Comedy Genre Research

• Comedy
• Comedy is a type of genre in film used to make the audience laugh or amuse them. Usually the main character is an ordinary person who faces conflicts from misunderstandings and ends with a happy ending. The funny aspect deviates from a normal everyday action or thought  in a funny matter or exaggerated. Some elements found in comedy include mistaken identity, coincidence, surprise, exaggeration, names, irony, puns and violence. There are several different types of comedy such as slapstick, fish out of water, parody, black comedy, gross out, and romantic comedies.
• There are many different production techniques used repeatedly in comedy's to make the genre clear and also adds to the humor. One technique used often is what may be called “the push in” which is when the camera actually moves closer and closer. This can mean a lot of things like highlight what you are seeing, literally gives the audience a better view of what is happening, and create a more intimate environment. As the push in gets closer and it lets the audience know its a comedy movie. The “pull out” effect is also used and has the complete opposite effect letting the viewer know what they we’re seeing wasn’t the whole picture. Another technique used is the “wait for it…”  this is when the camera is typically sitting still to let the joke transpire or a sudden change. We see this when the camera lingering, the character moves offscreen but the audience knows he went the wrong way or he comes back to interact with that scene again. Moreover many directors like to use a comparison shot where two similar or identical shots are presented in different points of views, at the same time. This direct comparison makes it funny or a comedy. To do this it takes a lot of planning but one director that does it well is Edgar Wright. Similarly another technique used is called the camera bump where the camera interacts with the subject for a joke. The camera is moved or shifted because something in that scene occurred that made it do that.
• One of the main ways and most popular strategy for marketing comedy films is in the trailers and posters they always make sure to put the funniest parts of the film or series. Like this they get the attention of the audience as they are already laughing without even watching the film, making them believe that if they go watch the film they will laugh even more.
• "White Chicks" is an American comedy film even though it was released in 2004 it is still very popular 14 years later. In this comedy is a good example how comedies exaggerate things. In the film two FBI agents have to go undercover and act like they are 2 regular white girls as bait for a kidnapper. When they have to act like these white girls they completely exaggerate society’s view on what a white girl is. There is a certain way that society believes that they act but they take this and completely exaggerate by emphasizing it. They speak in exaggerated tone, and they stuff their bra and butt are just a few examples of things they did this. Then the comedy aspect comes in when the men aren't able to do many things the majority of women can do and need to play it off in public. Throughout the film it also uses several of the production techniques mentioned previously.
• Another popular comedy is "Scary Movie 2". This movie could call into many sub genres of comedy has it is a horror comedy and also a parody. The movie is a parody of several films such as “The Haunting”, “The Exorcist”, “Amityville Horror”, “Poltergeist”, “The Challenge”, “Hollow Man”, and “The Legend of Hell House”. This film also call into the genre of comedy due to all the exaggerations found throughout the movie. The movie makes fun of the content of the other films by using similar content but making it look silly. But most importantly this film makes the audience laugh throughout the entire film while at the same time not losing completely the scary aspect of it.
• A few extra examples of comedy films are: Force Majeure (2014), Bad Santa(2003), We Hot American summer (2001), Anchorman: the legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), High fidelity (2000), Bridesmaids (2011), Step brothers (2008), Mean Girls (2004)

Introducing Myself

Good afternoon, my name is Isabella Restrepo and I’m a senior at Cypress Bay high school. In one the classes I’m taking at the moment, AICE Media studies where we study all different types of media, how they are used and their effects. We have been assigned to do a blog post about our favorite genre. So my following post will be about comedy as it is my favorite film genre. I will be explaining what comedy consists of, how it’s made, how it’s marketed, analysis of certain films and give a few extra examples of other comedies. This post will be posted soon, thank you for your time.