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I've done something like this before and had some interesting discussions, so I wonder if it'll work this time?
I've just bought a rather nice 16mm movie camera and I'm itching to see if I can get it to run. I'm planning on shooting some test footage (about 400 feet, or 12 minutes) indoors to test my cinematography and direction skills. As the film is so expensive, I can't just shoot any old thing (like one might if one were using a video camera), so I hoped to borrow an actor and put together a little one to two minute sketch. Something that could be impeccably lit (so it would need a lot of pre-planning), edited afterwards and might (if it worked) even make a start for a professional showreel.
I found a sketch that I thought would be quite good -- it was
i. short
ii. involves one character
iii. pretty funny (provided you know what interflora is)
iv. has an adaptable location -- any time or place will do
Unfortunately, it is copyrighted, and while when I first found it I was given every reason to believe by the publisher that I might be able to get the rights to use it, unfortunately the author has since died, so it's probably not on the cards any more.
Feel free to read it, but as I don't have the copyright I'll have to take the script down in a couple of days:
http://www.davidjoy.org/phoney%20(ronnie%20barker).html
I could use it anyway, and not distribute it; or use it and leave out the soundtrack (thus making it incomprehensible). But both are terrible restrictions.
What I was wondering, is: is there anyone who would be able to come up with, or suggest an existing comic premise and punchline that I could use for a two hour test shoot? Something fictional and light-hearted that you might have seen or heard of, or have lurking just under the surface somewhere in your brain -- and something that's either public domain (i.e. out of copyright) or has a receptive author. It should have a minimum of actors (not more than one, or at a pinch two), one location (preferably indoors), a minimum of props (nothing more than you'd find in an office or house), and not be more than one or two minutes long. It shouldn't be excessively controversial (otherwise I'd never be able to get actors!) and the characters should preferably be student-aged (18-25).
Ronnie Barker's comedy sketches are great, because he loved word-play and word-play easily transfers itself into very short and to-the-point sketches. The problem with drama is that you are supposed to establish why a character is behaving in a particular way, which means that it can't really be less than three or four minutes, which is why I can't easily do something serious.
Ah, well. It's worth a shot! If you can suggest something I'd be happy to credit you and/or the author at the end of the film, and send you a copy if anything ever comes of it.
If I go to bed now, maybe Father Christmas will have left something in the morning... 
Deeej
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Interpole does not sell flowers.
Find another sketch..... This one is sort of lame.....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Marc:
>Interpole does not sell flowers.
>Find another sketch..... This one is sort of lame.....
(a) I said I was looking for another sketch
(b) I *know* Interpol (not Interpole, unless that's the Polish division of Interpol) does not sell flowers! But Interflora does. Did you see the requirement that you know what Interflora is?
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I just read the sketch.....
It was awful......
Why not write one of your own?
Surely a person with your talents could knock something out.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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I admit it's not Ronnie Barker's greatest sketch, but I found it quite amusing. Word-play appeals to me; perhaps it doesn't to you. And if you didn't know what Interflora was then obviously you wouldn't get the punchline. Having a joke explained to you completely ruins it.
Remember that a lot of the humour comes from the setting and the performance. I wrote a much more complicated screenplay for that script, but I didn't put it up because that's not what I'm looking for: at this stage, I'm just looking for ideas.
And actually, I'm not very good at coming up with comedy. So often people think things are funny that are actually just painful, and I want to avoid that at all costs. I have seen far too many piss-poor student "comedies". You need to have a lot of courage to follow through with ideas that may or may not be funny to anyone else.
I may well end up writing something of my own. However, I was wondering if anyone else could suggest something that was so blisteringly clever that it would elevate a mere test exercise into something worth watching for its own sake.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Why not film a short advertisment?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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The thing about advertisements is that, despite the huge amount of time and money spent developing them, people flick to another channel the moment they come on. Ultimately they are irritating, because the company that they are advertising is trying to swipe your hard-earned cash, usually by a little deception or misrepresentation (though not enough to earn them a ban).
Luckily in the UK we don't see quite as many as you do in America (we only have ad breaks -- on the channels that actually have them -- about once every twenty minutes; I understand you have more?) but ... well, I'm afraid they have to have had millions of pounds spent on them before people will even consider watching. Something that presents itself as a short film is likely to hold someone's attention much better. All the more so if it's only one minute long.
That's not to say that adverts never have artistic merit, though. The Guiness adverts are usually very nicely shot (do you get them where you are?). And the more adventurous adverts tell a little story of their own that is not necessarily anything to do with the product they are trying to sell. There's a lot one can learn from the concise storytelling techniques they use.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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We don't get Guinnes advertisments here......
Hell, it's hard enuf to find Guinnes in a local bar (pub).
Gawd..... we are so uncivilized sometimes....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... or do I mean wandering? Damn this senility!
Ronnie Barker was indeed one of the greatest comic writers of the last quarter of the last century, as well as being an immensely successful and talented comic actor - but his humour was quintessetially British, and probably didn't travel well. I suppose his piece de resistance is the four candles / fork handles sketch, but my personal favourite was the Spoonerist address - it almost literally gave me a hernia!
I did try to respond to your post last night, but the site went off air at around 3 a.m. and didn't return before my eyelids hit the floor. What I wanted to say was that Ronnie will have a literary executor with the power to grant copyright licences, and in the circumstances you mention I doubt wheter you'd have any difficulty in obtaining the required permission. The 'publisher' with whom you are in contact should have the necessary details, but if he isn't co-operative do the obvious thing and ask Ronnie Corbett for guidance!
And don't forget that unless the copyright licence specifies otherwise you can amend or extend the original as long as you acknowledge the source.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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I have to say that once the requirement to know what Interflora was, the punchline was obvious, AND, it has to be said amusing. Being a fan of the Two Ronnies, I guess I'm used to their humour, so to me it was quite amusing.
As Cossie says, it must be quite possible to get a dispensation for using the sketch from the sources he suggests. If Ronnie Barker's one time agent were still alive, (he used to live just round the corner at the bottom end of our lane), I would have gone and enquired for you.
Mike
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