Comedy and Humor - Genre Research

For the next short film I will be working on, I want to explore and dive deeper into the the genre of comedy and humor. The films I will basing my work on are the home alone series, mostly due to the fact that they have similar themes and connections to my concept.


Theme and narrative structure are important to a comedy. You have to entice the audience and keep them interested. You also need to supply humor and make the audience laugh as well. Getting in the zone in between is the ideal goal for a director of this genre. Supplying and interesting, funny, and original plot isnt always easy. Character design, dialogue, and acting also play key roles. One main goal of a comedy director is to create a character that has that specific "likeability" to them. You want the audience to click and enjoy the protagonist, otherwise the movie can go downhill easily.

Setting plays another role in comedy. You can use setting and background to your advantage as a comedy director or screenwriter. This is where one can make use of props or other background action to their advantage. Cinematography and sound design work together to make a comedy successful but they are not always vital to success. This being said it is still crucial to have a fitting score and professionally styled camera work.

Log-line of the film I will be curating:

A man must convince a burglar that he is also robbing his own house to avoid conflict and confrontation.

Psycho - Film Language and Representation

The scene in psycho I will be focusing on for this analysis is the time between the sister and boyfriend of Marion Crane's visit to the bates motel (the second time) leading up to the moments right before the discovery of Mrs. Bates.

a video of this segment could not be found.


During the segment we cover the characters of Norman along with the sister and boyfriend of Marion. We see many interesting changes throughout the segment. The biggest character change we see is that of Norman. We truly see the different sides of Norman as the scene progresses. In the beginning of the segment, Norman is calm and relaxed, but as we continue on we begin to see and feel the uneasiness inside of him. He eventually loses it and in a rush hits the boyfriend in the head with what appears to be a vase. An interesting observation i made was that Norman doesnt kill the boyfriend. This shows that he is still himself and is not fully controlled by the murderous intent of his mother. It sends the message that there are still traces of good and innocence in Norman.

Throughout the segment we see variation in camera work. A lot of the shots are head on  but others are differentiated to make a specific point. For example, when Norman and the boyfriend talk the shot is held on both of them. It is held quite long during the dialogue and takes a realist perspective. This adds a feeling of discomfort and helps the audience feel the same as Norman, or at least to an extent. The shots in the house are held longer as well which allows the viewer to fully take in the surroundings of the setting. A wide angle lens is used for most of the scenes in order to give a full feeling and allow audience to explore the background. All of the scenes are cleanly cut and play in sequential order. We see two different stories of the same picture intertwined and observe how they merge together. This gives the scene a dramatic and urgent sense.

Lighting is used to convey the emotions and atmosphere of the setting. For example, The bates house is dimly lit and very dark, almost as if to give the feeling and emotion death itself. The lack of accents in the lighting gives it an overall dead feel. We see Normans room brightly light however. This contrasts from the house and communicates mood through lighting and a change in brightness. Color is not used in this film so shades and shadows are very key and important,

The score of the scene is urgent and spooky. The tone of the piece adds to the dark ambiance of the scene itself. It compliments the picture and adds a fitting mood to the landscape and events at play. We see a lot of differentiation and samples form the main theme and the change in tone and pitch bring depth to the setting and scene itself. The music helps convey the mood of the segment and the film as a whole.


Set design is what sells the scene. This whole segment has a strong focus on what is visible to the audience yet not conveyed verbally. For example, we see all the decor of Mrs. Bates room. It is all very regal and old conveying a feeling of darkness and age. Additionally, and probably the most important, is that of Norman's room. We see in the set Norman as a character, depersonified and represented through a room. It's innocent and pure. You can see stuffed animals and blakents and in the record player, Beethoven's "Eroica" or "Hero" in Italian. All this background sybolism helps further explain Norman and his character as a whole. To tie symbolism into this, the house can represent Norman. His room represents him deep down and who he really is, but the rest of the house represents Mrs. Bates and her control over Norman and his conscious mind.

One other scene that takes advantage of the technical elements of production and design is the scene in which Marion is spooked by her reflection, cleverly placed in the background. This added a thrillistic nature to the investigation of the house and can symbolize the idea that one can be their own monster or villain. This scene could be viewed as a subtle way to blame ones own actions on themselves.


Throughout the segment we are thrown and presented with emotions of urgency, fear, and suspense. The director accomplished this by manipulating the aspects discussed previously in the post and by distorting physical reality, in turn creating a blank canvas for a fake one.

Oral Analysis - Psycho

Grade: 11
-Not enough information conveyed
-Too much background information at the beginning
-Pauses and stutters
-Goes too in depth on character analysis
-Limited film language but still demonstrates an understanding of the segment
-Covers a variety of different topics
-Brief and rather short (unaware of time limit/maximum)

Psycho: Narrative and the Film Extract

Psycho has a unique narrative structure that can be broken down into three main acts. Those three acts can be further broken down but there are so many individual ways of doing so that we wont go over that part. However like I said earlier. Psycho can be broken down into three main parts
1. Introduction of Marion - Death of Marion


2. Realization of Marion's disappearance - Death of Arbogast



3. Sister and boyfriend's visit - End of film (Norman's arrest)


This film follows a unique structure however due to the way these acts play out. Psycho does something new by introducing Marion. Typically when a movie starts by introducing a character, we tend to assume that that character is the protagonist, and we are usually right. But psycho changes up the whole game by introducing Marion to us, only then to kill her off. The structure of this whole movie seems sort of jumbled up and all over the place, yet its done in a way that fits together perfectly. The amount of time put into plotting out the narrative structure is evident and it turned out successfully in Hitchcock's case. In the film we are not following one character but watching a series of events play out. This form is not widely used which adds to the uniqueness of the film. One challenge of this style is allowing the audience to emotionally connect to a character yet in Psycho we are able to connect with both Marion and Norman easily. This truly is a gem to the style. The film doesn't portray a character's story, through a singular lens, but rather a whole story with characters held separate from the plot. The characters compliment the plot structure by expressing their emotions through their actions, expressions and words. They do it enough to give out uniquness and shape but not enough to form complete bias, which is key to a successful plot.    

Socio-Cultural Influences in Psycho

Psycho says quite a lot about the culture it was a part of. During the 1950's, the film industry faces a lot of outside influence. America was under a "Red Scare" and the fear of Communismand a Communist takeover was a very real fear. America feel into a state of paranoia and those once able the be trusted were under questioning. People were accusing their very own neighbors of invisible crimes and tension was in the air. This both conciously and subconciously fell onto the film industry. Films began basing themes on conquering communist beliefs and ideals. Some focused on the cultural shift itself. Psycho falls into this very category. Throughout the film we are faced with the character of Norman Bates. Who is a seemingly innocent. He seems like a normal guy. He may have a view mommy issues but other than that he seems overall stable. As we venture through the movie however, we find out that that is not the case.


Norman gives a front and appears to be a kind helpful person, but deep down he is a pychotic killer. This shadows the very theme of the paranoia spread throughout the states at the time. It is a story with a bigger picture. It conveys the theme that although someone or something seems safe and alright, there may always be another side to them or it that is generally unseen. To keep it simple, "Dont trust anyone". Thats one of the big pictures Psycho conveys that is directly relatable to the time period

As a part in the evolution of a genre, Psycho portrays a primitive style of work. It is the first of its kind and acts as a framework for future films in the thriller/ horror genre. Many aspects of the film helped influence future films in the genre. The plot twist at the end was new for its era and was noted by many other directors. Its evident in future works and films.  

 





Although shadowing american culture and political issues, Psycho is able to work as an international film with messages that transfer to any culture or country. IT represents aspects of American society but can be brought back to larger, vaguer issues that are internationally felt. Its audience can be virtually anybody. Its a film that can be enjoyed by all walks of life. Its has no time set purpose and can be a timeless film. All this together greatly attributes to the overall sucess of the picture as a whole.

Historic and Institutinal Influences - Psycho and Hitchcock

PSYCHO'S HISTORICAL INFLUENCE


During the mid 1900's, sound was becoming a huge success in the film industry. Many studios were doing as much as they could to bring new experiences and innovations to the world of film. This was a golden era for new concepts and ideas. Although many producers were interested in what they could do with sound in general, a few produces were interested in how sound could morph a whole new genre. Directors like Hitchcock focused how dialogue can shift a movie. Now audiences can analyze movies not just from what the see but what they hear as well. Different Directors were using dialogue to tell more vivid stories. Movies such as Tenderloin, Glorious Betsy, and The Lion and The Mouse by Warner Bros began shifting to dialogue to tell stories. This inspired directors like Hitchcock to experiment with sound and use it to tell a story.

The Movie Psycho has a great historical influence in the world of film. It was the first of its kind and coined the "psychological thriller" genre. Hitchcock urged viewers to think and analyze the film as it was happening. One reviewer said, "Psycho has been attributed as being Hitchcock's ultimate achievement in the technique of viewer participation."
 

Psycho, itself has an immense amount of historical significance for a single film. It was the first of many. In fact, Psycho, "Has been hailed as everything from the first modern slasher film (although “Peeping Tom” came out the year before) to the first Hollywood movie to feature a shot of a toilet. Its then-unusual method of financing (Hitchcock paid for, and owned, the film himself, using the studio strictly for distribution) would become the standard business model for George Lucas decades later." Pschyo took the first steps for its genre and layed the framework out for many other films to follow. Psycho was fresh. It was new. It was never before seen. That's what made it such a commercial success. Psycho urged its contendors to push against new boundaries and, in a way, revolutuonized the industry. Psycho was influential to film history because it broke all the rules of the industry. One rewier makes the point that, "For audiences, though, “Psycho” marked an even larger turning point. For here was a Hollywood movie which, quite flagrantly, refused to follow any of the Hollywood rules." At the time, Hollywood rules appeared to be set in stone., but by who? Since there was no "Movie Police", these so called rules could be broken without consequence. And as the saying goes: "Rules were meant to be broken".

Psycho can be seen almost as a laugh toward the Studio scene. Since studios refused to finance a movie that included such violence and vugarity, Hitchcock took the product under his wing and made it on his own. Between the studios and Hitchcock, we can see that Hitchcock ended up with the last laugh. Pyscho proved that a commercial success could be accomplished without the use of professional studios. This sprouted ideas into the mind of other solo directors looking to venture away from the mainstream cinema of the time.