Link to Comedy Media Artefact: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/2024-beyond-a-joke-beyond-a-genre/operation-super-star/

Operation Superstar (2024) tells the story of two young men and their journey through Naarm nightlife and the underground world of DJing, grappling with the struggle to be seen and adored by others. The film integrates the theory of the comic frame; how context, symbolism and structure causes the audience to recognise the scenario as comedic and adjust their consumption of the content accordingly. This is achieved through the quirky, detail driven dialogue, the wacky appearance and behaviour of the side characters e.g. DJ Ozempic and The Ratman, and the bizarre nature of the plot. Whilst our film’s comedy lies in the incongruity, the colourful, the crafty and the downright absurd, space is still given for moments of tenderness and earnesty; hybridising with the genre of coming-of-age. The boys learn about being true to oneself, remaining humble and to live in the moment, as well as the importance of brotherhood and friendship. The characters of Harry and Fergus go through the narrative structure of the hero’s journey, often seen within coming-of-age films. They set forth with a call to adventure, receive help and learn from mentors, are challenged by temptations, experience a rebirth/transformation and then return to once they came. Our media artefact also experiments with the mode of satire. Caron defined satire as possessing the “rhetorical power lies in its potential to change minds, that is, to effect metanoia”; the changing of minds (Caron 2020). The film aims to dismantle and find humour in the self-destructive mindset of individualism and “standing out”, being hyper-aware of how you are perceived and believing you are the centre of the universe. Karikó defines conformity as thinking and doing what others are professing and doing, whilst non-conformity is taking an oppositional position as a response. He states that both are led by the opinion of others, not by one’s own conviction (Karikó 2020). By being non-conformist, you are still determining your interests, aesthetic and attitude based on what is popular. We attempted to highlight this paradoxical relationship through the character of Harry, who ironically wishes to conform amongst the trendy, unattainable “non-conformists”, later witnessing and then condemning the toxic, “douchey” culture that is tied to it.

If given the opportunity to re-approach the media artefact from the beginning, I would want to focus on some of the technical details; spending extra time prioritising the quality of sound and lighting in order to further elevate the film’s content. This could be things such as location scouting more quiet, well-lit spaces and better preparing for night time filming by bringing more lights. I also would want to finish the script earlier in the pre-production process so it could’ve been sent out to the actors and given them a good amount of time to learn their lines and feel comfortable in their role. The actor playing DJ Ozempic was unfamiliar with his lines, ultimately slowing down the overall production as we needed to do multiple re-takes as well as it resulting in a rather stiff performance that needed to be heavily edited in post. If we had more time during pre-production, it would’ve been fantastic to have been approved to film at an authentic club or to have sourced a convincing space to transform into a nightclub. However, we had to work with what was available and whilst it was very convenient to film in Alex’s house, the appearance of the club scenes is not particularly convincing. I could argue however, that in some ways, the hodge-podge nature of the club adds to the charm and message of the film. 

In the beginning of the course, I saw comedy as this elusive concept, something that couldn’t ever be succinctly described or fully understood, but rather felt. And whilst my opinion still stands that comedy is a complex and multi-layered idea, I believe I better understand the theories behind why certain things make people laugh. I was naive in thinking that you are either a “funny” or “unfunny” person, and found myself challenged as I worked in un-familiar forms of comedy, such as silent comedy and satire. I realised comedy is a spectrum, and we all possess strengths and weaknesses in different areas. I also became more aware of the multifaceted nature of comedy, with its ability to slot into any genre and somehow elevate it, bringing out the best of the genre it is hybridising or parodying.

I did find the challenge of creating content independently really valuable as it did help me to push myself and have faith in my own humour, however I do believe that my humor and the quality of the content made has been elevated by working collaboratively. I feel as though I am far more motivated and creative when working in a group and I’ve really enjoyed bouncing off ideas and getting feedback by those around me. It also made it much easier to source talent as we just played the characters ourselves. I will say that it was a lot harder to synthesise multiple people’s ideas into the sketch’s short timeframe, resulting in some tension around who pulls rank. Our week 1 reading touches on the variety of reasons in which people laugh, “because they hear something surprising…they hear something familiar or a funny sound, they’re uncomfortable, they’re frightened or they’re horny…” (Simons 2023). Humour is of course subjective and that can sometimes cause disagreements over what is funny, inappropriate or offensive. There was also some conflict around the divvying up of roles, specifically in the pos-production step of editing the sketch, something that is no problem when working individually, as you are responsible for the entire process and there is no risk of miscommunication or an unequal workload.

References 

Caron, J.E. (2020), “Satire and the problem of comic laughter”, Comedy Studies, 11(2), pp. 171–182.

Karikó, S. (2020). Conformist Mass Society or Non-Conformist Rebellion? What education can do to resolve the conformity – non-conformity dichotomy? International Dialogues on Education, 7(2), 9-.

Simons, S. (2023), “Six Small Essays About Comedy”, Humorism

Voth, B. (2014). Comic Frame. In Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (Vol. 1, pp. 148–150).

Sunday shoot was our longest and most exciting shoot! We learnt from our mistakes on the Wednesday shoot and committed to starting as early as possible to ensure we had ample time for each shot and were able to shoot the group party scenes as soon as the extras arrived on set. Our first couple hours were spent setting up Alex’s living room to look more like a nightclub; taping fabric and newspaper to the walls and blocking out the windows to prevent any natural light from coming in. The “realism” of the club was not necessarily a priority for us due to our establishment of the comic frame. Looking back at the Week 3 reading, the audience uses frames to “view, group, and interpret experiences with reality, determin[ing] the symbolic actions and choices humans make from these experiences’ ‘ (Voth 2014). Because our film’s comic frame is established through our absurdist characters and crafty aesthetic, the rather unconvincing club setting suits the tone and (hopefully) adds to the humour. The boys try so hard to get into this “exclusive” Naarm-core nightclub, only for it to be comically small and dingy. Most of the scenes were set indoors, making it much easier to play around with lighting. Alex was very clever and had coloured cellophane wrapped around the LED Lights to create a strong hue. We used this to mimic the inside of an eclectic club and illuminate the ominous pink neon demon (picture attached). We also were lucky enough to have a smoke machine and worked really well to spread pink and yellow light and create a hazy, dream-like feeling to the footage. 

The final scene was shot outdoors on the street and we faced a couple road-bumps (pun intended). There was some traffic that affected the quality of sound and light sprinkle of rain which meant we were in a bit of a rush to finish. Alternative’s to have avoided this could’ve been to either move to a quieter location or postpone the scene to a later date. however these options would have slowed down our whole production progress and we were all feeling pretty tired by the end of it so decided to go ahead with it.

Overall, the filming process has been such an amazing experience. I’ve learnt so much from working alongside my friends and I really believe we’ve made a great team, bringing our own strengths to the production; Claudia’s artistry, Alex’s leadership, Jaden’s skill and Luci’s organisation. I couldn’t be more grateful to have made something so creative with them!

BTS Photos taken by yours truly:

References

This Monday was Pitching Day and the feedback we received was so validating, with a positive response surrounding the humor and specificity of the dialogue, the feasible/fun timeframe within the film and our exploration of the paradox of conforming by being non-conformist. This all got us all pumped up for our shoot. Wednesday night, we piled our equipment into Saint Bradley’s car and journeyed to Fitzroy. I felt a little uncertain in the beginning as we took a long time setting up and adjusting to the street noise, pedestrians, darkness and general blocking. However, we soon got in the swing of things and began to film more confidently and experimentally (almost documentary style as we took long takes, tracking the characters movements). Watching the jokes we’ve written in the script was really rewarding and so funny to see! The work that went into creating the visual humor of the Rat-man and DJ Ozempic was well worth it and I cannot wait to see how it translates on screen.

My job was lighting, and quite the physical role as I often handheld the light, following closely behind the camera. I used LED Light panels as the main source of light as well as Alex’s bike light that we utilised as a spotlight to draw focus to certain features such as the USB, people’s clothes and the rat’s tails. I also used a strobe light to raise tension during the characters fight scene and to mimic the lighting coming outside of a club. Our biggest challenge was sticking to the time frame, as we ran behind a few times and by the end of the night we decided to push a scene that we were going to shoot to another day in order to finish at a reasonable time. This was expected as it was a shoot-on location situation and our first time shooting as a group. In hindsight, we could’ve brought less equipment which would’ve helped speed up the pack up process and the moving to different settings. I also wished I’d maybe experimented with coloured gels more, making DIY ones to make the lighting more eclectic and unique. On Sunday we are shooting the inside club scenes so I’m aiming to really push myself with the party lights as I want to make the space seem like a genuine club as well as a visually exciting experience for the viewer. I also want to learn from our Wednesday shoot and ensure we are on top of marking every shot with the clapper, taking continuity notes and time managing the shoot so we don’t run behind.

BTS Photos taken by yours truly:

Leading up to our shooting next week we’ve been sourcing props, costumes and finalising the main cast. Our biggest challenge this week has been the search for our two lead characters, which has been us reaching out to friends, acquaintances and people within the uni. We are so close but are still in the waiting process. In the unlikely event that we would fail to find two actors, Alex and I came up with a plan Z, which would be to rewrite our male characters as women and play them ourselves. This is so that we don’t have to postpone our shoot and can leave as much time to edit as possible.

On Wednesday, Alex and Claudia ventured to Fitzroy to source good locations to shoot our “Club Queue” Scene, the boys encounter with the Rat Man and just general spaces for the characters to walk around and explore for the montage scene. They did an excellent job finding spots that suited the quirky, grungy and overall dream-like aesthetic of the show as well as making sure it’s secluded enough so that we aren’t in the way of foot traffic. This will save us so much hassle on the Wednesday!

Link to Scouted Location Pics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-2je9DoQyhpplRbViDKd_A09_vSKVydK?usp=sharing

Our choice on location for the inside club scenes have been changed around several times as we’ve tried to adapt to our time constraints, availability and just general workload. Initially, we toyed with the idea of filming somewhere like Miscellania, Yah Yahs or Dove Club. However, the process of getting random people to sign release forms and just getting approval from the club owners would be quite a complicated and possibly an impossible process. Then we looked into creating our own event at one of the art studios in the old Nicholson Building and patrons would be notified about filming prior to arriving. However once again, the organisation of said event and the safety precautions that would have needed to be carried out were just too overwhelming and too tight of a turn around. The Black Box at uni was the last suggestion before we settled on filming at Alex’s house, as it better suited our availability and it meant that we could have loud music, props e.g. drinks and dancing without stressing about damaging the uni space or having noise complaints. We will take the time the day before we shoot to set up the space and make it look as club-like as possible e.g. buying black fabric to drape on the walls, renting DJ lights and sourcing extras to make it look packed in. 

Busy week next week but so excited to start production!

Our Monday and Wednesday class time this week was spent establishing the characters and general story of our film, all of us working on the written rules and dialogue within the story. So far, we’ve produced a vomit script that we will continue refining until it’s ready for out shooting days. I believe the comedic aspects will really shine with the absurdist characters and costuming which we’ve quickly established in our early draft. The written rules that will be seen on screen will also bring a light-heartedness and reinforce the satirical nature of the story. I think what we need to work more on is the dialogue between our two protagonists, making sure it feels natural, witty and stays true to their character profiles.

This coming week will be pre-production crunch time; Finalising actors, our locations, equipment, props and costume. Whilst I do feel nervous about the tight turn around, I have full faith in our team to pull it all together and to adapt with any changing of plans or challenges me face.

Speaking of challenges (hehe), I think I’ll biggest one will be finding the perfect but also the most authentic location to shoot our clubbing/party scenes. Working with sound and lighting in the space will definitely require patience and flexibility as well, as it is not a sterile, controlled space. However, because we are hoping to have a strong soundtrack (using local Melbourne artists) and poetic voiceover, I think we will be able to work around this obstacle. I put my hand up to do lighting for the film, and I feel both incredibly excited and rather nervous about the task. I don’t have a ton of experience with lighting, especially artistic/surreal lighting and if we are working with a short timeframe, I see potential issues arising e.g. pulling of the creative vision and taking too long to set up. I do feel as though I have a lot of support and helping hands from the group and would feel comfortable asking for assistance if I feel like I’m struggling. In regard to lighting, I want to explore spotlights, highlighting certain features of the night out e.g. USB’s, High Heels, Clothes, Bloody noses, Kebabs. As well as full body glowing and a general dreamy, ethereal feel to the characters and setting which will hopefully set the surrealist tone of the film.

Lighting Inspo: https://www.pinterest.com.au/jazminlissarrague/night-out-in-naarm/lighting/

Vomit Script: Operation SuperStar

Collaborative Contract:

Our group is aiming for a short film that is technically ambitious, professional looking, visually beautiful and poetic. We all want a HD mark for our work and would love for it to be a standout amongst the class and previous work. We envision our artefact’s ultimate destination to be on YouTube, our portfolios and submitted and hopefully screened at festivals and film competitions; something we’re really proud to show to the world! The level of commitment we want to achieve this will be high; divvying out roles according to our outside commitments and taking time out of uni/off work to shoot, scout locations and write the script. 

We will use Slack as the main form of communication in the group, using it to organise in-person meetings, shoot-days, ask questions and spitball ideas. We all expect each other to check messages and respond within a day. If commitments or issues arise, we will try our best to update each other and be as understanding as possible, things happen! If there’s sickness or people are overwhelmingly busy we will try our best to show up for each other and help out where needed. 

The assigning of roles are still a work in progress but based on our personal interest/strengths and general availability we’ve so far agreed on:

Pre-Production Roles

Writers: Everyone 

Producers: Individual tasks to be divvied up amongst everyone 

Production Roles 

Director: Alex

Directors Assistant: Claudia

Cinematographer: Jaden

Lighting: Jazz

Sound: Luci

Post Production 

Editing: Luci and Alex

Inspiration for project:

From our first brainstorm together, I’ve noticed inspiration from The Hero’s Journey, Edgar Wright (Specifically Scott Pilgrim and The World’s End), Wake in Fright and The Mighty Boosh. We are all interested in a more surrealist storyline, potentially a cyclical ending, with a voiceover throughout. We also want to delve into in an eclectic colour palette, experimental lighting e.g.  Spotlights, strobe lights, neon, high saturation, and varied cinematography e.g. both a professional high-quality camera and a home video style camcorder.

These interests/ examples are in our Pinterest board below!

Pinterest Mood Board: https://pin.it/5Bq3qLXFH

Hybridisation Experiment #1: Parody

Hybridisation Experiment #2: Satire

Hybridisation #3: Genre Hybridisation

Select a non-comedy genre or format, and make a piece of media that hybridises or supplements that genre/format with comedy

For this week’s sketch, our group decided to create a seemingly vulnerable and dramatically charged scene between a couple that then introduces the element of incongruity to create a comedic effect. This week’s reading explores how “by subverting generic expectations the audience have, comedians are able to toy with conventions, play with plot lines, and offer disruptive experiences that the viewer finds funny” (White & Mundy 2012). With this in mind we wanted to prolong the establishment of a comic frame in the beginning, adopting the style and tone associated with dramas. This hopefully caused the viewer to adjust their expectation according to the perceived genre. Techniques such as a darker, more harsh colour grade, attempting an intense, serious performance and applying emotional music as the soundtrack were deliberately employed so that when the comedic presence of K’s character was revealed, first by sound and then appearance, the surprise was unexpected and humorous.

We chose the genre of drama because of its favourable relationship with comedy. White and Mundy argue how comedy has the “ability to express and explore our deepest fears and anxieties as well as life’s ecstatic joys, being an effective bedfellow for dramatic material” (White & Mundy 2012). Comedy enables people to delve into uncomfortable and tragic topics, being both a safety net and a tool to push boundaries. Our sketch comments on the intensity and heartbreak of relationships, with K’s absurd presence reminding us that there is more to life than being with somebody.

These past three weeks of collaborative making have helped me see my strengths e.g. Parody, quick thinking and comedic dialogue and my weaknesses e.g. Satire, struggling to use the camera as a comedic tool in itself and using the sketch short time limit most effectively. I find myself most drawn to  genres such as documentary, dramedy and comedy horrors and would like to potentially pursue one or more of these in the major work.

If I were to revisit this sketch, I would want to change some aspects of it. The introduction of possibly flashbacks, a voice-over, a dramatic chase scene, and more prolonged/intense performance from myself and Amy could’ve worked more in our favour to further establish the genre of drama and the stark contrast between it and the comedic aspects revealed. 

References

White, G., & Mundy, J. (2012). Laughing matters : Understanding film, television and radio comedy. Manchester University Press

Link to Sketch: https://youtu.be/dTbSjFjoFJo?si=npBRZJqb98xv_eMK

Select a social issue, event, or theme and create a piece of media that engages with that topic in a comedic way

In class, we discussed how satire is a mode of comedy that is related to, but distinct from parody. Parody will approach a chosen genre, replicating and subverting its tropes and conventions with the intent to ridicule that genre. Satire uses comic tools and techniques (including parody) in order to comment on, ridicule, or attack social norms, ideas, or events outside the satirical text.

We wanted our sketch to be a comment on toxic diet culture and the absurdity that arises from those that partake in it. The sketch centres around an office lunch break with everyone about to eat lunch.  Each person takes turns saying what they’re eating, their meal being an exaggerated version of current diet trends. These characters represent a subsection of diet culture, for example I played the raw meat carnivore, Claudia is the typical almond mum/supplement abuser, Luciana is the intermittent fasting dieter and Jaden is the “locally sourced”, unhomogenised milk drinker. This exaggeration was to ultimately expose the normalisation of disordered eating and body dysmorphia, poking fun at the absurdity that is what people consider “clean” and “healthy” eating. The sketch ends with the faster passing out on the ground, a regular occurrence according to the others, a comedic ending that still attempts to send out a message that condemns the harmful ways in which people try to lose weight. 

We adopted The Office style of filmmaking, being the most fitting for our office lunch break setting. We adopted the use of zoom-ins to capture people’s reactions and create tension as well as the “cameraman”/”POV” to create a casual atmosphere and surprise the viewer in a comedic way e.g. When Luciana passes out, we hear the noise first before the camera turns to reveal her.

In the week 5 reading, Caterson states that “most effective satire blurs irretrievably the line between fact and fiction” (Caterson 2005). With this in mind, I would potentially redo the sketch, and approach it through a more realistic lens, as opposed to overexaggerated caricatures. This would potentially reflect the gravity of the social issue for effectively and elevate the humour with a more subtle progression from a regular lunch, to an unhinged “diet-friendly” one.

Link to Sketch: https://youtu.be/ZltPOGDTVec?si=e2AeD-PgltUh3d7L

References 

Caterson, S. (2005), “A Preposterous Life“, Griffith Review, 8 (June 2005), pp. 186–192.

Create a piece of media that parodies any conventionalised media format or genre

In the week 4 reading,”Parody Sketches”, parody in comedy writing is identified as “a funny imitation of an artistic work that wasn’t intended to be funny” (Toplyn 2014). 

We found that there was a lot of room to experiment with the form of documentary, with the use of both the camcorder/found footage style and professional, dramatic depictions that use high quality shots. In conjunction with the reading, we used our sketch to tap into the uber serious approach to investigative journalism and the type of documentaries that aim to `uncover dark secrets’, and turn it into something absurd. The reading also states the importance of studying the style of the source material in order to properly mimic it. This is so that “the punch lines you write into your parody will be even more surprising and therefore funnier” (Toplyn 2014). We drew from typical tropes seen in documentaries such as Talking Heads interview, B roll footage and emotional music and stories. We then created incongruity by introducing an absurd character such as Mark, a delusional, self righteous, unhinged documentarian. 

We tapped into a comedic formula. Much like Hannah Camilleri said she did for her web series, “Little Shits’. The formula was that Mark’s words continued to be proven wrong, contradicted or shut down by either the people around him e.g. the Gardener and the intern or by what is being visually shown to the audience. An example of this is when Mark was discussing the sheer amount of sex that went on in the community garden with footage of a pumpkin shaped like a bum, and him leering at a fully clothed woman who is innocently weeding only to be completely rejected.

One of the major challenges was trying to condense our initial idea down into a three minute clip, as we all had funny lines and actions that we wanted to contribute. However, I think having a small time frame challenged us to present the premise for the sketch more succinctly and get to the real meat of the jokes.

Link to Sketch: https://youtu.be/x8AcoZT23dI

References

Toplyn, J. (2014), “Parody SketchesLinks to an external site. to an external site.” in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 239–261.