Procrastination First Draft

Here is the first draft of my short film "Procrastination". I am very happy with the way this turned out and there are only a few alterations that I feel like I need to make (Some of which I already have done). It took me a total of 4 days to film and over 2 weeks to edit, using multiple editing techniques and I am very happy with how it turned out. However there are still changes that I need to make, such as putting in an opening title and closing credits, and altering certain sound effects which is where the majority of the problems come from, as well as changing certain shots.

Production Update - 11/12/2013

I have finished filming and editing the first draft of my short film and I will be bringing it in tomorrow to see how I can improve it for a next draft.

Production Update 03/12/13

I have nearly finished my film, I have only one day left of filming planned and that is the green screen scene, and I am hoping that I can film this scene on friday (provided that I remember my camera and tripod). I have already editied the scenes that I have filmed, some shots don't work and will most likley need to reshoot after Christmas.

Shooting for the 30th November

As already mentioned, I am filming for two different courses at once and are hoping to film back-to-back and our next shooting date is the 30th of November, and trying to plan both has proven to be difficult, what with the multiple locations and larger cast, but here is my plan for the shoot.

Shooting Schedule- 30^th November 2013

Cast

Zoe Lewis

Bullie Mthembu

Lewis Snaith

Chris Coates

Locations

Swale Road

Harland Road

Scenes

Intro Scene – FS (Day, Swale)

Chris House – FS (Night, Harland)

Fight Scene – MS (Night, Swale)

Target #1 – MS (Day, Either)

Alley – MS (Day/Night, Harland)

Car Parking – MS (Night, Either)

Dr. Forrest & Hayden – MS (Either, Harland)

Schedule

Target #1 – MS (Day, Harland) – Bullie & Lewis

Dr. Forrest & Hayden – MS (Day, Harland) – Bullie & Lewis

Alley – MS (Day, Harland) – Chris & Lewis

Intro Scene – FS (Day, Swale) – Zoe

                                                                -Has to be finished by 4pm!

Fight Scene – MS (Night, Swale) – Bullie & Lewis

Car Parking – MS (Night, either) – Danny

Alley – MS (Night, Harland) – Chris & Lewis

Chris House – FS (Night, Harland) – Chris

Production Update - 21/11/13

I have already begun editing my film from what I have already filmed, the reason why I have started editing before I have even finished filming is because that means when I have finished filming, I will finish editing quicker. Especially considering that I will not be able to film this weekend due to scheduling conflicts and will continue filming 2 weeks from now. I have chosen to edit my product at home, the reason why is because my laptop has Adobe Premier CS6, which is a very reliable editing software and it means I can edit whenever I want and will have more time to complete it.

Bloopers

Here are the bloopers from our first shoot on the 3rd of November.

Production Update - 18/11/13

We did the reshoots over the weekend and they turned out just as we had hoped, however we didn't get to film all of the scenes we wanted, but thankfully the other scenes take place on a different day, so those can be filmed on a different day. The other issue is that we did not get to film last friday due to the actress not having her costume, but hopefully we can film that this week instead.

So we still have 3 scenes left to film, we will most likely film the green screen one this friday, however for the other two, the dates for those are TBA. (Also, bloopers coming soon).

Production Update - 13/11/13

We will continue shooting on Friday, me and my actress will be filming in the greenscreen room at college on Friday morning, it shouldn't take too long as it is only a few lines and just her performing them in one shot.

Shooting will continue over the weekend to re-film the scenes that we didn't manage to complete before. We are yet to fix a day yet, it depends on when the actor is available on Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully this shoot will go better this time round than it did last time and we can finish filming all of the scenes. The way how I'm going to try and improve the filming is by filming them in a different order instead of chronologically like we did last time.

Order of filming:

15/11/13 - Wyke College
Computer Scene

16-17/11/13 - My House
Kitchen, Morning
Phone Scene
Living Room Final Scene
Living Room Day
Living Room Night


After this, if everything goes well then the only scene left to film will be the intro scene as Zoe's house, which (if everything goes right) we will film that next weekend.

Cast Members

For my short film, there will be three cast members, one of them will be played by me seeing as it's just a voice over a telephone call and only for a few lines of dialogue, so that will be done by me simply because it is very easy. As for the other two characters, here is who shall be playing them.

Chris Coates - The role itself does not have any specific requirements initially; (hence why the two characters are named after their actors) however the reason why I chose Chris is because he has acting experience, studying it for 2 years at GCSE's. Also the character of Zoe is supposed to be rather aggressive towards the character of Chris and he is a very innocent person, my only worry is that he may struggle with the scenes when he needs to act frustrated and angry because of this.

Zoe Lewis - Again, the character was modeled after the actress, so this is why I chose Zoe, for I wanted someone who can be aggressive, yet likeable at the same time; otherwise the audience might hate the character for the way she treats Chris. Which she is, so hopefully that would make it easy for her to play the character; however this does lead to my issue where Zoe does not have much experience in acting, nor much confidence so it may be difficult for her.

25 Word Pitch

A writer, who is struggling to find a way to finish his story, ends up having a hallucination of his main character coming to life.

Production Update - 05/11/13

We began filming a few of the scenes on the 3rd of November, however, we will most likely reshoot the scenes, the main reason being that the character of Zoe who has to wear the same costume in all of her scenes, one of her scenes require a green screen, but we didn't realise until halfway through shooting that the t-shirt she was wearing had green on it. Also one of the scenes filmed is supposed to take place early in the morning but we filmed it in the evening and it is very obvious, also we didn't get to finish filming the scenes, so if we were to reshoot, it would be obvious that it would be filmed on different days; so we are most likely going to reshoot.

We also experienced trouble with filming the scenes in the kitchen. Firstly getting the camera into a good place to frame the shot right was difficult, my kitchen was too small and the camera was too close to the actors; this was made even more difficult by the drastic height difference between my actors. However we just put the camera on the counter and we were able to frame it correctly so they were both in the right postion. We may change the camera position during the reshoots, although I'm not sure, so I might just film the scene twice from different angles.

Screenplay 2nd Draft

 Procrastination

[Establishing Shot: Zoe’s House]

[Scene: Zoe’s Kitchen, Zoe is stood making herself a cup of tea, takes a sip and then she walks into the living room]

Zoe: hey guys, have you done any--

[Zoe looks around and sees the room is empty]

Zoe: guys? [Zoe looks suspicious and then sits on the couch to watch the TV but it’s nothing but static, she changes the channel and it’s still static] what? [She hears a crash and car alarms from outside, she goes to the window and looks outside she then grabs her coat and walks away]

[Scene: Outside Zoe’s house, Zoe runs out and looks around with car alarms blaring off, she then turns to her left and see’s something, the camera then fades to white]

[Scene: Living room, Chris is sat by his computer with his fingers on the keyboard but not typing anything, it is dead silent apart from the sound of a clock ticking, he brings his hands up to his hands, briefly puts his fingers back on the keyboard as if he’s about to type but then brings his hands back to his face, he then looks at the clock and see’s that the time reads 10:20, he then looks back at his computer with the page remaining blank, it then cuts to that night with Chris lying on the couch asleep and the computer still on]

Mysterious Voice: Chris…Chris…Christopher!

[Chris wakes up and sits up and see’s the lead character Zoe on his computer screen]

Zoe: hi

Chris: Zoe?

Zoe: yep

Chris: …am I dreaming or am I losing my mind?

Zoe: doesn’t matter--

Chris: --for me it does--wha--what are you doing here!?

Zoe: what am I doing here? It’s been 12 hours! How come you haven’t finished writing the episode!

Chris: I-I just haven’t been able to come up with a good way to end it; I mean it’s the final episode, how can I end it?

Zoe: you’re a writer! Think of something dumbass!

Chris: now there’s no need to behave like that

Zoe: bite me frog face!

[Chris taps the computer and it changes to his YouTube with Zoe gone, he then sits back and sighs, until Zoe shows up on screen]

Zoe: still here!

[Chris sits back up]

Chris: wha--leave me alone!

[Chris taps the computer several times changing to Wikipedia, Twitter and Google]

Zoe: you can press that button as many times as you want Otacon, you’re not getting rid of me, at least not until you write the episode

[Chris rubs his eyes trying to wake up]

Zoe: hey, have you ever googled “do a barrel roll” it’s really cool

[Chris shuts the computer to turn it off]

Chris: …time for bed

[Establishing Shot: Chris’s house at night and then fades in to morning]

[Scene: Kitchen, Chris walks downstairs looking really tired, he pours himself a cup of tea and takes a sip, he then turns around and see’s Zoe stood behind him and makes him jump]

Chris: AH!

Zoe: did you write the episode yet?

Chris: How are you here!? You’re not even real!

Zoe: I told you last night that I’m not leaving until you write the episode

Chris: why is this important enough for you to give me a mental breakdown!?

Zoe: you’ve been writing this episode for weeks and haven’t thought of anything, and I’m sick of waiting; so I’m here to make sure that you finish writing it

Chris: …you’re not gonna leave me alone until I finish are you?

Zoe: unlikely

Chris: one minute

Zoe: okay

[Chris Leaves]

[Scene: Hallway, Chris enters and pulls out his phone and calls someone]

Dan: [Over the phone] hello?

Chris: hey Dan it’s Chris, listen I don’t think I’m gonna come into work today, I think I’m having a mental breakdown; you see Zoe has come to life and is haunting me until I write the end of the script

Dan: …you know Chris most people pretend to have the flu to get off work

[Chris hangs up and goes back into the kitchen]

Chris: alright then, we’ve got the whole day, let’s get to work

Zoe: okay then

[Chris and Zoe walk away]

[Scene: Living Room, Chris and Zoe sit down on the couch and Chris turns the computer on]

Chris: Alright, let’s get to work

[Cuts back to outside Zoe’s house, repeating the scene from earlier with Chris talking over]

Chris: how about as soon as she leaves the house, she turns to the left, and gets hit by a car!

[Cuts to black as a car crashes, cuts back to the living room]

Zoe: that’s terrible! I don’t wanna die in a car crash! And not to mention the fans would tear you apart

Chris: [Sarcasm] strange, I didn’t think my hallucination would care for my health

Zoe: shut up

Chris: well then you think of something better

Zoe: okay

[Cuts back to the final scene with Zoe talking over the scene]

Zoe: I come out of the house and it turns out that I’m all alone; and then it turns out my house is on an island and I’ve been dead all along!

[Cuts back to the living room]

Chris: …you know for a figment of my imagination you’re not very creative

Zoe: screw you

Chris: okay then well [They start talking over with the footage of what they’re talking about] maybe it ends with the police arriving and you being sent to jail

Zoe: or it ends with a spaceship showing up to take me on adventures

Chris: or maybe you are an alien

[Cuts back to the living room]

Zoe: and my dog is an alien as well and speaks fluent Japanese!

Chris: …we’re not very good at this

Zoe: yeah, you probably are insane to think up these things

Chris: well we’ve gotta do something, I mean it’s not like we can just end it like The Sopranos and cut to black mid sce--

END

Annotated Catalogue 1st Draft

Annotated Catalogue

Item 1

Film: The Breakfast Club (Universal Studios, February 1985, John Hughes)

This is the focus film of my work; I chose this film because it is one of Hughes’ best and most famous, as well as containing and exploring all 4 key elements that I have chosen: Representation of Teenagers, Use of Music, Stereotypes and Representation of Authority; so I will have more to write about this film than any of the others and it has a lot of evidence within the films to help with my points. I have also seen this film more times than any other Hughes’ film and I know it better than any other, so it seems ideal as my focus film.

Item 2

Film: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Paramount Pictures, June 1986, John Hughes)

This is one of the supporting films for my research project; I chose this because it does use most of the elements that I will be exploring, but not all of them. The only element that it doesn’t focus on is the representation of teenagers or their place in society; however it does focus mostly on the other three, but not all four so so it doesn’t seem best suited as my focus film, but there is still plenty within it that would be useful. It is also one of Hughes’ most well-known films and so there is a lot of research information at disposal for this film.

Item 3

Film: Pretty in Pink (Paramount Pictures, February 1986, Howard Deutch)

The third film that I will be using and the second supporting film, I chose this as my third and final film because while it does still follow the themes I will be focusing on, it is also very different from the first two; firstly, it’s the only one not directed by John Hughes, only written, so there is a lot to be discussed on what differences are there, what elements of a Hughes’ film comes from his writing and what comes from his directing. Also, while Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller try to explore all 4 elements, this one focuses heavily on stereotypes, so there is a lot to talk about on that subject with this film more so than the other two.

Item 4

Book: John Hughes and 80’s Cinema - Thomas A. Christie

While this book only helped me with research on two of the films, it still gave me plenty to think of on those two. Even though the book discusses the majority of Hughes’ films, there was nothing in Ferris Bueller that connects to my four key elements. However, it did give me plenty for The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink; for Breakfast Club, it talks about how the rigid social system within High School and for Pretty in Pink it discusses a lot on social class and even makes a comparison of the teen life to politics. So there are a lot of interesting ideas and theories discussed in this book that could be helpful.

 

Item 5

Book: Don’t You Forget About Me – Multiple Writers

This book heavily focuses on how Hughes’ films represented teenagers, as it was written by multiple writers who saw the films when they were teenagers and their reactions towards each of the films. While this item is very helpful for that aspect, as for the other three elements I’m focusing on, maybe representation as authority could be talks about as that is in contrast to representation of teenagers, so while they don’t focus on that, I could discuss the implications made. Also the use of stereotypes used in Hughes’ films and which ones were accurately represented or are even relevant to teenagers still.

Item 6

Book: You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried - Susannah Gora

This book focuses on the “brat pack” the group of actors, who famously collaborated together often, especially with John Hughes films, and while this book includes all three of my chosen films, it doesn’t focus that much on Hughes. However, it still helps me with one of the key elements, the representation of teenagers, by focusing on the actors playing them and what they went through to make sure that they were accurate in their portrayals. However it has been the most helpful so far for Pretty in Pink, as it has a lot more relevant things to say about that than it does Ferris Bueller or Breakfast Club. Such as the casting of certain characters goes against the stereotype they were hoping for, and what restrictions of authority Hughes had to face in real life trying to make this film.

Item 7

Website: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/08/best-80s-movies/

This is a list of the top 50 80’s films of all time, with two of my selected films appearing on the list, The Breakfast Club at #17 and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at #5, another Hughes film that was on the list but was not selected by me was Sixteen Candles at #31. This shows just how popular Hughes films are with three of them written/directed by him to be considered some of the best of a decade out of hundreds of films. They also write about each film and why they are in there, and they do relate back to what I am discussing about the films. In the description of The Breakfast Club they mention how the stereotypes and representation of the characters are still relevant today nearly 30 years later. While for Ferris Bueller it brings up an interesting point of the film not being a representation of teenagers, but a representation of what every teenager wants to be; this is a very good point of could be interesting to discuss.

Item 8

Website: http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Breakfast-Club-440.html

This is a review of The Breakfast Club, and is very positive on the film yet is still able to discuss both the positive elements of it and the areas that need improving, so it goes into a lot of detail which is helpful. The reason why I have chosen this is because the review heavily focuses on the use of stereotypes and the representation of the characters, not just the teens but the teacher as well; and how this film has been able to get right what many films get wrong and it understands its audience and how to properly write teenage characters. There is a lot here that would be perfect for me to talk about while before I saw the representation of authority as how the antagonists are represented, I never thought about them being as complex as the protagonists, which is what this article brings up with the principle being more than he appears to be.

Item 9

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H6ay-dZtvY

This is a video on YouTube called “Top 10 Movie Theme Songs” and Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget about Me” from The Breakfast Club places #5 on the list. The reason why I have used this is because it is very helpful in terms of the use of music, as it discusses the effect the song had on the band’s career and how originally they weren’t even going to record the song and it ended up becoming their biggest hit.

Item 10

Website: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/ferris-buellers-day-off

This is a review of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it is brief yet talks positively of the film and the reason why I am using this is because a focus of the review is the defiance of authority and whether or not this film is a bad influence on kids. This is interesting for my “representation of authority” point, especially considering that Ferris Bueller has different representations of the authority in Ferris’ life; they’re either bad people or stupid.

Item 11

Website: http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/john-hughes-in-memory

This is an article by famous film critic Roger Ebert writing about the (at the time) recently deceased John Hughes, and discusses what an impact he has made for both the industry and on teenagers. The reason why I am using this is because it doesn’t just discuss how one of his films represents teenagers, but how they all do, and how they compare to other teen films at the time.

De-Selected Items

Website: http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=14432

This is a review of The Breakfast Club from Empire, the reason why this is a de-selected item is because while the review is positive on the film, it is very short and doesn’t go into very much detail on the film, nor does it help me with any of the four key elements that I am focusing on. So although the topic is related to my research project, there is nothing in detail that could aid me in my project, so I deselected it.

Storyboard

 

Short Film Examples (Incomplete)

Seeing as I am doing a comedy short film, here I will be showing five examples of other comedy short films that I will be taking inspiration from. The first of which is called "Coming Out" by Tom Ridgewell.

The reason why I have selected this as one of my examples is because it is obviously a short film and is a comedy, but also is a surreal comedy about a man who can't help but say he's gay when saying hello. Also it is an independent production and is amateurly made; similar to how mine will be made so it is also good for filming techniques and what I can do without professional equipment. In terms of the micro-features, the two that stand out are the use of sound and editing, and how well the two work together, using a lot of editing techniques including montages, sound bridges, and one interesting transition of using a wipe to change the scene. The effect that this gives is that it keeps the short film at a good pace and helps improve the humour, as the director Tom Ridgewell (Known also as TomSka) is famous for making quick sketches on YouTube and his style is usually fast paced and this is actually one of his slower paced sketches. As well as this, timing the music so it happens in between the dialogue and cuts out just as it changes scenes; which is an interesting use of sound bridges connecting the scenes, even if they do seem unnecessary. In terms of cinematography, one noticeable thing is in the majority of shots, the character of Jack is framed in between people or on their shoulders, this could be because he is the focus of the short film and tells the majority of the jokes.

These would all relate to the language of the short film; in terms of industry, I already mentioned that TomSka makes plenty of independent comedy films similar to this and he commonly posts them on YouTube, which is his source for his audience, similar to the majority of these examples. This is becoming far more common these days, people who produce short films, especially those that are comedies are posting their films onto YouTube and are gathering very large audiences and are able to continue to make short films. The ideology of this text is different from most of TomSka’s films by actually having a message in it (if told in a very strange manor). In this case it would be that the film ends with the message “Support Gay Marriage” so that would be what the text is trying to represent and the values of it.

As for this short film, this is more of a satire comedy, based around a secret agent trying to save his partner from the antagonists; however, instead of using regular spy equipment, they use filming equipment, such as a camera, boom mic, etc. The reason why I have chosen this as one of my examples is because it doesn’t follow the conventions of a comedy, but actually uses the conventions of a spy film and then parodies it by replacing the items they use, making it a comedy. This is interesting because even though they follow through the conventions thoroughly, by simply replacing a gun with a camera it is turned into a comedy. The conventions that they follow are the man saving the damsel in distress, high tech equipment, big fight scene with the antagonist, etc.

In terms of cinematography, an interesting technique that both the protagonist and his weapon are concealed at the start, filming him from behind or from a low angle or extreme close-ups, all to avoid his face, this creates a mystery surrounding the character. The same happens with the weapon, we have a lot of extreme close-ups of it being built and then showing the weapon and the protagonists face at the same time. The reason why it is shot like this is because the reveal of the camera as the main weapon being the punchline to the joke on how obsurd this is, this is enforced when the next shot shows the settings on the camera "Photo, Video & Kill". In terms of Mise-En-Scene, as I said previously, the humour comes from replacing spy equipment with camera equipment, so the props create a lot of the humour, such as using cameras as guns, light reflectors as shields etc. This is how the film creates comedy as the rest of the film uses conventions of spy films, but replacing the props suddenly turns it into a satire of spy films.

As for Editing, the first edit in the film is the use of a swipe edit, with the character moving across the camera and changing the scene, this is an interesting technique to use, however it doesn't have all that much meaning to it apart from it is a commonly used technique by the director TimH who uses this technique in a lot of his short films. Another technique they use is an eye-line match, when the protagonist looks down at the camera and it shows that he's setting it to "kill" and then he looks at the antagonists. This is used to develop the narrative, it shows was his intentions are (to kill someone) and then it shows his targets (the antagonists). Finally, for sound, there is very little dialogue within the majority of the film until the end, so for a majority of the film, the atmosphere is made through the music.

Locations for Sets

Chris' House

Living Room-
This is where I will be filming all of the scenes that take place in Chris' living room, which is the majorty of the film, it is actually my living room, but shooting it here will be easier as I don't have to carry around any equipment and it's well lit (both naturally and with lighting equipment) and I can get better camera shots.

Kitchen-
This is where we will be filming the scenes in Chris's kitchen, again, this is really my kitchen, again, just because it is easier to film here and I know it well enough to know what type of camera angles I can use for this.

Zoe's House
The sets for Zoe's house have been confirmed, I will be filming them at a friend's house, for living room, kitchen & exterior of the house. Photos are yet to be taken, but will be updated soon.

SSRP Books for Referencing

For my Small Scale Research Project, I am writing about John Hughes, and some of the research material will be used through books, several of which I have already found and purchased, so I will be using them as reference and as 3 out of my 15 items that I will use as research for this project.

The first of these books that I have bought is titled "John Hughes and Eighties Cinema - Teenage Hopes and American Dreams" by Thomas A. Christie. The reason why I have chosen this book is because it is a full length analysis of his films, not just the ones he directed, but the ones he wrote as well. It discusses his films and the impact they have made and their significance in social and culutural aspects and how they define a generation. The film as his that they focus the most on is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), which is also one of the several Hughes films that I am focusing on.

 

The second book is "You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried" by Susannah Gora, this book is different from the other two I have picked as it doesn't focus on John Hughes making the films, but more specifically on the films themselves and the characters and ideology that is created through them. In fact it doesn't focus on just Hughes' films, but the films of "The Brat Pack" a group of actors who often collaborated together in the 80's, however the majority of them are Hughes films (Such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink) so it still has valuable information and research in them. However that being said, there will be sections that aren't very useful as they have nothing to do with Hughes or his films (i.e. St. Elmo's Fire). 



The third book that I have already bought is "Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes" written by a group of writers. This book focuses on the films and the ways how Hughes' writes teenagers and how they are represented. They explore the majority of his films, including all three that I am focusing on, and the motifs and ideology featured in all of them, focusing on love, angst and self-discover that make his films some of the most famous coming-of-age films of the 80's. As you can tell by the cover and title, they focus mostly on The Breakfast Club, one of-if not-his most successful film and the effect that it has had on a generation of teenagers.

Production Update - 24/09/2013

• Cast has been confirmed for the two lead characters, Zoe Lewis as Zoe the Character and Chris Coates as Chris the Writer

• Two out of Three locations have been confirmed for filming, the first being at my house acting as Chris' home, and all the shots of Zoe on a computer screen will be filmed on the green screen here at Wyke 6th Form College, and edit in the website backgrounds in post-production. As for the location of Zoe's house, I am currently deciding between two locations on which would be better. (Full details and photos to be posted here in a later post)

• I am hoping that I can edit from my home where I use Adobe Premier CS6, and hopefully I can just bring it in on a memory stick and continue to edit it here. If I cannot transfer it with a memory stick then I would still prefer to edit from home, as I would have more time and are more accustom to using my home computer.

• For cameras, I can use either a college provided camera or my own camera, I am fine either way, seeing as most filming takes place at my house and I can provide my own camera and tripod and I wouldn't mind bringing it in for filming on the green screen, so it wouldn't be an issue. However, the college cameras are more likely to be better quality than mine (not that mine is bad quality) so those might be a better option for me to film with.

Codes & Conventions: Comedy

These are the conventions that I will be taking into consideration when making my short film. Firstly, to take into consideration is that their are two main forms of comedic films, there are those that take place mainly through gags and sketches, usually more surreal humour where entire scenes can be centred around a single joke (E.g. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World). And then there are those that have a more coherent storyline, and the jokes come from the characters and events that happen along the journey (E.g. Paul). There are other sub-genres of comedy, such as romantic comedy, teen comedy, gross-out comedy just to name a few; the sub-genre that my film is, are a mix between Surreal Humour and Satire. The surreal humour comes from the fact that my main character is interacting with a fictional being, and the satire comes from the end when the two are constantly parodying famous series finales of popular TV Shows.

Cinematography
In a lot of comedy films, a lot of the humour can come from the visuals, this is the most common way of getting jokes across during gross-out or slapstick films, where if you took out the visuals then there would be no comedy.

(21 Jump Street, 2012, Dir. Phil Lord & Chris Miller)

However in other comedies, this doesn't apply and the humour comes from what they say, rather than what is seen. In this case, cinematography is still important, but in the same way how it is important for any film to have good cinematography. Although in most comedies there will be at least one joke that is told through visual humour, if not multiple jokes. It's hard to think of a comedy that was ruined through bad cinematography, as normally they would be bad because the jokes were bad, not because they were poorly framed, or at least that wouldn't be the main reason.

Mise-En-Scene
Again, similar to cinematography, Mise-En-Scene is important, especially when it comes to visual humour, as humour can come from props, costumes and provide a large amount of the comedy within the film. A famous example is the coconuts from Monty Python's Holy Grail, the use of coconuts instead of horses gets a big laugh from audiences everytime.

(Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, Terry Gilligan & Terry Jones)

Although sometimes the mise-en-scene of a comedy can ruin the film, for example” Cat in the Hat”, where the sets and costumes are made bright and colourful to look similar to the original book, although it ends up looking distracting and ugly. While not every comedy uses mise-en-scene as an important way of getting jokes across, it is still an important feature, the same as any film, again, using another Dr Seuss film as an example, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, even though it is supposed to be a kids Christmas film that uses the spirit of Christmas as a moral, it horrible represents it due to the sets all looking bleak and foggy, it doesn’t look nice or welcoming like most kids Christmas films.

Editing
An important part of comedy, is correct pacing, letting a shot/scene linger for too long, or cutting it short can ruin an entire joke. Timing and pacing is a very important part of comedy, and this is controlled through editing. Depending on the genre will depend on the pacing, so for my film, the pacing will be rather slow, similar to Doug Walker (Who I am using as my inspiration). However, in the majority of comedies, they are normally fast paced in order to keep the jokes coming and to keep the audience engaged. One of the best comedic directors Edgar Wright tends to used fast paced humour in his films, and they normally always work.

(Shaun of the Dead, 2004, Dir. Edgar Wright)

Like I said, editing is pacing, and that can change how well a joke works, however I can’t really think of any cases where the editing of a comedy ends up ruining the jokes, again, usually if a comedy film is bad, then the editing is not normally the major problem with the film, and even if the editing in a film is good, doesn’t mean that the rest of the film is good. An example is the parody film “Epic Movie” which is a horrible film and a horrible comedy, but on a production perspective, the film is well made.

Sound
Sound creates the majority of the comedy within a film, the most obvious of this way is through speaking and people telling jokes, but there are other ways how humour gets across, like music and sound effects. For music, the way how this can be used to tell jokes for example is contropuntal music can lead to a scene that would otherwise be dramatic or dark, and having a light-hearted tone; an example of this is the fight scenes of Hit-Girl in the film "Kick Ass", usually playing upbeat pop songs as she's murdering drug dealers, making the scene both an action scene and a comedic scene. As for sound effects, these also create comedy, this is most commonly found in slapstick, particularly cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, by putting silly sound effects over violence, makes it more silly and more conventional of the slapstick genre. Although these conventions usually work in smaller sketches rather than full length film, again, Tom & Jerry make a good example; while they were funny in 5-10 minute sketches, making a full length featured film with this type of humour (The Tom & Jerry movie), will get annoying rather quickly.