Thursday, June 14, 2007

Can there be comedy in this drama?

The movie is Darkness Aftermah and it's about a world of people who live in total blindness and are haunted and hunted by a Garum, a nine foot all creature bent on destruction of all living things...

Sounds rather bleak. And it could be. Someone asked me if there was going to be humor in the film. Well, to an extent, there can be, but I have to make sure that the audience doesn't laugh at the characters. I can't have Gwen tossing her sword to Clarr, have him reach his hand out for it and it sores past two feet from his reach. That would turn the movie into a rather sick comedy.

There is a scene, however, where Gwen is teaching Clarr to fight. During the shoot, the two actors, Luke and Danielle, almost fell onto each other and started laughing. Ted edited it together and it works as a moment of laughter and fun, as a scene of humor without the viewer laughing at the characters.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, when I watch movies with my wife, we always seem to find a place to laugh. Even in the movie My Girl, there are funny parts, but you know that it is a serious movie. There are times in life that are funny, and we can portray that, but we need to be careful not to make it where the audience is laughing at the movie and not with the movie.

Michael Grant Clark said...

Oh I don't know, the bit with the bees has me laughing my face off. 'Look out Macally!' bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

All of the best dramas have moments of comedy. Goodfellas has some excellent comedy and drama at the same moment.

allen etter said...

Oh yeah. I just need to make sure the comedy is intentional.