In Week 6 we discussed the hybrid mode of making comedy, taking the approach of creating a piece of media that is supplemented by comedy, differing from parody and satire as aesthetic and social conventions required to be challenged. The reading covered the hybrid approach through examples of comedic documentary making, and the techniques in editing used to create humour within a form not commonly associated with comedy.
Through working with Trang, Claudia and Yusef we discussed a concept surrounding a news report of a water scare on campus. This initially felt as if we were attempting to create a parody of a news report rather than utilising a hybrid approach; through discussion Claudia brought a NEWS.com article she had read in a different class which explained the presence of a brain eating amoeba in Western Australian swimming spots. The article concluded with the information that three people had died since 1980 from this amoeba, despite the alarming content of the article.
We decided to create a news report on this bacteria, approaching the production of our sketch to align with low budget student news reports to more accurately reflect our production capabilities. Whilst we improvised lines it was difficult to not slide into total parody of alarmist news reports, we had to ensure the piece felt as if it was created as an overt attempt to be humorous.
Despite my improvement in assembling graphics and replicating a newsreel aesthetic, I found some of the footage difficult to include as it was unstabilised. Furthermore, the audio had a loud air conditioner in most takes, as such I attempted to use Premier Pro’s audio effects to isolate the dialogue but it resulted in audio that sounded over processed and poorly mixed.
In Week 5 we covered satire which was mentioned in previous readings as being “often confused with parody” (Neale and Krutnik 1990). Focusing more on drawing on and highlighting social conventions (Neal and Krutnik 1990), but can also include parodic comedy. The readings reference a satire program we have often discussed in class Brass Eye (1997), we similarly wanted to replicate established conventions to comment on and subvert the societal expectations to receive accurate advice from programs that specialise in a topic.
Working in a group with Harper and Sam, we decided on creating a sketch that satirised Cryptocurrency personalities and the techniques they use to maintain the image of success necessary to sell their cryptocurrency investments. Drawing on inspiration from Last Week: Tonight (2014) and John Oliver’s commentary on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money (2005), in which he highlights Cramer’s consistent inaccurate predictions of stock market moves. This difficulty in predicting the stock market stemmed from the speed of which Cramer could cover the changes in the markets, often being outpaced by the traders on wall street. Thus Cramer relies on his personality to sell his investment advice, a trait shared with modern day “crypto-gurus”
To loathe the inherent gap of information between consumers and influencers within the crypto-sphere in a civilised way (Jun 2005) we used the comic device of Gooncoin’s volatility to undercut the authority of the assumed expert Crim Jamer, pointing out the lack of control those who provide speculative financial advice have over their subject. We strived to avoid sliding into straight parody, instead attempting to create a segment which is incapable of being produced at the scale of Mad Money (2005). We achieved this satire through our performances which we improvised after agreeing on a concept, then whilst editing the piece I included crude graphics of real life cryptocurrency prices to illustrate the volatility involved with cryptocurrency.
During week 4 we covered the topic of parody, the reading by Neale and Krutnik describes Parody as a mode which “draws on and highlights aesthetic conventions” (Neale and Krutnik 1990) in which a subject can be replicated in a way that draws comedy from following or violating conventions of the subject being parodied.
The Toplyn reading introduces a looser definition of ”a funny imitation of work that typically wasn’t intended to be funny” (Toplyn 2014). As this was a group project, Yusuf, Saskia and myself decided on creating a parody of a group zoom presentation, seen in our use of the aesthetic conventions of awkward stilted delivery contained to video chat bubbles, slides of varying coherence presented earnestly each drawing on the expectedly familiar feeling of presenting a group project over a zoom call.
This sketch was entirely based on a meme I saw as a teenager which consists of “Dead*** spent 2 hours doing project on Youth in Asia then find out it’s supposed to be on Euthanasia” in a snapchat message over an image of a PowerPoint presentation captioned “Youth in Asia”. Whilst the joke at its core is simplistic wordplay, the scale of the incongruence implied has always struck me as a poignantly funny comedy of error.
To combine this joke with a form of media I chose to replicate the obscure but relatable experience of presenting over a zoom call, as the aesthetic conventions would be easy to replicate effectively and provided an exceptional comic frame to deliver this gag. I created a storyboard which allowed my group members to understand their roles, and they self recorded footage of them improvising dialogue and reactions based off of the plot outlined. This meant editing together the footage was extremely easy as there was a clear narrative throughline to replicate.
Sketch 1: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielcaballmoore/2024/03/10/super-card-gamer-experiment-1sketch/
Sketch 2: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielcaballmoore/2024/03/27/a-roll-too-far-experiment-2/
Sketch 3: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielcaballmoore/2024/03/27/the-pitch-experiment-3/
In The Pitch I wanted to create a story that depicted the pitching of the television show Love on the Spectrum in a comic frame. Specifically not to mock the show itself, but considering the incongruous idea that the person behind the pitch would’ve sounded particularly distasteful despite the show having been made with the intentions outlined by the assumed studio executive.
Within the comic frame of a heightened reality boardroom pitch, I attempted to create a story with a specific “comic character” (Toplyn 2014) who demonstrates an exaggerated interest in pitching this show, as well as exuding an exaggerated distasteful air throughout the piece. The passionate delivery behind the censorship bar as well the sense of opposition to the comic characters pitch created by including reaction shots from the characters opposite having confused and negative reactions to a pitch the audience cannot hear, creates a sense of mystery behind the show being pitched. The stakes are raised as the reactions intensify and the twist is delivered right after the comic character achieves their ultimate goal of pitching this television show. (Toplyn 2014)
This twist is a violation that comes with the reveal that the show being described is in fact the beloved reality show Love on the Spectrum, a reality TV show that documents the romantic efforts of people on the autism spectrum. As I have family members with disabilities I believe I understand the strong emotional connection audiences have to these topics, and approached the joke with a sensitivity to the subject that impressed on me the importance to successfully make the situation benign in an attempt to make a comedic observation. Thus, we incorporated dialogue that describes the positive effects television shows such as Love on the Spectrum have. Something I would change after reflection on this piece would be to replace the vomit gag with a confused look, as it has implications the idea itself is revolting which I didn’t want to include.
Storyboard
Toplyn, J. (2014) Story Sketches in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York Twenty Lane Media, pp. 221–238.
In week 2 we covered relief and benign violation theory and watched examples of their use in ‘silent comedies’ including The High Sign (1921), Mr. Bean (1990) and a viral clip of a BBC News interview being interrupted by the children of the interviewee. These viewings showed us examples of comedy that engage with the aforementioned theories less with dialogue and more with timing, pacing, and performance, demonstrating the potential of the concept of ‘silent’ comedy beyond my previously held belief that silent comedies were exclusively ‘legacy’ media from the era of Buster Keaton.
Benign violation theory tells us that comedy can occur when there’s an intersection between a situation depicting a violation and a situation that is considered benign by audiences. For example in A Roll Too Far the violation is intended to be the length of toilet paper stuck to the shoe of the protagonist, simultaneously audiences perceive the situation as benign as the comic device of toilet paper being stuck to a character’s shoe has long been an established trope in media.
I believe A Roll Too Far also engages with the concepts of Peripeteia and Syllogism (Palmer 2018) explained in this week’s readings. In its most basic form the sketch relies on the surprise or shock of the extent of which a roll of toilet paper can be stretched whilst attached to an unsuspecting persons’ shoe. Logic insists that a standard roll of toilet paper has to run out or break eventually, audiences presume this as an inevitability, however in this case I have utilised a different syllogism in my approach in that the audience observes a seemingly endless roll of toilet paper contrary to their assumed beliefs to generate a comedic effect. However, I ultimately believed I failed to utilise relief theory to truly create a comic event, as the ending of A Roll Too Far doesn’t have a particularly satisfying ending to create that sense of relief in a truly comedic way.
Palmer J (2018) The Logic of the Absurd. In: The Comedy Studies Reader. 1st edition. Austin, University of Texas Press. pp. 51–54. doi:10.7560/315996.
Warren C and McGraw A.P (2015), Benign Violation Theory in Attardo, Encyclopedia of Humor Studies,Los Angeles SAGE Reference.
This week in our readings as well as class discussion, we considered different ways to think about comedy inspired by Six Small Essays about Comedy (Simons 2023) who encourages us to think more specifically about what we would consider making something funny. This led on to discussion surrounding theories explained in our readings to have been developed around comedy throughout history such as Superiority Theory and, Release Theory (Audissino 2023). We then looked more specifically at the Incongruity Theory of comedy that describes comedy as stemming from the detection of some disruption of our expectations (Audissino 2023) we watched examples from Tim Robinson and Limmy’s Homemade Show across both classes, which both demonstrate the ability to use this disruption of expectations to achieve great comedic effect.
Having grown up overly familiar with the internet, my inspirations for this sketch stem from online content creators such as maxmoefoePokemon or PrimetimePokemon who primarily unboxing trading card packs on camera. To establish a setting and expected premise for the sketch, I filmed the sketch following conventions of trading card unboxing videos on the social media platform YouTube, coupled with an awkward editing style inspired by the reviews of The Angry Video Game Nerd. Whilst this does limit the comedic appeal of the visual gags within the sketch to those in the niche of people that are aware of specific trading card unboxing channels, I believe those familiar with unboxing channels as a concept will recognize the setting and appreciate the comic event of the subversion of the expected unboxing content in which a desirable high value item is replaced instead with a deck of Uno cards.
References
Audissino E (2023) From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road Audissino E. and Wennekes E. The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema. 1st edition. Cham, Springer International Publishing AG pp. 3–23
Simons S (2023) Six Small Essays About Comedy, 2023, https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/
Synthetic Video
Created by Joe, Jacklyn, Minna and Yuyao Greed (2023) is a film that explores the lifestyle of a social media livestreamer, and the impact greed can have on the use of a new technology.
Greed (2023) depicts the journey of its live streaming protagonist through a three act structure. Establishing the protagonist’s career as a live streamer that relies on brand-affiliated promotion, we see them advertising a detox pill, inciting accusations of misrepresentation through the use of a filter applied to the live stream. This results in the banning of their account, reflecting on aspects of uncertainty that the use of synthetic media can induce when not properly disclosed.
A mysterious takeout arrives, and a device capable of creating food based off of prompts written on paper is introduced. Utilising audio foley, the group engages viewers in the sequence of their protagonist experimenting with different prompts to receive different foods. The use of this device as a parable for the misuse of generative AI programs, especially for financial gain, is apt as it reflects the skills required to utilise generative AI to create synthetic media; as well as the experimentation necessary to create prompts that effectively instruct the AI to create the intended results.
The film Tare (2023) created by Spring Li, Danielle Atherton, Mark Cheng and Nam Tran explores the concept of synthetic realities enabled by AI machines and their ability to impact people’s sense of identity. Through the integration of synthetic media, as well as well written dialogue, the group explores the potential for technology’s place in the creation of a personal identity.
The group creates a narrative surrounding Rose, their protagonist who has recently gone through a breakup. The use of synthetic media in the creation of segments of Rose’s personality reflects the groups intended concepts of self actualisation through engagement with these technologies. Tare (2023) consists of dialogue between these segments of Rose’s personality and herself, through these exchanges Rose reflects on her past and her relationships, with the AI segments providing different perspectives on Rose.
Overall, Tare (2023) uses synthetic media as a plot device to convey the potential for AI within everyday life, by providing sophisticated interpretations of personal experiences, the segments of Rose’s personality aid her on her journey to self actualisation and romantic fulfilment. However, the harshness of these personality segments depicts a technology system that has the potential to cause significant psychological harm.
Uncomfortable Film Making
A film by Phoebe Hewertson, Jaden Arendtsz and Joey Barclay Do Geese See God (2023) is about a dysfunctional man who is disconnected from those around him. The group uses colour, time reversal, and clever shot choreography to achieve a sense of disconnectedness, and unease in their audience.
Through the actors ability to walk backwards, the group captured several sequences of their protagonist seemingly walking against time. The choreographed scenes as well as the non linear storytelling the group engage with creates an overwhelming sense of discomfort when watching whilst producing visually distinct imagery throughout the piece. Furthermore, the colour grade contributes greatly to this by creating a darker version of a familiar place, taking the audiences on a journey through the reimagining of everyday life.
This sense of unease permeates Do Geese See God (2023), and as a unit I believe the group effectively answered their studios prompt. The film reimagines familiar locations incredibly effectively, and allows viewers the chance to see common experiences from a completely different perspective.
Level 19 (2023) is a film directed by Llyod Fitzgerald, created for the Uncomfortable Film Making studio. It explores a young professional’s traumatic experience after responding to an email inviting him to a strange event.
Fitzgerald uses many different techniques to create a sense of unease through his camera work, editing and sound design. The shots change from relatively still and evenly framed shots to dramatic Dutch Angles and tracking shots as the protagonist Max becomes disoriented throughout the narrative of the piece. The sound design similarly becomes fractured and is utilised alongside editing techniques to depict the culmination of the impact of the nights events on Max’s psyche
The use of these techniques alongside the surreal narrative, succeeded in my opinion, in creating a sense of unease throughout the piece. The camera techniques combined with the use of colour correction, and special effects created a visual narrative that was easy to follow as the audience follows Max through his night of terror.
The final twist of the narrative also provides the audience with a relief to this unease, using comedy to allow viewers to laugh at the absurd situation Max had been placed in. Fitzgerald ends his piece with a sense of levity making the piece memorable, as well as juxtaposing the palpable disorientation viewers were experiencing moments before.
Throughout the Synthetic Video studio, we have explored how generative media technologies such as deepfakes, generative art, and simulated audio can be utilised in creating synthetic digital content (Bonfanti 2020). There has also been discussion of the potential for harm these technologies have, with the rise of “mal-information” becoming a major part of the current state of “information disorder” (Gregory 2018). Furthermore, through research done during pre-production for earlier assignments, the concept of replacement in the workplace began to appear, with articles depicting the genuine potential for generative AI to replace workers in professions that were previously thought safe from automation (Rose 2023).
Work and life are inextricably linked, and with large changes in living conditions brought by these new and emerging technologies, the effect these changes will have on employment must also be considered. When thinking about the potential for synthetic media’s impact on our lives I began to consider the effects of generative content’s use in the workplace. I hope as a group we allow audiences the chance to consider the potential mal-use of synthetic media in the creation of manipulated and wholly fabricated content through a significant reduction in the cost required to produce synthetic media. (Gregory 2018)
The idea for Inc. (2023) began with my first assignment for Synthetic Video, the intersection of work, synthetic media and AI as a concept spoke to me immediately when starting the studio. Whilst the initial idea was too grand in scale to capture, I wanted to ask viewers to consider the fears technological advancement can bring when mismanaged and the imbalance that occurs when work begins to impose itself onto people’s personal lives.
Through Inc. (2023), I wanted to demonstrate a potential mal-use of Large Language Model (LLM) AIs (Garon 2023) in synthetic content production. Building off themes of replacement via automation I explored in previous works, as a group we wanted to depict an absurd version of a hypothetical implementation of AI replacement in the workplace. Through the inherently silly image of a printer being inserted into a position of authority, we attempted to create a sense of fun when discussing these topics. Furthermore, we presented audiences with a replacement that occurred rapidly without forethought, resulting in a disrupted workplace that isn’t being adapted properly to these new technologies; and the resulting consequences. We also wanted to communicate that these consequences can result in tensions emerging in workplaces when management acts without consideration for their workers. Considering generative AI’s place in creating synthetic media at a lower cost, it’s already demonstrated a potential to replace jobs (Rose 2023).
If I were to keep working on Inc. (2023), I would focus on reshooting the footage using a tripod to capture stable and clear images. The unstable footage made it difficult to edit, and the use of Warp Stabiliser in some cases led to lower quality footage and thus, had to be left unstabilised. Furthermore, the audio was recorded using the onboard microphone; there was a lot of background noise that had to be swapped out with Creative Commons room tones. I would also like to increase the amount of dialogue in the project, whilst there was never planned to be a large amount of dialogue, in my opinion, more contextualisation as to what was occurring throughout the piece would be extremely useful and serve to create a more professional piece of media.
Overall I’d want to develop Inc. (2023) further to create a more technically proficient project, with revisions to the footage, extending the script and improving the overall mise-en-scene of the piece. I’d also like to develop the soundscape further, improving the audio mixing and fixing the timing of some sound effects later in the piece when the protagonist is walking downstairs to his office.
Inc. Storyboard (Amy Chan 2023)
The storyboard Illustrated by Amy Chan, was crucial to developing this idea into a three-act structure, provided a sense of direction for the project, and was especially useful alongside the script in the editing of Inc. (2023). Thanks to the team capturing footage following the storyboard as a guide, assembling the footage was made incredibly easy as I could arrange shots to match their respective places in the storyboard. Furthermore, Amy’s skill for illustration meant the movement of the piece was similarly easy to structure, and the shots were visually consistent which made them easier to match.
Due to leaving for a trip, I was absent for the filming of Inc. (2023) The footage was shot by my group members and they provided well-exposed footage that had a consistent style, and was well composed. The only issue with the footage I found was a few shots taken without a tripod, which resulted in unsteady footage that was hard to edit around. I attempted to remedy this with the warp stabiliser effect in Premiere Pro and there was a need to shoot more footage later in the production of Inc. (2023) Some footage was out of focus or had focus errors, to fix this I used individual adjustment layers with sharpening masks later in production.
Working abroad was a challenge, finding time as well as suitable places to sit and edit was especially an issue. Due to the group filming as soon as possible, they provided me with ample time to edit the piece. They provided several takes of each shot so after I downloaded the video files I was able to select the best footage and named each piece accurately to create an organised bin of usable footage in Premiere Pro. Then following the script and storyboard I assembled the footage into segments over the period of about a week, I also made small edits such as rotating some shots and changing the scale and speed of others before finalising an assembly edit.
Assembly Edit Timeline
After producing this assembly edit and receiving feedback from my group members, I began refining the piece, creating a second draft that featured text graphics and the beginning of a soundtrack. Due to a lack of internet connection during parts of my trip, I downloaded a large variety of sound effects I thought would be useful prior, and spent the time offline assembling them. Furthermore, I also began colour grading the footage, attempting to communicate the decline our protagonist goes through by slowly increasing the blue colours present in the footage, to create a foreboding feeling throughout Inc. (2023).
Upon returning from overseas I had to reshoot footage with lead actor Ben McCormick, using a tripod we recorded extra footage for Inc. (2023) following group discussions on how to improve the piece as well as feedback from Amy’s consult with Cat Lew to provide a more clear visual narrative and contextualise the decline of the workplace. I also recorded B-roll footage to include in the piece to provide further context to viewers and create more visually distinct transitions between acts. After capturing this footage I colour graded it according to its place in the story and finalised the timeline.
As a group we communicated our ideas for Inc. (2023) in class and through an Instagram group chat, we discussed workloads, gave each other feedback on our aspects of pre-production and kept each other up to date on the progress of the piece. We developed a vision of what Inc. (2023) would look like and through the Instagram group chat we made sure to ask for each other’s opinions in regard to the directions we were taking. Whilst the time zone difference and jetlag did pose an issue with my activity in the chat, my other group members were very understanding of my situation. The collaborative contract we signed was upheld and I believe the group worked well together in producing Inc. (2023)
The Omniverse (2023) was pitched in Week 9 by Chloe Yu, Owen Chong and Jacquelyn Lu, a sci-fi thriller. The group explained their concept of The Omniverse (2023), two geniuses that get caught in a story of multiverses and time travel, overcoming the odds to save the world. They named narrative inspirations such as Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2023) and Blade Runner: 2049 (2017), which gave a good outline of the futuristic multiversal adventure the group was pitching. They further elaborated on these inspirations by specifically discussing Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and how it presents different views of time and space, using modal realism to create a multiverse story.
Stylistically the group also named Cyberpunk: 2077 (2020) as another major influence borrowing post modern architecture and fashion, existing in a futuristic world with virtual reality technology, and other sci-fi staples. Featuring lots of neon, large scale buildings, and hyper-futurism, The Omniverse (2023) was pitched as being somewhat dark and moody, an atmosphere that goes hand in hand with their aforementioned inspirations. The worlds the group are taking inspiration from give a clear indication of the style and narrative they are trying to create, as there is a great deal of common inspiration amongst the texts, with Cyberpunk: 2077 (2020) specifically taking a great deal of inspiration from Blade Runner: 2049 (2017) and thus, Blade Runner (1982).
The group explained their approach to cinematography, they would approach the film focusing on using basic angles and shot composition, focusing on close ups and utilising dynamic lenses for moving shots. This approach is presented with an understanding of their abilities taken into account, being realistic when it comes to cinematography is essential when pitching a project as it means they won’t overpromise and underdeliver. This was presented alongside a script that outlined the action on screen as well as dialogue throughout The Omniverse (2023), and outlined the beginning and end of the narrative.
Further outlined in the pitch was their soundtrack, props and materials, as well as filming locations. The group outlined their Intent to utilise green screens at RMIT alongside generative AI programs such as Runway AI and deep fake technology, the group explained their post-production process would involve these technologies to achieve the futuristic style of the piece. The utilisation of AI in virtual production was very interesting as it wasn’t an approach I had considered when approaching Inc. (2023), if done well it will definitely add to the atmosphere of futurism imbued in the piece. The use of AI in the pre-production phase also added to the pitch as it showed the capabilities of AI to generate images in the intended style of The Omniverse (2023).
References
Rose I. 2023, ‘The workers already replaced by artificial intelligence’, BBC News, Accessed 10 September, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65906521
Gregory S. 2018, Mal-uses of AI-generated Synthetic Media and Deepfakes: Pragmatic Solutions Discovery Convening, Harvard Kennedy School, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
Garon Jon M. 2023, A Practical Introduction to Generative AI, Synthetic Media, and the Messages Found in the Latest Medium, NSU Shepard Broad College of Law
Bonfanti M. 2020, The Weaponisation of Synthetic Media: What Threat Does this Pose to National Security?, Trans European Policy Studies Association, Royal Instituto Elcano