Final Project

Proposal

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

My strengths is that I can use a camera and I have some understanding on how to shoot a comedy as we have done it in a previous unit. One skill that I know I can take into this production is to know how to effectively create a piece of media that uses attributes of the genre. For example when we were shooting Dead Man Walking that was a drama so I could use some of my knowledge from that production to implement into the current project.

Weaknesses:

My weaknesses would be something that I can control but it is often that I completely forget about them when it actually comes to creating the production. One weakness that I know I have is changing my mind at the last minute or just before, this could be to improvise a scene or an idea or it could be something to do with the weather on the day of the shoot. This can be changed by doing extra plans, maybe on something that could be a go to for if the initial idea fails so that it can be more organised and less improvised. Another weakness I have is not being very organised with things whether it is organising the shoot or organising the shots in the production. One last weakness that I have is that I haven't watched a lot of comedy films so I don't have a wide range of knowledge on the film, exact quotes and the person that made the film.

Opportunities:

Creating this project can give me the opportunity to see if I like creating a comedy as I've created an action before and it turned out ok but it wasn't the best I could do because of the limited time I had as I was working on other peoples projects starring in them. This could give me the opportunity to see if the product is good and if it is then possibly find something to create with someone as a project in general and not to do with college work.

Threats:

The threats I will face in this project is that we have limited crew members so it might be a bit harder to create something that is the best I can. I will also face the threat of budget as I don't currently have a job and this means that I won't have the funds for costumes or great props to make the film look its best.

Mind Map

One character getting up in the morning (montage)
Other character arrives at character 1 house
Characters both getting ready for party
Walking (contains funny scenes, I'm thinking some slapstick and possibly some blue comedy jokes)
Gets message about the party
Talking about girls being at the party (links to the 4th bullet point)
Characters getting really excited about the party talking about the girls more (possibly containing the cocky character talking about other parties he's gone to and pulling girls or possibly something about an older woman maybe an old woman to foreshadow the scene that contains them ending up at the dumb characters nans house.)
More walking and talking (won't be too long)
Characters arrive at destination (the cocky character says something like "Rodney... I swear this is your fucking nans 'ouse")
Characters have a little dispute could contain some dialogue that hurts the nerds feelings
Walk home (separate ways? then bump into each other?)

Character board

Character 1

For character 1 he is a sort of alpha male of the duo, he thinks he knows social norms and thinks he knows a lot but from an outside view he's not at all. The way we will show this is through the character being well dressed but not too well dressed and the way that he talks too. For example he will be the one making all of the decisions and will be quick witted with talking and making jokes.

Character 2

For character 2 is a nerd who has less of a nerdy appearance but he is dopey. We are going to show this through the clothes and the dialogue. One key part of the character being dopey is when they receive the party invite it has his nans address on it and he doesn't realise even after reading it.

Details of specialist study guided research

External Character Research

This diagram shows an in depth character breakdown, this can be used to help jog memory of character types to use in a film or production.

For example you need to pay attention to their age so how will you portray that they are younger. Maybe they're upper class so how would you show that, maybe through the costumes or makeup, would they be wearing a business suit or perhaps if they are working class then they might not be very well put together.

Another thing to think of when creating a character is their sexuality, for example if they are a male and they are homosexual then maybe they might wear clothes that are more bright and colourful and they might act in a certain way.

My Survey

For my survey I put it out onto Facebook as that is the place where I have the biggest range of friends that are of many different ages so I thought I would get results from a different array of ages so I would be able to see which ages like what and what I could focus more on to get a more effective product.

From the results I can see that the majority of my replies were male and that there are people from 16-20 as these were the most common ages in the survey. Also I found out that the aspect that the majority of people find the funniest is the jokes.

One of the main questions that helped out where I wanted to head with my product is the question that asked "What is it that makes a comedy movie funny for you?" I feel like this was the most helpful because the whole idea of the project is to get the closest I could to an accurate and effective comedy film.

So this question helped out most because I got an idea on how the viewers would be made to laugh and I took this into account when creating the product because it would appeal to the target audience.

Codes and Conventions of a Comedy Film

Codes are split into two different categories technical and symbolic. Codes are a system of signs this can be through images in a scene or possibly items in the scene too. For example in a horror movie you might see knives or perhaps an upside down cross.

Codes in comedy movies are typically something that is something to take the mick for example there could be sex toys or drugs or something along those lines. For example Scary Movie (2003) takes horror movie codes and takes the mick like in one scene they have the antagonist from The Ring and the female protagonist is screaming for a while whilst she is coming towards the screen and she climbs out of the TV and she gets the floor soaked and then the character says "Cindy... This bitch is messing up my floor" the antagonist then proceeds to walk towards the protagonist in a horror movie like way and then the protagonist proceeds to punch her in the face sending her to the floor.

She then says "Get up you little ugly bitch". I think the reason that makes this funny instead of scary is because they take some horror aspects and then make the outcome unexpected. When they use surprise as a form of comedy it is known as Absurdism. For example they could have a massive build up in a movie and then make it so Michael Myers has a switch blade or something like that just to make it funny and then add some dialogue that would take the mick out of the weapon or something like that.

Conventions of a genre are the elements that commonly occur in the genre these can be shown through characters, situations, settings, props, themes and events. For example in a sci-fi film there would be aliens, robots, time travel or genetic mutation.

One common thing to occur in a comedy film is through the characters, the characters are usually containing a Nerd, A Cocky Character and then regular characters. For example in Superbad (2007) the different characters are; a socially awkward character, a cocky character and a character that is a nerd. This is typically done so that there is conflict between the characters and they have something to argue about, for example in Superbad the cocky one and the socially awkward one have an argument about girls and they fall out.

Pitch

The Inbetweeners Movie (2012)

The series we are taking inspiration from is The Inbetweeners. This is because of the character types and the fact that the characters are around our age range. This I feel is the most effective way of making content that the viewer will most enjoy because the characters are relatable as they are different types of people and they are in our age range.

For example Jay Cartwright played by James Buckley is a character that is the sort of alpha male of the group or at least he thinks he is. This is portrayed through the things that the character does and says.

For example in the inbetweeners movie there is a scene where the characters are all in a hall and they are talking about some girls that are sat down. Jay says "Nah not me mate! None of them are as fit as my one outside. Why go for 'amburgers when you've got steak at 'ome" This gives us the impression that he is cocky and toxic through him saying 'my one outside' it also shows that he objectifies women because of him saying 'my one' an effective method in this scene is his use of funny phrases. In this scene he also says "its time to get back on the horse now si' and those little ponies need feeding... (gesturing an inappropriate hand motion) feed the pony" this makes it funnier because of the use of blue comedy to get a reaction.

Another example of the character we would like to take inspiration from is Will as he is the sort of nerd character we would like as we need a bit of an ego balance in the production. We can tell that he is the nerd because of him being really awkward and being well put together and by the fact that the stereotype is that in films nerds wear glasses. In the scene we see that he is very awkward. We can see this because of the way he is acting and in the scene where they actually start dancing he doesn't actually know what he is doing and he dances really awkwardly at the back as seen in the picture. I feel like this is a good example of the character that we want.

The two characters that we have come up with are one that has taken inspiration from Will and Neil and then the other character to be like Jay. This is because we want to balance out the characters in the film and I think that friends in most films include a nerd and a 'cool guy'.

Superbad (2007)

Another film we are taking inspiration from its Superbad, Superbad is a film about two teenagers that are finishing school and they are going to a party with some popular people and they have a journey to go through on the way from buying alcohol with a fake ID to going to a party where there is a fight that takes place, These are all stages in the film that all lead to the finale of the film and we like this idea because it is quite funny.

Evan is a socially awkward character that doesn't really know how to talk to girls, we see this in one of the scenes where he is talking to his crush in the hallway in the school and another student bumps into him and he ends up hitting her harder than anticipated and he is repeatedly apologetic towards the character. The reason why this is funny is because of how he acts where he is being awkward and when he doesn't know what to say he sort of just repeats himself. I feel like this is one of the types of characters that we want in our project because a comedy consists of different types of things and one of them is cringe and we feel that the characters in Superbad fit what we want to create perfectly as they are the exact character types we were going for.

Seth is a character that is less socially awkward but he gives it the all and then when it comes to confrontation Seth isn't the one to step up so he doesn't really live up to the name he portrays in front of Fogell AKA Mclovin and Evan. For example in one of the scenes near to the start of the film Seth picks up Evan in his car and they go to college and they are talking and then one of the popular kids from their school walks all over Seth and he just stands there even when this character spits on him. I feel like this is funny because there are some people that are like this and it makes it sort of relatable.

Overall the two main characters Seth and Evan are the perfect example of the people we are trying to portray in our final production Rong Way because I feel as though these two characters can have good banter and it seems to be a sort of counter balance of each others ego's. For example if Seth is walking all over Evan and saying things about him like questioning his life choices then Seth gets into a confrontation and cowards out then Evan would talk to Seth about it and then Evan would have the ego boost as the person that was talking bad about him couldn't hold their own in confrontation.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Hot Fuzz is a comedy film that shows us what its like to create comedy through police officers and people of authority. We don't think this is what we are trying to go for but the banter is the sort of thing that we are aiming for when it comes to dialogue and storyline.

For example the banter that Nick Frost and Simon Pegg have in Hot Fuzz has the sort of thing we are looking for because they have the accent that we would be using because they shot the film near to where we are from so it makes it easier for us to create something similar.

Nick frost plays PC Danny Butterman and he is a cop who is the side character and he isn't as athletic as the main character so he is at a disadvantage. He also isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

In one scene the two characters are sat in a car and Simon Pegg who plays Nicholas Angel is talking about how PC Danny Butterman should use his notebook as its saved his life to which PC Danny Butterman replies with "I do use it" and then pulls out his booklet and flicks through the pages and we see that he has made an animation from a bunch of different drawings.

Simon Pegg who plays Nicholas Angel is a character that thinks he is the best policeman and he is paired with PC Danny Butterman who is the complete opposite of him. For example in one of the scenes Nicholas Angel jumps over fences when they are in a chase on foot and then PC Danny tries to copy him but ends up just charging into the fence and breaking it in the process.

In conclusion I think that Hot Fuzz is a good example of the type of banter that we are going for as there are two different characters that are able of conflict because of their differences in what they do.

This Is The End (2013)

This is the end is a comedy film that we have chosen as it shows us how to make comedy out of a world ending scenario. This isn't the type of comedy we are trying to implement but it does have a party in it and I get to see how they did a party in a comedy.

In this there aren't really any main characters there are a group of people who are different actors for example, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Danny McBride.

In the film we see that Seth Rogen who plays himself is a stoner. We see this in one of the scenes where him and Jay Baruchel are up all night gaming and smoking loads of weed. This is funny because for some people this is a relatable scenario but for others it is quite unexpected as it is set in an apocalyptic tense and they are there doing drugs and playing games, two things that dampen your attention to your surroundings.

In the party scene there are a range of different things to point out that are going on. The first thing I noticed when watching the party scene is the use of Cringe Comedy as James Franco talks about his house he says "This house is a piece of me... You guys just stepped inside me". This is cringe comedy because the way it is put out is James Franco says that line and then the camera turns to Jay Baruchel and you can see a look of Disgust on his face.

Another thing I noticed is the use of Blue Comedy. James Franco is talking about art to Jay Baruchel and he brings up different examples of art, One example that he brings up is through Blue Comedy as he says "Your mums pussy was the canvas and your dads dick was the paintbrush... Boom! You're the art".

Overall I don't think that this is the type of comedy style I would go for because I feel like using Blue Comedy isn't really the thing that I am aiming for as I don't believe that it is an appropriate comedy type for a college project.

Technical Skills

Lighting:

The typical lighting in a comedy film would be high key lighting. This is because in a comedy film there is usually a lot of scenery that needs to be shown off and this couldn't be done if the lighting is low then this won't be as effective because an environment in a comedy film is meant to be sunny and warm.

An example for use of high key lighting is these scenes in Zombieland 2.

Zombieland 2 is the second instalment in the franchise that is a comedy movie that uses horror codes. They still manage to keep it less scary by using high key lighting throughout and lots of funny visuals. For example in one of the scenes there's weapons and an apocalypse going on but one of the characters is dressed up as santa claus and there is High Key lighting in the scene. This is effective because it is used in a way to make us laugh because of the situation.

Sound:

In comedy sound is used to set the tone and this can be done through music or just straight up sound effects.

This is used because it is said that sound is more important than visuals but they work in unison to create a mini masterpiece.

For example in this scene in free guy the sound is used to create tension at the start when the main character is in trouble and it builds up and up until the character gets the glasses back and chooses the shield ability and then the avengers music plays because of it being Captain Americas shield this is then followed by some funny visuals as there is a short cameo of Chris Evans saying "What the shit?!" Later on in the scene the character jumps over a fence and then pulls out a lightsabre and then the star wars theme tune starts playing. This both gives us goose bumps and makes us laugh because its completely unexpected.