Hello! This week I will be starting work on my brief, which I decided would be the film opening. With good work comes good research, so I plan to look into some genre types that catch my eye. The 3 genres I would like to dive deeper into are comedy, crime, and mystery. Today, I started with researching the comedy genre, as I have always enjoyed films under this genre and I feel as though I can write a pretty funny script. This post will go over my research findings and some post-research thoughts I have towards this genre.
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When making something that will be seen by others, it is always good to take into consideration the target audience of your work. Two important demographics for any film genre are gender and age. In the UK, women made up 54% of the audiences of comedy movies over a 21 year period (1996-2017). In the same period of time, a general audience comprised of people aged 7-45+ went to see G, PG, and PG-13 rated comedies. Though inappropriate for this project, it is good to note that R-rated comedy audiences were dominated by 15-24 year-olds, who made up roughly 45%.
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Genre conventions are also important to follow during planning and production, as they ensure that the final product is easily recognizable as a certain genre, so audiences know what to expect. Looking at a few sources, I noticed that a lot of what makes a comedy a comedy is the actors and the characters they play. The protagonists of some comedy films have certain flaws that they may or may not be aware about; an character that immediately came into my mind was Ace Ventura, played by Jim Carrey in the movie series of the same name. Ace Ventura, the character, suffers from many flaws, such as him being annoyance as well as narcissistic and arrogant, not caring for other people, but despite these flaws the character seems to not care enough to notice, which can lead to moments that are both completely foolish but hilarious at the same time.
Other conventions regarding characters can also apply to elements/outside forces in scenes. Exaggeration is a classic trope for comedies, with over-the-top, absurd, or even unreal actions within the scenes or by the actors making scenes funny for audiences. Additionally, the timing and delivery of certain jokes or joke elements have to be appropriate, which goes for all forms of comedy. The difference between an out of pocket gag and one that is well timed to fit in with the scene can make a difference in how the scene plays out, or how funny it is.
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When it comes to comedy movies, most people think of classics like the aforementioned Ace Ventura series, with most popular comedies today being just sequels and reboots to these classics. The Naked Gun (2025) has been described by critics and audiences to be very faithful to the humor and tone to the 1988 action/comedy movie of the same title.
Rehashes aside, the last 5 years has seen some solid releases, though not living up to older comedies, still deserve to be known. For example, Free Guy (2021) is another action/comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, known for some of his comedic roles, who plays an NPC in a destructive video game who tries to save the world. It was rated a 7.7/10 on IMDb and audiences considered the movie simply a fun and entertaining experience.
It is no question that Hollywood's five largest studios (Universal, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sony) have all had successful comedy releases, such as Airplane! (Paramount) and Beetlejuice (Warner Bros.), to name a few. However, in last year's Emmy Awards, Apple's The Studio had received 23 total nominations. Despite being a series, its success cannot be ignored and stands out against industry giants
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Before the research process, I was initially going to post my findings on the three genres I am considering for my opening (comedy, crime, and mystery) all in this post, but crime and mystery films can be seen as closely related. So, I decided to hold off on the research for the two until my next post, where I can describe them both in detail, comparing and contrasting their features. In the meantime, I cannot make comparisons between comedy and crime/mystery to see which I would consider more than others, but I can say that to exceed in making a comedy movie opening, I am going to have to accommodate enough so that the humor is there, but the footage does not exceed 2 minutes. On the bright side, I feel as though the processes for producing and actually filming the opening will be much more entertaining than doing so with the other genres.
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Here are the notes I took for this genre:
(Accidentally dated the notes to 2025, oops.)
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Sources used for information:
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Next post, I will be compiling my research on crime and mystery movies, including some similarities and differences in conventions, and some popular examples that I can look at for inspiration. See you again and thanks for reading!
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