1. COMEDY GENRE CONVENTIONS HARRY KRAUTSCHNEIDER

2. SETTING  Comedy’s can be set anywhere, it does not have a certain location. There are locations that should not be used because of respect, for example a plane style comedy film based around the area 9/11 happed. However, comedy’s can be done anywhere, from a park to a house to a grave yard, there have been many horror comedy's and they are able to produce laughing situations out of a dark scene.  A stereotypical comedy setting however would be somewhere where loads of things can go wrong and hurt someone, like a construction site, you can walk into cement and have things fall of peoples heads.  Some good examples where comedy could happen would be, as said before construction sites, imaginary worlds, parks, offices, roads, helicopters, haunted houses, just about anywhere as long as it’s respectful.

4. TECHNICAL CODES  Camera work is important is needs to make those for example who are meant to be big and important seem big and important, for example a low angle camera shot on a man dressed in a suit would show him to be and important meaning that when something happens to him like he falls down a hole or something the comical effect is greater because is shown to be someone of importance.  Sounds can be used to enhance the comical effect, depending on the type of movie some really dramatic sounds such as loud crash or a boing as someone shoots off into space can be used. This adds an extra comedy because the sounds are funny and also reinforces the main joke.  The editing in comedy films can have an effect on how people view the jokes, there has to bet the right amount of time per shot for the audience to understand what is going on, it can also be fast paced, for example someone running around like the ‘Benny Hill’ sketch for ages can be made comical by speeding it up, making it seem like it’s going on for a long time but not at the same time.

6. ICONOGRAPHY  Comedy films are usually bright and light, using high key lighting. This is because people are more likely to laugh when they know something scary is not going to happen, they are going into the comedy film expecting a bright funny story unless otherwise specified and it needs to be bright and upbeat looking.  Some props are common, these include banana peels, long shoes on clowns, cream pie and such.  The main purpose of a clown is to make people laugh, they are meant to make you feel happy, upbeat and have little fear or worry in you.

8. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE  Comedy films have many narratives, but normally follow the same structure, everything is all good and fine and then something goes wrong, this could be anything from job loss or a bad luck curse, however in the end it always works out, this is because when you watch a comedy film the last thing you want to feel as you go away from an hour of laughing is the be left with sympathy and feeling sorry because it did not work out for the main protagonists.  Some films can feature ‘Bad Guys’ and these are normally in a way that is not out to rule the world, for example in Bruce Almgihty you may see Evan Baxster as the bad guy because he has got the job Bruce deserves, he is then brought down in a no violent comical way, something to allow everyone to feel good and no one can be saddened by.

10. CHARACTER TYPES  Main Protagonists, usually the hero or the guy it’s not going quite well for.  The villain is normally a guy who has done nothing intestinally wrong, just feel like they’re better and tend to be arrogant and are asking to be brought down a peg.  Helpers, they help the main protagonists get back on his feat after anything has gone wrong.

11. THEMES  Job Loss  Bad Luck  Curses  Police  Accidents