Studio Reflection

by saskiachristensen

In what ways do you hope your screenings/exhibited/screened work (whether individual or group produced) engaged its audience and communicated a key concern of the studio?  

Throughout the semester, we have discussed comedy as a genre, comedy as a mode then putting this comedy, into practise. Our artefact, Trip-Up by Angus, K, Ben, Giorgio and I aims to explore the many methods of comedy. The key concerns of the studio is to learn the theories of comedy and how comedy operates – as its own genre but also as a hybridised genre. By creating and watching our own comedy sketches, we learnt how different comedy operates and the different effects each style has. I think our artefact, Trip-Up has engaged in the studio’s learnings by integrating many of the theories and modes learnt over the past semester. In week 3 we learnt about story sketches, “a Story Sketch is also performed by the host and others but the jokes aren’t interchangeable because they’re woven into a story line. So, a Story Sketch is more like what you probably think of when you hear the word “sketch” – a short, funny story performed by actors.”  (Toplyn, 2014). I believe our artefact displays a story sketch, where the jokes are woven into the story – and work within the story to become comedy. As well as this, utilising obscurity and incongruity as “the detection of some disruption of our expectations.” (Audissino, E. & Wennekes, E. 2023). This works to be comedy in our artefact because the artefact is centred around a drug trip- we were able to make scenes and scenarios weird and strange, seeming almost out-of-place or impossible. For example, Josh and Adam looking for Millie Bobby in the microwaves, pirates, Teletubbies, Kevin killing the uber driver, to name a few. “Incongruity theory suggests that amusement is “an intellectual reaction to something that is unexpected, illogical or inappropriate in some other way”. (Clayton, 2020). These random moments of incongruity, surprise and obscurity help to make our film funny. As well as this, our artefact arguably is a bit of a genre hybridisation. “Rather than seeing genres as mechanistically rigid and static, critics in the 1980s argued for a more organic view, often seeing genres undergoing an almost evolutionarily trajectory from ‘primitive’ to ‘mature’ to ‘decadent’.” (Mundy & White, 2012). While Trip-Up is mostly comedy (and more likely a story sketch), the artefact has drama and action intertwined into it. Rather than the film being strictly a sketch, the film has elements of other genres in it. The very core of the film is structured around an adventure.

 

Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece (e.g. to screen it somewhere else like a festival, or develop it into a different kind of work, and so on) – what would be the core things you would want to improve and extend and why? 

If we were able to continue working on our media artefact, the elements I would like to further improve would be making our film longer (more shots). Because we were in a bit of a time crunch with borrowing the equipment as well as only have 2 days to film, it meant a few shots and scenes which we thought could have added to our project we were not able to execute. If we were to have an extra week of filming, it would help dramatically to get these extra shots and scenes to enhance our film even more. As well as this, having a bit more time to edit our film which would be less pressure on K (who edited), and would allow us all to input more into finalising the final cut. As well as this, I think if we were to improve our project, getting rid of using the lav mics could make our sound a little more clear. Because they are mostly placed on shirts and in-between scarves, you can hear a little bit of fumbling around. Unfortunately, because we didn’t have enough of a team working behind the camera in the scenes with the 4 of us, it made filming and using the boom too difficult. With a bigger team, it would have helped to eliminate the stress of the sound and camera work a little more as well as making the process a lot quicker for us all.

From your studio, reflect on an aspect of two other students/group’s media work on the website in terms of specific insights they produced about a key idea addressed by the studio? 

“Situation Tragedy” by Zach Coyne, Yusuf Abas, Lewis Vincent, Nia Arora, Novo Shabab and Chloe Roussy was a comedy film from my studio. I personally loved this film, and thought it was really funny. A key idea addressed in the film that we discussed in the studio was parody. The film is a parody of a sitcom as well as a parody of a crime documentary. I thought it was very well executed, with the one-on-one interviews, as well as the hand-held footage. The film executed the studio’s goal of comedy as a genre.

The next film I watched from Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre was “Operation Super Star”. Unlike “Situation Tragedy”, this film explored comedy as a genre hybridisation. Rather than focuses strictly on comedy, this film integrated comedy into other genres – like action and drama. This was a focus on our studio, exploring comedy as more than a genre and the ways it is put into other genres as used as a sort of mode.

For the other studio website you engaged with, describe a key idea that you think the finished media/studio work communicated with reference to a specific example (i.e. a particular individual/group work)

‘Decance’ By Spring Li, Taylor Zenelovski, Andrew Tan, Nadia Harari and Josephine Gaal from the Visual Blueprint – the art of film symmetry focuses beyond the narrative. I noticed while watching their work, that cinematography for the studio seems to be a key idea that the studio focused in on. The film was amazingly shot and looked stunning.

REFERENCES:

Mundy, J. & White, G. (2012), “Comedy and Genre Boundaries Links to an external site.” in Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television and Radio Comedy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 130–148.

Toplyn, J. (2014), “Story SketchesLinks to an external site.” in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 221–238.

Audissino, E. (2023), “From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road” in Audissino, E. & Wennekes, E. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3–23.

Clayton, Alex. Funny How? : Sketch Comedy and the Art of Humor, State University of New York Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=6308704.

First two questions from final reflection preparation: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/saskia-christensen/2024/05/30/documentation-post-6-final-reflective-essay/

Documentation Post 6 – Final Reflective Essay

by saskiachristensen

TRIP-UP FINAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY

BEYOND A JOKE, BEYOND A GENRE

Throughout the semester, we have discussed comedy as a genre, comedy as a mode then putting this comedy, into practise. Our artefact, Trip-Up by Angus, K, Ben, Giorgio and I aims to explore the many methods of comedy. The key concerns of the studio is to learn the theories of comedy and how comedy operates – as its own genre but also as a hybridised genre. By creating and watching our own comedy sketches, we learnt how different comedy operates and the different effects each style has. I think our artefact, Trip-Up has engaged in the studio’s learnings by integrating many of the theories and modes learnt over the past semester. In week 3 we learnt about story sketches, “a Story Sketch is also performed by the host and others but the jokes aren’t interchangeable because they’re woven into a story line. So, a Story Sketch is more like what you probably think of when you hear the word “sketch” – a short, funny story performed by actors.”  (Toplyn, 2014). I believe our artefact displays a story sketch, where the jokes are woven into the story – and work within the story to become comedy. As well as this, utilising obscurity and incongruity as “the detection of some disruption of our expectations.” (Audissino, E. & Wennekes, E. 2023). This works to be comedy in our artefact because the artefact is centred around a drug trip- we were able to make scenes and scenarios weird and strange, seeming almost out-of-place or impossible. For example, Josh and Adam looking for Millie Bobby in the microwaves, pirates, Teletubbies, Kevin killing the uber driver, to name a few. “Incongruity theory suggests that amusement is “an intellectual reaction to something that is unexpected, illogical or inappropriate in some other way”. (Clayton, 2020). These random moments of incongruity, surprise and obscurity help to make our film funny. As well as this, our artefact arguably is a bit of a genre hybridisation. “Rather than seeing genres as mechanistically rigid and static, critics in the 1980s argued for a more organic view, often seeing genres undergoing an almost evolutionarily trajectory from ‘primitive’ to ‘mature’ to ‘decadent’.” (Mundy & White, 2012). While Trip-Up is mostly comedy (and more likely a story sketch), the artefact has drama and action intertwined into it. Rather than the film being strictly a sketch, the film has elements of other genres in it. The very core of the film is structured around an adventure.

My understanding of comedy has shifted throughout the semester because I now am able to identify what makes a piece of media funny. Although I don’t think my personal style of humour has changed, the way I look at comedy pieces has. I am able to identify more clearly what writers/actors/comedians are trying to do in order to make their work funny.

If we were able to continue working on our media artefact, the elements I would like to further improve would be making our film longer (more shots). Because we were in a bit of a time crunch with borrowing the equipment as well as only have 2 days to film, it meant a few shots and scenes which we thought could have added to our project we were not able to execute. If we were to have an extra week of filming, it would help dramatically to get these extra shots and scenes to enhance our film even more. As well as this, having a bit more time to edit our film which would be less pressure on K (who edited), and would allow us all to input more into finalising the final cut. As well as this, I think if we were to improve our project, getting rid of using the lav mics could make our sound a little more clear. Because they are mostly placed on shirts and in-between scarves, you can hear a little bit of fumbling around. Unfortunately, because we didn’t have enough of a team working behind the camera in the scenes with the 4 of us, it made filming and using the boom too difficult. With a bigger team, it would have helped to eliminate the stress of the sound and camera work a little more as well as making the process a lot quicker for us all.

Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre has positively impacted my experiences with collaboration. Not only was everyone in the class really nice, but everyone worked very hard. Because I was nervous about creating my own comedy sketches, everyone that I worked with made the experience a whole lot easier. I worked with a different group of people most weeks when we worked collaboratively and although we all worked differently, I enjoyed working with everyone. It was interesting to see the different ways people would come up with ideas and execute ideas as well as the different strengths and weaknesses each person had. I particularly enjoyed working with my final group, they were very hard working and knew what we had to get done, but at the same time made the experience a fun time. Working in comedy should be fun as well as work, which it was. We mucked around a little while still getting good quality work done and I really couldn’t ask for more. I think more studios should enable students to work collaboratively like this studio, because I think it really benefited me.

Overall, I am really happy with our final artefact, Trip-Up and I hope who-ever watches it enjoys it too. Despite being a little nervous about this studio, it has ended up being one of my personal favourites I have done at RMIT so far.

REFERENCES

Mundy, J. & White, G. (2012), “Comedy and Genre Boundaries Links to an external site.” in Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television and Radio Comedy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 130–148.

Toplyn, J. (2014), “Story SketchesLinks to an external site.” in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 221–238.

Audissino, E. (2023), “From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road” in Audissino, E. & Wennekes, E. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3–23.

Clayton, Alex. Funny How? : Sketch Comedy and the Art of Humor, State University of New York Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=6308704.

 

Documentation Post 5 – Week 11

by saskiachristensen

This week was production week. On Wednesday, everyone came over to my house in the morning and we aimed to get the house scenes filmed as well as the beach scene. Setting up the lights, sound and shots took longer than expected, and we got a lot less done at the house than we thought we would. Because the sun sets so early, around 5pm, we had to rush off to the beach to get our beach scenes before it got dark. The house scenes were difficult because of the lav mics – it was difficult to get everyone’s voice heard clearly as well as making the lav’s not visible to the camera. Because we had 3 or 4 people in a shot at a time in a lot of the house scenes, it also slowed down a lot of the process’ because the people not in the shots had to manage multiple things at once (mostly K and I). Everyone was a great help but having some extra people on our set or alternatively, a smaller ‘cast’ would have made time management a lot smoother and more efficient. Regardless, we got about a 3rd of the house scenes finished on Wednesday and the whole beach scene done which left us to do the rest of the house/street scenes as well as filming at the racecourse and tunnel.

On Thursday morning, everyone came over again and we had left everything out from the day before so luckily, set up was a lot quicker this time. I did a lot of the sound, and at this point we moved from using the lav mics to using the boom microphone which I thought sounded a lot better as well as being easier to manage. We were more on a roll this day, and we were able to get a lot more done within a shorter amount of time. We got all the house scenes done and ran to get the racecourse shots finished. This was personally my favourite part of our project, I think the tunnel location is our coolest part of the sketch. We got everything done and packed up everything at my house to return the equipment we had to return. We didn’t get to do the green screen shots, but decided they would do it Monday during class time.

SOME VIDEOS & PHOTOS

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Documentation Post 4 – Week 10

by saskiachristensen

This week, on Monday, we had our presentation to the panel about our comedy short-film. We discussed our film form, synopsis, characters and our inspirations. We then discussed the comedy theories we were going to utilise and how we would employ them. After our presentation, we read some of our script out-loud to the panel and the class. The feedback we received was that despite our slightly unorganised presentation, the project looked promising. We had to make sure to get a cleaner script together, as well as ironing out some of the details to make the film make more sense and be a little more flowing. The only critique we had was the lack of female characters, (which was hard considering our group), but I think we will made this work nonetheless. At this point in time, our focus was to really finalise our script as well as putting our shot-list together. We all headed to our filming locations after class to check them out and get an idea for lighting, shots, sound etc. This was really beneficial for us because we could go into the filming next week with a solid idea on what we had to get done.

By Wednesday, we had been in communication all week and agreed that next Wednesday and Thursday (22nd & 23rd of May) we were all going to film at my house and the surrounding locations, (I had a lot of cleaning to do). Angus finalised the script and the shot-list over this week so we now all we had to do was book our equipment and prepare for next week, the filming week. It was really exciting see our idea come to life and we were all very excited to begin production on the project we had been planning for all these weeks.

Documentation Post 3 – Week 9

by saskiachristensen

On Monday, we made great process in terms of plot-line with our story. ‘The Trip‘ (temporary title), was going to be about a group of friends (Adam, Josh, Millie Bobby and her ‘friend’ Kevin), who decide to take the newly-popularised psychedelic drug for the first time. As the come-up begins to happen, every character begins to react quite differently. Kevin, the ‘seasoned veteren’ of the group begins yapping Millie Bobby’s ear off about his favourite consipricity theories, as Adam & Josh begin to feel a little off. Millie Bobby, frustrated, removes herself from the environment leaving the boys alone. Freaked out, the Adam and Josh turn to the professional, Kevin, for comfort. Only to find, Kevin is having his own ego-death nightmarish experience. The doorbell is rung and the boys are freaked out. Who could it be? Kevin is pressured to open the door only to find an Uber delivery man with food for Millie Bobby. This is when they realise Millie Bobby has been missing for some time now. Hungry and wanting comfort, they take the food out of the Uber delivery man’s hand, the uber delivery man is not happy with this. The boys are then chased by the uber delivery man until they escape from him with Kevin’s fatal throw to his head. They end up in a tunnel, where they are further tripped out until they walk through and find a park. They see Millie Bobby until they walk further and see they have mistaken her for a plastic horse at the park. This is when they realise Millie Bobby must be found. After an inspirational speech, they are determined to find her. Going through a tunnel of adventures and dimensions, the boys eventually end up at the beach. (STILL WORKING ON THIS SCENE). They end up back at the house after Kevin says he needs to pee. This is when they realise, they didn’t check the bathroom. They go into the bathroom to find Millie tripping out by herself, locked in there. This is when it is found out the boys had greatly exaggerated their adventures due to the drugs, their world had been distorted.

Angus said he’d create the vomit script for this, with dialogue. We also got done some good potential locations for our film, which we have to contact.

By Wednesday, Angus had written out a pretty solid vomit script. We then started to write our first draft based off of the vomit script. Adding in jokes, which included taking a while choosing which conspiracy theories we wanted Kevin to talk about. We still have to work on the middle of the script, we are still not sure what happens in the beach scene. That is something we are going to have to work on before Monday (the presentation). I also finished putting together the presentation for Monday introducing our piece and answering the questions on Canvas. We are going to finish our first draft of our script by the weekend so we are able to benefit from feedback from the panel about our story and then we are able to read it out to them in whole.

 

 

Documentation Post 2 – Week 8

by saskiachristensen

This week we were mainly focusing on developing our character profile and getting together a solid plot line.

At this point on Monday, we had a definite idea of a group of people taking a psychedelic drug who are then taken on an adventure to find one of their missing friends (Millie Bobby). We weren’t exactly sure on Monday who was what character (except for Millie Bobby). There was a character who was the ego death character, confident and cocky who is then shocked by the effects of the drug. There was a character who was convinced he was in a documentary and lastly, a character who was wise and more rational during his trip. At this point on Monday, we weren’t 100% sure of any locations, characters, or how the sequence of events was going to play out.

On Wednesday, we began to get our ideas more concise and written down. We decided that Josh was going to be the wise and relaxed friend, Adam would be the one aware of the camera & best friends with Josh. Kevin would be the cocky character turned nervous who is going on dates with Millie Bobby, and Millie Bobby was the run-away tripper. We were not entirely sure of the ending or of the structure of the plot by Wednesday. We 100% knew we wanted Millie Bobby to run-away and for the boys to go through a series of funny events to find her. We are not sure if we want to make it that Millie Bobby really did run away, or whether she’s secretly been in the house the whole time, imagining she’d done so.

Documentation Post 1 – Week 7

by saskiachristensen

Group Agreement

Almost Friday TV: inspiration for our comedy style & form for our project. We all agreed that this type of sketch (where it generally has a basic topic and expands on it) is the type of comedy we are interested in creating.

Carl Barron: I personally love his style of comedy as exaggerated characters which is something I’d like to include in our final project.

Mr Inbetween: A great example of a show that displays genre hybridisation. Although the show is about something dark and has dark themes, comedy is intertwined throughout. I looooveeeeee this show and the way it executes comedy.

Key & Peele: Like Almost Friday TV, Key & Peele’s style of comedy sketches is what we are interested in as a group.

SNL: Funny comedy skits and (again) crazy characters.

 

This week, our group (me, Giorgio, Ben, Karen & Angus), began talking about the sort of comedy we are interested in creating. We came to a similar consensus that the time limit of 8-20 minutes for a sketch is a long amount of time so we agreed that we were interested in doing a compilation of a few sketches tied together with a similar concept/theme. We also created a group agreement and a group chat as a way to communicate throughout the process. We are beginning to come up with an idea for our final project together, but are not set in stone on anything yet. I am excited for the pre-production and production process coming up over the next few weeks.

Experiment 6: Genre Hybridisation

by saskiachristensen

SKETCH 6

This week we discussed genre hybridisation, being comedy intertwined in a different genre e.g. drama or romance. The idea of genre hybridisation is that genres have become more fluid, and that since the 1980s, TV and film have seen a rise in this hybridisation, (Middleton, 2002). Genre hybridisation with comedy is the idea that comedy can be integrated into something that would naturally fall into a different genre, acting as a sort of element. A good example of genre hybridisation is mockumentaries or rom coms, where different fields are joined together to create a single piece of media. “Rather than seeing genres as mechanistically rigid and static, critics in the 1980s argued for a more organic view, often seeing genres undergoing an almost evolutionary trajectory from ‘primitive’ to ‘mature’ to ‘decadent’.” (Mundy & White, 2012). While comedy may not be the main genre of the piece of media, elements of comedy are intertwined throughout. Comedy “has been particularly adept at exploiting the potential of crossing borders between and within genres,” (Mundy & White, 2012). Not only has genre hybridisation with comedy created more dynamic styles of media, it has also arguably made the media more entertaining.

Our media artefact created this week titled, ‘The Divorce’ is a drama about a couple visiting a lawyer’s office to discuss their divorce agreements. The inspiration for the film style was Succession. While the majority of the sketch clearly follows the drama genre, there is an element of comedy in the end when it is discovered the lawyer and the husband are secretly having an affair, resulting in the divorce. There are hints as to their affair (both never free Thursdays & the Grindr notification), but the real comedy is the discovery of the lawyer’s phone and laptop background being the pair in bed. The sketch responds to the concept of genre hybridisation because while the bulk of the skit remains serious (as a drama), there is still an element of comedy that adds to the plot.

Comedy’s relationship to the drama genre I believe is a great relief of tension. Watching dramas can be jarring, as the subject at hand tends to be very serious. Comedy can allow for the drama genre to be more digestible as well as adding an element of entertainment for viewers.

As for my own comedic sensibility over the last 3 weeks, I have found it 100 times easier to work in a group. Because I am not particularly comfortable acting in comedy sketches, it has helped to have a group of people around me working on the same project. As for what I liked, I enjoyed parody and satirical modes of comedy. I found for me personally in parody and satire modes I had the most ideas and found it the best way for me to display comedy.

 

REFERENCES:

Mundy, J. & White, G. (2012), “Comedy and Genre Boundaries Links to an external site.” in Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television and Radio Comedy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 130–148.

Romanowski, M. & Sheldon, Z. (2020), “‘Time to Ranch It up!’: Ethics and Satire in New Media Links to an external site.“, Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 15(3), pp. 239–254.

Middleton, J. (2002), “Documentary Comedy Links to an external site.“, Media International Australia, 104(1), pp. 55–66.