Comedy

 I am clearly not the person to ask when it comes to filming comedy. HOWEVER, I do know experts who have told me a few things.

1) Shoot comedy in a wide. I think because (if you cast right) comedy works with two people in frame. IF you do coverage on a comedic scene, typically what happens is that the editor pieces together the jokes. And their timing may not be the best. Watch Woody Allen flicks. It lingers like a stage play. The actors are the ones who set the timing and they're usually much more adept at that than you will be. So set the camera and roll. Study Albert Brook's early movies to see what a two-shot can do.

2) Use shorter lenses. Wide angle lenses are funny. Director Barry Sonnenfeld knows this and preaches it. What it does is warp features a little. Warped faces are funny. Overly warped faces may not be. But it distorts the world view. Any Coen Brothers movies set themselves on a 32mm or wider. Sometimes you can go about a 40mm. But I would suggest that to be the cutoff.

3) Along with wider lenses, keep in a more compact aspect ratio. VERY few movies that are funny are done in widescreen. This, I cannot explain. Maybe because the concept of widescreen means landscape. For whatever reason there are very few movies that work in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This was typically reserved for epic movies, action movies. I don't think "The Hateful Eight" was all that funny. Was it suppose to be? Maybe. Maybe dark humor works in wide. But for the most part, all the ones who were successful in cinematic comedies worked in 1.85:1

4) cast funny looking people. Look, Brad Pitt has to go to lengths to fuck his face up to be funny. And still, there's something very unfunny about him. Tom Cruise has to look like Les Grossman from "Tropic Thunder" I mean, talk about burying himself in gross. Funny looking people solve a lot of your problems up front.

5) Talk fast. In comedies, I would suggest you write MORE. And have the actors speak faster. I think the rhythm of comedy has to do with timing. And very accomplished movie comedies work where they speak fast. This is a skill, folks. It's about syncopation. Cary Grant knew this well.

6) Make things bright. Comedies are suppose to be lighthearted. I know this isn't a hardened rule, since most cinematographers like to show their chops with shafts of light through smoke or wet down pavement. HOWEVER, it is more of a hill to climb if you make the images too moody. Atmosphere plays a lot in comedies. You can argue Woody Allen's "Manhattan" is really dark and plays in shadows (which is does since Gordon Willis is all about reality). I don't consider Woody that funny anyway. If a person watched his movies now, they'd think it was pretty forced humor. Like "Annie Hall" in the movie line. It breaks a forth wall.

So that's all I know about comedy. Though, to me, I'm more of a Billy Wilder version of comedy. He left the situation be the laughs. He wasn't a funny guy. He said funny things. His sense of humor was mostly observational. I would say similar to the "joke comedian" versus the "anecdotal" one. Richard Pryor told amazing stories which were next level ridiculous. Dave Chappelle and Eddie Murphy studied this. Then there's Mitch Hedberg or Rodney Dangerfield who just told straight jokes. There is nothing wrong with one over the other, but it still requires a level of delivery and timing.

Comedy is obviously subjective. But there are great examples to study to see which one you prefer.