In order to learn comedy and action being used in one film we need to study popular films that has these genres and how they show action and comedy together.
Movie #1
Still from Hot Fuzz, 2007
Hot fuzz is a great example of using action and comedy together in a movie. In this film, two cops take on a town that crime runs around. The action of the film comes from the action that these two police officers try to stop crime with intense scenes and fights. The comedy aspect of the film comes from the comedic aspect of the characters and how they perform. This film puts both genres in equal use and shows that action can come some comedy too. This is a perfect example of a film that we can use in order to study more based on hybrid genres including action and comedy. We can take some ideas that would further influence our future film.
Movie #2
Still from Shaun of the Dead, 2004
Shaun of the dead is another great example of a film that uses action and comedy together. In this film, Shaun, our man character is met with a divorce, but later a zombie apocalypse happens in London in which Shaun tries to survive and get to safety. Comedy being in this type of plot looks very hard to achieve because a zombie apocalypse shouldn't be joked about. But this film found its way around. Shaun does not take a good approach on surviving, not only he noticed the apocalypse very late on but he messes up a lot and runs around with a mindless character trying to escape with zombies also being mindless too. This integrates social satire and generic American zombie movies expectations, even if this is a British film. Action in this movie is explainable by the actions of escaping from zombies, or intensity of conflict.
Conclusion
I learned the methods of how they used both genres in order to impact story and give the audience enjoyment. In order to correctly try this hybrid film, we need to split action and comedy into different parts of the film. We need to show real action at the same time showing humor that represents from the character or the current of action. These both films taught me how they equally use these genres and I will be taking inspiration from this.
As my group is thinking of what to start with, we need to remember that this film is focused on the first two minutes. We need to study and discuss which film opening that would fit best with our film that uses comedy and action. We want to introduce our main character immediately to provide a quick introduction. We introduce: Enter the hero and Flash-forward.
Enter the Hero
To 'Enter the Hero' is a perfect way of introducing our protagonist immediately, because we are running an action movie, we can introduce with a chase sequence or an intense moment. This opening can also start the influence of comedy based on the introduction of the protagonist. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) is a good example of 'Enter the Hero' as it establishes the hero's status by everyone following the protagonist. With minimal words being said, we know that our protagonist has a comedic expression and character. This also would tie better into our genre of comedy. The tone can depend on the opening that best describes the situation that the protagonist is in.
Flash-Forward
To do a 'Flash-Foward is when you start ahead of the action that questions 'what happened?'. If we are talking about comedy, we can use flash-forward to put our protagonist in a tight situation, then to introduce himself and what type of situation they are in. One movie proves best with this idea. Emperor's New Groove (2000) is a good example of Flash-Foward. It provides a point where the protagonist is in sudden despair, explaining to 'us' that this will make sense soon. Then starts his introducing his life to us. Because we saw a different model in the future and a guy being a human in the past, it tells us, 'what could have he possibly done?', this gives a clear introduction of our character with putting comedy and some action too.
Why not use Establishing Relationships?
'Establishing Relationships' is to introduce to a bunch of characters that give us connection to them immediately. This would tie us introducing our protagonist's character and possibly more characters. But the negative of this opening, is that this opening does not tie with the action genre at all. This type of opening is to give a slow and calm introduction with not much action already happening. This opening would have been great for our comedy but in relation with action, it does not fit well.
Conclusion
Our group is deciding whether to choose Flash-Forward or Enter the Hero. As we make more ideas of our film we will use both to see which opening has the most compatibility.
My group will be deciding on making a hybrid film that blends the most unexpected genres together. We will make clear of what genres we are putting in our opening scene with some ideas in mind. But to fully understand how a hybrid film works we need to know what to show.
My group decided to choose two genres that would make an unpredictable hybrid film.
1. Action
Mission impossible - Rogue Nation, 2015
Action is considered the genre with the most fights and intense high missions. This narrows down to this genre only having constant action. Action genres do sometimes combine well with other genres, many movies do show romance on the side. "Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation" shows the best example of a action movie, it has stunts, its own intense plot, multiple fight scenes, and constant action. The plot of an action movie is for the main character to stop a certain group or individual that causes conflict to the main character. We were going to need to show "action" in order to express our approach on the film having action.
2. Comedy
The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014
Comedy is the genre where everyone laughs the most, comedy can fit with multiple genres that do not focus with the overall serious conflict of the plot but can provide many comedic actions. Normally in comedy, the film is trying to be its funniest while still providing constant story to its plot, a movie cannot just be a comedy standup itself. In "The Grand Budapest Hotel" it shows a perfect example of the humor it keeps constantly in the movie, it combines well with the drama. The comedy in the movie mostly comes from its setting that everything is visually vibrant, with the addition of characters that introduce their own quirks and humorous traits. We were going to need to introduce comedic effects to our characters that would show that the film is comedy.
For this upcoming film, I will be taking over as director, directing is something I have experience with because of my previous film. I know what worked well and what needed improvements. I also will be taking on the role of cinematographer, with past knowledge, I understand the overall role. There is bound to be improvements in my camera taking this time.
What went successful
During my previous film, I brought every actor within time of what they needed to wear and speak. I think this part of my previous film is what made my directing better. Therefore, I will take the same approach to plan a location, date, and equipment. Based on cinematography, I went well in handheld shots, since my previous film included these types of shots. It's best to keep these types of shots in my upcoming film. These both strengths are what is going to count once I start production, I aim to minimize any mistakes once filming starts happening.
Needed Improvements
One area I wanted to improve as a director that I noticed while mid-production was to establish a better understanding of what my vision is of the film and details in my mind that need to be shown by the actors. This time, before the film date, I will go on call with the actors and show what is needed and expected from acting in the film. In this way, actors gain better knowledge what they need to do before instead of at the moment which can prove to be worse. Improving as a cinematographer showed me what is needed to actually put meaning behind these scenes, but I really did not demonstrate that in my previous film, I think having too successful of shots is worse than having little success of shots because of the quality of the scene. This time, I want to deliver the best possible expectation of a scene, no matter the attempts. Thinking that the scene is fine and going on with it to spend as little time is something to leave behind.
Watching this video gave me tips on directing, so I can understand directing more.
This video taught me more about cinematography to further improve what is shown.
Hello and welcome to my first blog. Let me introduce myself, my is name Tēvita Pasitosi.I love video games, I play them every day. I also like movies, I don't love movies because I don't watch much movies. But I still believe that making movies is very cool. Using media every day is my life, I use it to study, distract myself, and for entertainment. Other than using technology, I play sports like soccer. It keeps me fit and is very fun with friends. Just like everyday at home, I always talk to my friends and play with them online to have fun. I'm also very comedic, kind, and hard working. My experience as a student working with a lot of people gets very hard to keep track of. With many classes its pretty challenging going through high school. But I always like challenges, it makes me learn more about the topic, until I fully understand it. Other than that, I'm not much of a tv series person. I never have put in the hours to watch a popular tv series that people recommend me to watch. The only ones I watch are the very popular series that I know that I wont get bored watching. I am willing to watch a new series to study it for this class. Maybe it can open a broad view of new interest that I might like. I believe this class will teach me a lot about movies and its behind the scenes, which I would always want to learn about.
