The 4 Rules of Comedy Writing For Screenwriters

I need to do some research on writing comedy and liking it to the visuals on screen. I found this website talking all about it. (http://www.nuvotech.co.uk) written by a professional filmmaker.

Just because you can say funny things doesn’t mean you can write funny things.

In this rule they are explaining how impotent it is to make your story funny right from the start. ”You have to keep that agent laughing from the first page–especially the first page–because if she’s enjoying herself by the time she gets to the bottom she’ll definitely turn to Page two’. I will take this into account when creating my very first scene as it must make you laugh right from the start, this will naturally make you carry on watching. This is exactly what i need when creating my short film.

A strong story without a lot of laughs is preferable to a weak story with three jokes per page

Here it says that you mustn’t have loads of jokes in one scene. ”As we’re laughing at things your characters are saying and doing, we must care about them and root for them to get whatever it is they want (no matter how goofy). If that want isn’t there we’re not going along for that ride no matter how amusing it might be.” This reminds me back to my questionnaire. I asked everyone how meany jokes they preferred on a scale of one to ten and the majority said 5. As this subject has came up twice now i am going to keep this in mind when creating my script.

Two heads can be better than one

Here it says that you could be the best scriptwriter and story teller in the world and no exactly what you’re doing. However if you cant write jokes you aren’t going to create a funny short film. ”You need to get together with a certain kind of person. The off the wall, rapid fire, life of the party, grown up class clown who has the ability to write jokes, great set pieces and funny lines and is hilarious 24/7, but if his or her life depended on it, couldn’t come up with a story and write a script. It’s the perfect convergence of talent.” When creating my script i will need to collaborate with someone who is naturally funny so that i can get some ideas to put into my short film so that it has a comedy feeling throughout and not just in certain areas.

Find your genre

When it says find your genre it doesn’t mean action or romantic comedy it means what genre of comedy are you going to use in your short film. This was interesting to me as i didn’t no that there was a certain theme of jokes you can say. for example ”’Romantic comedies need laughs, but not tons of them. Take two Reese Witherspoon films. Sweet Home Alabama wasn’t a laugh a minute”. There is also ”Guy comedies (or buddy comedies) need more laughs than a romantic comedy. Think I Love You, Man, Wedding Crashers, Talladega Nights, The Pineapple Express or Role Models.” I am going to be leaning towards the ”Guy comedies” as my short film is a Action Comedy.

Now i now the basics of writing comedy i now need to do some research on writing actual short films, as this isn’t a film its a short film. This is very tricky as you must not cram tuns of information into a short film is must be short and sweet.

Ref:

http://www.nuvotech.co.uk, N. (2019). The 4 Rules of Comedy Writing For Screenwriters. [online] Movieoutline.com. Available at: http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/the-4-rules-of-comedy-writing-for-screenwriters.html

Audio Editing

After looking at the effects i will be making and editing i realised there isn’t going to be any audio to them. So ist find some websites that i can take audio files of them for copyright free.

The best websites I found:

https://www.bensound.com/ – Royalty free music

https://www.zapsplat.com/ – High-quality free sounds but limited variety

https://freesound.org/ – Royalty free sounds

http://soundbible.com/free-sound-effects-1.html – Royalty free sounds low quality and limited variety

After scouting free audio websites i found these four above and each one has there own pros and cons.

bensound:

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Has a lot of royalty free songs which is great however i am creating a short film and i don’t need any music in here. The only way i can use any of there content is if i have a radio planning somewhere in my film however this will be more hassle and it won’t make my short film feel any batter. Also I can’t download the audio at its highest quality for free, you must pay for a subscription. As i am trying to spend as little as possible on my project this is a no go for me.

Zapsplat

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This site is very close to what i am looking for. The site has high-quality sounds that i can download for free and i can fully download them without a worring about a subscription. However, there are only a limited variety of sounds and it is going to be very difficult for me to find very specific sounds. For example, a car hitting a person or footsteps on concrete.

Freesound

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This site has every sound effect i will be using in my short film. All’s i have to do is search for it in the top right-hand corner of the screen and there will be hundreds of variation of it. However, not all sounds are bout t be high quality but it doesn’t matter in my case because i am going to be lowering the volume down on the sound effects anyway. This site is the best one so far.

Soundbible

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This site is great for high-quality sound however its exactly like Zapsplat. There just isn’t enough variety in sounds. I think if these sites had a community where customers can upload there audio, like in Freesounds, they will have far more sounds and more people using their site.

As my conclution, i am going to firstly look for sounds on Zapsplat for the sounds i need. However, if the sounds i am looking for aren’t on there i am going to use Freesounds as i now that there will be a sound on there that I can use. I will refer back to this blog when i start my audio editing.

I need to get back on track with my script. So I am now going to look at some tip on how to write good comedy. There is no point in having all the facial expressions and funny effects if i can’t write funny comedy.

Imagination Sequences – Location Scouting

Basketball Effect:

I will be splitting my project in half which i explained in my detail on my Splitting my project in half blog. I need locations for all 4 of my effects. For my basketball effect, i needed somewhere that was open and had hardly any people that go there. I found a place on Silverdale road and its a park called Tatton which is a safe and secure park. I also looked at St Peters Park on Erskine Road. I visited on 4 occasions and realised that there were always children on there and on closer inspection, it was too small. At Tatton Park there is an open space where i can use the basketball nets. This is perfect for my basketball effect as I need this open wide space in order to create my effect. There are numerous tasks that I must do because in the basketball tutorial I found the points they tell me to do all work with this location.

Silverdale Road Park

St Peters Park

Car Hitting Effect:

I was looking for a main road that wasnt too busy as I wanted a faster car to give the scene a better effect. I researched the local area and decided that the quieter or rural areas wouldnt suit this scene. I chose Bagganley Lane for this scene out of the 2 options that I looked at. The other was Montcliffe Road but as you can see, I felt there were too many cars and I couldnt guarantee Thomas’s safety. I waited for a fast car to appear. In that instant a lorry approached, quickly and as I filmed it, I felt this would have been more appropriate to that scene. I then filmed Thomas and put these 2 scenes together. I feel this scene was very effective and very happy with the result.

Bagganley Lane

Montcliffe Road

Car Dodge Effect:

I have looked at various locations for the car hitting effect. I looked in rural areas, at main roads and quiet roads. As an afterthought, I realised that I needed to film somewhere safe and to minimise the risk to Thomas hurting himself, as he is laying in the road. I decided to film this sequence on a quiet road to ensure Thomas’s safety. I made 2 different film takes and amalgamated them. With the road being quiet, I was able to film the car sequence and there were no other cars to interfere with the filming. As Thomas was standing in the road, his safety was most important. I chose a quiet road with a culdesac to make it less likely for any injuries to happen.

Bagganley Lane

Gun Shot Effect:

For this scene I wanted to find a house with a long pathway leading to the front door. This is because the scene I was aiming for was quite a long shot and I needed time to make the shot more realistic and give the impression that anything can possibly happen, even in our local areas. I looked at various houses in the area and found one ideal for my filming. I asked permission from the owner if I could use his house and he was happy to allow me. I have shown 3 houses to follow, 1 of which is what I have used.

Moorfields

This is the house I used for me scene. As you can see it has a long drive and there is lots of outside clear space to enable ease of filming.

The next 2 houses shown are ones which I felt would not suit my filming. One has no driveway, so I would struggle filming my scene because it’s on a main road and I need more driveway/time to film that scene.

The other house’s front door is too covered. I felt that the foliage may interrupt my filming and being as the path curves, I may have struggled filming the gun shot scene.

Tracey’s house

Tonys house

I know need to find some audio sound effect site and see where i can get sounds effects from throughout my whole short film, not just the imagination sequences.

Editing Techniques and Terminology for my Imagination Sequences.

Basketball Effect

I must pick a good stationary angle and capture an empty background plate. (This is a shot that has nothing moving in it). I must now have my actor move into frame and have him throw the ball out of frame. He must throw it out of frame so that i don’t need to erase the ball in the shot. I Must then ask my actor to go close up to the net and land a successful hit. Then take a basketball image from Google that looks the same to the ball you have in the shot, change the colouring to match the lighting to the real ball, finally animate the ball going out of frame then back in and into the basketball net. However, make sure he is to the left or right on the net so that he is easily erasable. In the image above it shows that in the red circles that where the ball was i just need to take my empty background plate and the green is the successful hit.

However, in the turorial, it also suggests that if you have more time i can create the ball in 3D, capture a spherical environment map of the location for lighting so that the lighting will match the real one. Then animate a transitional motion to bridge the gap between the throw and the hit. However, this way is a way too complicated for me as i don’t know how to use 3D soft were. So I am going to follow the instructions I have found in the paragraph above.

Car Hit Effect

This effect is quite similar to the Basketball effect however i need to mask out a car and my actor for this to work.

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This must all be in the open shot as the camera is tripoded and must not be moved throughout all actions. I must pick a good stationary angle and capture an empty background plate. I must now have my actor move into frame and have him stand there, for whatever reason. Then ask him to find a safe distance away from the road so that my car can drive past. Then in Post-Production have the empty background plate on the back of all the clips in after effects and mask out the actor and the car in there own layers. In the tutorial, it says to use the puppet warp tool (shown in the image above) to war the actor around the car and then follows the car as he goes off screen. However if i can film a larger car to drive passed, so that in reality his body doesn’t need to wrap around it, i wont need to do this. Alls i will need to do is follow the car off-screen, speed everything up and add some motion blur.

Car Dodge Effect

This effect is very similar to the Car hit effect however i will have to place some layer underneath each other and change so other small things around.

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This also must all be in the open shot as the camera is tripoded and must not be moved throughout all actions. I must pick a good stationary angle and capture an empty background plate. I must now have my actor move into frame act like he has dodged the car and walk out of frame. Then ask him to find a safe distance away from the road so that my car can drive past. Then in Post-Production have the empty background plate on the back of all the clips in after effects and mask out the actor and the car in there own layers. However this time I will place my car above the actor layer so that it looks like the car is driving over him. Then add some simple shadows (as shown in the screenshot above) so that this looks like the car is casting a shadow on top of my actor. Then alls i need to do is rever the proses for the exciting the back of the car i just reveal my actor but with mo car shadow.

Gun Shot effect

With my gunshot effect i haven’t fully figured out what i am going to have for this yet however i will be doing some Contextual Analisis to see if i can find any ideas that i can add to this effect. However, for now, all i know how to do is the muzzle flash.

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Once i have my footage of my actor acting like he is firing a gun i can then take that clip into after effects and add my effects. Firstly i must add my muzzle flash but change the blending mode so that it looks like it is in the shot. Then adjust the opacity to match the lighting. Now i need to add other effects like warping the background around the muzzle flash. This makes it look like the muzzle flash is expanding the air around the flash. I can also add some sparks coming out of the gun and smoke. Also adjusting the adjustment layers and opacity. However, if the gun is at an angle I must make sure i am matching the angle with the right muzzle flash whilst masking around the gun if necessary.

Once i have created all these effects i will record myself, and my computer screen, talking about how i created these effects in more detail and it will be a lot easier to understand.

After writing these key points i must now look Find the locations for all of my imagination sequences so that i can find locations that are suitable for me to do these effects in.

Interviewer questions – Linked to my effects

I got these question ideas from this website

My audience wanted me to use these effects from my questionnaire i did in my previous blog.

Here are the effects I will be using:

(Effect G) Do you have any hobbies or interests?

(Effect B) What’s your time management like?

I found this tutorial and the effect is very slimier to Effect B which is the video bellow

What was your previous job like?

(Effect A) Why did you get fired from your last job?

Before i start my script i know need to take a quick look at the tutorials about so that i can pick the key points out so that i don’t have to look back at the tutorials when editing. I can just look back at my key points.

Asking my audience what imagination sequences they want.

I asked my Target audience what action sequence they liked best as i didn’t just want to go with the ones that i like.

Question:

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Options:

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They went up to Effect H

Answers:

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My target audience wants the exact effects that i wanted. However, I only got 3 top once when i really needed 4 so i might use Effect B twice and create two different effects that have the same idea. now i am going to create my question to go with the effects that i have chosen.

Imagination Sequence Ideas

Here are some effects that i know i can recreate. This is impotent because i need to no what effects i can do and then wrap a story around them (This is relating to my script research where i talk about ”write the scenes that are most interesting to you first”) This will make it easier than creating the story than adding the effects afterwards.

Here are some Effects I have in mind (I only need to use 4):

Useful green screen tip with the secondary colour tab.

I could have this shot after a question like ”What do you like doing in your spar time?” Or ”Do you have any hobbies?”

The VFX artist uses a camera tracker plugin that works so much better than the built in After Effects effect. This will be useful if i need to track the whole scene.

I could use this effect in my short film but have it

Now i must ask my audience what effects they like the most so that i can then pick the top four and use them in my short film. Theni can start creating questions that suits the effects chosen.

Interview – Location Scouting

For my interview scene, i need to find a suitable place for my shoot. I need a place that is close by and has a realistic setting. eg not have yellow walls and no windows. I need a place that has a blue hue and has an office area for me to shoot the main part of my short film.

My first choice is the student support rooms at Runshaw college. They have a bland area that will give a realistic vibe to my shots.

However, whilst looking for more locations i realised that i can’t just hire an office space they are all to let. This is a big problem because i don’t have a big budget and i want to spend as little as possible. The examples i found where 16 Fellery Street, Chorley:

and Foxhole Road, Chorley: resize (1).jpg

Even if i could effort these locations there are no props and furniture to make it look like an office environment. That being said i could have to spend more money on tables, chairs, computer ext…

So going back to my original location i can now not worry about filming a location for my interview scene.

After this Location Spotting, i now know that i must create location text shots so that i can make sure that this location is suitable for my filming.

3: Developing my idea

From my ‘Face to Face‘ blog having my interviewer grumpy and lazy at the start of the interview then as the imagination sequences happen the interviewer starts to realise what he is saying and then by the end of the interview he will be shocked but confused at the same time. This leads to my next new point to my idea.

From my ‘Short Film inspiration‘ blog i am using my time travelling cliff hanger at the end as this makes my short film stand out from the amateur short films.

Time travel segment explained:

The interviewee is going to walk into the interview room laughing and grinning. This will put the thought in your head why is he laughing?. Then (fast forward to the end of the short film). The interviewee answers the last question and the dream sequence is going to be really violent and realistic. the interviewer is obviously going to be shocked because he wasn’t expecting an answer like that. Then the short film will cut to the first few seconds of the short film where he is walking into the interviewer’s room laughing. As if he has been going back in time and trying to answer the questions to impress the interviewee so he can get the job. He could also use something that he physically used to go back in time like a phone. (The question and then the following imagination sequence will happen 4 times with different questions and imaginations each time. Once the interviewer clicks into what he is actually thinking about and saying the interviewee will go back in time. Thus creating a loop. This is why i was four shadowings right at the start of the interviewee laughing) I might then have the same shot from the start and place it right at the end so that the viewer will definitely no that this is an infinite loop.

I now know about 60% of my short film and what will happen throughout the whole thing. So I am going to look into some locations on where i can film my interview segment then once that is out the way i can start on my imagination sequences.

Week 4 and 5 Blog Reflection

Codes and Conventions

Discussion

When doing research on the Action genre it is heavily based on the main protagonist. However, because my short film is going to be a comedy action film I am going to have two main characters.

On the other hand, the comedy genre is going to be heavily focused on when in my short film. In my research on this, I found out about the locations, camera work, sound and lighting. Firstly I am going to make sure that the locations I am filming it, it is going to be bright because having a comedy that is realistic makes the short film funnier. Secondly the camera work is a big part in the production. I need to have shots that are simple and very basic, because then the film will look like has been filmed by a child. the sound is a big part in the comedy genre because diegetic sound like dialogue will be clear to make sure people laugh. Non diegetic sound is also impotent, edited sound can be used to place emphasis on certain scenes. I could definitely add sounds into my short film that do both. Lighting is also a big part in the production as it leads into the camera work. I need bright and happy colours as they are used to show that the scene is happy, or shoot in the day light at the peak time. For example i could have a car exploding but have the colours look realistic and bright as possible. The explosion represents the action genre and the bright colours represents the comedy genre.

Script Research (eBook)

There where lots of tips in this research to make my script planning and creating a lot easier and better to understand. Firstly i must write the scenes that most interest me first and then work a script around that. This is because if I can make a few really good scenes scattered around the short film this is what makes movies from good to great.

Secondly mind mapping. You might this that this is obvious but the way they show you how to be this in the book makes mind mapping a lot more useful. He puts his most interesting/importance scenes as subheadings then uses arrows to navigate the order of them and works a story to join them all together. All people work differently as some people prefer to come up with a story first. However, I am creating a short film so the most interesting scenes must be golden for this to be a hit.

Finally two more useful tips I learned where Step Outlines and Character Overviews. Step Outlines are a basic description on what is going on onscreen. this is handy because i don’t have to remember what is going on i just need to look at this sheet. Character overviews are an overview on all the characters in your film. This is useful for your actors to act out there character because they will be able to now what there personality is like and how they are feeling at that time. I then have an example of how a script should be laid out and how it is presented on the page. This is to help prevent confusion when an actor is reading it.

Other eBooks

Face to Face

From my codes and conventions research i wanted to do some more research on the comedy and action genre to see if I could get any information on the acting side of things. This book ‘Face to Face’ has helped me to understand how to use factual expressions, as this is going to be the main sours of comedy through my short film in the interview segment. I can use this information because when a certain action happens it will effect peoples emotions and factual expressions. This will be useful to me as there are going to be some scenes where characters must react to them in a certain way.

Mythologies of Violence

With this research I am going to have my main character (the interviewee) as male as this is common in action movies. This is also going to be portrayed in my imagination shots.

However, because this is a comedy I am not going to having a strong powerful male protagonist in my short film. This is because my short film is a comedy action. Having a small scrawny main character but make him do cool things like in the stereotypical Action films. This will also make the Comedy side of my short film shine with the Action genre.

I am also going to have the imagination scenes look really realistic because i want things to be as over the top and cool as possible. Also, this will help the comedy side of the short film because it will all look out of place and it will feel like a fantasy, which is what we want. I now need to write an overview of my idea so I don’t get lost with all this new information i need to put into my short film. so i am going to go back to my recent blogs get all the new ideas i have come up with and add them to my idea, in a new blog.