Techniques of Comedy

Alex Moreno Theater 208 Comedy: Techniques behind the Laughter Comedy is the genre of film that makes even the saddest times bearable and gained a lot of popularity in a time when people needed a boost. Comedy is a unique form of film in its wide range of methods, and in all of these methods there is at least some of a select group of approaches. The true magic that comedy has arises from these select few techniques, that, when used properly, will never fail to generate a laugh.Comedy comes in a wide range of forms, all of which bring a laugh in different ways. There are however, a few specific categories of comedy which become classics. The most effective of these include; screwball, running gags, wit, set-up and punch line, and slap stick. While these are separate categories of comedy, they are very often used together or in other types, to successfully generate a laugh. The question is, what makes them work over and over, and the answer lies in common factors of each technique.An important factor in comedy is the script and use of dialogue. While dialogue is not equally important in all types of comedy, it is still a very effective tool in producing a great comedy. The dialogue must tie in fast pacing, wit, and comedy in order to keep an audience entertained, all while following the script in order to draw the audience in to the film, and keep them hooked. Great comedies always have exceptional dialogue that can make even the most ordinary scene, absolutely hilarious.When dialogue is used properly, it can be comedy in itself, or add to another joke. An example of this is when a main character makes a funny comment about the antagonist or another character. The actions of the other character may not be funny alone, but add some commentary and it becomes extremely funny. Overall, dialogue is not the main drive behind all comedic forms, as seen in silent films, but it is still important to modern comedy in its ability to make ordinary things funny. The next imp ortant factor of a successful comedy is the pacing.Fast pacing is the only successful way of making a comedy; the audience must always have something to generate a laugh. Audiences are fickle, and making them wait for something to happen will only cause them to lose interest. The pace must be fast enough to keep people interested, but it must also be at a pace where the audience can keep up with the action. A comedy will not be funny if the next joke starts before the audience even laughs at the last one. A great comedy must find just the right balance that will not lose the audience to boredom, or in a rush.Give the audience enough time to laugh, but don’t let them stop laughing. Another critical factor in generating a successful comedy is in the use of montage. Cutting shots between different angles helps to keep the audience interested by adding fresh perspective, the film must always be moving, and so must the camera. This is used in addition to close-ups and establishmen t shots during important sequences. A very effective method of doing this is switching shots between characters during important comedic sequences.An example of this would be a main character meant to be funny talking to one of the stagnant characters, anti-comic relief, and showing their lack of reaction to something funny done by the main character. Another method is changing the camera angles while a character has difficulty performing a task. A character struggling to carry a box through a door is funny, but gets old unless you constantly montage in order to keep the scene fresh, adding to the pace. Montage is an important factor in successful comedy because a joke needs to stay fresh in order to be funny, as does a comedy.The casting in a film is of the utmost importance, as not all people are funny in the same situations. Actors all have certain comedic roles, which they best fit into. A serious looking actor with a stern voice would not make a good goofball character. If that same actor is placed into the role of a gangster with the attitude of a child, he becomes a great comic figure. Casting is of the utmost importance as actors must fit their roles, while they have more range in comedy, they still must be believable to some degree.This can be seen by the great number of comedies where people walk out saying; it would have been funny or funnier with someone else. Casting must be done carefully in order also insure that the characters play well against each other. While a grown man acting like a child is funny at times, it becomes extremely effective when there is another character provoking them to behave that way. In the end, casting determines how the audience will react to the story, and whether jokes will be funny when coming from the selected cast. In the end all of these things tie in to make a comedic film funny.If the techniques are used properly you will create a high energy comedy that will keep the audience entertained. True classics have e verything that a comedy could need, great dialogue, fast pacing, montage, and great casting. When these techniques are used together properly, a comedy cannot fail. The basic goal of a comedy is to stay fresh, and by utilizing these techniques, even the most played out scenario can become funny all over again. Comedy has made us laugh for nearly a century, and it will continue to so long as it is kept new, fresh, and exciting.

Rug maker.com Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rug maker.com - Research Proposal Example Rebranding is essential in improving the company’s sales and income. Ideally, the company should focus on attracting new customers while focusing on maintaining the existing customers. The Rug Company should focus on the following plan in order to create public awareness to its products and services while also improving its awareness to the interior design industry: The company should add value to its brand awareness plan by offering special packages and services to existing and potential customers. In addition, the company should hold various events in its different cities of operations in order to create awareness to customers and its industry of operations. To develop a marketing strategy, the first requirement is for the company to affirm its current position by stating what it was offering to the clients according to their needs. In addition, the company should affirm where it wants to be and what it wants to be doing at a particular point in the future (Ashcroft 2010). Communication is an important aspect of the marketing strategy (Mullins and Walker 2013). Although the conventional mix model of the 4Ps – product, price, place, and promotion (Kotler and Armstrong 2012) – are commonly used due to their familiarity, the company should adopt the 4Cs model with a focus on Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication (Hughes and Fill 2008). The latter model focuses on direct communication with the customer as opposed to the 4Ps, which considers the product as the primary focus in marketing (Ashcroft 2002; Cheverton 2004). The company prides itself as a rug making company that focuses on delivering quality handmade products with the finest raw materials (Sharp C. and Sharp S. n.d.). In this case, the target clients are people who value the quality of handmade material and appreciate the worth of hand-woven rugs. The company should profile its clients

Science-Physics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Science-Physics - Essay Example Oil drilling in the ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Reserve) is such an issue that has elicited heated debate on whether drilling of oil in this reserve should be allowed or not. Proponents of drilling have argued that drilling the oil in the reserve will secure for the US a local energy reserve, effectively reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil. This they argue will reduce America’s vulnerability to sabotage by enemy states by withholding oil from her. Moreover, they say that the oil drilling will only take a small part of the 19.8 million square acres of land which was established as a reserve in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (National Research Council, 2003). Furthermore, they say that there would be a lot of jobs created should the drilling process begin. Opponents of this venture argue that the destruction that will be caused by a drilling station will be devastating for the reserve; affecting both the plants and animals in the area immediately surrounding the well as well as causing other environmental hazards such as oil spillage and contributing to global warming, which would directly or indirectly destroy the habitat. In addition, they argue that the amount of oil that would be got has not been verified and it might prove to be so small in the long run. They also reiterate the fact that there are many other oil well like in Texas which have not been drilled but are just leased to other countries. They say these idle lands should be exploited first before destroying new lands. But by far their most convincing rebuff of drilling oil is in response to the fact that the area to be used for drilling will be a small section of the reserve accounting for less than 2% of the total reserve. They cite an example of the nearby Prudhoe Bay oil fields. The fields which were initially assumed would only occupy about 2100 acres of land

McDonald's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

McDonald's - Essay Example Ray Kroc saw early on what needed to be done. He changed what was at one time a product orientation, into a marketing orientation. Back in 1955, this was still a new type of management.( Kroc 185-217) From the beginning, Kroc was already in the forefront of marketing. Ray Kroc founded the McDonald's way back in 1954 that worked as a single restaurant till 1955 but soon Kroc thought upon the idea of franchise-system. By 1974 the Brand Mac has already become a name to reckon with from its first Woodwich High Street in South London. Each succeeding generation since then saw the McDonald's hype increase and permeate almost every body's life in a few decades. For such a great hype however the McDonald's cannot be held the sole responsible. The people enjoyed the freedom that the Mac provided with-a release from sheer labour of preparing the foods three-times a day. If the Mac rationalized the trend of serving, the people welcomed with even greater response. McDonald's uses a theory referred to as relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is defined as marketing to protect the customer base. The customer is viewed as an asset and the company's marketing goal is to attract, maintain, and enhance customer relationships. McDonald is facing a major attack on its brand from anti-globalisation and other pressure such as, United Poultry Concerns- (www.upc-online.org). They are going after McDonald's because they think it has deep pockets. So far the company has been able to use finical marshal to fend off attack. The litigation cases in the United States against McDonald so far has been settled out of courts and the courts have thrown out most of them. Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because they have their own purchasing power, they influence their parents' buying decisions and they're the adult consumers of the future. With this in mind, McDonald, like many other manufacturers are using various marketing and communications strategies to encourage children and adults to buy their products. The McDonald's new mantra, other than the diet is 'Go Active', 'Eat Smart' and 'Be Active'. Now Dr. Cathy Kapica and Anita Bean are more concentrating on the Happy Meal with emphasis on to keep the customers healthier, free from risks of weight gaining. McDonald's is now an organization by itself. It is 'the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world' ( Greider 13-88). It's affected all walks of life-education, work, travel, the family and every other sector. In trying to connect the brand with the consumer, McDonald has teamed up with pop star Justin Timberlake to shed 'new breath of young and coolness t' to the brand. As part of McDonald's multi-dimensional global relationship with superstar Justin Timberlake, the company announced today its sponsorship of the "McDonald's Presents Justin Timberlake lovin' it live" concert tours. McDonalds implemented the latest technology into it's business to gain more market share. McDonald's implemented a new computerized logistic system which makes it possible to transport materials, components and products with far greater speed and at much lower cost as a result of developments in road, rail, sea and air transport. These improvements in transport have also increased the amount of new subsidiaries opened

Research movie with Negotiation theme. (movie- startup.com) Paper

Movie with Negotiation theme. (movie- startup.com) - Research Paper Example Its not every day, or every decade, that you get to see a film as eye opening in its timeliness asStartup.com. The movie, which documents the heady rise and even more spectacular fall of an Internet start-up company, feels as if it had been shot through a crystal ball -- it seems to anatomize the whole debacle of the dotcom universe -- yet its remarkable prescience is more than a matter of happenstance. Startup.com is a revelation not merely because a couple of smart filmmakers got lucky, hitting the news headline jackpot just as the Nasdaq nosedived, but because the film, which for sheer dramatic wallop outpowers virtually every fiction feature Ive seen this year, embodies the story of our time, the way that the collusion of money and technology has taken over our dreams. Produced by D.A. Pennebaker, and codirected by his collaborator Chris Hegedus and by a new member of the team, codirector Jehane Noujaim, the movie follows the path of two naively ambitious entrepreneurs in their late 20s. The hulky, high fiving, charismatically bullheaded Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and his nerdish, compartmentalized tech head partner, Tom Herman, have been friends since high school. As the film opens, in 1999, they pool their desire to get rich into a kind of new millennium vision quest. They bark and strategize into their cell phones, pumping up their troops with group cheers. They visit the offices of venture capitalists, raising heroic sums of cash, and they stand around a Manhattan pizza parlor, debating the name of their new company like teenage rockers trying to title their garage band. Theyre digital geek Horatio Algers, and they brandish a willed attitude of locker room swagger descended from the fast lucre Wall Street cowboys of the 80s. With much noise and fanfare, Kaleil and Tom declare their intention: They will launch govWorks.com, a bold new website designed to link people up to local municipalities. In essence, this comes down to a

History Questions (1st World War, Socialism, French Revolution) Essay

History Questions (1st World War, Socialism, French Revolution) - Essay Example The topic on discussion was a possible war with Russia, and Britain, considering their military development, and reconstruction. The council was of the opinion that, Serbia would attack Austria, and they will get the support of the Russians. Austria being an ally of Germany, Germany would be forced to defend Austria, on this note, war was inevitable (Hobson, 310. The council resolved that the war should start immediately. On this note, the assignation of the arch duke of Austria was just a catalyst, since this war was decided on December 8th of 1912. Germany was also responsible for its own defeat in the war.German entered into the war with inadequate military facilities that could match that of Britain, France and Russia. During the war council of 1912, Admiral Tirpitz, the head of the German Navy asked for the postponement of the war, because the navy was not adequately prepared to fight in the war, especially if Britain was enjoined (Hobson, 31). This is because of the Triple ente nte treaty which comprised of Britain, France and Russia. The Navy wanted to build widen the Kiev Canal, and construct a u boat system, that had the capability of matching the facilities of the British Navy. On this note, Germany entered into war ill prepared, in terms of the machineries and equipment’s of the war. The main ideas of Karl Marx are capitalism, and he defines as a system in which the rich accumulate resources at the expense of the population. According to Karl Marx, the Society is divided between the bourgeois, the proletariat and the masses. He states that the Bourgeois are the owners of capital, and the society is run by them. According to Karl Marx, the Bourgeois employ the proletariat to carter for their needs (Hobson, 41). The proletariats are the managers of the various investments of the Bourgeois, and they are paid a salary to carter for their education, health and family wellbeing. The masses are people who do not have skills that they can use for survi val in the society. They are poor and hopeless, on this note Karl Marx observes that it is important to establish communalism in a state, because it will carter for the interests of all members of the State. It will limit the excesses of the bourgeois in exploiting the proletariats and the masses. These thoughts by Karl Marx were developed on the basis of the conflict that arose in the society due to economic and financial problems. Karl Marx observed the relationship between the owners of companies, and their workers. He analyzed their relationships, and noted that there was a conflict between these workers and their employers, and he therefore developed a critique of capitalism. Charles Darwin on the other hand believed that living organism strive to exist, and any feature within their possession that affects their survival and reproductive capability must subject itself to a continuous selective process. This idea emanated from his

Reflective log on communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Reflective log on communication - Essay Example In his writing The Reflective Practitioner, How Professionals Think In Action, Basic Books, Schon highlight the significance of building a reflective dialog in all the environments. As cited by a number of authors, reflective practices are very important tool in today’s world especially in communication and interaction. Managers, leaders and team members encounter a number of challenges while dealing with their customers, clients, staff, and competitors. Besides, the environments of operation usually pose another great threat to the success of managers. For instance managers in the insurance industry embattles with reflective challenges in handling the claims of their clients. Internal staff control is another big shoe for managers as they try to bring together unity and profitability within the working environment. For a corporation to remain profitable and competitive, sales volume is a critical tool. However, achieving the company’s sales target entails conducting an d evaluating the potential customer base, satisfaction and customizing individual needs of the potential clients. Reflective practice is therefore an essential tool in achieving the above mentioned goals. Reflective log practice helps in analyzing clients’ needs and demands. ... A number of models have been proposed to explain the concepts of reflective practices. Schon (1974, p.56) Double Loop Learning) identified single loop and double loop as the most common forms of reflective learning. The theory was founded on amendments and recognition of perceived errors or faults. In the single loop reflective learning, in a more error prone period, companies only embarks on depends on their current strategies to tackle the company crisis and challenges. Double loop learning covers for personalized objectives, goals and strategies which are very comprehensive. It entails problem solving techniques, outsourcing the cause of the problem, advancing prevention mechanism, and making recommendations on possible future strategies for the company prospect. Adaptation of the single and double loop learning model by Argyris and Schon Schon introduced the concept of Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action in later time. Reflection-in-action can be explain as the ability of a practitioner to ‘think on their feet’, when there are the problem, thinking ahead, making analyzing, base on my experiencing to getting the point of view in it, after all process to making critically responding. Reflection-on-action on the other hand is the idea that after the experience a practitioner analyses their reaction to the situation and explores the reasons around, and the consequences of, their actions. This is usually conducted though a documented reflection of the situation. Adaptation of the reflective model by Schon Learning log table: (Case Study) Communication Breakdown in an Organization Title Sep 2012 conflict with claims department Meeting with my subordinate -The client apply a medical claims when who is out of