Comedy

Comedy is a genre that nearly everyone enjoys, however most people have a unique sense of humour, and so they generally lean towards a particular sub genre of comedy and this is where comedy shines as a genre. Because there is so many different types of comedy, e.g. slapstick, spoof and satire to name a few, there is a huge range of comedy films, ranging from spoof films such as 'Epic movie' which caters to a very childish adult humour, with lots of slapstick and sexual innuendos, to more real to life comedies making fun of awkward real life situations such as 'The 40 year old virgin'.

Generic conventions of comedy:

• Comedy generally uses a naturalistic approach to camerawork
• Often set in places for social gatherings such as bars, cafes, restaurants etc.
• Diegetic sound is important within comedy as many of the jokes within comedy films are spoken and presented during conversations
• Characters are often very stereotypical as this affirms people's pre-established ideas of people they may not encounter in real life or situations they will never find themselves in, such as 'Pineapple Express's 'Saul' who fits a very stereotypical image of a weed dealer
• Props are also commonly used within the genre of comedy, especially within the slapstick subgenre

Comedy is a difficult genre for short or feature length films as an actor with enough charisma to deliver scripted jokes and make it seem natural and funny is hard to find and requires a lot of takes to finally get right, given the limited options I have when it comes to people acting in my coursework it seems unlikely that I would choose this genre.
However comedy would be easier in the sense that constructing the settings would not really be an  issue as there is many places that are viable for shooting in the local area, such as one of the many pubs in town.
I watched a few short comedy films to help my understanding of the genre and found that most of them failed to really make me laugh, a few smiles here and there but nothing really to tell my friends about. I think this is a good representation of how difficult the genre is to get right within a short film, the two that made me smile the most, were 'elevator' and 'no offence', these films however were only really of note for their topical humour, with one making jokes about obesity and swine flu and the other about the commonly used idiom 'No offence' and how people seem to think it excuses them for being rude.
In 'Elevator' the character that the camera follows throughout the film spends most of his time inside the elevator and the camera has to work with tight camera angles, despite the size differences of all the people and the tight camera angles, the camera work is very good, with the majority of the shots looking in on the elevator from where the doors would be.
The film has no actual dialogue but instead uses close ups of things in the mise-en scene to create and tell jokes, such as the close up of the maximum weight the elevator can hold, implying that the elevator is going to fall and that the character is in danger, while no else seems to be taking notice.
This is effective and a good technique because this way actors do not have to worry about being experienced and having a charismatic personality while delivering the jokes scripted which can really make or break a comedy film.