Mise en scene
How many locations?
Shot in real place/studio?Reflect characters?
Camera & Sound
Single- or multi-camera?
Audience laughter?
diegetic or non-diegetic sound?
Narrative ad genre conventions
Realistic characters or crude stereotypes?
Acting naturalistic or exaggerated?
Humor, verbal or physical?
What is genre?
- How texts are determined by historical/social/political contexts
- How texts emerge as commercial products from an industry
- Genre audience contract with text.
Codes and conventions dominant in deciding the form of a film or TV programme.
Technical (seen)
Camera, sound, Editing = Narrative
Symbolic (Unseen)
Mise en scene, subtext = Context
What is a sitcom?
- Sit(uation)com(edy) - sub-genre of comedy, unique to TV.
- Typically located within one single location, or minial numbers of settings.
- Characters resolve comic situatiom or series of cercomstances.
Sitcom genre - Technical conventions.
Traditional studio sitcoms (The Big Bang Theory)- Multi-camera
- Edited 'as live'
- Audience laugh track
- High-key uniform lightning
Location sitcoms (Modern Family)- Single-camera
- Post-edited
- No 'live' laugh track
- 'Mockumentary'-style
Sitcom narrative conventions
- Episodic series format - typically 30 minutes, close narrative.
- Repetition - circular narrative to keep characters in comic situation at the story's resolution and feed into further episodes.
- Resolution - drama (tragedy) ends with change: comedy ends with order and harmony restored.
Plot embryo circle used by Dan Harmon, creator of NBC sitcom community.
Sitcom genre - narrative conventions
- The comic trap
- The running joke
- The one-liner / sight gag
- Innuendo & double-entendre
- Irony & and sarcasm
- Farce & Slapstick
- Parody & satire
The Comic Trap
- The basic premise of a sitcom: physical or emotional situation characters attempts to resolve or escape from.
- Repetition ensures further traps will be encountered.
The Running Joke
- Repeating visual joke or verbal line (often a catchphrase)
- Familiarity/popularity with viewers encourage their repetition in long-running series.
The One-Liner and Sight Gag
- Humorousthrowaway remark, often observational of a situation or event that has just occurred. Periel's retort to Nic: "If you can't shift it, don't shag it" is a classic one-liner.
- The Sight Gag is the visual equivalent of the one-liner.
Innuendo and Double Entendre (Double meaning)
- Innuendo - inferred, but not directly obvious to the person directed at.
- Double entedre (Double meaning) - ap pun (play on words with more than one meaning), usually sexual.
- Sexual humor pre-watershed.
Irony and Sarcasm
- Irony - to express something different from and opposite to literal meaning.
- Sarcasm - When a person says one thing, but mean something else, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect.
Farce and Slapstick
- Farce - highly improbable narrative situations and coincidences combined with exaggerated physical humor. 'Black comedy' uses farce and taboo humor.
- Slapstick - physical comedy, usually incorporating props and elements of comic violence.
Parody/Spoof
- Parody mocks or pokes fun at an original work, its subject or author through humorous imitation.
- A spoof typically mocks or pokes fun at a genre or style.
Satire
- Similar to parody, but usually with a more angry or polemical intent.
- Often political and targets the elite and bureaucratic.
Sitcom genre - Symbolic conventions
- Mise en scene
- Setting/location
- Character (costume, makeup etc)
- Staging (performance & interaction)
Subtext
- Stereotypes vs Archetypes
- Ideology and hegemony
Mise en sceneClassic sitcom sets are typically designed (or chosen) to maximize comedic interaction:
- Multiple doors for comic entrances and exits.
- A central focus such as sofa, kitchen table or office desk around which characters' lives revolve.
- Set decor will often reflect the characters personalities and social/comic situation.
Costume, makeup and character
- Sitcoms heavily reliant upon generic stereotypes derived from classic archetypes (the rebel, the fool, the authority figure).
- Often exaggerated for comic effect, through costume, makeup or performance.
- Clash between contrasting stereotypes provides catalyst for much humor in sitcoms.
- (Authority vs rebellion etc.)
Archetypes/Stereotypes
- Nic - 'the rebel' - uses aggressive humor (sarcasm, physical comedy)
- Alex - 'the libertine' - Can be playful or hypersexual. Typically use innuendo and double entendres.
- Holly - 'the authority figure' - Their thwarted attempts to control are a staple of sitcoms. Will often use the comic out-down.
- Periel - 'The dork/fool' - Often sees as the least self-aware, but usually says the smartest things. Uses visual humor (sight gags) and one-liners.
Ideology and hegemony
Hegemony is a dominant ideology within society: in sitcom traditionally reflected in the 'Nuclear family'.
Many contemporary sitcoms utilize a more pluralistic and diverse family model:- The work family (Parks & Recreation, The Office).
- Co-habitees (Vodka Diaries, Friends).
- Extended family (Modern Family).
Critical approaches to genre
- Psychoanalysis - Jung on archetypes: Freud on humor (release of repressed energy_ and personality types.
- Surrealism - humor from absurd/irrational scenarios: bizarre comic juxtapositions: dreams and nightmares.
- Postmodernism/Alienation - reflexivity: 'mockumentary' form: POV (Peep Show): Breaking 4th wall (Fleabag).
- Representation - gender, race, class and sexual stereotypes: societal shifts: emergence of new stereotypes.
//All images from Google.com\\
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