0:00:03.310,0:00:06.230 Hi my name is Tony[br]and this is Every Frame a Painting. 0:00:08.450,0:00:10.229 There are some filmmakers[br]who are so influential 0:00:10.460,0:00:13.540 that no matter where you look,[br]you see traces of them everywhere. 0:00:16.619,0:00:19.560 I see this filmmaker's framing[br]in the works of Wes Anderson. 0:00:23.460,0:00:25.760 His acrobatics and stunts[br]in Jackie Chan. 0:00:28.460,0:00:30.760 And his deadpan posture[br]in Bill Murray. 0:00:34.760,0:00:38.430 He, of course, is Buster Keaton,[br]one of the three great silent comedians 0:00:38.649,0:00:42.490 "He was, as we’re now[br]beginning to realize... 0:00:42.890,0:00:47.449 ...the greatest of all the clowns[br]in the history of the cinema." 0:00:47.900,0:00:49.300 And nearly a hundred years later 0:00:49.400,0:00:52.120 I think he still has plenty[br]to teach us about visual comedy. 0:00:52.990,0:00:56.320 So today, let’s take a look at[br]how the master builds a gag. 0:00:56.890,0:00:57.440 Ready? 0:01:00.230,0:01:00.739 Let's go. 0:01:07.900,0:01:10.700 The first thing you need to know[br]about visual comedy 0:01:10.200,0:01:12.370 is that you have to[br]tell your story through action. 0:01:12.570,0:01:15.350 Keaton was a visual storyteller[br]and he never liked it 0:01:15.350,0:01:18.460 when other directors told their story[br]through the title cards. 0:01:18.660,0:01:21.780 -"The average picture used[br]240 titles... 0:01:21.800,0:01:23.380 "...that was about the average." 0:01:23.700,0:01:27.310 -"240 was the average?"[br]-"Yes. And the most I ever used was 56" 0:01:28.100,0:01:31.190 He avoided title cards by focusing on[br]gesture and pantomime. 0:01:31.300,0:01:34.550 In this shot, you never find out[br]what these two are talking about. 0:01:34.850,0:01:38.419 Everything you need to know is conveyed[br]through the table & their body language 0:01:38.720,0:01:40.900 "But what you had to say... 0:01:40.190,0:01:43.490 "You had to communicate[br]to the audience in only one way..." 0:01:46.000,0:01:48.219 -"Through action"[br]-"Right. We eliminated subtitles..." 0:01:48.219,0:01:51.610 "...just as fast as we could[br]if we could possibly tell it in action" 0:01:52.100,0:01:54.420 Keaton believed that each gesture[br]you did should be unique. 0:01:55.000,0:01:56.300 Never do the same thing twice. 0:02:00.420,0:02:01.700 Every single fall... 0:02:02.820,0:02:04.100 is an opportunity… 0:02:05.660,0:02:06.800 for creativity. 0:02:08.199,0:02:10.590 But once you know the action[br]we come to the second problem: 0:02:11.000,0:02:12.550 Where do you put the camera? 0:02:18.290,0:02:21.549 Visual gags generally work best[br]from one particular angle. 0:02:22.500,0:02:23.350 And if you change the angle... 0:02:24.150,0:02:26.769 then you’re changing the gag[br]and it might not work as well. 0:02:27.769,0:02:29.750 Finding the right angle[br]is a matter of trial and error. 0:02:30.000,0:02:33.380 So let’s take a look at two possible[br]camera placements for the same joke. 0:02:33.500,0:02:35.000 Here’s the first one. 0:02:42.880,0:02:44.000 And here’s the second. 0:02:52.240,0:02:54.730 You’ll notice in first angle,[br]the car takes up most of the frame 0:02:54.830,0:02:57.240 and we don’t get a clear look at Buster[br]until he turns around. 0:02:58.740,0:03:01.480 But in the second angle,[br]the car’s placed in the background 0:03:01.480,0:03:03.560 and we always have[br]a clear view of his face. 0:03:04.180,0:03:07.600 This split second, where he doesn’t know[br]what’s happening but we do... 0:03:07.360,0:03:09.550 ...that’s much better from over here. 0:03:10.750,0:03:12.800 And in the first angle,[br]the framing splits our attention. 0:03:13.200,0:03:16.510 Our eyes want to look at his face[br]and the sign at the same time. 0:03:17.100,0:03:18.700 But after reframing the scene... 0:03:19.100,0:03:20.489 Our eyes naturally look at him... 0:03:21.290,0:03:22.500 then the sign 0:03:22.890,0:03:25.529 then back to him.[br]Much better. 0:03:28.690,0:03:30.130 Now we come to the third question... 0:03:31.490,0:03:33.730 What are the rules of[br]this particular world? 0:03:35.130,0:03:38.190 Buster’s world is flat[br]and governed by one law. 0:03:43.320,0:03:46.000 If the camera can’t see it,[br]then the characters can’t see it either. 0:03:47.000,0:03:49.500 In Buster’s world, the characters are[br]limited by the sides of the frame 0:03:49.600,0:03:52.000 and by what’s visible to us,[br]the audience. 0:03:53.990,0:03:56.200 And this allows him to do jokes[br]that make sense visually 0:03:58.230,0:03:59.230 but not logically. 0:04:00.200,0:04:02.620 A lot of his gags are about[br]human movement in the flat world. 0:04:03.620,0:04:04.600 He can go to the right... 0:04:05.520,0:04:06.500 to the left... 0:04:07.400,0:04:08.400 up... 0:04:09.200,0:04:10.200 down... 0:04:11.300,0:04:12.200 away from the lens... 0:04:13.640,0:04:14.500 or towards it. 0:04:15.400,0:04:16.000 Look familiar? 0:04:16.339,0:04:20.000 -"She’s been murdered.[br]And you think I did it." 0:04:21.360,0:04:22.100 -"Hey!" 0:04:24.360,0:04:27.210 Like Wes Anderson,[br]Buster Keaton found humor in geometry. 0:04:31.260,0:04:34.510 He often placed the camera further back[br]so you could see the shape of a joke. 0:04:34.810,0:04:35.960 There are circles... 0:04:37.000,0:04:38.000 triangles... 0:04:39.100,0:04:40.260 parallel lines... 0:04:40.710,0:04:43.560 and of course, the shape[br]of the frame itself: the rectangle. 0:04:45.760,0:04:49.159 I think staging like this is great[br]because it encourages the audience 0:04:49.160,0:04:52.700 to look around the frame[br]and see the humor for themselves. 0:04:53.000,0:04:54.500 In this shot, think about[br]where your eyes are looking. 0:04:59.120,0:05:00.320 Now where’s he? 0:05:02.520,0:05:04.229 Some of these gags[br]have their roots in vaudeville 0:05:04.520,0:05:06.639 and are designed[br]to play like magic tricks. 0:05:11.839,0:05:13.100 And like all great magic tricks 0:05:13.439,0:05:15.800 part of the fun is[br]trying to guess how it was done. 0:05:19.450,0:05:23.250 Keaton had a name for gags like these.[br]He called them “impossible gags.” 0:05:26.500,0:05:28.350 They're some of his[br]most inventive and surreal jokes. 0:05:30.650,0:05:32.669 But as a storyteller,[br]he found them tricky 0:05:32.669,0:05:34.200 because they broke[br]the rules of his world. 0:05:34.669,0:05:39.109 -"We had to stop doing impossible gags,[br]what we call cartoon gags." 0:05:40.210,0:05:42.599 -"We lost all of that when[br]we started making feature pictures." 0:05:43.210,0:05:47.400 -"They had to be believable[br]or your story wouldn’t hold up." 0:05:48.210,0:05:51.479 So instead, he focused on[br]what he called the natural gag. 0:05:52.280,0:05:55.650 The joke that emerges organically[br]from the character and the situation. 0:05:56.800,0:05:58.000 Consider what he does with this door. 0:06:04.170,0:06:05.600 Keaton claimed that for visual comedy... 0:06:05.700,0:06:08.300 you had to keep yourself[br]open to improvisation. 0:06:08.650,0:06:11.900 -"How much of it was planned and[br]how much came out in the actual doing?" 0:06:11.900,0:06:13.700 -"How much was improvised, you know?" 0:06:13.900,0:06:16.200 -"Well as a rule, about 50 percent…" 0:06:18.990,0:06:20.550 -"...you have in your mind[br]before you start the picture..." 0:06:20.650,0:06:23.549 -"...and the rest you develop[br]as you’re making it." 0:06:24.990,0:06:26.500 Sometimes he would[br]find a joke he liked so much 0:06:26.150,0:06:28.000 that he would do a callback to it later. 0:06:30.270,0:06:33.479 But other times, jokes that he’d planned[br]beforehand wouldn’t work on the day. 0:06:33.780,0:06:35.590 So he would just get rid of them... 0:06:36.900,0:06:38.270 -"...because they don’t stand up[br]and they don’t work well." 0:06:38.800,0:06:40.700 -"And then the accidental ones come." 0:06:42.240,0:06:43.400 He was supposed to make this jump. 0:06:43.600,0:06:44.800 But since he missed... 0:06:45.400,0:06:47.300 He decided to keep the mistake[br]and build on it. 0:06:49.240,0:06:52.300 -"So you seldom got a scene like that[br]good the second time." 0:06:52.300,0:06:54.520 -"You generally got em that first one." 0:06:54.520,0:06:55.870 -"Maybe that’s one of the reasons..." 0:06:55.900,0:06:58.500 -"...there was so much laughter[br]in the house the other night." 0:06:58.800,0:07:00.360 -"I mean, the younger people[br]and I had this feeling..." 0:07:00.660,0:07:02.850 -"...that what we were seeing[br]was happening now." 0:07:05.750,0:07:07.000 -"That it had happened only once..." 0:07:07.100,0:07:09.300 -"...It was not something that was[br]pre-done and done and done." 0:07:09.700,0:07:11.320 And that brings us to the last thing[br]about Buster Keaton 0:07:11.500,0:07:13.000 and his most famous rule. 0:07:16.510,0:07:17.700 Never fake a gag. 0:07:18.300,0:07:21.000 For Keaton, there was only[br]one way to convince the audience... 0:07:21.220,0:07:22.550 ...that what they were seeing was real. 0:07:23.220,0:07:24.350 He had to actually do it… 0:07:28.000,0:07:29.500 ...without cutting. 0:07:29.780,0:07:31.780 He was so strict about this[br]that he once said... 0:07:32.000,0:07:33.780 “Either we get this in one shot… 0:07:37.780,0:07:39.760 ...or we throw out the gag." 0:07:40.560,0:07:43.480 And it’s why he remains vital[br]nearly 100 years later. 0:07:43.980,0:07:46.290 Not just for his skill[br]but for his integrity. 0:07:46.980,0:07:48.290 That’s really him. 0:07:50.290,0:07:52.700 And no advancement in technology[br]can mimic this. 0:07:53.500,0:07:56.540 Even now, we’re amazed[br]when filmmakers actually do it for real. 0:07:57.500,0:08:00.400 But I think he did it better[br]95 years ago. 0:08:01.350,0:08:02.350 So no matter how many times... 0:08:02.550,0:08:04.200 you’ve seen someone else[br]pay homage to him… 0:08:13.689,0:08:18.379 Nothing beats the real thing.