Reflection –

This week we focused on Satire as a mode of comedy. Having just completed parody, we discussed the similarities and differences between the two types of Comedy – finding that satire intends to criticise or make a specific comment on its subject (whilst also presenting it in a comedic manner), whereas parody seeks to humorously imitate its main subject. Our group decided to satirise the cost of living and rental crisis in Victoria. We decided a funny way we could do this was through creating a fake episode of House Hunters – as it is an easy set-up for students seeking to rent, and we could easily exaggerated the features of the show in a way that could reflect the issues that people face during these crises. Similar to last week, we came up with a basic structure for the way our episode would unfold – coming up with the three locations, and basic ideas for scenes. After agreeing on our basic storyline, we bounced ideas for jokes off one another. On the day, filming ran smoothly and we were able to gather a wide range of jokes and takes for all the scenes, many of which were improvised. I think this was a terrific way of finding the funniest possible jokes for the satire. Aside from the obvious lack of proper housing Made available to the contestants in the show, we also included key lines which linked the cost of living and rental crisis to the comedic elements of our sketch, ensuring that the piece could indeed be read as a satire.

I would say that our satire kept a considerable distance from the genuine issue, not referencing the issues deeper impacts and causes, or offering a possible solution to the crises – but rather broadly commented on the issues relevance in todays society, placing an emphasis on its relevance for university students.

Reflection

For this weeks experiment, we were placed into small groups and tasked with conceiving and executing a short parody sketch. Finding a media form to parody was not too difficult, as finding ways to bend codes and conventions into a humorous manner was not as difficult as coming up with an idea for previous sketches. Our group originally committed to parodying reality TV – as replicating the basic idea of following somebody around as they complete everyday tasks is easy to replicate, however the detachment reality stars have from the common person is easily able to be mocked and exaggerated in a humorous manner. When our group met up for the day of filming – we all agreed on a Vogue ’73 Questions’ parody, as it allows for the creation of a familiar concept with audiences. I really enjoyed working and writing as a group – as it allowed for good testing of ideas, as well as the ability to build off each others bits, which only helped build the sketches humour and quality. As a group we all contributed equally to the writing and direction of the sketch, with new ideas being suggested and implemented in between takes. Our sketch established a level of familiarity through both the title at the beginning if the sketch, as well as through the upbeat and cheerful voice of the interviewer. It took a unique angle through making the actor or celebrity in question (Chet Bordeaux) not all that talented, extremely condescending, and detached. It also took separated itself from the conventional media form through posing questions that seemed to attack Chet’s integrity and quality of acting. Overall, I think that the parody worked well – however, I think that if I were to complete the sketch again, I would use an idea that allowed for more parody through editing and a wider range of film techniques (such as camera angles, intercutting, and editing).

Index

Experiment #1: Sketch

Experiment #2: Silent Comedy

Experiment #3: Situation Comedy or Story Sketch

Week 3 Reflection

Throughout week three, we mainly discussed the comic frame- being the conditions, codes, and conventions that comedy films and TV shows practise to convey to the audience the comedic nature of what they are watching. The example of an episode of Kevin can F*** Himself  (2021) was used as an example of the comedic frame in sitcoms, which was made an even better example when stuck in contrast to the shows more serious and tense scenes. The sitcom element of the show included a laugh track, stereotypical live sets, and exaggerated acting performances – which as described in Voths article talking about the comic frame, contextualises what we are watching to be put into a comic frame, in effect setting up methods such as incongruity and benign violation to be effective forms of humour.

In addition to investigating the comic frame, we also looked into a reading by Joe Toplyn – who explains the key elements of writing a sketch for late night talk shows. Although being written for specific circumstances, these points were certainly helpful when making my own sketch this week. The main point I took from this class was to have a character who a) has one or two exaggerated traits, b) want to achieve something, and c) will do anything to achieve their goal.

compared to past weeks, this advice made the creative process of conceiving an idea much easier. I began by walking around my house and street thinking of circumstances where somebodies extreme dedication to achieving something relatively mundane could be captured in a humorous way. After considering my own experience with video games, and how you never want to end on a loss to your friend, I thought this idea was funny because a) it is relatable for anyone who has played video games, and b) because the addition of the skeleton and persistent nature of the main character can be taken to an extremely exaggerated level the audience would not expect. If the sketch could go for longer  I think I could have improved the central idea/gag through adding more shots to indicate the passing of time – for example, an establishing shot outside the house during the day time, then a shot after a couple of rematches of it being night time outside the house. I also could have added the protagonist delivering lines insinuating they haven’t moved, for example, lines about being dehydrated or malnourished.

Silent Comedy

This week in class, we focused of silent/visual comedy, and how the contents of the frame and physical movement can illicit humour. This form of comedy was paired with the theory of ‘Benign Violation’, which is the idea that humour forms from a serious violation (e.g. opposing social norms, physical violence, moral/cultural conflict) being appraised as benign (Warren, McGraw, 2015). This theory initially confused me as I couldn’t see how the two could be linked when analysing comedy  – however after seeing a few examples, the idea became very applicable to the comedy I experience and consume every day. An example of benign violation would be watching somebody slip on a banana peel – although the bananas victim is physically impacted by the event (violation), from our perspective, we and the people we care for are not impacted or physically injured by the event (benign).

In our second tutorial, we were shown a The High Sign (1921), a film by Buster Keaton, a pioneer in silent comedy film making. Despite Keatons work practising benign violation, I was extremely impressed with how he was able to  visually communicate key points of the narrative as well as set up the films main gags. Motifs such as the gang sign for the ‘Blinking Buzzards’ is able to communicate to the audience who is in the gang, allow the protagonist to escape danger, as well as act as a recurring joke, eliminating the need for a text slate. All of the films being centred around visual comedy also meant that the framing and movement was extremely efficient and purposeful. The only time text or audio was used on both the Keaton, and Mr. Bean clips, was when it was absolutely necessary to progress the plot (e.g. in Keatons film, the ‘I want to hear the bell ring when you make a shot’ text sets up an entire bit).

I found coming up with an idea for my sketch extremely difficult this week. Mainly because I think I was focusing too much on the silent aspect of the task, rather than an actual joke which I could have altered to fit the criteria. I do believe my skit is a perfect example of benign violation – with the character getting physically beaten and injured (violation) however being purely fiction and hypothetical, with nobody actually getting hurt (benign).

During week ones tutorials, we discussed our ideas on what comedy and humour actually is. The readings gathered in Seth Simons ‘six small essays about comedy’ was a good starting point in exploring these ideas and certainly helped facilitate discussions over what the idea of humour and comedy actually is. One of my favourite essays from this collection was ‘Why People Laugh’ (Simons, 2023) – the reading made me think about not only why people laugh, but the relationship that laughter has with humour and comedy; different forms of comedy and humour illicit a different kind of laughter.

One of the main theories of humour we discussed in class was incongruity. The way comedy can achieve this is through contrasting audience expectations and creating an element of surprise. For example, Tim Robinsons ‘I Think You Should Leave’ skit about the office printer – Breaking this down, the only humorous part of this skit is the female office employee not acting like the other employees, which becomes increasingly more funny the further she strays away from how  you would expect an employee to act. prior to this discussion, I had never considered the nature of humour and what makes things ‘funny’ – however after this discussion I was certainly thinking about how I consume comedy, the comedians I enjoy watching (e.g. Key and Peele, Ricky Gervais) and how they use incongruity and the element of surprise in their material.

Prior to this thirty second skit, I had never written or considered how I could create comedy on screen, so I began thinking about realistic ideas I could capture. Thinking about incongruity, I began to consider normal situations, trends, and how they could be comically altered to surprise audiences and illicit a humorous reaction. I found this process surprisingly difficult, however eventually began to think about specific scenarios, phrases, or activities that could have a double meaning – which could then be used in a skit as premise for a misunderstanding. My initial idea for the ‘ice bath skit’ was for it to be longer, with characters discussing the many benefits of ice baths; increased energy, more attentive, and more awake – all things that could also be misunderstood for smoking literal ice. I really enjoyed the process of coming up with this idea and look forward to creating more comedy through the semester.

References:

Simons, S. (2023), “Six Small Essays About Comedy”, Humorism, <https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/Links to an external site.>.

Studio Reflection –

One of the works I really enjoyed at the screening was He Sucks. I thought that this project was probably the most abstract and ‘elevated’ in terms of style and the way it presented its narrative. Firstly, the short being shot in black and white was a useful code in the visual style of the film as it also paid homage to older abstract horror such as Nosferatu and Psycho – therefore the black and white colour a) assisted in making horror elements (such as blood) more realistic, and b) made the mental imagery of ants, clouds, and even the footage of Nosferatu even more chilling and unsettling. The project also aimed at challenging horror codes and conventions through altering audiences pre conceived ideas of  ‘teen vampire’ narratives – factors such as the vampire always being male, and even the typical happy ending is absent in He Sucks, again showing the film was successful in making something ‘elevated’ and well considered.

Another project I really enjoyed was The News Room. The project was great at presenting deeper themes and once again, challenging typical murder and psychological horror tropes. The narrative being centred around the killer and their psyche (even the killer being a female) is vastly different to most similar genre films such as Seven or even Scream. The films dialogue was my favourite out of any of the films screened – progressing characters development and the narrative in a casual and realistic manner. I particularly recall the conversation between the male news anchor and another guy on set, the conversation and tone of the characters came across as really ignorant and exclusive, yet in passing, mentioned the murder of the politician – further distancing the protagonist from everyone else in her environment. The un-conventional way that the murder section of the story was told, being mainly through flashbacks and stress induced hallucinations was also really effective in heightening the horror elements of the film. The use of surreal lighting in the news room hallucinations as well as the tele-prompt effect assisted in giving the film a really eery feeling, with the tele-prompt even reminding me of films we watched and were inspired from in class – such as the shinning.

OTHER STUDIO REFLECTION –

For this section of the reflection, I watched An Unforgettable Celebration by Louis Petropoulos and Kazuki Maki, made for ‘Uncomfortable Film Making’. On of the key topics I imagine was discussed in this subject is what makes an audience uncomfortable. Watching this short, the moments I think where focused on in order to make the film uncomfortable to the viewer was the rapid cutting in the opening sequence, which encourages the audience to question what the narrative is focusing on. Additionally, the shots in this sequence that involve blood or action are so quick it is hard to make out exactly what is happening and the full detail of the shot, again enhancing audience levels of discomfort through not allowing a clear perception of what’s going on. The description of the film also states they aimed to do this through dialogue and the use of satire. I think this is also really effective when considering what makes an audience uncomfortable – the contrast between the gory and claustrophobic imagery with the comedic dialogue and even sometimes action (reaching for the party poppers in the pocket) blur the line between horror and comedy, I found myself uncomfortably laughing in moments of the film where the narrative was at its most tense.

Shock! A New Horror A4 pre-production reflection

Shock! A New Horror A4 – production reflection

Shock! A New Horror A4 – post-production reflection

Shock! A New Horror A4 – final reflection

Production Paperwork

At the beginning of this studio, I had never written a short film script or been apart of a crew.

The process of analysis in the initial weeks of the subject were extremely beneficial when working on my short horror script as it presented consistent methods, themes and styles within the horror genre and what is considered ‘elevated horror’ (e.g. surreal horror in Suspiria and the series of short films we analysed in class activities). I certainly wish I had presented my short film idea in class, not specifically because it could have been chosen, but also because it would have been great to receive class feedback and ideas on my writing, The creative process of coming up with my idea was quite difficult as I decided to completely restart my script only five days before it was due. I think at times I became hyper focused on aspects of my script that I thought were important, such as the details of the radio broadcast, that I may have hindered the quality of dialogue and action between characters; the fun parts! The main challenge for this studio (out of any assignment) was pushing my ideas for my short horror script beyond two pages. I always felt as if I was coming up with a solid idea, however could not push it beyond the opening scene before running out of ideas. I overcame this through taking feedback form tunes and scheduled meetings and focusing on giving a character motivation to get from one point to another, rather than just focusing on how a story might begin with no real idea of how it would progress.

In terms of the production I was lucky enough to work on – I think I successfully contributed key studio ideas relating to elevated horror into the final product, specifically through my role as cinematographer. Despite being a horror, I think that I contributed the film in a unique visual direction which certainly gives Shrine ‘post-horror’ traits. The contrast between Natalies room – The pink and light colour, vibrant and expressive art on the walls, and sparkling glitter spread across the room – with the serious and eventually horrific subject matter makes the film really unique and thought provoking. The short also references other post-horror classics such as Suspiria and Night of the Living Dead in a subtle way that is not overused or considered a direct copy – displaying a level of consideration and knowledge gained from earlier studio tutorials.

If I could have my time over working on this film, I think I would mainly focus on pre-production planning as a way to be more prepared and maximise the potential of the script when considering the equipment and talent we had (although I still think the film will turn out great). If given more time on a second attempt, I think that test shootings and thorough planning of a set would be really beneficial through allowing us to shoot in a space that has full access to professional lighting equipment and the ability to set up more ambitious shots for specific parts of the film (e.g. the hands caressing Natalie in her bed could be filmed from directly above or with 360 degree coverage if the set had more space). Additionally, I think the development of a storyboard or reference images from a test-shoot could have ensured efficient filming and solidified ideas for shots on production day (both production days ran at least 1.5 hours overtime).

I think that the main strengths of our film is its visual appeal and subject matter. The film is so pleasing to look at and I am really proud of the work the whole group put in to achieve that. Additionally, the story itself is engaging and unique, with the amazing make-up for the final scene carrying the climax and capping off an awesome story. The main weakness I think comes through a lack of technical and practical experience. There are a few shots which may have to be edited in post to ensure crew is not in the frame, sound may also not be as crisp in many shots as we would have liked, and some shots may be slightly over/under exposed. additionally, some of the supernatural elements may not be as believable as we would have liked. for example, The tampon scurrying away or the clothes grabbing at the ankles.

My role in the post-production of this film has been relatively minor thus far. Our film is not finished yet and editing on the actual film has been going on for only a couple of days.

I have sat in on one editing session, however it was mainly concerning the syncing of audio and organising of footage. It was helpful having three people in the editing suite, as shots that where slated incorrectly or footage that could not be easily paired with its respective audio recording was able to be found through recalling specific slating errors or remembering specific shot troubles on the day.

I also plan to sit in on and contribute in editing sessions next week before the assignment is due. Seeing as I have a base level of experience in post-production, and shot the footage, I think I will be able to help in enhancing the overall visual appeal of the film through assisting with the colour grade and editing.

A challenge in this area, and also something I need to keep in mind for future projects was my mistake with filming. Unfortunately I had turned down the audio levels on the camera for the first shooting day – meaning that half of the audio was more difficult to sync to the footage in post-production. Although it can still be paired – This was a prefect reminder to double check all the aspects of my role and the camera on shooting day. I remember reviewing footage on the first day and briefly thinking about the absence of audio on the camera, however did not think to check the levels on the side of the camera. this is also a reason it was beneficial sitting in on an editing session that focused on the syncing of audio.