How To: Visual Comedy

With my music video, I'm keen to have a comedy approach, but I need to do this visually as this is a music video, therefore I think researching directors like Edgar Wright, Buster Keaton, and Jacques Tati may really help. 

To  research into visual comedy I've turned to Youtube. Buster Keaton, 1895-1966, was an actor, director, comedian and stuntman. In the embedded video essay below by filmmaker and freelance editor Tony Zhou, from 1:00-4:43, we are given an introduction into Keaton's work and style which can be seen in many directors from then and now. 

'The first thing you need to know about visual comedy is that you have to tell your story through action.' - Back during the silent film era, Keaton avoided using title cards to help explain narrative, but instead relied on the visual codes. This is very relevant to me as I can't use dialogue which would be the modern alternative, but I do have the lyrics which help to guide some form of narrative or interpretation of the visuals.

At 2:10 of the video, the camera angles are looked in to and the rules of the world within the camera. Humour can be found within the reveal through camera angles, and it can be found through a 2D flat world within the camera frame (examples from 3:30-4:23).

I don't think the rest of the video is particularly useful for what I'm aiming to make, as I'm not trying to make a magic-show based video, or an explicitly humorous video. But by looking at the beginning of capturing humour on video, Keaton has helped me understand the makings of.

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Edgar Wright, an English director, screenwriter, producer and actor, is very well known for his comedic 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End. In terms of Wright's style, his use of creating comedy through visual codes is very intriguing. Many directors rely on the dialogue to produce laughter, but it's a skill to be able to incorporate comedic visuals too.

This video essay also created by Tony Zhou is very helpful to look into Wright's way of depicting a comedic approach in film. Tony Zhou explains how particularly American comedy films have 'lost their way'
'These movies aren't movies. They're lightly edited improv. Everyone stands still and talks at each-other in close-up. Almost none of these jokes come visually; they're overwhelming sound.' - Tony Zhou makes a really good point and introduction here in the video. From 1:17-2:25 Zhou juxtaposes a film with Wright's 'Hot Fuzz' to compare the use of cinematography between them. Wright has a clear talent with camera and directing - it's not just quick cuts.

'As Martin Scorsese put it: "cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's not in the frame." So think about the frame. And this isn't just a matter of smart or stupid comedy. Really if it works, it works.'

Tony Zhou's list of 8 things Wright does that other directors should do to construct visual comedy:

1. Things entering the frame in funny ways
2. People leaving the frame in funny ways
3. There and back again
4. Matching scene transitions
5. the perfectly-timed sound effects
6. Action synchronised to the music
7. Super dramatic lighting cues 
8. Fence gags 
9. * Imaginary gun fights

Finally, Andrew Saladino aka The Royal Ocean Film Society explores another classic comedian in film: Jacques Tati. Opening the video, Saladino reiterates Zhou's point of visual comedy being a lost art in modern film. 

Jacques Tati found comedy through:

Props. 'A good prop by itself can almost always get you a solid laugh'. I think this point also connects well with the scene from Hot Fuzz in the previous video in which Simon Pegg is travelling with only a plant. Saladino believes an everyday prop that acts as an obstacle is the most effective to use, examples from 0:40-1:56.