Video ^^

This week, charged with a parody sketch of a rough minute in length, it was more difficult to get the ball rolling than otherwise expected. Even as one of my preferred forms of comedy, to be put on the spot and having to create and perform in a constrained period of time always gives me writer’s block. Even still, pushing through all the pre-production hiccups, our group settled on a children’s show parody. With this base framework of childhood innocence, a twisted, grim juxtaposition came naturally, resulting in a final concept with a concise gag structure about it, albeit a bit on the simple side.

I personally took a lot in mind from the Neale and Krutnik (1990) reading about intertextual comedy, and how humour can be abstracted from pre-conceived subtexts outside of the sketch itself, or as they put, “[…] by gags and funny lines which specifically use as their raw material the conventions of the genre involved”. A genre form highly reliant on the knowledge of the tropes, schticks, commonalities of whatever they’re parodying. In our case, many of us grew up with children’s television PSAs usual to us; detailing safe practices, healthy living, all with simplistic terminologies, a half-condescending tone of voice, a good message. It’s because this foundational reference is so critical to this sketch, that parody isn’t actually a form of comedy but a mode, modular to the conventions of its source, which to our application in this sketch gives a fair amount of creative control in practice. We felt able to explore and try a range of approaches to the sketch and had many outtakes, tailoring our options broadly to find, not only a strong, concise joke, but a parody utilizing as much of its source as we could.

I feel in this regard we perhaps could’ve pushed the concept further, threading some other ideas from different takes into the final piece. Admittedly, for the sake of the cohesion of the sketch, this might’ve been for the best.

Citations:
Neale, S., Krutnik, F. (1990) “Definitions, Genres, and Forms”, Popular Film and Television Comedy, <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/reader.action?docID=178274> website. Accessed 4 April 2024. RMIT Library.

Week One:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/samuel-rodgers/beyond-a-joke-beyond-a-genre-video-experiments/

Week Two:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/samuel-rodgers/2024/03/15/beyond-a-joke-week-2-silent-comedy/

Week Three:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/samuel-rodgers/2024/03/22/beyond-a-joke-week-3-story-sketches/

Video Exercise ^^

Regarding the feedback received across the past two weeks, I’ve ascertained the following with the intent to apply; Increasing a sense of clarity, be that through visual or acting consistency, and stronger punchline delivery, mainly referring to pacing. This week’s delve into story-based sketches, I aimed to capitalize on this feedback by ending with a clearer final joke, and further contextual grounding through dialogue. I feel I was fairly successful in achieving these two goals, in as much as I could with the given restrictions (only while writing this do I realize I’ve gone over a minute, smh). Even still, the story begins in a typical scenario, that progresses and devolves with the misunderstanding revealing in its conclusion. I feel I could’ve gone much weirder and deeper, though I thought best to keep it simple and digestible.

Toplyn (2014) highlights 9 steps in classic Late Night situational sketch creation, based on a number of irreverent sketches from across the medium. To my best attempt, I tried to follow these steps as closely as possible as I’ll describe. In the pursuit of an exaggerated character (1), I began with a door-to-door Salesman with the zeal of a Jehovah’s Witness crossbreed – something on the front foot with potential to get weird with. Naturally, he wants to sell his book (2), The Good Book. To oppose him (3) on the defensive, is his Neighbor who is resistant to his proposal. In his effort to achieve his goal (4), the Salesman Sam appeals to outlandish and sinful promises, exaggerating his product (5, and pretty much 6) in a hopeful push. Despite his might, he is refused (7). In the final punchline, (8) The Good Book is revealed to be a very different kind of Good Book, the result of a big misunderstanding. Also, the dialogue (9) was all throughout. I’m a bit conflicted about my ending as it doesn’t necessarily fit all that well into point 8’s five ways to perform the final twist outlined in Toplyn’s analysis, despite thinking the twist works pretty well. This area could likely use a rewrite but under the circumstances I’m fairly pleased with its outcome all the same.

In conclusion, I believe I adapted the feedback from the previous experiments with moderate success. Situational and Story based sketches are one of my favorite types of comedy I think the sketch actually came out pretty okay for its modest production qualities.

Citations:
Toplyn, J. (2014), “Story Sketches”, Comedy Writing for Late Night TV, <https://rmit.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/61RMIT_INST:RMITU/12324770510001341?lang=en&viewerServiceCode=DigitalViewer> website. Accessed 21 March 2024, RMIT Library.
Aunty Donna (12 December 2018) ‘What Have You Forgotten?’ , Aunty Donna, YouTube website, accessed 21 March 2024. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzBuP7h4RQY>

AftP Project; Screen Trapped

This short film highlights the uneasy balance most people have, I included, regarding the weight and importance of digital media in our lives. This film uses abstract, symbolically familiar AI generated images and footage to blur the lines of reality as the subject is further drawn into their screen-based addiction. I found the most interesting part that I could reflect upon of this concept is how usual this all seems to me. I’ve grown up with ready access to social media all my life, and to see people on the street utterly absorbed by their screens is really nothing new to me. To recontextualize this day-to-day normalcy into an unnerving compulsion that keeps and demands its users’ attentions brings a new perspective that is reinforced by the abstract, droning soundtrack and surreal visuals. As this project reflects on how social media impacts our average day, AI is used in the presentation of this, as this initial idea is more a realization of the larger picture of how absorbed we are in this aspect of our lives.

AftP Project; Down The Rabbit Hole

The nine-minute long adaptation of Alice in Wonderland provides a surreal experience, retelling much of the classic story with an uncanny digital twist, all contextualized to a digital rabbit hole. This film blends a use of generative AI and live-action footage to craft a narrative with striking resemblances to Lewis Carrol’s famed work warning of the chemical addiction that the younger generations deal with around escapism and compulsion. I was highly impressed by the length of this production, as it is no small feat to accomplish so much in the allotted weeks for this task, and to still have such a coherent and visually remarkable quality to show for it. How this film covers its idea, is very similar to how ‘Screen Trapped’ does, deconstructing how younger people engage and are adversely affected by digital media; all expressed through the aethereal and fantastical world of AI. Down The Rabbit Hole differs from Screen Trapped in its narrative approach, cemented to many conventions of the original story, using the abstract themes of escapism as a foundation to explore how this same concept applies to digitalism. It’s very entertaining and utilizes its premise well. I’d rewatch this one.

Decoding AI Project; Artists and AI: Assessing the threat of AI to the Creative

I was surprised by this video essay, as it covers many ideas that were involved in the creative process of my group’s Project Toblerone Super Bowl ad. The core premise at the center of this essay is how AI approaches the same level, and thusly threatens, the professional artist in the modern age and their job security of the future. Similar to what we experienced firsthand, AI still has a few decades to truly encompass the ‘human experience’ as the essay puts it; true creativity that expresses ideas, emotions and concepts tangible to the lives of humans. However, which is made clear in examples, AI is significant in the world of ‘content’, deriving to ads, shorts, essays and anything directly grounded in whatever field it stems from. Essentially, AI models have been fed so many essays, scripts and similar pieces that it will have mastered the concept and production of ‘content’, that it is legitimate that AI threatens this sphere. It was a very interesting essay with high production values and an applicable, engaging theory that I could personally vouch for.

Decoding AI Project; How does Google Maps determine the fastest route?

It’s an interesting question that I’d never thought to found out, or even ask myself. I’d always assumed the computer just did the calculations based on distance, time and previous knowledge of traffic levels. This video essay, in a similar way to Artists and AI, analyze and understand what AI’s impact is on traffic routing, forecasting, and sustainability. Decoding AI focuses on how artificial intelligence is only so many degrees from human, how and where the line is drawn between what human functions are done by AI for accessibility and ease, and when it becomes tasks that humans cannot perform. The processes that Google Maps comprehends gives a significant presence to AI in our lives, as the mathematics and statistics that it has to constantly update and predict on such a large scale force this task out of the hands of humans without a significant overhaul to how traffic mathematics is calculated and road systems are built. It’s a very fascinating topic that makes me realize the scale that AI works on, and appreciate the quality-of-life that comes from its engineering.

Major Media Work (Vimeo link);

VLOG Reflection;

Screenshots of production’s progress (super blurry for some reason);

AftP Week 6 Blogpost

AftP Week 5 Blogpost

AftP Week 4 Blogpost

This Week’s Overview; Basing our concept this week on some of the existential questions raised with the stewardship of my pet lizard Little Brother, we asked ‘if we can care and watch over a small creature like LB, what would the same were to happen to us from a power just as incomprehensible as we are to LB?’ Using Runway to generate video clips, ElevenLabs and ChatGPT to narrate and write a script and MusicGen for a dreadful backing track, we made this;

Sketch;

Written Reflection; Over all, I have taken away a lot from this exercise. I ran out of prompting credits on my free account for some of these programs, so any addendums or changes couldn’t unfortunately be fulfilled, though at the end of the day, I don’t think a lot more was necessary. I believe our group was successful in enticing slick visuals and a tone appropriate to the initial concept. The video is a bit shoddy in terms of music, but some of these limitations are due to premium modelling and that. Regardless, I have taken away much that will influence my thinking going forward about these program’s strengths and weaknesses. Runway is extremely visual with its prompting and needs lots of descriptions, contexts and details to gauge what you want. Even then, sometimes it just farts out a still picture that I *guess* is an interpretation but it still took my credits. It’s quite finicky. To use these programs in the majority capacity of media production like I aim to, it’s still gonna be a while before I fully understand the terminology and prompting approaches to fully utilize it. Language can’t be too flowery because it doesn’t understand the metaphor but still does need some real world grounding to draw from. ChatGPT is fairly straightforward by this point, just sort of treating editing prompts as you would a student, pointing them in the right direction and using examples. Another development I have come to discern, I have a growing intuition to explore short-form narrative content as a possible direction for both my Final Piece this semester, as well as future sketches, based on the outcome of this sketch. I have found this process of narrative prompting as both interesting and exciting to see what these programs can lead me. While this sketch was initially a narrative concept, it’s fairly thin by all means and doesn’t contain conventional narrative structure, which I would aim to replicate going forward. While I’m fairly happy with the final product, I’m more jovial toward the well of experience and knowledge about prompting video, material collation and cross-generator collaboration.

This Week’s Overview; I have a pet Bearded Dragon called Little Brother. picture attached.

Conceptual Context; This little goon has been getting older, roughly one and a half years old, which means he’s entering the teenage phase of his lifespan. Because of this, due to a number of reasons like growing too big for his enclosure, temperature, food or attention, (very teenage dramas), he’s been scritching away at the walls and glass. Inspired by this putz’s plight, our group decided to conceive a narrative of his escape, a thrilling adventure and a tale of self-acceptance, familial love and discovering who you are.

Group Prompt; Write a synopsis for a short film about a bearded dragon that is experiencing puberty and a rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately he wants to find other dragons that he can relate with, but to do that, he needs to escape from his owner’s home. The family love him so much and go on a big hunt to find him. The hunt lasts for 4 days and they get very close to finding him, however something always gets in the way.

GPT Synopsis; ‘Meet LB, a bearded dragon undergoing puberty, which triggers a wild ride of emotions. Yearning for connection with his own kind, LB plots an escape from his loving family. His goal: to find fellow dragons who understand him. LB’s family soon notices his absence and launches a four-day search, filled with comical mishaps. Despite being close to finding LB, fate continually intervenes. Meanwhile, LB faces challenges and discovers unexpected allies in the outside world. As the family and LB’s paths converge, LB learns that his longing for connection is mirrored by his family’s love. The tale explores adolescence, family bonds, and self-discovery, reminding us that true connections might be closer than we think.’

Here’s a direct copy-paste into MusicGen of the above synopsis’ results;

A tantalizing piece I found. About at the 7 second mark, the strings sort of meld into this modulating-harpy-synth chorus which inspired me to try this same prompt with an addendum at the end saying “in the droning style of Blade Runner” which themes fit with the example in the previous piece, as well as Little Brother’s temperature light neon saturated cage in which he’s kept. Here’s the result;

A little too mechanical and grim, not really picking up on the long, waning synth of the original Blade Runner, almost sounding like the thumping action music from its 2049 sequel. So, I made the adjustments saying “in an upbeat synth Blade Runner style ballad”. Here’s how that turned out;

Really taking the upbeat into account. I suppose a bit more fitting, though still not very Blade Runner even if it has the synth. I thought I’d pivot from here to a different genre, as during our brainstorming we took Rango into inspiration, a movie with a very similar premise. I made the addendum “in a playful mariachi band type song” which sounds like;

Fitting for Rango, certainly. Little Brother’s journey, maybe not. It really takes the keyword ‘Mariachi’ and runs with it! It is very interesting how the trumpet or whatever the brass is has been toyed with by the AI, having (I’m not sure how to describe it) but a spikey texture that almost resonates as an accordion. For the next piece, I kept with the Rango Influence and directly referenced it with “in the style of the lizard movie Rango OST” which might’ve been poor prompting as it sounds like this;

I get the feeling the AI doesn’t know what Rango is, mistaking it for Watchmen by the sounds of it. Either way, I think this would actually fit for a low-point of Little Brother’s story where the world is truly terrifying and his life is in peril from a Magpie or something. I’ve learned a lot from these exercises and I’ll very likely be using this programme later on. I think it’s positively neat, even if it’s fiddly with prompts.

Video Reflection; https://youtu.be/DIo84ksbgfc

This Week’s Overview; Borrowing the transcript from a Week 1 Sketch, we implemented it into ElevenLabs, a voice modulation and speech synthesizing AI to recreate an aural performance of the piece. Results below.

I’ll admit, I got a bit sidetracked playing around with the stability voice settings in class, trying to warp and scramble the synthesizer as far away from its original text as possible. To catalogue my findings, I gave ElevenLabs the quote of “You must excuse me, I had beans for lunch.” Using the instability around extraneous and frequent punctuation, I was able to emulate some truly inhuman sounds! Here’s one that sounds almost sounds Swedish, as per the voice’s description on the site. I added some gibberish into the mix amongst the excessive punctuation-warping which is quite noticeable, a test of how it would interact with it.

Another, the Australian narrator voice, James, sounds as if a Sorcerer possesses him to involuntarily cast an evil hex on himself;

Finally, Sam actually handles the instability well. This one was a test of how little it took for unnatural outcomes to occur. While most of it still sounds like him having a stroke, it’s still rather comparable to a video game/kids movie’s gibberish language, like Simlish or Italian;

Cool stuff. I am highly considering using this as grunts, SFX, and anything disturbing in future assignments and extracurricular projects!

Video Reflection; https://youtu.be/dcmap_6e18A