1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,910 -- One, two, three four ! 2 00:00:05,540 --> 00:00:08,039 Hi my name is Tony and this is Every Frame a Painting. 3 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:10,638 So today I’m going to talk about a director whose work I love. 4 00:00:10,638 --> 00:00:14,189 but before that let me be upfront. I think comedy movies today, 5 00:00:14,189 --> 00:00:16,769 especially American ones, have totally lost their way. 6 00:00:16,769 --> 00:00:19,129 I don't hate the jokes or the actors or the dialogue 7 00:00:19,129 --> 00:00:21,320 or the stories though there's plenty of issues there. 8 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:23,600 My real qualm is that the filmmaking, 9 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,880 the use of picture and sound to deliver jokes, is just... 10 00:00:26,879 --> 00:00:30,210 --What? --This is booooring. 11 00:00:30,210 --> 00:00:32,210 --Delete. 12 00:00:32,210 --> 00:00:33,969 Look, everyone’s taste is different. 13 00:00:33,969 --> 00:00:36,256 What you find funny is what you funny. 14 00:00:36,256 --> 00:00:39,399 So I’m not saying these movies suck or you suck if you like them. 15 00:00:39,399 --> 00:00:42,329 What I am saying is that these movies aren’t movies. 16 00:00:42,329 --> 00:00:44,159 They’re lightly edited improv. 17 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,940 Everyone stands still and talks at each other in close-up. 18 00:00:46,940 --> 00:00:50,089 Almost none of these jokes come visually, they’re overwhelming sound 19 00:00:50,089 --> 00:00:53,480 and not even the full range of sound, just dialogue and this is really sad 20 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:56,168 because that’s just a fraction of what’s possible in cinema. 21 00:00:56,168 --> 00:00:58,258 Apart from animation and some commercials, 22 00:00:58,258 --> 00:01:00,939 visual comedy is actually moving backwards. 23 00:01:00,939 --> 00:01:04,130 And that's why if you love this kind of stuff, I cannot recommend 24 00:01:04,130 --> 00:01:05,130 Edgar Wright enough. 25 00:01:05,130 --> 00:01:08,390 --You're a doctor, deal with it. --Yeah, motherfucker. 26 00:01:08,390 --> 00:01:10,898 He's one of the only people working in the genre 27 00:01:10,898 --> 00:01:12,680 using the full range of what is possible. 28 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:16,409 And because of that, he can find humor in places that others don’t look. 29 00:01:16,409 --> 00:01:17,819 Here’s an example. 30 00:01:17,819 --> 00:01:20,159 Let's Say you need to move your character from one city to another 31 00:01:20,159 --> 00:01:21,176 to get the story going. 32 00:01:21,176 --> 00:01:22,049 How do you shoot it? 33 00:01:22,049 --> 00:01:25,100 And can you get a joke out of it? ...Well, no. 34 00:01:25,099 --> 00:01:28,629 Not if you send out a 2nd unit to do it, every shot pans from left to right, 35 00:01:28,629 --> 00:01:32,089 you include obvious landmarks and signs, you mix in generic helicopter footage 36 00:01:32,089 --> 00:01:35,299 and you put upbeat music under it so the audience doesn’t get bored. 37 00:01:38,299 --> 00:01:42,700 This is just lazy filmmaking and boring. We’ve seen it a million times. 38 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:46,210 What would happen if you were truly inventive with this type of scene? 39 00:01:59,140 --> 00:02:01,890 There we go! And this isn’t just a series of quick cuts. 40 00:02:01,890 --> 00:02:04,219 There’s a lot of good visual storytelling here. 41 00:02:04,219 --> 00:02:07,719 These 2 taxi shots tell you exactly where we came from and where we’re going. 42 00:02:07,719 --> 00:02:10,408 These 2 shots emphasize the move away from civilization. 43 00:02:10,408 --> 00:02:12,930 Our main character always faces forward or to the right 44 00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:15,500 so screen direction is respected. Turning the music down 45 00:02:15,500 --> 00:02:18,010 and the sound FX up is funny because each cut is jarring. 46 00:02:18,010 --> 00:02:21,250 And there’s even some nice performances from Simon Pegg and Ryan Gosling. 47 00:02:21,250 --> 00:02:24,873 Okay that was 1 example without context. You’re right. Totally unfair. 48 00:02:27,790 --> 00:02:31,939 Well, what if you had a movie where a horrible apocalyptic event happens, 49 00:02:31,939 --> 00:02:34,789 and you want to foreshadow it earlier, maybe by having the characters 50 00:02:34,789 --> 00:02:38,030 not notice something important on TV. How would you show it? 51 00:02:38,030 --> 00:02:40,639 Would you just throw it in the edit for 2 seconds and 2 frames 52 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,719 and no shot shows the relationship between the characters and the TV? 53 00:02:43,719 --> 00:02:46,250 --he's having a housewarming party, he just finished building his house. 54 00:02:46,250 --> 00:02:47,710 Or would you do this? 55 00:02:47,710 --> 00:02:50,609 --Although no one official is prepared to comment, religious groups are 56 00:02:50,609 --> 00:02:54,979 calling it judgment day. There's ... -- panic on the streets of London 57 00:02:55,590 --> 00:02:59,330 --as an increasing number of reports of --serious attacks on 58 00:02:59,330 --> 00:03:02,279 --people who are literally being --eaten alive 59 00:03:02,279 --> 00:03:03,483 Okay, still unfair. 60 00:03:03,483 --> 00:03:06,299 Well, what if you had movie where one character has stopped drinking 61 00:03:06,299 --> 00:03:09,499 but the others are disappointed in him and you want to get a joke out of it. 62 00:03:09,499 --> 00:03:10,629 How would you do it? 63 00:03:10,629 --> 00:03:13,210 Would they just stand around and talk about his drinking? 64 00:03:13,210 --> 00:03:16,790 --No I appreciate it but I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. 65 00:03:16,790 --> 00:03:20,079 --Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. But you guys have a great time. 66 00:03:20,079 --> 00:03:22,068 --Big day? Doing what? 67 00:03:22,572 --> 00:03:24,179 Or would you do this ? 68 00:03:24,179 --> 00:03:25,299 --What?! 69 00:03:33,774 --> 00:03:35,094 -- I don't believe this. 70 00:03:35,094 --> 00:03:38,129 This is what separates a mediocre director from a great one. 71 00:03:38,129 --> 00:03:42,718 The ability to take the most simple mundane scenes and find new ways to do them. 72 00:03:42,718 --> 00:03:46,219 Great directors understand that you can get a laugh just through staging. 73 00:03:46,219 --> 00:03:50,348 Here’s an example from David Bordwell: things popping up into frame are funny. 74 00:03:50,879 --> 00:03:55,769 --Slow ahead, I can go slow ahead. Come on down and chum some of this shit! 75 00:03:59,850 --> 00:04:02,790 And it’s not just things entering frame. Consider the opposite. 76 00:04:02,790 --> 00:04:06,119 --I said tell Ms. Laura "Goodbye" 77 00:04:07,999 --> 00:04:09,220 --Bye, Ms. Laura 78 00:04:10,580 --> 00:04:12,910 You can get a laugh from a zoom. 79 00:04:15,229 --> 00:04:18,250 --You wanna pop the trunk and roll the windows down, please? 80 00:04:22,370 --> 00:04:26,030 You can get a laugh from a crane up. --Shirley, I'm so sorry. 81 00:04:26,030 --> 00:04:29,839 --I'm going home, Britta. --I know, Shirley, I know. 82 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:33,260 --No I'm going home, can you help me up? --Oh 83 00:04:33,420 --> 00:04:35,510 You can get a laugh from a pan. 84 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:47,320 As Martin Scorsese put it : 85 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,849 cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s not in the frame. 86 00:04:50,849 --> 00:04:54,550 So think about the frame and this isn’t a matter of smart or stupid comedy. 87 00:04:54,550 --> 00:04:57,000 Really if it works, it works. 88 00:05:06,149 --> 00:05:09,189 So here are 8 things Edgar Wright does with picture and sound 89 00:05:09,189 --> 00:05:12,410 that I want to see other comedy filmmakers try out. 90 00:05:15,410 --> 00:05:17,960 #1 : Things entering the frame in funny ways 91 00:05:27,970 --> 00:05:31,110 #2 : People leaving the frame in funny ways 92 00:05:44,939 --> 00:05:47,489 #3 : There and back again 93 00:06:07,819 --> 00:06:10,819 #4 : Matching scene transitions 94 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,070 #5 : The perfectly-timed sound effect 95 00:06:38,399 --> 00:06:41,469 #6 : Action synchronized to the music 96 00:06:53,540 --> 00:06:56,380 #7 : Super-dramatic lighting cues 97 00:07:13,839 --> 00:07:15,159 And #8 ... 98 00:07:26,490 --> 00:07:28,120 And you know what, let's thrown in #9 : 99 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:29,550 - Let them have it. 100 00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:41,300 So if you’re a filmmaker, work on this. The frame is a playground. So play. 101 00:07:41,300 --> 00:07:44,439 And the next time you go to a theater and pay $15 to see a comedy, 102 00:07:44,439 --> 00:07:48,019 don’t be satisfied with shit that is less inventive than Vine.