Author Archives: yusufabas

Week 6 Genre Hybridisation

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q_pwxZccMtnw5kHn-iyPRScIO0O9fSt6/view?usp=sharing

Reflection:

Genre Hybridisation

  • Genre hybridization involves the blending of elements from different genres to create a unique and engaging experience. This approach allows creators to subvert audience expectations, mix different styles, and explore new comedic possibilities. Looking at incongruity theory, it sheds light on how genre hybridization can enhance comedic impact by creating unexpected juxtapositions and contrasts such as ‘Abrupt cuts’. In particular, they have emphasised the importance of timing, pacing, and tone in genre hybridization. By combining elements from multiple genres, creators can create rich, multi-layered comedic experiences that resonate with diverse audiences.
  • The sketch about a student news piece on a dangerous brain-eating amoeba in Australian waters demonstrates the power of genre hybridization in comedy. By blending serious elements of news reporting with comedic timing and irony, the sketch creates a humorous commentary on sensationalist media coverage and public hysteria.
  • The sketch responds to the constraints and concepts of genre hybridization by seamlessly blending serious news reporting peppered with comedic elements. The use of abrupt cuts after certain words, such as “quite frankly can kill any one of us in seconds,” creates comedic tension by exaggerating the severity of the situation before deflating it with humour. This technique plays on the incongruity between the serious subject matter and the exaggerated presentation, highlighting the absurdity of media sensationalism.
  • Furthermore, the buildup of tension throughout the sketch, as the journalist and expert discuss the dangers of the brain-eating amoeba, serves to heighten the comedic payoff at the end when it is revealed that only three people have died from the organism since 1980. This sudden reversal subverts audience expectations and creates a humorous contrast between the exaggerated threat and the actual level of danger.
  • Overall, the sketch effectively utilises genre hybridization as a comedic form to critique media sensationalism and public hysteria, employing irony, exaggeration, and abrupt cuts to create a humorous and thought-provoking narrative. By blending elements from different genres, the sketch offers a fresh and innovative take on comedic storytelling, demonstrating the creative possibilities of genre hybridization in comedy.

Week 5 Satire

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Reflection:

Satire

  • Understanding satire as a comedic form involves recognizing its power to critique societal norms, behaviours, and institutions through humour and irony. Satire often employs exaggeration, parody, and ridicule to expose hypocrisy, illogicality, or injustices, aiming to provoke thought and incite change. This provides insight into how satire functions to challenge and subvert established conventions.
  • In particular, our discussions have highlighted the role of satire in offering commentary on contemporary issues, from politics and culture to interpersonal relationships. Satirical comedy serves as a mirror to society, reflecting its flaws and contradictions in a humorous and often exaggerated manner. By skewering societal norms and behaviours, satire encourages audiences to question the status quo and consider alternative perspectives.
  • The sketch about online dating, specifically focusing on the Hinge app and its many issues, embodies the essence of satire by humorously critiquing the modern dating landscape. Through the character of Nia and her therapy session, the sketch explores the frustrations of online dating, from corny pickup lines to deceptive catfishing tactics.
  • The sketch responds to the constraints and concepts of satire by employing irony, exaggeration, and parody to highlight the irrationality of online dating culture. The montage of guys using terrible pickup lines serves as a humorous commentary on the superficiality and insincerity often found in online interactions. Similarly, the depiction of a romantic date with a man leading Nia on, only to reveal his disinterest in anything serious, satirises the disconnect between online personas and real-life intentions. Additionally the sketch employs irony in its resolution, as Nia refuses to delete the Hinge app despite her therapist’s advice, indicating a perpetuation of the cycle of online dating disillusionment and the difficulty of breaking free from their grip as well. Once Nia then leaves the therapy session, she discovers the therapist’s dating profile on hinge. This ironic twist serves as a commentary on the addictive nature of online dating platforms, indicating the inter-relational connection between the real world and the digital.
  • In conclusion, the sketch effectively utilises satire as a comedic form to critique the pitfalls of online dating culture, employing irony, exaggeration, and parody to provoke laughter and reflection. By highlighting the contradictions inherent in modern dating practices, the sketch offers a humorous yet thought-provoking commentary on the challenges of finding love in the digital age.

Week 4 Parody

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NkD9FDMVxMzy7uMj4fr4iYLjv4tS5jlU/view?usp=sharing

Reflection:

Parody

  • In exploring parody as a comedic form, one dives into the art of imitation and exaggeration to highlight absurdities or contrast within a subject matter. Parody often relies on subverting expectations, twisting tropes, and exploiting language or conceptual vagueness to evoke laughter. This week’s readings and discussions have emphasised the importance of context, timing, and cultural references in creating effective parodies.
  • In particular, our exploration of theories of humour, such as incongruity theory and superiority theory, sheds light on how parody functions to disrupt expectations and highlight the absurdities present in everyday life. Parody can also allow creators to satirise serious topics or societal norms, providing a lens in which audiences can reflect on and critique the world around them.
  • The sketch of ‘The Group Presentation’ on a Zoom call embodies the core of parody by taking a serious topic, euthanasia, and twisting it into a misunderstanding about “Youth In Asia.” This play on words sets the stage for comedic confusion as one member of the group mistakenly presents information about euthanasia instead of the intended topic. The incongruity between the intended subject matter and the actual presentation creates a comedic tension that is further heightened by the virtual setting of the Zoom call. Moreover, the sketch responds to the constraints and concepts of parody by exaggerating the misunderstanding to ridiculous proportions. As the individual presents their segment on euthanasia, regardless of the error, the audience witnesses the escalation of comedic misunderstandings and awkwardness. This exaggeration serves to highlight the miscommunication and the pitfalls of group collaboration, tapping into the superiority theory of humour as the audience laughs at the characters’ misfortune.
  • The use of the Zoom call as the setting adds an additional layer of parody by satirising the challenges of remote communication and virtual teamwork that everyone experienced during covid lockdown. The awkward pauses and miscommunications inherent in online meetings are exaggerated for comedic effect, resonating with audiences familiar with the frustrations of virtual collaboration.
  • In conclusion, the sketch effectively employs parody as a comedic form to highlight the absurdities of miscommunication, linguistic ambiguity, and virtual teamwork. By subverting expectations and exaggerating the misunderstandings inherent in group presentations, the sketch provides a humorous commentary on the pitfalls of human interaction in the digital age.

Week 3 Context/Story Humour

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Reflection

  • The deviation from the norm in this piece revolves around the seemingly mundane act of retrieving mail at night turning into a chain of unexpected events triggered by a surprising letter from an old friend. The norm here is that receiving mail at home, even at odd hours, is a routine activity. The anticipation is that the man will simply retrieve his mail, perhaps in a mundane fashion, and return to his Batman-themed chair without incident. However, the norm is quickly disrupted when the letter from the old friend is revealed to hold a grudge, setting the stage for an unexpected turn of events. The eerie, ominous music sets the tone, hinting at something sinister lurking beneath the surface. As the man descends the stairs, the tension builds, only to be shattered by the absurdity of the flashback sequence triggered by the old friend’s recounting of a childhood memory in the letter. The transition to the flashback is punctuated by a classic sound effect, instantly transporting the audience into the past coupled with the transition effect of a ripple in water. As said in Berger’s ‘The semiotics of humour:..’, “All of these things are ‘signs’ which is the core concept in semiotics.” Everything from their clothes, expressions to the sounds and visuals are all signs to signal to the audience the meaning being portrayed, for example within the flashback itself, we witness the actions of a younger version of the man stealing his friend’s favourite swing by pushing him off. The exaggerated actions and expressions of the child actors add to the comedic effect, emphasising the ridiculousness of the situation. As the flashback ends with the same transition and sound effect, the audience is jolted back to the present by the setting and dark lighting, only to be met with another unexpected twist: the man’s beloved Batman chair has been stolen as an act of revenge. The escalation of absurdity, from a childhood prank to a missing valuable chair, adds layers of humour to the scene. The use of language in the old friend’s narration adds another dimension to the piece, as his matter-of-fact delivery complements the absurdity of his actions. In conclusion, the disruption of expectation in this comedy piece is executed through a combination of story/context humour along with the added slapstick visual humour, performance, and audio cues, creating a hopefully comedic experience for the audience.

 

References:

 

Berger, A.A. (1970) The semiotics of humour: Universal humour techniques in comedy writing, SpringerLink. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-33422-1_2

Week 2 Visual Comedy

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Reflection

  • The “Disruption of Expectation” is a classic technique utilised to subvert the audience’s anticipated outcome, leading to unexpected and often humorous results. In this piece of comedy the disruption occurs through the juxtaposition of familiar characters and situations within the Lego universe. The norm, anticipation, presumption, and common logic that are disrupted revolve around the perceived competence and seriousness of characters like Lego Dr. Strange and Lego Thor. Typically, these characters are portrayed as powerful and heroic figures, capable of handling any challenge with grace and skill. However, in this comedic piece, their dignity is compromised as they engage in a series of clumsy and absurd actions. Following the core idea of slapstick humour, “it made a satisfyingly loud sound without inflicting any real pain”. The moment creates absurdity through multiple layers of humour; the visual humour is evident in the contrast between the grand entrances of Lego Dr. Strange and Lego Thor and their subsequent mishaps, such as Lego Dr. Strange’s trip over a small Lego brick, this is a simple depiction of visual humour. This unexpected clumsiness undermines their usual air of confidence and power. For performance the exaggerated movements and expressions of the Lego characters enhance the comedic effect. Lego Dr. Strange’s hurried attempts to regain his composure and then awkward pause and Lego Thor’s scene of being thrown upside down add to the absurdity of the situation. This is also backed by the concept of the benign violation theory, “For a violation to produce humour, it also needs to seem OK, safe, acceptable, or, in other words, benign.” The two lego characters remain fine after the violations that occur. Then we are introduced to Lego Lady Thor and Lego Ice-Cream Cone Girl adding another layer of humour to the scene. Their casual enjoyment of noodles atop a giant Lego Mjolnir provides a humorous contrast to the intense battle unfolding before them. The absurdity of the situation is heightened by the juxtaposition of epic conflict and mundane activities. While not heavily the focus, sound effects such as the clattering of Lego bricks and the slurping of noodles further enhance the comedic experience. These auditory cues contribute to the overall sense of chaos and hilarity. By disrupting the audience’s expectations of how characters like Lego Dr. Strange and Lego Thor should behave, the lego comedy piece creates a delightfully incongruous and humorous scenario. Through a combination of visual humour, performance, story/context humour, and potentially audio humour.

References:

 

Warren, C. and McGraw, A.P. (2015) Benign violation theory, SSRN. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2559414

Peacock, L. (1970) What is slapstick?, SpringerLink. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137438973_2

Week 1 Comedy Sketch

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Reflection

  • The disruption of expectation in my sketch is through the opening line, “Top five people who didn’t stand up for themselves.” The audience is then misled by the built up social meaning of that statement which is that I’m referring to, a set of people who didn’t assert their position or stance against an opposition and weren’t able to express their own needs, wants, and opinions in a clear and confident manner. The audience is then surprised when they see number five on the list is Rosa Parks who did ‘stand up for themselves’ just not in the literal sense of the meaning because she protested by sitting down on the bus. And as Seth Simons said in ‘Six Small Essays about Comedy’, “This time around I was equipped to understand a line that went over my head 20 years ago..”. The idea of getting a joke makes the ‘bit’ funnier for an audience and for the audience that’s understanding that Rosa Parks didn’t technically stand up for herself. Another expectation which is then also subverted is the genre of music which begins with a typical melody that’s associated with a ranking list to then the ‘Prowler Theme” from ‘Spiderman into the Spider-verse’, the sharp transition which is timed with the subversion of the reveal of rosa parks compliments the moment by enhancing the starkness of it. In Nick’s book ‘Sketch  Comedy’ he mentions, “The first minute or so of any comedy sketch usually introduces viewers to a funny world or worldview,” The bottom half of the video also showcases a copyright free minecraft parkour video which has become a commonplace attention grab to keep the audience focused on social media content but it also sets up that expectation of a set of rules and the world of norms that would come with that. which is an AI narration or a text that is alongside the video or another video on top of it and so on. Another disruption of expectation is the voices that narrate the ranking video starting from the beginning. The AI voice narration sets an expectation for the audience but is followed by a very high pitched ‘Kawaii’ voice and that difference is another stark change that could create humour through the sense of shock or surprise. The last nail in the coffin would have to be the snippet reveal of the number four candidate with another beat of the ‘Prowler Theme’ to coincide with it, a close up of Stephen Hawking who famously is known to be suffering from ALS a motor neuron disease that literally leaves him unable to ‘stand up for himself’ a similar subversion to rosa park but much darker in its context and its tone of humour which is intended to inspire comedy through instilling shock, confusion, incongruity even. The speed at which it is also cut off is another factor added to the piece of comedy.

References:

Simons, S. (2023) Six small essays about comedy, Humorism. Available at: https://www.humorism.xyz/six-small-essays-about-comedy/

 Marx, Nick. Sketch Comedy : Identity, Reflexivity, and American Television, Indiana University Press, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=6513090.

Assignment 2

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Link to videos numbered 1-3  Media Factory Blog

SUBVERTING NARRATIVE STRUCTURES   (1)

This being the first short film we decided to reverse the three-act structure around having the end of the journey start at the beginning. By having the resolution at the beginning, we are subverting the way the story is being delivered and watched by the audience. We also wanted to make it relatively anticlimactic but also confusing to the audience about what the concept is (of course leaving it up to them). We began with spinning the camera at the train station, then a montage of the train  with build-up and some foley and then we ended with a super anticlimactic scene. While this is a subversion of narrative techniques and we are breaking conventions on narratives by reversing the three-act structure, we are still using somewhat of a focus on editing to help us further drive home the unconventional concept of breaking the narrative structure. As Studio Binder says the idea of subjective and objective shots exist on a scale that can be used to emphasise key moments. So, what we did was combine the edit with a unique use of the camera to give this breakdown of the three act structure some interesting depth.  

  

SUBVERTING CINEMATOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE  (2)

For this short film, we decided to film a monologue. We didn’t want this to be a regular monologue about nothing but rather have a thought provoking, poetic piece that touched on issues that could delve into the idea of surrealism and layered meanings that people could interpret how they wanted to.  

One of the main points of subverting the content was the delivery of the monologue. As discussed in Studio Binder, the concept of Mise – En – Scene Wes Anderson has very precise detail in his short compositions and appreciation of colour. Even though the surroundings are often bright and saturated and colourful, the characters are usually depressed or traumatised. We used this theory to play with the shots. Our protagonist is talking about how she tore her mum open at birth and has a wild temperament. We decided to shoot this handheld with a selection of pans and quick zoom on certain words. The zoom backwards is to show just how big the world is around her and how she is the centre of this unusual universe. The play on the way the script is delivered is on purpose as well. While this script does discuss something unusual and serious, we thought it would be more interesting to deliver the lines in a playful way that shows she’s a bit in touch with her reality, much like the camera angles, the whole thing is all over the place, but the character isn’t any better. That’s why we chose to do it the way we did, to break the conventions during the monologue and have unreal dialogue that was slightly monotonic, whimsy and robot-like.  

    

SUBVERTING CONTINUITY AND EDITING CHOICES   (3)

  

For this short film we wanted to mess with the flow of time and present the film in a non-chronological format. We kept it simple and just filmed a café making our coffees. Their eftpos machine wasn’t working that day, which further added to the chaos. We initially just edited it out of order but then decided to switch it up and subvert the edit by playing with the time and slowing everything down in parts and speeding it up in others. We played with the music as well and decided to use a horror – esque soundtrack to further subvert the idea of a simple coffee being made and make it have some type of awkward comedic undertone. Studio Binder discusses the concept of creating pace. How long to hold the shots, or when to cut the shots can really change the way a film feels. That’s what we wanted to do with this edit. By choosing to edit this film in a really unhinged way would further drive the concept of subverting the entire edit and the idea of continuity. So by consciously choosing to play with the pace and abolish the idea of continuity and added some weird sounds, something quite mundane becomes a bit creepy and leaves us not quite knowing whether someone is going to be stabbed or whether someone is just getting their coffee.  

Assignment 1

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The performance in the 2014 short film ‘Unedited Footage of a Bear’ is effectively demonstrated to communicate the difference of characters being shown in the film, specifically between the unnamed woman who we presume to be Donna and her alter ego, the main difference between her and the alter ego is the performance of the actor although there are aspects like makeup and costume that contribute to the audience’s sense of which character we are observing.

 

The performance of the unnamed woman in “Unedited Footage of a Bear” is unsettling and eerie, as the film aims to create a sense of unease and horror. The woman appears in a fictional television commercial for a medication called ‘Claridryl,’ which is supposed to treat allergies. However, the commercial quickly takes a dark turn and becomes increasingly disturbing. The actress’s performance effectively conveys a mix of fear, confusion, and distress as the commercial descends into chaos. The character’s portrayal however, coupled with the strange and unpredictable events in the commercial, leaves the audience with a sense of discomfort and a lingering feeling of unease. Naremore J. says “The audience remains present to the actor, sending our vibrations and signs that influence the intensity, pace or content of any given performance”. This is achieved thanks to the actress’s performance and behaviour as each character switching between happy and cheerful then leaning towards normal and concerned ultimately switching to the dramatic and unhinged actress.

 

As a filmmaker, being aware of this technique of performance as a tool for directing audience experience is made abundantly clear in the short film because without the contrast of a sane versus unhinged ‘Donna’ the message of the film and the audience’s reception of which character is being portrayed becomes skewed and unclear. The performance of the unnamed woman is crucial to the success of “Unedited Footage of a Bear” in delivering its intended message and creating a memorable and disturbing viewing experience

Reference List:

Alan Resnick, Ben O’Brien (director) (2014) Unedited Footage of a Bear [Short Film], Adult Swim, United States

Naremore, J. (1988), Acting in the Cinema. Univ of California Press.

Monty Python Analysis

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The performance in the comedy film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” which was released in 1975 (and is one of the most iconic works by the Monty Python comedy group) assists in breaking the convention of typical films based on mythological journeys. The film is a comedic parody of the legend of King Arthur’s quest to find the Holy Grail. It’s known for its absurd and surreal humour. Here are some factors that contributed to its unique performance and impact. Visual Comedy is a personal feature of the film that was a standout attribute for me. The Knights Who Say “Ni,” the Black Knight’s limb-lopping, and the absurdity of the Trojan Rabbit are just a few examples of the memorable visual gags that played on the convention of serious setbacks and obstacles in the hero’s journey. Another factor of the film is that it frequently breaks the fourth wall and plays with cinematic conventions “for the purpose of comedy and mockery”. This self-awareness and meta-humour added another layer of comedy for the audience. On top of that is the aspect of the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” that utilises absurdity to satirise historical and mythological narratives. This approach allowed them to both mock and celebrate the Arthurian legend.

 

Reference:

Harness, T. (2022) How to break the rules of filmmaking to evoke emotions, Videomaker. 

https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/directing/storytelling/how-to-break-the-rules-of-filmmaking-to-evoke-emotions/