In what ways does our film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real comedy films? (Q1)

We stuck to basic convention rules for comedy to illustrate our genre. Our opening had to inform our audience that they were about to watch a comedy film, setting the atmosphere. This is why we used other traits of fellow comedy films to form this information. The music from our opening is funky and uplifting, similar to all other mainstream films targeting the same audience which we are (15-24year olds).

Our characters looked the part; they can easily be compared with other geek trios of the same genre.  

The similarities between both parties of geek are obvious. They all look geeky physically and via their clothing. We have a geek with glasses and a geek who is slightly overweight. Also, we have ‘Tom’ who is ginger, though not related to these geeks he can be compared to ‘Napoleon’ from ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (2004).

Our character ‘Stuart’ also has hair like Napoleon, frizzy and curled what also can connote he is a geek through the physical conventions of comedy.  

Most comedy films show their titles early on within the clip. However, we debated to challenge the stereotypical convention and to show our title at the end of our opening. One other film has done what we intend to, for example ‘Step Brothers’ (2008) also showed the title at the end of its opening, challenging the ‘normal’ method. I cannot find a video of good quality to illustrate this point. However, we chose to put our title after the character Stacey is introduced so the 'girl' from the title 'About a girl' can be understood to be Stacey.

Our opening suggests to the audience that we have sub-genres within our comedy. Stacey connotes this will be a romantic film, leading to a rom-com. The fact she is also a main character instead of an extra highlights she isn’t just present for the male gaze theory but instead that she’ll play a key role in our film, further connoting this film has a romantic sub-genre.  However, due to the age of all four characters we can also connote that this film is a teen comedy, like 'Superbad' (2007) which is the film we drew inspiration from.

‘Superbad’ influenced our film as it has a similar plot to our film as well as it being a huge success.

“Superbad” turned to be very popular in the USA. But, at first, nobody even dared to speak about it possible success, “Superbad” was predicted to be a sleeper hit, but now the situation has completely changed, “Superbad” is a bona fide box-office favorite.

What a shit! A movie produced for less than $20 million with two dubious actors playing main roles “Superbad” became one of the most warmly accepted comedies of the summer 2007! Already in the first week it gathered $33.1 million (box-office gatherings). Although the majority of critics predicted only $25 million (during the whole season).

This article highlights the success of ‘Superbad’ and shows teen comedies are up and rising. This success influenced us to do a similar film to ‘Superbad’ but with a British twist. So we took the teen conventions for example costumes, physical appearance and prop. This stealing of conventions should hopefully guarantee our film will be a success.