WEBVTT
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-- One, two, three four !
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Hi my name is Tony and this is
Every Frame a Painting.
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So today I’m going to talk about
a director whose work I love.
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but before that let me be upfront.
I think comedy movies today,
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especially American ones,
have totally lost their way.
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I don't hate the jokes
or the actors or the dialogue
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or the stories though
there's plenty of issues there.
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My real qualm is that the filmmaking,
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the use of picture and sound
to deliver jokes, is just...
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--What?
--This is booooring.
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--Delete.
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Look, everyone’s taste is different.
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What you find funny is what you funny.
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So I’m not saying these movies suck
or you suck if you like them.
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What I am saying is that
these movies aren’t movies.
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They’re lightly edited improv.
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Everyone stands still and
talks at each other in close-up.
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Almost none of these jokes come visually,
they’re overwhelming sound
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and not even the full range of sound,
just dialogue and this is really sad
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because that’s just a fraction
of what’s possible in cinema.
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Apart from animation
and some commercials,
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visual comedy is actually
moving backwards.
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And that's why if you love this kind
of stuff, I cannot recommend
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Edgar Wright enough.
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--You're a doctor, deal with it.
--Yeah, motherfucker.
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He's one of the only people
working in the genre
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using the full range of what is possible.
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And because of that, he can find
humor in places that others don’t look.
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Here’s an example.
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Let's Say you need to move your character
from one city to another
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to get the story going.
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How do you shoot it?
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And can you get a joke out of it?
...Well, no.
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Not if you send out a 2nd unit to do it,
every shot pans from left to right,
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you include obvious landmarks and signs,
you mix in generic helicopter footage
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and you put upbeat music under it
so the audience doesn’t get bored.
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This is just lazy filmmaking and boring.
We’ve seen it a million times.
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What would happen if you were truly
inventive with this type of scene?
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There we go! And this isn’t
just a series of quick cuts.
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There’s a lot of good
visual storytelling here.
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These 2 taxi shots tell you exactly
where we came from and where we’re going.
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These 2 shots emphasize
the move away from civilization.
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Our main character always faces
forward or to the right
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so screen direction is respected.
Turning the music down
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and the sound FX up is funny
because each cut is jarring.
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And there’s even some nice performances
from Simon Pegg and Ryan Gosling.
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Okay that was 1 example without context.
You’re right. Totally unfair.
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Well, what if you had a movie where
a horrible apocalyptic event happens,
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and you want to foreshadow it earlier,
maybe by having the characters
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not notice something important on TV.
How would you show it?
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Would you just throw it in the edit
for 2 seconds and 2 frames
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and no shot shows the relationship
between the characters and the TV?
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--he's having a housewarming party,
he just finished building his house.
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Or would you do this?
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--Although no one official is prepared
to comment, religious groups are
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calling it judgment day. There's ...
-- panic on the streets of London
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--as an increasing number of reports of
--serious attacks on
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--people who are literally being
--eaten alive
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Okay, still unfair.
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Well, what if you had movie where
one character has stopped drinking
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but the others are disappointed in him
and you want to get a joke out of it.
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How would you do it?
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Would they just stand around
and talk about his drinking?
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--No I appreciate it but I told my wife
I wouldn't drink tonight.
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--Besides, I got a big day tomorrow.
But you guys have a great time.
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--Big day? Doing what?
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Or would you do this ?
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--What?!
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-- I don't believe this.
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This is what separates a mediocre
director from a great one.
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The ability to take the most simple mundane
scenes and find new ways to do them.
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Great directors understand that you
can get a laugh just through staging.
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Here’s an example from David Bordwell:
things popping up into frame are funny.
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--Slow ahead, I can go slow ahead.
Come on down and chum some of this shit!
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And it’s not just things entering frame.
Consider the opposite.
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--I said tell Ms. Laura "Goodbye"
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--Bye, Ms. Laura
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You can get a laugh from a zoom.
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--You wanna pop the trunk and roll
the windows down, please?
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You can get a laugh from a crane up.
--Shirley, I'm so sorry.
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--I'm going home, Britta.
--I know, Shirley, I know.
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--No I'm going home, can you help me up?
--Oh
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You can get a laugh from a pan.
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As Martin Scorsese put it :
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cinema is a matter of what’s in
the frame and what’s not in the frame.
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So think about the frame and this isn’t
a matter of smart or stupid comedy.
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Really if it works, it works.
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So here are 8 things Edgar Wright
does with picture and sound
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that I want to see other
comedy filmmakers try out.
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#1 : Things entering the frame
in funny ways
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#2 : People leaving the frame
in funny ways
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#3 : There and back again
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#4 : Matching scene transitions
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#5 : The perfectly-timed sound effect
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#6 : Action synchronized to the music
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#7 : Super-dramatic lighting cues
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And #8 ...
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And you know what, let's thrown in #9 :
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- Let them have it.
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So if you’re a filmmaker, work on this.
The frame is a playground. So play.
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And the next time you go to
a theater and pay $15 to see a comedy,
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don’t be satisfied with shit
that is less inventive than Vine.