3 Reasons to Do Comedy

I love directing all types of material but I want to give you the three main reasons you should start out with comedy.

Still from Woody Allen's "Husbands & Wives"

1. Comedy is forgiving
    When people want to watch comedy they want to laugh. Period. They are prepared for stupidity and are not there to watch and judge. This works immensely in your favor. The bar isn’t lowered but the audience is welcoming. They are more willing to look past your bad lighting, the same three actors in all minor parts, bad sound, and muddled visuals. As long as you deliver the one thing they are there for. The laugh. This isn’t an excuse for all those problems but at least when you are starting out they won’t hurt you.

Still from Frank Capra's "Arsenic & Old Lace"

2. Funny People are easy to spot
    You  can write a great dramatic short; but the truth is you might have a hard time casting it. For one the actor has to live up the image in your head. That’s a whole different problem for another day. But finding a great dramatic actor is harder to do when you are first starting out. Your eye for judging acting isn’t completely developed yet. But casting for a comedy is much easier. Do they make you laugh? Does the rest of the crew think they are funny? This makes your job much easier. Find a few funny actors. Find funny actors is not hard they usually stand out among the other bad comedians. Put them in front of the camera and you are half way there.

Still from Judd Apatow's "40 Year Old Virgin"

3. The Laughs
    As I have been telling you film directing is a tough journey filled at beginning with a few highs and lot of lows. No matter what you do things will go wrong. You won’t have enough money, not enough time to film, and plenty of scheduling headaches. The question is do you want to obsesses over all that or maybe when you get to set you just want to start laughing. A few laughs and you’ll forget all those problems. It’s amazing how much laughs will energize a set and get you through the grind of a film shoot. These are the benefits never talked about with comedy.

Now a lot of what I said I will contradict later. But that’s because I hold comedy to a higher standard. But when you are first starting out out comedy provides you with the simples standard. Make’em laugh.

Comedy Director-The List

So I probably should talk about comedy a little. One of my favorite things with comedy is the variety. Comedy like horror has a million little sub-genres. Part of the fun is figuring out the rules to each one of those sub genres and the little differences that come with them. Think you know them all I am going to list out a few for you. Slapstick, spoof, satire, gross-out, comedy of errors, sitcom, dark comedy, comedy of manners, black comedy, zany, teen, romance, neourotic, fish out of water, and irony.

    Now don’t get me wrong some of these genre overlap. But if you want to do great work in comedy you better study up. Learn the real differences between the genres. Comedy of errors is when evey one thinks the eletrician in the apartment is the doctor there to give a breast exam. Or the hooker is the therapist. Frasier was the master of comedy of errors. I mention this because I love Frasier but truly dislike comedy of errors. Not my cup of tea. And speaking of ta there is comedy of manners which is usually Rodney Dangerfield or some slacker at a fancy upper crust party. And to bring it around the genius of Frasier is it reversed the comedy of manners. Making it about the rich fancy guy not fitting in. Justin stop talking about Frasier.
    But see every type of comedy usually has certain archetypes and rules to follow. And you can create great comedy by taking these rules and turning them on their head. So study up and start watching all types of comedy through different era’s from silent to now. If you want a list just let me know and I will throw one up. Part of the fun is the discovery. And yes you will end up watching a lot of crappy comedies. But see that’s the key.

Randomly ALMOST good

    Crappy comedies are just films that stick closely to the formula and are predictable. Learn the formula from their failures and learn what do differently. Great comedy directors can break down a scene very quickly and what it needs to get a laugh, and what you can add to give it that extra-something. Start breaking down scenes on TV from your living so that when you get to set you can do it with ease. Want to know a great place to watch mediocre comedy, TBS. And if you want to see how the pro’s do it. Get on Netflix.

Stealing Is Not a Bad Thing

I am going to talk about a little known secret every director does. It’s called stealing. Steal, steal, steal I hate to say it but it’s a crucial part of directing. And I’m not talking about robbing banks just to be clear here. Though it would help you come up with a budget. But stealing is the key. Need a shot but don’t have the permission to be on a city street. Shoot it and get the hell out of there. Always ask forgiveness and not permission. Your producer will hate you for this, but you’re a director. It’s half expected for you to steal a shot; that is just part of life for an independent director.

 

           But actually stealing has an even more importance in a director’s career. It’s about choosing your favorite directors and films and figuring out what they do so well; and then unabashedly stealing from them. You got to dig deep and find the obscure directors who haven’t been stolen from too much and take from there. You think I am joking? You say you love Tarantino films well he’s the rip off king. His favorite director is Brian De Palma whose whole career is stealing from Hitchcock. How about Scorsese? I suggest you take a look at Fellini and Cassavettes. What about Adam McKay the director of Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers. If you study up he’s just Cassavettes doing a Bunuel movie. Coen Brothers are the darker version of Preston Sturges.

The list goes on and on. I want to tell you this so when you are starting out and all your films look like mash notes to your favorite directors; don’t be discouraged. Everyone steals. It’s what you do with that stolen material to make it your own is what matters. As I always say “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” Insightful right? Yep, that’s because I stole it.

Just some food for thought!