In Week 6 we discussed the hybrid mode of making comedy, taking the approach of creating a piece of media that is supplemented by comedy, differing from parody and satire as aesthetic and social conventions required to be challenged. The reading covered the hybrid approach through examples of comedic documentary making, and the techniques in editing used to create humour within a form not commonly associated with comedy.
Through working with Trang, Claudia and Yusef we discussed a concept surrounding a news report of a water scare on campus. This initially felt as if we were attempting to create a parody of a news report rather than utilising a hybrid approach; through discussion Claudia brought a NEWS.com article she had read in a different class which explained the presence of a brain eating amoeba in Western Australian swimming spots. The article concluded with the information that three people had died since 1980 from this amoeba, despite the alarming content of the article.
We decided to create a news report on this bacteria, approaching the production of our sketch to align with low budget student news reports to more accurately reflect our production capabilities. Whilst we improvised lines it was difficult to not slide into total parody of alarmist news reports, we had to ensure the piece felt as if it was created as an overt attempt to be humorous.
Despite my improvement in assembling graphics and replicating a newsreel aesthetic, I found some of the footage difficult to include as it was unstabilised. Furthermore, the audio had a loud air conditioner in most takes, as such I attempted to use Premier Pro’s audio effects to isolate the dialogue but it resulted in audio that sounded over processed and poorly mixed.