Something to disuss or argue about
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 11:05 am
Our video club is composed of about a dozen old fogies with the usual few who are the ‘doers’ and the remainder who are the ‘lookers on’. We have the usual internal competitions and interclub competitions. We usually only manage second place in these.
As we know, comedy is a difficult thing and one local club seem to have members with a knack for getting a subject, writing a script and create something good and generally funny. I usually take on the task of creating a comedy item and my liking is for sketchlets in the style of the Two Ronnies such as the Old Codgers especially as we have a couple of members who are quite good at this. The problem is that without a live audience to create genuine laughter, the results are very flat for, as we know, these types of sketches are their best with a studio audience or with dubbed laughter, for such laughter is infectious to viewers.
I have made various endeavours with – hopefully – subtle dubbed laughter but I appreciate this is a skilled art in itself. The finished sketch is usually produced in two versions. One with the added laughter sound and one without. My personal likes are the ones with the laughter whilst others prefer it without.
However, when it comes to competitions the judges, who are generally video makers themselves, they frequently don’t like the ‘canned laughter’. Showing the programme to video club members without the chuckles is so dull as they are looking at all the other techniques involved such as sharpness, steady camera work, editing and all the other factors. Show the programme to lay people and almost without exception they like the version with the added laughter and they laugh themselves.
Would folk like to discuss this please.
Pete
As we know, comedy is a difficult thing and one local club seem to have members with a knack for getting a subject, writing a script and create something good and generally funny. I usually take on the task of creating a comedy item and my liking is for sketchlets in the style of the Two Ronnies such as the Old Codgers especially as we have a couple of members who are quite good at this. The problem is that without a live audience to create genuine laughter, the results are very flat for, as we know, these types of sketches are their best with a studio audience or with dubbed laughter, for such laughter is infectious to viewers.
I have made various endeavours with – hopefully – subtle dubbed laughter but I appreciate this is a skilled art in itself. The finished sketch is usually produced in two versions. One with the added laughter sound and one without. My personal likes are the ones with the laughter whilst others prefer it without.
However, when it comes to competitions the judges, who are generally video makers themselves, they frequently don’t like the ‘canned laughter’. Showing the programme to video club members without the chuckles is so dull as they are looking at all the other techniques involved such as sharpness, steady camera work, editing and all the other factors. Show the programme to lay people and almost without exception they like the version with the added laughter and they laugh themselves.
Would folk like to discuss this please.
Pete