Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Edgar Wright - How to do visual Comedy


Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.

5 comments:

  1. Best post in a while in my opinion. This perfectly articulates why I stopped watching Anchorman 2 halfway through, it began to bore me and I couldn't put a finger on why.

    I also love that they cover sound, lighting, framing, motion, etc... Great find.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good stuff. It's too bad that Edgar Wright has walked off Marvel's Ant Man; it' would have been cool to see what he could have done for another, kind of tired, genre.

    I definitely see where he's coming from in regards to getting the most out of every scene (must be where he got the name "every frame a picture"). The examples from Wright's films were great too.

    In the spirit of starting a dialogue, I did feel like we're comparing apples to oranges. Can anyone think of any other American comedies that might actually hold a candle to the Cornetto trilogy?

    For example, does any feel like the following scene from the Big Lebowski (link below) could have benefited from anything that Tony mentions in his list of 8 things?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNqLoFHJxM0

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree that it was a bit of an 'apples to oranges' comparison for some of those films, or more specifically the scenes, because you could probably take other scenes from Old School, for example, and see some of the techniques from his list featured.

    I think what the author was trying to illustrate is that, in his opinion, some filmmakers get lazy and default to the 'tried and true' 'done it a million times' types of shots rather than thinking creatively and maximizing on cinematic techniques to create visual comedy.

    All that being said, I think if everyone shot everything like the Cornetto trilogy it would loose it's 'magic' and become the standard. I would also argue that there were a few of his 8 things in the Lebowski clip you referenced just not as dramatic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would agree as well, I think its a tendency to "capture" scenes rather than capitalizing on the opportunity of potential. Our American films do feel ad-libbed as of late and the tendency is to play it safe due to the unpredictability of the talent.

    I have always loved the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His use of frame also reminds me of wrights in a playful and imaginative fashion.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuntz3KDIAk


    I got the same feeling when watching the grand budapest hotel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Again, I think it's apples and oranges. On the topic of American films that may actually bare comparison, I agree that Wes Anderson is an innovative filmmaker that manages to employ a greater variety of techniques in order to make us laugh...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IV6CGOS_yo

    Another fun example that comes to mind is the "beloved" Ben Stiller film, The Cable Guy. While maintaining a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, this film immediately came to mind when thinking about Tony's list of 8 things.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZjdYG61Wpc

    ReplyDelete