Camera Angles/ Shots and Editing

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot" - Buster Keaton, Director/ Actor

The Simpsons Guy (2014) 
Camera Shots
The Simpsons Guy is a 2014 episode of popular sitcom Family Guy. In the episode The Griffins find themselves in Springfield and they meet The Simpsons. I chose to analyse this episode of Family Guy because I believe it uses camera angles in a quite talented way.

In most scenes involving multiple characters a wide shot is used. This is a convention within the comedy genre because in most cases the audience do not want to see what the characters are thinking/ feeling because it is the situation that is funny. While we do want to see characters reactions to the situations, it is usually the situation that if funny. Also a reason for wide shots in comedy is because comedy usually relies on the interactions of more then one character so it is better to have them all on screen at once.

While wide shot are important it does not mean that close up shots are omitted completely. In this episode during a comedic fight scene between Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin there is a good use of close ups. These shots are used to get more detail of the fight and are very funny.

These close up shots add to the comedy by showing extreme detail of how much damage each punch does to the other character. During the rest of the fight Homer and Peter punch each other but not much damage is caused, but then according to this close up one punch can knock out Peters teeth and make Homers eye pop out.



Reaction shots can be very helpful in comedies. They are usually used when a joke is made about a character, for example in Friends whenever they would mention Ross' divorces it would cut to a reaction shot of Ross.

In the above screen shots Homer is reacting to a angry stare(left image)  and a incoming punch (right image). I found these shots to make the scene funnier. I think these shots have appeal because it can be very funny to see the characters face right before/after something has happened. A reason for the importance of reaction shots in comedies is because it is a psychological cue for the audience about how to respond to the situation.

Camera Angles
Like most comedies the camera angles are fairly simplistic, most being eye level angles. But through out the episode there a few instances of experimentation with the camera angles.

Multiple examples of low angles are evident through out the episode. All but one is used for the conventional reason of showing power.

Also in the episode there are a few examples of bird eye shots but these are used to establish the scene.

All in all there is not much experimentation with camera angles which is normal within the comedy genre. I personally think this is a shame and would like to experiment more with camera angles when I make my short movie.

Camera Movements
Features a mostly static camera but does zoom in for reaction shots or conversation scenes. Early in the episode the camera does rotate for the big reveal that they are in Springfield. Also during the fight scene there quite a few moments in which the camera pans and tilts. But the majority of the episode is a static camera which fits with conventions of comedies.

I think this episode features a good range of camera shots but could benefit from more camera movements. I also think that there could have been more variety in the camera angles. Despite this however I believe the episode works and the cinematography, as fairly simplistic as it is, is well done and is more varied than some other comedies.

Editing
Through out the episode the shots are well edited together and sound is done well. The cuts in shots never feel awkward they just help the flow of the narrative. I hope to achieve editing of at least the standard seen in this episode in my own work.




WKUK - Job Interview 
This sketch features a man going for a job interview but completely messing it up. Each time he does something wrong another man appears on screen to inform us what you should do in the situation.
Camera Shots
This sketch like a lot of sketch shows uses very simplistic camera shots.

The three shots above are essentially the only shots used it just switches between them, with a few exceptions near the end of the sketch. This technique of only using a very limited amount of camera shots can be useful in my opinion but I would like to experiment more in my own work.

I am honestly not a fan of the conventional simple camera work found in most comedies (although in some the simple camera work does help) and would like the challenge this convention because using simple camera shots has connotations that you do not really know much about filming.

Camera Angles
The angles you can see in the above images are the once again the only ones used. I do not really like the lack of variety in the camera angles but in this sketch more camera angles were not really required.

Camera Movement
Features a static camera, the only time it moves is when it cuts to a different shot.  I do not mind this as zoom in/ out may have looked out of place during this sketch because it is supposed to be a training video for job interviews.

Editing
As minimal as it is the editing is well done. Shots are not awkwardly and they flow well into one another.

Overall I have decided that I want to experiment more than most comedies do when it comes to camera shots/ angles. I believe that breaking these conventions will actually make the movie funnier because people wont be expecting fancy camera work in a comedy.

Ancillary Task Research

 Movie Posters 
I have looked at multiple movie posters and noticed some trends between them. One such trend is that when there is only one or two main characters the poster tend to focus on them. A lot of posters are just the main protagonists face.

Above is three posters from three different genre movies yet all the posters are basically the same. They just are the main protagonists face. This is quite an effective poster choice especially when the movie features a big star (like 'The Grey' poster up there) because it shows the audience who is in the movie and sometimes people go to watch movies with big actors because of the actor. Also a trend with these kind of posters is that the movies title will be near the bottom of the poster and will be the largest writing on the poster. 

I like this style of movie poster specifically for serious drama movies because it is my opinion quite powerful to just see the characters face. I think it allows us as an audience to see clearly who is in the movie and based on expression what kind of character they will be. 

Another kind of movie poster I noticed mainly in Sci-Fi/ Superhero movies is when you have an image of multiple people with the main character front and center. 

This is my favorite kind of movie poster because I think they usually have great artistic value. They are usually very spectacular looking with lots of special effects this kind of poster works great for movies that are going to be blockbusters/ sci-fi movies. 

Something that nearly all posters seem to have in common is to have the title be in bold large writing that usually appears at the bottom of the image. Some posters also feature tag lines at the top/bottom of the page while some omit this detail altogether. 

Movie Reviews

Magazine movie reviews follow a fairly similar layout of having text/ a rating out of 5 stars/ a few screenshots from the movie. 

Most reviews follow the same pattern of telling us a bit about the movie (plot/director/actors) they then proceed to tell us the reviews opinion on the movie. Most will list a few positives before moving on to the negative. 

Here is what I found the be the general layout for movie reviews obviously there are variations but this seems the basic layout. 

Genres Of Comedy

Comedy comes in many forms and I personally prefer deadpan, improv, sketch and dark comedy. I have decided to compile a page listing some of the most popular kinds of comedies and their definitions.

1. Sitcom

Definitely one of the most popular forms of comedy, notable examples include Friends (1994), Big Bang Theory (2007), How I Met Your Mother (2005), Two And A Half Men (2003), The Office (both UK and US versions), The Simpsons (1989) and Red Dwarf (1988). Sitcom feature scripted dialogue that will create thematic and usually relatable situations. Sitcoms will feature characters that share the same common environment (usually a home or a workplace) with humorous dialogue.   

The Simpsons is one of the most successful sitcoms of all time. Due to the fact it is a cartoon it can keep the exact same cast of character no matter how long the show lasts for. While in other sitcoms such as 'Friends' they had to deal with the cast ageing and change the show based around it. 

2.Parody

Parody features a recreation of a previously existing work but in a comedic manner. A popular parody is 'Scary Movie' which recreates the plot of Scream which actually plays around with the expected conventions and clichés of horror movies. Parody does not have to completely recreate a existing work but merely reference it in some sort of comedic way. 

In this scene from Toy Story 2 there is a parody of the iconic T-Rex in mirror scene from Jurassic Park.

3. Dark Comedy

Dark comedy deals with more disturbing subjects such as rape, drugs, death, addictions and war. This kind of comedy is found in media such as Breaking Bad and Psychoville. This kind of comedy does narrow your audience because some people feel it is inappropriate to joke about the subjects that this comedy deals with. 

Breaking Bad, one of the most successful shows in recent history, would regularly feature dark comedy. It would usually joke about drugs/ murder. A humorous example is when Walter and Jesse are trying melt a corpse with acid and they accidentally melt a hole through their bath and floor and gets bloody-mush everywhere. 

4. Improvisational Comedy

Improv comedy is a type of comedy in which the actors/ performers have to come up with the dialogue on the spot. This kind of comedy can be great depending on the actors ability to think of jokes in rapid succession. 

This Is The End (2013) is a scripted movie but 80% of the dialogue in the movie was improvised by the actors.

5. Sketch Comedy 

Sketch Comedy are like smaller version of sitcoms but last only a few minutes and are usually preformed live. Sketch Comedy in my opinion can be one of the most funny kinds of comedy because a sketch show will usually feature multiple sketches and each will be suited for different humor types.

The Whitest Kids U'Know (WKUK) are one of Americas most popular sketch comedy groups. They had a tv show from 2007 - 2011 and have a movie in the works.










While there are multiple other forms of comedy these five are the most important to me. I feel that these five are the ones that I enjoy the most and will probably be most inspired by for my work. If you would like to read about the many other forms of comedy click here.

Comedic Short Movie Research

Now that I have decided to make a short comedy movie I feel it is appropriate to research comedy short movies in more detail.

1. Lifes Too Short (2011) - Extract from Episode 1
While this is not exactly a short movie it is an extract from the show which features its own narrative which begins and ends in the 5 minutes runtime of the clip. It features three kinds of comedy that I am a fan of which are 'Improvisational Comedy', 'Deadpan Comedy' and 'Dark Comedy'. In the clip Liam Neeson wants to do some improvisational comedy but doesn't quite understand the concept. He complains about the fact that they did not agree on the backstory before hand which is not the point of improv comedy. This clip appeals to me because I am a big fan of deadpan comedy and would like to use it in my script, this clip will most likely be later used as a source of inspiration later on in the project.

2. Seth McFarlane Plays Sock Or Hat 
The main section of this clip features Seth McFarlane playing a game called sock or hat in which he looks at a sock or hat and has to decide on what it is. The main section is not where the jokes lies however, it is when the credits start and it begins to feature things like storyboard artists and 'based on the novella by' credits that are humorous.

The comedy here is in my opinion quite clever because it is quite risky to make a video in which the main joke is in the credits. Most people do not stick around for credits especially on YouTube. The connotations of the credits featuring things like costume designer, based on the novella by etc are that this was an expensive clip to produce and a lot of effort went into it which is obviously not the case. 

3. WKUK - Earthquake

A sketch by comedy group Whitest Kids U'Know it features a earthquake which has apparently been going on for days on end. During the sketch a news anchorman swears and the sketch becomes about his trial and the earthquake has nothing to do with it until the earthquake stops. I am a fan of this sketch group and I find this sketch amusing because of jokes like a newspaper boy shouting "Extra! Extra! The earthquakes stopped" and a character then looking out the window to check before exclaiming 'It's true, it has stopped'. I am a fan of comedy like that and plan to use it in my movie. 

4. WKUK - Kicking People

This is another sketch from the same group, this sketch it a commentary on morality. The main character finds Guy 1 kicking Guy 2 and finds out that Guy 2 killed Guy 1 kids. He helps the man until he finds out that Guy 2 is an executioner at a prison, he then pushes Guy 1 over and helps Guy 2 kick him. It turns out Guy 2 framed the kids and just wanted to kill them, after this kind of things happens repeatedly the main guy decides they are both bad guys. He then kicks both of them and starts a new dance craze, then builds the empire state building but then the ice age comes back and man-kind thins into extinction.  I like comedy like this in which the endings just kind of go crazy because endings are hard to write. I feel that if done correctly this kind of comedy can work very well and would like to use it in my movie. 

After watching these short movies it has become evident to myself that I prefer dark comedy, deadpan comedy and sketch comedy. I would like to use these particular kinds of comedy in my work.

Survey Monkey

Target Audience Research Survey
Above is the link to a survey I created to get some information about my audience. I feel this will allow me to tailor my movie to interests of my audience.

Here is an extract from the questionnaire. As you can see the questions are fairly general questions that you would expect to see on a audience research survey.













Why did I choose Survey Monkey? 
I chose to use Survey Monkey because it analyses my results and works out the percentages of the answers. For example it will tell me if 68% of people have chosen Option A on question 1. This allows me to figure out who the majority of my audience is and cater my movie to their interests. It also easy to use and easy to distribute.

How have I distributed it? 
I have distributed my survey using social media websites such as Facebook. This means that when people complete the survey they have the option to send it out to their friends. This will allow the number/ variety of people who answer my survey to keep growing and will give me a fair set of results due to the range of people.

What do I plan on learning from this?
I personally plan on learning what the favoured type of comedy is among a large range of people. This will allow me to write my script and film my movie based around the preferred type of comedy. It will also show me who my target audience is based on the age range that provides the most answers.

Conventions of Comedy

Comedy is fairly simplistic in nature due to the fact you want people to be able to just sit back and laugh, you want to be able to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Conventions Of Comedy:

1. Setting
The setting of a comedy can vary but usually are set at the homes/school or work of the characters. Even in comedies where locations are more exotic like Red Dwarf (Space) the space ship is the characters home and serves the exact same purpose as James Franco's house in This Is The End.

Sometimes the locations won't be constant. In movies such as 'Eurotrip' and 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' the characters are constantly on the move because they are on a road-trip.

2.Camera
The camera movements/ angles in comedies are usually very simple because the audience needs to able to see the characters facial expressions/ reactions to the events of the movie. Comedies tend to feature wide shots or medium shots, you will rarely see tracking shots or other more complex shots.

That is three different screenshots from three separate comedies, As you can see in each image the actors are at fairly similar distances and their faces are well lit so we can see their reactions (in two of them they are even looking directly at the camera).

3. Characters
The characters in comedies are usually quite similar. 'Friends' in my opinion has the perfect stereotype comedy characters.

In 'Friends' you have the six basic characters that comedies will usually feature (note: these character stereotypes can be merged/ changed slightly).
In friends you have the characters;
Joey - The handsome yet dim-witted character. He is a womanizer yet it terrible at everything else and loves food.
 Phoebe- The strange character who it does not really make sense why the other characters interact with. Jokes with this kind of characters are making them increasingly strange and adding random history to the character.
Ross - Smart but socially awkward character. This kind of character will always get a girl way out of his league but will mess it up completely.
Chandler- The normal one of the group, has a normal job and comedy comes from his sarcastic comments.
Monica- This character is a supposed to represent the stereotypical woman, she needs things to be clean and loves to cook.
Rachel - The dumb blonde, comes from a rich family and does not fit in with normal life.

Obviously not all comedies follow these exact character types but I believe these character types are the basis of comedy characters. In 'The Hangover',for example, the character of Alan is the Phoebe of the group, while Stu is a mixture of Ross and Chandler and Phil is a mixture of Joey and Chandler.

4.Costumes
Costumes depends on where/when the comedy is set but most comedies will feature the character wearing fairly normal outfits. Some comedies may feature the characters in bright colors while comedies trying to be more realistic may have the characters in slightly duller colors.

Those images are promotional images for two comedy shows; an american sitcom (Big Bang Theory) and a British/American sitcom (Episodes) as you can see the Big Bang Theory has all the character in bright colors and they all look slightly eccentric. While Episodes has Matt LeBlanc in a pale blue and the two other people are wearing dull brown colors. The reason for these costume choices is that the Big Bang Theory is supposed to be slightly over the top with wacky characters, it is a fairly stereotypical sitcom, Episodes however is trying to show all the problems with a British show being remade in America, so the characters are all supposed to be real people (Matt LeBlanc actually plays Matt LeBlanc in the show).

Genre

I have decided to make a comedy movie. I chose this because they are conventionally simplistic in nature and I believe will be more accessible to me as I have never made a movie before. I plan on slightly breaking the conventions however and having slightly more artistic and hopefully more impressive camera work.

I chose to do a comedy because it is my area of interest, specifically in short movies. In my experience short comedy movies work significantly better than short movies of other genres. I also feel that given the time frame I have to make this movie that a comedy would be the most proficient to do, due to the fact that a comedy generally requires a simple plot and does not require may props.