Informing Ideas

PROPOSAL FORM

Research & Influence

GENRE RESEARCH

Although my intentions when I began planning was to make a tragicomedy, the genre of my film will depend entirely on how I tackle a certain scene as the difference between a black comedy and a tragicomedy are very slight. Because of this, I have decided to complete research on both genres regardless of their similarities.

- A tragicomedy is both sad and comical, but almost never at the same time. It shifts back and forth between the two.

- A dark comedy is where you are made to laugh at what is usually serious and shocking. The tragedy IS the comedy.

WHAT IS A DARK COMEDY

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-black-comedy-definition/

Black comedy is a comedic style that makes fun out of ordinarily taboo subjects. It is also referred to as dark comedy or dark humour. No matter what you call it, the goal is to amuse by presenting something shocking and unexpected. While it is typically used for mere shock value, it can also be used to provoke serious thought and discussion about subjects people may not want to talk about otherwise. Some pieces of art use gallows humour as a way to shine a light on an important topic while others are merely trying to get you to laugh at an absurd situation.

What are the common topics for black comedy?

Murder, violence, death
Political corruption
Human sexuality
Poverty, disease, famine
Racial or sexual stereotypes
War and terrorism

The Coen Brothers

Some of my favourite dark comedies come from the Coen Brothers who, even in their more serious work, always manage to implement elements of comedy. Films such as Fargo (1996), and The Big Lebowski (1998), are great examples of their darkly comedic style where humour is used in some of the darkest situations with sometimes very innocent characters to create a hilariously comic but dark tone.

Even throughout their more serious films like No Country for Old Men (2007), and Blood Simple (1984), they are able to discreetly include moments of comedy that serve to heighten the dramatic impact when the tone shifts. This is something I will attempt to use in my short film.

Stanley Kubrick

My favourite sense of humour in cinema is Stanley Kubrick's whose understated, bleak, and extremely dark sense of humour is so precise it is often mislabeled as misanthropy. This is very understandable as in films such as Lolita (1962), Dr Strangelove (1964), and A Clockwork Orange (1971), he is somehow able to make topics like paedophilia, rape, extreme violence, and nuclear annihilation funny.

The thing I like most about Kubrick's humour is that it is often cosmic and karmic. Cosmic irony obviously serves as the main premise of my short film and the way Kubrick uses it was very influential to me when I was thinking of the story and it will serve as a reference point when it comes to making my film.

TRAGICOMEDY GENRE RESEARCH

Tragicomedy is a genre that blends elements of both comedy and tragedy. A tragicomedy can either be a serious story with a happy ending, which is not the case with a straightforward tragedy, or a tragic story interspersed with moments of humour in order to lighten the mood.

I decided that I was going to try and make a tragicomedy, or a dark comedy, after watching the films of Martin McDonagh such as: In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Six Shooter. The reason these films intrigued me so much was that they were not simply dark comedies but instead 'tragicomedies.' The difference being that where dark comedies make tragic things comedic, his films make use of shifts in tone that allow him to jump back and forth between moments of tragedy and comedy that subsequently heighten the emotional impact of each transition.

Another feature of his films that intrigued me very much was how he never undercuts the tragic moments with comedy the way a number of comedy films do and he never uses the humour to detract from the solemnity of the scene, instead always leaving the moment on a sombre note which once again heightens the dramatic impact. It was these features that ultimately made me want to try and make a short film in this genre as I saw them as elements I wanted to try and recreate.

Examples of tragicomedies:

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

- O Brother, Where Art Thou?

- Juno

- Big Fish

- The King's Speech

- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

- Parasite

- The Royal Tenenbaums

Martin McDonagh

LITERARY INFLUENCE

The Pillowman Hangmen A Very Very Very Dark Matter

After watching McDonagh's films, I delved into the rest of his work as he began in theatre and has written a number of tragicomic plays. I enjoyed reading his play scripts because they are fairly close to the screenplay format and they focus more on character and dialogue which helped me learn a lot about both of them. I also found it very interesting identifying the moments when he shifts tone as, even though the script is only intended for the stage, these moments were just as powerful on paper.

Harold Pinter

Another playwright who intrigued me was Harold Pinter and I began reading his plays as a way of improving my understanding of the genre and to see how much McDonagh was influenced by his work. I read many of his plays, my favourites being 'The Birthday Party' and 'The Dumb Waiter.' What I liked most about Pinter's plays was that they often featured extremely bizarre and absurd events which were never explained and were extremely ambiguous which allowed me to make my own interpretations.

'The Dumb Waiter' intrigued me very much as it is only a one-act play that takes place in a basement with two characters, yet it still possesses a great many layers. This was something that I wanted to achieve when I first began thinking of a story. I wanted to make a very short, very simple story that could be looked at from a number of different angles depending on interpretation.

THEMATIC INFLUENCE

Once I had decided upon the story of my short film, I began looking in many directions for influence on the topic of religion and faith. I looked at various forms of media that were related to the topic and theme and so some of the inspiration for my story came from rather strange places.

For example, I looked at this poem by George Herbert where a man describes his desire to escape from his religious life and instead lead one of freedom. Although this is different to the character in my film, by the end of the poem, the man is brought back to his religious reality when he hears the voice of God, similar to how my character has his faith renewed by the miraculous event that takes place.

The Collar

When I told my friend Jacob the synopsis of my short film, he mentioned that it worked almost like a parable and compared it to The Parable of the Flood. This intrigued me and I decided then to have a look at various parables including the one he mentioned as they follow a similar pattern and they were very short as well as very funny.

The Parable of the Flood

“A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately. A faithful Christian man heard the warning and decided to stay, saying to himself, ‘I will trust God and if I am in danger, then God will send a divine miracle to save me.’

“The neighbours came by his house and said to him, ‘We’re leaving and there is room for you in our car, please come with us!’ But the man declined. ‘I have faith that God will save me.’

“As the man stood on his porch watching the water rise up the steps, a man in a canoe paddled by and called to him, ‘Hurry and come into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!’ But the man again said, ‘No thanks, God will save me.’

“The floodwaters rose higher pouring water into his living room and the man had to retreat to the second floor. A police motorboat came by and saw him at the window. ‘We will come up and rescue you!’ they shouted. But the man refused, waving them off saying, ‘Use your time to save someone else! I have faith that God will save me!’

“The floodwaters rose higher and higher and the man had to climb up to his rooftop. A helicopter spotted him and dropped a rope ladder. A rescue officer came down the ladder and pleaded with the man, ‘Grab my hand and I will pull you up!’ But the man STILL refused, folding his arms tightly to his body. ‘No thank you! God will save me!’

“Shortly after, the house broke up and the floodwaters swept the man away and he drowned.

“When in Heaven, the man stood before God and asked, ‘I put all of my faith in You. Why didn’t You come and save me?’ And God said, ‘Son, I sent you a warning. I sent you a car. I sent you a canoe. I sent you a motorboat. I sent you a helicopter. What more were you looking for?’”

SHORT FILM RESEARCH

Before I began planning for my short film, I had a look at countless short films on YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime to help give me a better understanding of the format. I also had a look at all of the student films that have been posted to YouTube as I found them very interesting and I also gained a better understanding of all the cliches that appear within them.

Of all the short films I watched, there was one that had a great amount of influence on how I decided to approach the planning of my film, which was Necktie by Yorgos Lanthimos. The complete absurdity and simplicity of the short film made me want to create something similar.

I also watched a number of older short films as I wanted to learn more about the history of the format whilst also learning how and why the format has changed as much as it has. For example, to learn more about the history of short films, I watched Bunuel's infamous first film 'Un Chien Andalou.' I also watched a Swedish short film that I found on Netflix called 'To Kill a Child' which was very interesting and further helped my understanding of short films.

Un Chien Andalou (1929) Att döda ett barn (1953)

Topic of Suicide

ACCURACY RESEARCH

As my short film included somebody attempting to kill themselves by hanging, I decided that, in order to avoid being inaccurate, I would do some research. Although I felt rather uncomfortable when searching certain things, there were certain statistics that I wanted to know so that I could be accurate when depicting the event take place. For example, in order to know how long it could be shown, I looked at how long it took somebody to die if they failed to sustain a hangman's fracture and how long it would take to sustain serious brain injuries. I also wanted to make sure that the distance from the ground was correct and so I researched how low the rope had to be to fail to kill the person instantly.

Another rather morbid thing I needed to learn was how to tie a noose correctly. Although this was something I was very happy not knowing, it was something that I had to learn in order to make the film accurate. And despite the numerous alerts from the samaritans, I eventually learned how to tie it correctly.

PORTRAYAL OF SUICIDE

Because of the obvious issue of portraying such a sensitive subject as suicide, I spent a great deal of time planning how I would portray it. I also had to take into account how I could do it practically and ensure that the process didn't take too much time as I wanted to focus more time on the ending sequence.

In the hopes of gaining influence, I began analysing scenes in films where suicide is portrayed. I looked for films in various genres but mainly I aimed for films with some form of comedy as that was the approach I was planning to take.

This next section includes spoilers for the following films:

- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
- A Star is Born (2018)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
- The Lobster (2015)

The Royal Tenenbaums

This scene from The Royal Tenenbaums was one that I decided to analyse as it uses the perfect blend of comedy and tragedy. The use of music, the colours, the cutting, all work to create the melancholy tone and Luke Wilson's completely soulless eyes build up to what we are expecting. The comedy comes when Wilson finally says to himself "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow" which, by itself, obviously isn't comedic but considering the context of the film and Wilson's completely deadpan delivery, the line adds comedy to the darkest scene in the film.

A Star is Born

Another scene I looked at was from A Star is Born. Unlike the previous clip, there is no comedy used at all and it is instead a very dramatic scene. What I like about the way his suicide is portrayed in this clip is that it is built up slowly to the point where we know what's coming however, the actual moment isn't shown. The reason I like this so much is that it makes the scene even more painful because we all know what is behind that garage door and we are forced to create the image in our own minds. This technique is something that I will likely use in my short film.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

I also looked at a scene from Three Billboards where Chief Willougby takes his life in the horse stable. This scene is very effective because it is completely abrupt and unexpected. This is the perfect blend of comedy and tragedy because the scene that precedes it is fairly light-hearted and then the tone shifts suddenly when he decides to kill himself. This abruptness works because it is extremely shocking and this shock makes the scene even sadder. This abruptness was something that I will consider using in my film.

The Lobster

The last scene I looked at was one from one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen, The Lobster. This scene is very darkly humorous for a number of reasons. One of which is their complete nonchalance about how a woman has just attempted to take her own life and their deadpan discussion about it. Another reason is that during this deadpan discussion, the screams of the woman can still be heard in the background which for some reason even funnier but also even darker.

INFORMING IDEAS