters – for example, The incongruity of Kevin hurling the rock at the Uber driver.

VOMIT SCRIPT – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nvnsElXeSoqC_WSykF8C3DK6yb95Dgkt/view?usp=share_link

Week 2 Reflection:

Going into week two, our group had a rough idea of what our sketch would be about, knowing the basic premise of friends experimenting with drugs and the funny situations they could find themselves in as a result.

Mondays class was mainly centred around brainstorming possible scenes, characters and their traits, as well as showing each other reference videos we can take inspiration from. One of the main videos we watched was The Trip (1967), which I also included in my brainstorm. the main usefulness of this video was not in its use of humour, but rather the perculiar yet simple method of filming, which took interesting angles and tracking routes (e.g. circling around the characters),  as well as its great use of colour and shadow.

By the end of Tuesdays class, we had a solid outline of the story as well as a few key events/scenes and character arcs. Some of these included having a character who goes walkabout and finds themselves on an epic adventure – only to casually stumble back into their friends unfazed. we also knew we wanted an arrogant friend who ends up an anxious wreck, and a scene that switches from the perspective of the friends (who believe they are being chased/in a fast paced action film) to a member of the public, in which the group of friends look completely different to how they believe.

Whilst trying to think of some more scenes on Thursday – we naturally evolved our idea into a more solid narrative. Through trying to think of key scenes, a story naturally began to emerge. We agreed that the scene in which the person disappears and goes on an epic adventure should be the catalyst for the other friends to go looking for him, with the characters we considered on Monday being a perfect trio to go on the rescue mission. We have now planned through the key events for the first half of the movie – as well as a solid outline and description for all the characters.

By the end of next week, we should have a solid draft script and a plan for shooting days. I am really happy and satisfied with the stage we are up to, and the quality of our narrative and story. The group has also agreed that this project is an opportunity to be experimental and creative whilst filming and editing – which makes me super excited!

GROUP AGREEMENT LINK HERE

BRAINSTORM FOR MAJOR PROJECT

–   Must be 8-20 minutes

• Comedic short film/sketch

• Taking ideas/situations that audiences can relate to
• Incongruity, escalation, benign violation

• Even using something like a pet peeve to plant the seed for a rise in tension and progressing narrative

• 
  

  Telling one story from multiple different perspectives

• We like the idea of exploring drug use and the premise of our idea.
• We like the idea of a group of friends experimenting with drugs for the first time.
• Each person is having a unique experience – with the narrative being shown from their perspective.
• The narrative can also be advanced and explained through one particular character who believes he is in a documentary – he gives talking heads interviews throughout the skit to put particular scenes into context, and even makes the audience believe that they are watching a documentary.
• The classic guy who always believes we are living in a simulation/is full of Joe Rogan type theories and conspiracies
• A twist at the end of the sketch where we se that maybe our original perspective of the narrative was missing something that adds a new layer of context (e.g. one friend didn’t take the drugs/spiked it etc…
• Funny SFX shown in random trip sequences, e.g. a dog with shoes on, random pop ups/funny paranoia.

Character Archetypes that could be explored 

• Arrogant Friend: This character thinks he knows everything about drugs. He constantly tries to guide the others in how they deal with their trip/how much they take. He also claims to have the most experience and craziest stories.
• Nervous Friend: This Character plays the classic hesitant friend, with familiar traits that can be added from everyday situations (e.g. the friend that doesn’t want to go out but ends up the most tragic)
• Regular Friend: A character that can go any way, someone we can mould in any way to progress the story
• Trip Sitter/responsible friend: This character can also help guide the narrative and be a voice of reason/represent the audience who is sitting and observing the other characters act out of the ordinary

• Comedy Mood Board
• Trapped (2023) perfect incongruity and escalation explored in Week 3’s reading, which discussed the pillars of writing short comedy sketches. We really like how it takes the relatable idea of being stuck talking to someone in a social setting and escalates it to a point where you genuinely have no idea where its going to go. 
• “One beer, then I’m going home” (2023) Is another short by ‘Almost Friday’. We really like how these guys take such familiar situations yet are still able to add a twist and element of surprise. Having already completed some short comedy sketches, it is also quite clear that many lines are improvised and worked on during filming.  
• This scene from Peep show is another impressive example of how drug taking, and the nerves that come with it, can be approached comedically in TV. This whole episode (S3EP3) is a terrific take on psychedelics, as it is filmed in a really underwhelming and dull set (the apartment) – with what could be the worst characters to be around in that specific circumstance. 
• This Sketch from Key and Peele is another piece we can take inspiration from. The piece focusing on one particular gag, which could be set up in any circumstance, works really well in the gang type environment. Obviously the production quality is also great – and shows that although the joke can naturally get laughs, a high focus and attention to detail on set and production in vital.
• The Trip (1967) is filmed in a a uniquely casual yet hypnotic way – aside from the actual trip sequences, Corman has used shadows and natural colours to put the audience into a lysergic frame of mind. If you watch the 6-8 minute mark of the link, you see how the camera movement, colour, lighting (particularly the bold and constantly moving shadows) all compliment each other to visually fit the theme of the film, and characters frame of mind.

WEEK 1 REFLECTION

This week mainly involved getting into groups and generating a basic concept for our major assignment. I am really happy with my group, and certainly feel that all of our senses of humour align. Even through short brainstorming sessions, we are all on the same page with most of our idea – and work well bouncing ideas off each other.

Wednesday was our main opportunity to flesh out a proper idea and concept for our film. Although we were a bit slow to start, we came up with the idea of a short film focused on the unique circumstances a group of friends find themselves in when taking drugs for the first time. I think this idea works well because it allows us to capture a variety of different ‘mini sketches’ all following the same story. Similar to how Little Shits explores the same characters in different situations, I imagine our short film will follow a similar style.

Moving forward, I definitely think our group needs to remain decisive in our decision making and scheduling, as the project has the best chance of succeeding and running fairly smoothly so long as we remain on track with our key dates. By the end of next week, I hope to have a mostly completed script, as well as an agreed upon schedule for filming and what we want completed by the work in progress.

A2: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre index

Experiment #1

Experiment #2

Experiment #3

Reflection:

For this weeks experiment, genre hybridisation, I was mainly involved in pre-production and production stages, having no role in post. The writing process for this scene was mainly conceived through listing common conventions of action movies – with the main one being intense chase/standoff sequences. We then began to think about how action movies typically incorporate humour to work within the genre. One of the main ways we thought of this was through the classic innocent bystander, who is usually equipped with a food trolley/shopping bags, getting wiped out by the characters involved in the chase. Obviously our idea took this to a more extreme and focused level, however I think we did a good job  in sticking to the main message I took from the weeks tutorials; If you remove the comedic elements, the movie still makes sense and works in a narrative sense.

Although our idea doesn’t develop the action characters, we thought the best way to effectively execute this hybridisaton  was to through the audience into a scene that would typically be found half way through a film. With the addition of the news story at the beginning, and the comedic characters introduction in the middle, I think the scene does a terrific job at nearly making the audience forget that a random guy has won the lottery, making the eventual surprise shooting even funnier.

similar to other weeks, lots of this scene was elevated through improvisation and on the spot thinking during our shooting day – for example, the multiple gun shots after the comedic characters shots, as well as the ’12 o’clock’ argument between the two shooters.

This weeks experiment certainly helped me consider how humour is utilised in outside genres, as well as encouraged me how to think of comedy as an addition (as opposed to focus)

to a narrative.