Audience Seconday Research

Comedy Conventions

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences. The comedy genre humorously exaggerate situations, the way of speaking, the action and characters.
Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (the black comedy being an exception). One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies. Comedy, unlike other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comic transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. While many comic films are lighthearted stories with no intent other than to amuse.

The comedy genre can be considered the oldest film genre (and one of the most prolific and popular). Comedy was ideal for the early silent films, as it was dependent on visual action and physical humour rather than sound. Slapstick, one of the earliest forms of comedy, poked fun at physical mishap, usually in practical jokes, accidents and water soakings.

Hybrid genres

Action comedy
Films in this sub-genre blend comic antics and action where the film stars combine wit and one-liners with a thrilling plot and daring stunts

Comedy horror

Comedy horror is a type of horror film in which the usual dark themes are treated with a humorous approach.

Fantasy Comedy

Fantasy comedy films are types of films that uses magic, supernatural and or mythological figures for comic purposes.

Black Comedy

Much like comedy-horror, black comedy, or dark comedy, is a type of comedy film that often uses cruelty as the source of humour

sci-fi Comedy

Sci-fi comedy films, like most hybrid genre of comedy use the elements of science fiction films to over the top extremes and exaggerated science fiction stereotypical characters

Military Comedy

Military comedy films, involve comic situations in a military setting.



Why we watch comedy

There are a lot of different types of movie production in the world. Some movies have a lot of action, many have frightening content and others can make one sad or make one laugh. The latter refer to the comedy movies. People like to choose these movies because they like to be entertained. Additionally, they like to be informed about special topics. These are some reasons why viewers watch comedy movies.

The first reason why people watch comedy movies is because they want to be entertained.  People like to do be entertained because they want to relax and try to escape from reality. A lot of people have a stressful life, and they need time to rest and to calm down. Thus, they try to escape from their hectic life by watching funny stories.  For instance, a stressed worker can feel better while and after watching the Simpsons Movie because the content is easy to understand and funny. Furthermore, people might want to be entertained by watching comedy movies because of their mood. If a viewer is in a bad mood or feels sad, watching a comedy can help him change to a better mood, like feeling balanced. Comedy movies can do that because of the funny and easily understandable content they present, one can easily follow the story and can just relax by watching the funny moments. For example, Ice Age, a cartoon for adults and children, has a lot of jokes in it and a predictable, simple story. Consequently, watching this movie means relaxing and distracting yourself from your outside world and your problems.


Narrative/events of The Hangover

The Hangover was the adult blockbuster Hollywood needed this summer. A bawdy, outrageous comedy that does for road movies what There's Something About Mary did for date flick, The Hangover is irresistible fun, a movie that grown-up viewers saw again and again in theatres in droves - worldwide gross $462 million and counting.

Two days before his wedding with the wealthy Tracy Garner, Doug Billings travels to his bachelor party in Las Vegas with his best friends, the school teacher Phil Wenneck and the dentist Stu Price, and Tracy's unconventional brother Alan Garner. Tracy's father lends his convertible Mercedez Benz that is his pride and joy to Doug with many recommendations. The quartet rents the best suite in the Caesar's Palace and they go to the roof to celebrate. Alan proposes a toast to Doug and they drink his booze. On the next morning, Phil, Stu and Alan have a hangover and they do not recall what they did last night; the room is upside down; Doug is missing; there is a baby in the wardrobe; a tiger in the bedroom; a chicken in the room; Stu has a missing tooth; and Doug is missing. The trio tries to track down last night to find what happened and sooner they discover that Stu married the stripper Jade (heather Graham) and Alan has spiked their booze with "Good Morning, Cinderella" in the beginning of their crazy night


Hangover successful

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$44,979,319 (USA) (7 June 2009) (3269 Screens)

Gross:

$277,313,371 (USA) (13 December 2009)

Further Analysis of a trailer

Analysis of teaser trailer

Hangover trailer

Camera & Sound

The first camera shot we see is a mid shot of the character Phil talking towards the camera ( on the phone), with characters Stu, Alan and Black Doug in a focus pull behind him. The shot is a complete mess, straight away the first shot does not give any indication on whats going on or the basis of the film. Like an actual hangover you have limited memory or sometimes no memory of the night before when awoken. The first shot is trying to get the audience in that perspective, we see Phil in a complete state, tattered clothes and the others either lying on the floor also with dirty clothes or urinating in the background. This shot is trying to get the audience to think 'have we missed something?'. As if the audience has just forgotten what has just happened like an Hangover its self.
Then a medium of a women talking towards the camera (on the phone) and a quite opposite background and scene. The girl is nicely shown, clean, pretty and a nicely shown background. Flowers and a nicely lit background is a complete change to the shot of Phil a second ago. They have done this to show how far away them two are in society and public standing but only a phone call away, this tells us no matter have different the scenes may be they could be closer then the viewer perceives.

The next camera shot we see is a close up shot on Stu lying on the ground. Now the camera is positioned on the ground with him, perhaps trying to tell the viewer that we are positioned in the reality of the film, feeling what Stu is feeling. Now Stu is positioned to the left hand side of the shot and their is still half the frame to be used. This is used deliberately to tell the audience that whatever is covering the rest of the frame is a big indicator of what this films about. Now the frame consists of a lot of rubbish in the background, a chicken, empty cans and Stu's glasses. Now these are here to tell us about the film, the glasses are their i guess just because Stu dropped them. The Rubbish in the background can tell us of this film is essentially a messy film, loads of things coming at you at once, cans to indicate heavy drinking and i guess the chicken shown just to tell us how random this film is and the story line within it.  The next couple of shots are short cut shots of close ups of Alan and then to a tiger. Now these quick two shot are shown in that way to trick the audience into thinking this is normal. You associate two quick shots of close ups of two people talking an every day event where know one would take a second take on. Due to the fact its a tiger in the second shot, we look at  it first and then after a couple of seconds it hits us. This is here because its telling the audience this is normal in this film. Indicating a second take is needed i.e watching and going to see the film within the cinema.

This trailer hits the audience one shot after another, once with the chicken in the background, second with the tiger and then a close up shot of Stu loosing his tooth. To top things off there is a two shot of Stu and Phil talking and then a diegetic sound of a baby coming from within the hotel room. This two second shot brilliant in the facial reactions of Stu and Phil, and the state of the hotel that surrounds them. This trailer hits the audience one after another with K.O blows of randomness and pure hilarious consequences of there night out.

Initial story line ideas for my trailer

Ideas for names of the film 


reeled-in
drink?
we've all been there
Mr Beer
Bad Influence 


Story line 


The story line evolves around one man called Charlie Beer who is at Birmingham university studying chemistry. The story is about him trying to get over his taste for alcohol and trying to get back on topic and studying for his upcoming exams. The only problem is he loves alcohol more, due to heavy drinking and stupid nights out he is soon destroying his chances of getting anywhere in life.

The trailer begins when he awakes after a night out and we see all the stupid and funny situations he ends up in. One drink in his system and all he wants to do is party, though when he wakes up he regrets everything and tries to focus on his college life but is soon forgotten when his friends invite to the pubs and clubs.

Analysis of magazine front cover

Examples of comedy magazine covers

Analysis of my chosen magazine cover

Empire magazine front cover of the film Anchorman

Masthead

The masthead is been covered by the picture of Will Ferrell, this is showing us that Empire film are not afraid to cover the masthead with the main picture, in fact most of the magazine front covers show the masthead been covered by the picture. This automatically draws our attention to the main picture.

Main Picture

The main picture is of Will Ferrell and the first thing we notice about him is that he is facing away from the camera as if he is not bothered about everyone else and the fact that he is looking in the mirror and his hand touching his moustache indicates that he is more bothered in caring for himself and the audience that might be looking at him. This is a great picture of the character and the film suggests the same, within the film he loves himself and the way he looks, this echo's on the picture on this magazine. Not facing the camera and looking at a mirror.
The facial expression on his face shows us that his loving what he sees and what he is seeing is himself through the mirror. Telling the audience he is self loving, his face is a type of smug look as if he knows that he looks good.
The colour and lighting doesn't exactly come off the page but their are some good examples on the front cover. The back ground of the magazine is a dull grey colour, but as we go closer to the center of the magazine the colour brighten up, around the outsides of the magazine is dark grey and gets brighter the closer the magazine gets to Will Ferrell. This can show that the brightness in the dark around the magazine is what this character portray's as in being the 'spark within the dark'. This shows the character Ron Burgundy is the bright light and everything/one around him is dark/ unimportant to him. So the fact that he is the only thing on the cover that is lit can tell us that his only looking at him self and not anything or one around him is in the dark to his views. This is a clever way in portraying the colour in a way that Ron is loving himself for being the the lighter side of the page, so he is in the lime light.

Analysis of film poster

This poster of the film anchorman is a great example to help me with me design my poster for my trailer. The first thing i will write is the text at the top of the poster ' They bring you the news, so you don't have to get it yourself'. This is a great quote for this slapstick comedy about a news team. This is a serious quote which you would expect on an action type film, as if their doing us a huge favor, they have worded the quote to make it sound like they are the best at what they do etc and that they are going through great trouble to give us the news. 'so you don't have to get it yourself', this quote tells us there doing us a favor in telling us the news even though that's what every news channels and anchors do around the world. They are making the news seems like its dramatic thing. 

Target Audience and Questionnaire

Target audience

I am doing a target audience  questionnaire to find out who i am aiming by teaser trailer, poster, magazine cover at. I will need to have a rough idea on who i am aiming my work at. My trailer will be a comedy and for comedy's the target audience can vary. For example, is its a animation comedy like shrek, this can have an age range of 8-20 for example, for my trailer i am going to be specific in my target audience, for it will be adult humor. An example of a film with a similar target audience will be Hot fuzz or meet the parents, the humor is much different to a comedy like shrek or cat in hat for example. My type of comedy will be a type of slapstick humor, another great example of a film similar to my trailer is anchor man. This is my questionnaire on my target audience and range of films.

This is my questionnaire 

I gave this questionnaire to 20 different people and these are my results

Results to my questions

What age genre are you ?

As you can see from the results nearly 50 % of the age genre were 16-18

What genre of film do you prefer?

As you can see from my results over 50% were comedy and romance

How long would you assume a teaser trailer to be ?

Do you think the trailer should show the general storyline to the film and why ?

92% of people said YES
 8% of people said NO

Some answers to why they said yes

' in order to appeal to the audience'

' because the teaser trailers aim is to tease the audience and evoke curiousity and hypw about the film. This may not be fulfilled if the general storyline is told.'

' People wont know what its about and wont want to go and see it.'

' show the general plot and ideas to the film.'

Some answers to why they said No

'story should be hidden so you have to go watch to find out'

Analysis of trailer

Camera


The first shot we see on this teaser trailer is a two shot of the police officer (Simon Pegg) and the thief inside the store. This shows that the Police officer and noticed the thief, the following shot is a straight shot and the camera zooms in on the Cops face, then zooms in to a close up shot of the thief's face. Then an extreme close up shot of the Cops eyes and then again on the thief's eyes. These shots show the difference in facial reactions, one the cop angry and seems determined, the other looks anxious and scared.
The next shot is an extreme close up shot of a DVD, then a straight cut to a close up close of the DVD and of another police officer ( nick frost). This is telling us as a viewer that one police officer is doing his duty while the other is looking at a DVD collection. Straight after the close up shot there is a focus pull of DVD in the foreground first being viewed by the camera then as the DVD is being lowered the focus pull is being used to see the police officer chasing the thief in the background. This shows that while his reading his favorite dvd the other police officer is doing police work and trying to catch a crook.
The next shot is a two shot of the crook running out of the store and the cop behind him. There is then another shot as the two police officers turn a corner looking for the crook, this is a mid shot of the police officers showing the viewer the difference in physical condition, one Fit and eager to look for the crook and the other out of breathe and not at all that interested in police work. As we see a medium shot of one of the police officers turning back to mock the other police officer then carries on to jump the fences behind a set of gardens. As we see this being done the very last jump we see of the cop is him doing a front flip over the remaining garden, the shot is the same through out. straight shot focused on the cop jumping the fences. There is then a straight shot of the other police officer who we see lick his lips, indicating to us that what he has just seen is pretty cool in his eyes, as we see a panning shot following him as he is about to jump the fences the camera is still in the same place as we saw the other police officer do it, this is a very effective way of using the camera perhaps indicating to the viewer that the other police officer is about to do the same. As you can see he doesn't.


Editing

Like the camera at the beginning of this clip, the shot cuts from the eyes of the police officer to the eyes of the thief, this is done successfully by a straight cut, the straight cut quickly, within seconds, cuts from the eyes of the cop then straight to the eyes of the thief. This is done brilliantly and well timed to give off the second tension between the two characters. that split second cut between the two really shows the audience the dominance shift between each of them. First the thief as we see him stealing as much stuff as he can and then when the straight cut comes in it suddenly the dominance goes straight to the police officer by the facial reactions of the two. The thief with a very worried facial expression and the cop with a determined one.


Sound 


The first thing we hear is the tannoy over head coming on like in a typical shopping mall. This shows us that its a usual day at the mall and there's nothing out of the ordinary going on which we assume that its within the scene so it will be diegetic.  Then the third second in after the cop says 'excuse me' non-diegetic sound comes in to tell us that something is building up. The music indicates something is going to happen then a few seconds after the music kicks in when the thief tries to run away. That then continues as there running outside hearing the diegetic sound of their footsteps. When they turn the corner  the music changes again into a base type guitar being played, this music is telling the viewer something is about to happen again, but because the base is used we feel that its going to be a bit more high paced. When the cop asks 'through the gardens' in a in a tired and drained type question and the officer replies ' whats the matter Danny, never taken a short cut before' in a arrogant and cocky tone the base is still playing. The dialogue 'never taken a short cut before' shows us the comedy behind this type of film. This film is supposed to be set in a quiet and calm location and usually not associated with crime and violence and when those words are said we imagine some america 5 0 type show action paced adventure. So we he says this its funny to us as the cops live in such a quiet and calm area.
When he is skipping the fences and the last fence he jumps over it but much more dramatically and does a flip     and as soon as he does this the build up in the base explodes out in a shouting guitar band, emphasizing the cops actions in jumping over the fence.
After this the title comes up 'Hot Fuzz' now this is read out by a man with a very deep voice. This man is famous and does many action films, now the fact that he is doing it to this film is funny in the fact again that its not what the audience expect when the film is about two cops living in the country this is called contrapuntal sound. So its challenging the codes and conventions of a type of film but purposely put in for the comedy. Now when the cop jumped over the last fence it cuts back to the other cop about to jump the fences but the  non-diegetic sound stops ( the guitar and base) so we know nothing is being built up in this scene. So the audience don't expect anything, then we the cop run into the fence. Then the guitar and base explodes back in at the very end with the words ' coming soon' in. These is a great ending to a trailer because it brings back that high action packed sound from earlier at the very end to perhaps signify that this will be a high action packed film.




Conclusion
This is a great trailer for a comedy film and i will certainly be using many of their techniques within mine, for example the contrapuntal sound that they use within the trailer and many of there cut shots to the actors faces to signify their facial expression. These are all done brilliantly to make that trailer look like this is a high action packed film even though the basis of the film is that they are cops living within the countryside. This is a great well worked and thought out trailer.