Today we had our dissertation power point presentation with Chris, where we discuss our ideas.
My working title is...How are the working class portrayed in British comedy's
Chapter 1
• I will be focusing on the history of sitcoms, and where, when and why it
started, looking at
•Comedy
verita
•Comedy
drama’s
•Mocumentory
Chapter 2
•I
will be looking at the theory of Brittishness,
representation, social realism and class in comedy.
Chapter 3
I will be looking at a case study,m I'll be looking at The Office and comparing it to the US version, The Office An American Work Place. I will be looking to see if they use class in the same way as the British do.
I think I finally have my dissertation question, after hours of reading and research I think I have found a question that I will enjoy writing about, and it is......How are the working class portrayed in British comedy's.
Being from a working class background myself I find it fascinating that the majority of British comedy's are focused around the working class, I want to find out why this is and if it is fair how the working class is being portrayed and what is the fascination of the working class? Hopefully all will be reviled.
Today I had my tutorial with Chris Hunt and I came out feeling more positive about my dissertation question, I gave him my idea about comedy writing and the three case studies I had in mind and he gave me a few ideas like looking in to social realism, and looking in to 'Comedy Veritia' and the history of sitcoms and representation.
This has given me a lot to think about and has given me a clearer view as to what my question should be.
On boxing day there was a drama on BBC2 called 'The Girl' all about Alfred Hitchcock starring Sienna Miller, it wasn't as good as I was expecting but it is defiantly worth a watch, it only focused on the filming of The Birds and I was hoping it would be based around his hole career, but never the less here is a little synopsis and a tailor. Alfred Hitchcock was at the height of his fame and creativity when, in 1962, he chose an unknown fashion model to star in his most ambitious film, The Birds. But as he sculpted Tippi Hedren into the perfect Hitchcock blonde of his imagination, he became obsessed with the impossible dream of winning the real woman's love. His failure destroyed both of their careers.
Following this drama was a documentary presented by Paul Merton about all 23 Hitchcock films, I really enjoyed it, it was great to learn more about the great director and learn about his films I didn't even know existed, and how he learned his trade in the film business, here is a a synopsis and trailer.
Documentary in which Paul Merton explores Alfred Hitchcock's film career.
These moody features - some silents such as The Lodger - provided the essential cinematic DNA for his rise to prominence as Hollywood's 'master of suspense'.
Merton sees Hitchcock as a man immersed in the visual language of cinema, who understood how to use camera movement and lighting for dramatic effect. For Hitchcock, heavily influenced by the German expressionist cinema, the pictures would always be more important than the dialogue.
Using clips and previously unseen archive interviews with Hitchcock, Merton weaves together a playful narrative of the director's early career and macabre world, revealing a man with a great sense of humour.
So carrying on my new found Hitchcock obsession, there was a few films that stood out that I really want to see, such as 'Frenzy', Mr & Mrs Smith, The Birds, Vertigo and Rear Window. while looking on the internet for these films I stumbled across this....
I managed to get hold of a copy and watched it, it is very good with a great performance from Antony Hopkins who plays Hitchcock, but like the BBC 2 drama I felt robbed, as it only really focused on the making and filming of Psycho, and I was more eager to learn about his early career, in my opinion the documentary is by far the best out of the three, but all three are worth watching.
So my ideas for my dissertation; I am struggling to come up with a question for my dissertation, I know I want to base it around comedy writing, mainly around BBC British comedies such as Only Fools and Horses,
So the last few days Dan Baugh and I have been assembling rough cuts of all 3 episodes, so far everything is looking good and we are working on getting each episode tighter, and finding the correct buzz tracks/atmosphere sounds that will suit our film.
We have also been collaborating with Francesca Fry who is in her 3rd year of Graphic Design at UCA she will be designing our opening and closing titles as well as designing up a sleeve for the DVD she has been updating her process on her web site; http://francescafry.tumblr.com/ She is using this as her major project for her course, here are some of the ideas she had sent me to choose from and also some of the rough edits she has done so far.
Today Dan Baugh and I meet at the studios to sort out all the footage we've shot over the last few days, we finished filming yesterday well ahead of schedule, the shoot went really well and all cast and crew were amazing we had a blast filming with great people. We've got hundreds and hundreds of clips to sort through before we start the edit, we are hoping to have a rough cut of every episode by monday.
.jpg)
