In sitcoms, the majority of the comedy comes from how the characters react to the situation. But films don't have as much time to establish those characters. So does film comedy rely more on funny situations rather than the character's reactions or is it the same as sitcoms and just that the writer has less time to establish the characters?
Why do you think you have more time to establish a character in a sitcom?
Personally I think you have to crack on in both disciplines.
From episode 4 onwards you've had more time to establish character. I guess before that it's even.
Yeah - but for the first one to make any sense - especially a pilot - you need to establish the character pretty sharpish.
Not sure we learnt much more about Fawlty, Del Boy, Fletcher, Mainwaring et al that we hadn't learnt in the first 10 pages of Ep. 1
That would the same as two hours in a film, FB? That's a long time not to understand a person's character.
Characters are mostly black and white in films and TV, aren't they? Maybe you are finding characters hard to do?
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 29th March 2017, 5:32 PMMaybe you are finding characters hard to do?
Yeah, well there's that. But, also I was having a think about what the differences are (if any) between comedy in a sitcom and comedy in a feature film.
I think it's why comedy films are hard -certainly straight up comedy - Rom-coms etc are different.
In film there is an expectation of some sort of arc - changes to a character.
But character development is an anathema to Sit-Com - if Frank Spencer learns not be clumsy and how to deal with people the show's a bit f**ked.
Hence the very low strike rate of successful sitcom to movie adaptations.
Quote: FunnyBones @ 29th March 2017, 5:07 PMFrom episode 4 onwards you've had more time to establish character. I guess before that it's even.
If a Sitcom is not funny by episode 4 do you think it would keep its viewers?
Quote: FunnyBones @ 29th March 2017, 5:37 PMYeah, well there's that. But, also I was having a think about what the differences are (if any) between comedy in a sitcom and comedy in a feature film.
In a film the storyline is usua;lly continuous whereas in a sitcom - whilst there are developing storylines - most of the story is within about 24 minutes.