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.