De-constructing Comedy
Today when I tried to access my admin controls for the blog, I forgot the login information. Perhaps that’s a sign it’s been too long? Nevertheless, I thought I’d discuss learning and writing comedy.
After reading articles/books, watching lots of films, and working on my own scripts, I would think it would be easy to understand that ‘main stream’ jokes don’t work for me. As amusing as a typical Two and a Half men episode may be, I know at least half the punch lines before they even say them. I think half the jokes of a sitcom are going to contain the ’structure’ of the same joke you’ve heard a million times before. That’s why whether or not your joke succeeds, you also need to write for characters that the audience cares about, so they care to see what happens to them during the story.
Over the last year or two, whenever I hear a joke/situation that catches me off guard, I’ll write it down, and deconstruct it. What was funny about it? Was it the content of the joke or just how it was said? Having the right delivery is a huge component of selling the joke or letting it fail. By keeping track of these, I’ll eventually internalize the structure and apply them to jokes I write without even thinking about it.
Getting back to the topic of jokes that don’t work for me, it’s not that they aren’t funny, it’s just amusing. I know the jokes there, but it doesn’t surprise me. When Conan O’Brien was on ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ he talked about this. He’d be in the writer’s room, and a fellow writer would be pitching his joke or skit, and with a dead pan face, Conan would tell him that’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard.
But Conan also touched on another thing, improv. He feels that even the most brilliant thing written and planned out ahead of time won’t get as many laughs as something that’s in the moment.
I had never thought of it that way but I can see his point. As you watch something unexpectedly unfold, it catches you off guard. It’s like when you’re hanging out with your buddies, and somebody cracks a joke and everybody gets a huge laugh. If you go home and write that situation out on paper, it’s probably not that funny, which confuses people because they figure if they’re funny in person, they can write funny too.
Last week I went and saw I Love You, Man for a second time. Since I had only seen it a month prior, I knew all the punches, turns, etc, so as I watched it I looked at different things. How they set up shots, the structure of the film, and the character arcs.
As I’ve commented before, trying to get a script through a major studio is real difficult. Unless you package it/produce it yourself, its even tougher. One way to help this process is to write a book first, which I’ve increasingly thought of doing. I’ve got one script that I’m still figuring out, but since I’m doing all the heavy lifting of mapping out the relationships and story line, I might as well adapt it to book form after I write the script. After all, in screenplay format it’ll be around 100 pages, which if you’ve read any scripts you’ll know its a very bare bones format. Less is more. Naturally I like to use as many words to get my point across, so writing the book could be nice since I can use more description, and if I so chose, go inside the characters heads.
A couple days ago I went and saw Tom Cruise’s latest Valkyrie and noticed a nice editing technique they used for the film. I had read about it in screenwriting books, but never really paid attention to it in any movies. During the movie Tom gets on a plane to go act out their plans on killing Hitler, but while you hear the planes engines running, you get a flashback to Tom saying goodbye to his family. During the whole flashback you just hear the planes engines, but its a nice way to show us a touching moment without slowing down the plot.
While I was watching that episode of Greek (see previous post), I saw ‘rhyming scenes’ in it. Rhyming scenes are one of those things that you don’t pay attention to until they’re pointed out, or given a name. I first came across this term in Akers’ “your screenplay sucks” book. His definition: “a rhyming scene is a moment that repeats. Via the repetition, and a chance, we learn something about the characters.”
Flashbacks are often attributed as the mark of a beginner in many scripts, but if they’re done correctly, they can be a real asset. Case in point; I’ve been catching up on the show “Greek” and watched the episode “Freshman Daze.” In the present day, the characters are juniors, but the flashbacks explain their history freshman year, and the effect it has on present day. Just telling us all the back story wouldn’t have near the impact seeing it would. After all, they always say you should “show, not tell.” By the end of the episode we now see how the characters have changed since two years ago, and how they make the right decisions in the present.
While I await feedback on my last spec script, its time to choose which movie idea I should run with next. Although comedy is known for being a tough subject, after all what someone may find funny I might find quite unpleasant, I think there’s nothing more satisfying than coming up with a really great punchline. Sure with a drama you may think the audience will tear up when one of your characters reveals they don’t love the other one, but if I come up with some witty joke, which actually makes me chuckle, then I’ve succeeded. There’s that quote that goes something like, “Write something that’ll change your life; even if you don’t sell it, at least your life will have changed.” Well I keep trying to change my life, one script at a time…
When you first get through writing your first draft, you just get the story out on paper, without worrying necessarily about every adjective used or boring descriptions. When it’s time to begin re-writing, you focus on all those little rules that make a good script great. One rule that many professional screenwriters talk about in their books is having a great opening 5-10-15 pages. If you don’t hook your reader quickly, you may lose them and off to the garbage your script goes. William Akers in “your screenplay sucks” discusses how important it is to set the tone of your script on the first page. As I was reviewing my own first page, I started to brainstorm how to hook the reader better, and began to reference other successful comedies I’ve seen. Here’s a list I started to compile for myself:
3. Do an activity. Sometimes I suddenly get inspiration while taking a nice hot shower. For other people it might be going for a bike ride or a walk.