One of the biggest challenges with this project is theoretically justifying presenting social allegory under such a farcical plotline I have found, is finding ways to present these ideas in a comedic but dignified and intelligent way. The world is currently in a controversial and unpredictable way itself, and commenting on this, coupled with satire is something I understand presents its own challenges. In trying to achieve the most poignant and successful result, I've discovered another challenge; one in actually finding writings about comedy as an academic practice.
As I've been developing the storyline, and also looking at character development, I've been considering ways of commenting on aspects of the world we are currently living in through both the structure of the plot, and the characters themselves. As previously mentioned, pinning these attributes down within a theoretical framework has been so far, a challenging prospect in itself, and admittedly, I've questioned how far a situation so farcical on the outside can be taken seriously at all at the root of what's being said. However, I'm practising and researching to the best of my ability, in the hope it will be.
In my research, I found an article by Michael Arrell, in my opinion very importantly named Why Are Comedy Films So Critically Underrated? where he discusses a concept I had also been thinking about a lot when developing my own project. Arrell looks at the history of comedy, and makes important points about how historically comedy's importance seems to have diminished amongst the academic sphere. A particular section that interested me in relation to my earlier ideas about presenting this film as an installation was his comment on the shared enjoyment of comedy:
It seems to be true for an audience in contemporary times that comedy is enjoyable when shared, while tragedy is preferred as a personal experience, “Our laughter is always the laughter of a group” (Bergson 64). The idea of comedy as a communal experience helps explain what makes comedy unique.
In considering this, I thought about the enhanced effect which could potentially benefit the overall response to my hopeful eventual project if I presented it as an installation piece. I had thought of the idea of multi-projection, and situating the audience surrounded by four projections to enforce a sense of being watched - as the characters are within the story. I thought about how this might be more impactful, and how I could also use this aesthetically - by considering this presentation when filming, and featuring moments where I use this to my advantage.
I have also found interesting considerations for the humour itself I wanted to include, again in Arrell's article when he states:
What audiences might have considered funny one hundred years ago may not receive the same reaction from an audience today. Even different contemporary cultures will disagree whether something is funny or not.
When thinking about this, as I am looking to use the fairly universal concept of an alien invasion, I hope that this aspect of the narrative will reach multiple audiences and translate. However, I am still developing script and looking at how I can successfully achieve the best result comedically.
Another consideration I've had is that I also want this film to be within the short film category - although until I have a finished script I can't predict the actual time itself, but I am looking to do some experiments with montage to see the comedic effects and audience responses. In addition to this, I think it will be a good way to condense aspects of the plot in order to keep the film as concise but effective as possible. In other future experiments I am looking to experiment with dialogue and test the results of these, too.