Video Jokes

This was, honestly, one of my favorite projects from this class. It was so much fun to take up the roles I am so interested in making a career out of.

And I was so excited to have my script chosen to be made into one of our videos. We actually chose two extraordinarily different videos made. One, a romantic comedy, the other a western.

Our first video, entitled "La Boite" (and written by me!) was a silent film and a romantic comedy. Written to be performed without any words spoken, it follows a day in the life of a not-so-talented mime. He ends up falling in love! It's very Charlie Chaplin-esque. The joke in this video, therefore, had to be conveyed by the movements and the emotions of the characters, as opposed to any dialogue.This means that the movie was largely focused on movement and rhythm, and that this movement was largely character-drawn. There is a clear link between the movements on screen and the music used in the movie, an example of this would be when the mim character walks into frame for the first time, and his footsteps match the beat of the music almost exactly. The colors in this movie were also very important, with the red of the suspenders and his cheeks contrasting with largely green backgrounds.

Our second video, "Hey There, Harry" was a traditional western. We also made this a silent film, but instead of leaving out all dialogue, we added in slides with the words on them. This movie was rendered to be in an old-timey sepia color. In this video, we largely tried to convey the joke by using movement, as in our other movie, but also by using space. As it was a silent movie, the characters had to use bold movements, but there is also a clear use of depth when looking at the scenes.

There is both contrast and affinity between both projects. For example, one could say that the use of movement is similar in both jokes, but that there is a clear difference in rhythm and space between the two. The coloring of the projects also adds to this contrast, quite literally. One is extremely bright and colorful, while the other is more monotone, dark, and even colorless.

It's hard to say which video portrayed the joke better. I think that, when looking at the joke itself, it is more clearly defined in "Hey There Harry", where it is said almost literally, while in "La Boite" it is implied as a plot device.