comedy in loss fest

[pauly_the_hitman]

Too much seriousness in the world today maybe we all just needed a break from reality and get some laughs for a minute...
Pauly

[Skribbleman]

The comedies were a welcome surprise. I'm curious if the filmmakers knew they wanted to go the comedy route from the get go.

[armisiano]

Okay, so, I was declaring this the unofficial ComedyFest, but I think it's a toss up now, either ComedyFest or OverlySedatedSoundingVoiceOverFest. One of the two.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I decided from the get go due to the theme that I definitely wanted to do a comedy. Besides, all of my stuff recently had been getting darker and darker, and I wasn't pushing myself as a filmmaker to explore different methods of story-telling. So I decided that I was going to do a comedy. The title came from a comic that I read a long time ago. This artist from the 70's with a great original style, and the word "Falling Up" had stuck with me all through my teenage years, my twenties, and are still with me today.

Through my rewrites it almost descended into abject drama, just trying to find the right starting point, but once I found it, it started clicking and I started to believe that I could actually make it work.

All that was left was to remind myself that I wasn't shooting a horror movie (constantly I had to reming myself when doing a lighting setup).

I was actually surprised to see so many comedic entries this time around, and it was refreshing. I was just glad of being able to write an engaging script that while didn;t leave anyone guffawing with laughter, at least tickled their imaginations for a while.

[armisiano]

I was actually surprised to see so many comedic entries this time around, and it was refreshing.

Definitely, I agree completely. I keep thinking any minute now I'm gonna be upset by it, thinking that due to the number of comedies "STUPENDOUS" won't stand out as much as it would've being surrounded by tearjerkers, but truth be told I am so happy. I've had a good number of laughs throughout this fest, and it's a nice experience.

[singleframe]

comedy saved the Fest! i like non-comedy work, but 65 of them would have gotten me a bit down...

[lawriejaffa]

I wasn't particularly surprised that there was as many comedies - but was pleasantly surprised with the quality of a few of them.

I entirely agree that to watch an entire festival comprised of say depressing drama's would be quite morbid and a little tough on the old brain cells. However a good drama - is in itself entertaining, and there is room enough for even a large of such films not to crush a man's will to live - if they were all good (which they can never be.)

In that case are the comedies there to balance off against a surge of dramatic genius or are they the stop gap for dramatic mediocrity - hence providing some light relief for that purpose hehe.

The point is less that anyway but the motive for the director/principle artist who would want to use a festival with 'loss' as its theme to present a comedy. I think its fine obviously and they were great fun. However, I think the festival also provided a huge learning experience - especially with resulting feedback to those who took the bold risk to produce stories of genuine 'affecting' human experience.

For those who are quite experienced (or exhausted) from producing such works then I can see why 'they' might produce a comedy. But if comedy is your 'thang' and 'again' one produced a comedy for even this theme of festival, then i believe really that to produce a comedy was a lost opportunity.

So its all relative to the artist isn't it.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Comedy is truly difficult, and i think i learned more from attempting comedy than shooting my usual dramatic supernatural stuff.

[Lawsuit_Boy]

Comedy really is difficult to master. One must consider what is funny simply because of inside jokes amongst friends and what is funny because of the bending of social norms and values in an attempt to portray situations in a manner that appeal to the majority of an audience.

In Tiny Dancer, I wanted to express the austerity of isolation/isolationism on college campuses today visually in an almost hyperrealistic way (perhaps even surrealistic to some) while maintaining a playful edge with Caroline's performance and her interaction with Nate, the other lead. She's just naturally very humorous and charismatic, so she left behind a lot of great moments that some might get a little giggle at.

I've written many comedy, or "dramedy," scripts, and one that has had particularly good feedback. It was difficult at first, but once I was able to get myself into the tone of the piece each time I wrote for it, the jokes, quips, and situations just kept rolling out.

You've just got to find your stride.

[Brian Parker]

Yes...comedy is truly challenging...

Hey...it was my first try...