Categories
|
Archives
January 2021
|
|
1/18/2021 0 Comments Music- What Are Clefs? If you remember from an earlier post about how to read pitch and rhythm, when the notes move up the page, the pitch gets higher and the letter names go in alphabetical order (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). When the notes move down the page, the pitch gets lower and the letter names go in reverse alphabetical order (G, F, E, D, C, B, A). If you remember, no matter the letter name of the first note, the names of the lines and spaces are constant; they do not change, but what tells us that the lowest line is always E and the top line is always F is the clef symbol.  The most common clef symbol is the treble clef. It is also called the G clef because the line inside the circle part of the symbol is the note G. This clef works best for higher notes. This is the clef read by the right hand of keyboard players, flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone, trumpet, horn, violin, guitar, xylophone, glockenspiel, and many other higher pitched instruments. When you see this treble clef symbol, the bottom line is always E and the top line is always F. That’s why it is important to check the symbol, but once you do, you know the names of the lines and spaces will not change.  The next most common clef is the bass clef. This clef is also called the F clef because the name of the line between the two dots is F. For bass clef, the name of the lowest line is G and the highest line is A. But the notes going up the page still move in alphabetical order and notes going down move in reverse alphabetical order. As long as there is a bass clef at the beginning of the piece, the names of the lines and spaces stay the same. The lowest instruments read bass clef including bassoon, bass clarinet, trombone, tuba, cello, bass, and timpani. Other instruments go across treble and bass clefs depending on the range of the instrument they are playing. These include many keyboard instruments like piano, organ, harpsichord, and pitched percussion like marimba.  Beyond the two most common clefs, we have the movable C clef. The name comes from the fact that the arrow looking part indicates that line is C. When the middle line is C, it is called the alto clef. This is what viola players read exclusively. Same idea- letters move up alphabetically and down in reverse alphabetically.  If the C clef moves up so that the second line down is C, it is now the Tenor clef. But you guessed it, once you know where C is, the notes move up alphabetically and down reverse alphabetically. I am not aware of any instrument that only reads tenor clef, but if playing for prolonged periods in the upper range cello, bassoon, and trombone will use tenor clef.
The best way to get used to reading in different clefs is just repetition. I recommend getting confident with treble and bass clefs before you explore alto clef, unless you play viola. The reason that we use different clefs is so that instruments of different pitch ranges can most often play notes that fit within the staff and are not always playing notes above or below the staff. It would be difficult for a trombone or an instrument in a similar range to read notes that were all below the treble clef, they would go so far below the staff that they would really not be readable, not to mention that they would be printed over the next staff down on the page. All of this may seem complicated, but be thankful that each instrument doesn’t have it’s own clef!
0 Comments
 There are three main phases to filmmaking (pre-production, production, and post-production), a fourth could be distribution at the end if you consider that separate from post-production. Pre-Production Pre-production is everything that happens before the cameras start recording. For a large studio, it would begin with a story pitch or a script submission from a writer. For a small, independent filmmaker, this phase begins with an idea for a story. Don’t get carried away too soon. An idea is exciting. Flesh it out into a two or three page draft and see if the story is workable. Next, you will want to check your idea against what already exists. You don’t want to write an entire screenplay and then realize that you had actually seen it before and it’s The Godfather. If you remember anything from this article, let it be this: the more work and preparation you can do during pre-production, the less work you will have to do during production and post-production. As you work on the story, start by thinking of the biggest ideas before moving to the smaller ideas. Think of the general 5 act structure- introduction, action begins, complications, climax, and aftermath. In the first draft, you can write anything and do not worry about limitations. Do not worry about character names or dialogue. If the general structure of the story does not work, you will be wasting your time writing dialogue. Take it one step at a time. One tendency that many writers seem to have is if the basic skeleton isn’t good, that adding more and more scenes will fix it. This is not a good solution. Instead of a small mess, you end up with a bloated mess. I’m saying this from experience. If a scene is not working, it is better to cut that scene than to try to write three more scenes to make up for the bad scene. The quality over quantity rule is true. You will know the story itself is solid when every part is absolutely necessary and complements every other part. Necessary meaning that each part forwards the plot and builds the characters. If a scene or a sequence does not forward the plot or develop characters, it is probably safe to cut it. When writing a screenplay, take it one step at a time. Do not worry about set design, camera angles or other details until the story and characters are solid. Those details can be added once you have everything else exactly the way it needs to be. Do not be afraid to have trusted mentors and other filmmakers critique your script. I know there is a fear that someone will steal your ideas, but then they aren’t really a friend if that happens. If you get too close to your own work, it is hard to step back and honestly evaluate something. Someone else can help you if the story is not clear (remember they cannot read the character’s thoughts as you, the creator, can). If it is not clear to someone critiquing the script, it will not be clear to the viewer once filmed. In terms of technical difficulty, do not be afraid of the reach of your story. Complex set pieces or situations can sometimes be solved simply. A planet with 6 months of total darkness just needs to be filmed at night. A story taking place in an 84 story building just needs a still image establishing shot before interior scenes. Once, and only when, the script is complete, there are many other aspects to the pre-production phase. Some go in order and others can be happening simultaneously (depending on the size of your crew). Ordered events would include storyboarding the shots (there is now software to assist with this if you are not confident with your drawing ability or have a friend willing to draw), blocking out camera and light positions, character positions, etc. Other items that could be happening at various times is auditioning actors, location scouting (including asking business and property owners' permission to film at their location), designing and building sets, collecting props, designing and making costumes, designing makeup and hair (actors would probably need to be chosen first), being sure you have the lighting, camera, and sound equipment that you need, and other details.  Production Again, everything must be planned before this phase begins. Out of the three phases, production is the phase that you do not want to waste any time. If you are renting space or equipment, you may be charged by the day. Members of the crew and performers could be paid by the day (or hour). As the person in charge (we are assuming for this article), have everything that can be set up ready the night before the shoot if you have access to the set then. If not, get to the set as early as possible and schedule at least 1 hour for yourself to be there before any crew and at least 2 hours before any performers would arrive. This time will pay off later. Be sure that your crew knows exactly how to do each task that is required of them before it needs to be done. You don’t want to have to do everything yourself. A little bit of training for a crewmember makes your life easier. Murphy’s Law tells us that you have to plan for the worst to happen. This is when creativity and true artistry can be expressed. If you had planned on a three camera setup and one camera malfunctions, you need to be able to decide in the moment how to compensate. With enough experience, you will be able to see the potential finished shots in your head and adjust accordingly. Trust your instincts and trust your crew. It will take less time to review your takes after an entire scene than to wait and check each shot one at a time. Patience, kindness, and professionalism are key qualities during production. You may be hot, tired, and hungry the entire time, but you continue to smile and encourage everyone else. Hold people accountable for their specific tasks but do not get upset with someone when in a situation that is outside of their control, it will not help move things along. When you predict how long it will take to shoot what you need at a given location, always add an hour to that. If you think you can film all the office building scenes in 8 hours, schedule for 9 just so people are not ticked off when they have to stay later. Psychologically, it is a much better feeling to finish something before schedule than having to stay late. This tip sounds silly, but be sure you capture everything you possibly need at a location or with a specific performer before you leave that location or tell a performer that they are all set. It’s a pain in the butt to realize when editing that you are missing a key piece of dialogue. Do everything you can to capture good sound while you are at the location, including room tone for the dead space between dialogue. Dubbing in post-production is always an option, but if it is not needed, that is terrific too.  Post-Production A lot of people may tell you that this is when the film is really made. If you are not a confident and experienced editor yourself, find someone whose style you like and who you can trust to deliver a product on a timetable. There are pros and cons to editing yourself or having an outside editor. You probably have an idea of how the film should flow if you wrote the script, but you may become so attached to one shot, that you are not willing to sacrifice it for the good of the overall project. Editing is much more than cutting out the bad parts and squishing the good parts together. Depending on how much camera coverage you had during production, there can be almost limitless choices available when working on each scene. You may even edit the same scene two different ways and have a small test audience tell you which is more effective. Just like writing the script, editing can be done from big idea to small detail. Get the shots in a logical order for each scene, connect scenes together into a sequence, and finally an overall flow for the entire film. Always use the most capable computer that you have for editing, but even with that, I recommend creating a separate project for each sequence while at this first-cut stage. Even the best computers and graphic processors can get bogged down when trying to store an entire movie in one project if you are just working on a 10 minute chunk. Many beginners with computer editing see all the different options for transition effects and think they have to use at least one per scene. The big idea with a transition is it should not be noticeable. There are all kinds of wipes, dissolves, swirling waves, etc. but if you are not careful they will scream “THIS IS A TRANSITION”. Direct cuts to new establishing shots are the most common transition in both films and television and can work very well when you know how to use them. Do not do anything in terms of sound effects, music, or visual effects, until you have the first draft cut of the edit ready. You do not want to waste a composer’s time (and your money) writing music to line up with a scene that is later cut or trimmed. Just like the script, the edit must be really solid before you move on to the next step. I recommend getting your composer on board at the beginning of post production so they know the overall feel of the film, but do not have them start to write specific cues until you have the rest of the sound mix (dialogue, specific effects, foley, and ambience) ready. You may find that music is not needed in a specific sequence if the sound is telling the story on its own. If you do not have a separate sound editor, you may want to ask others to critique your use of sound. You may be so excited that you found just the right sound for a shot only for someone else to admit that no one chewing would ever be that loud. Foley is sound that is recorded to match specific actions. The ambient sounds may be the most important for realism. Nothing reminds the viewer “THIS IS FAKE” until the sound completely cuts out in between lines of dialogue. Environmental sounds and room tone always continue even when they are barely perceptible. If you have someone else working on the visual effects, they can begin once you are sure that every effect requested is absolutely necessary. Even if you are doing the effects yourself, do not waste your time working on shots that may not be necessary to the plot or able to be rendered believable. The music may be the last stage of post-production. Be really careful to select someone that understands what kind of sound you desire. A neo-noir detective story may sound really stupid if you hire someone that specializes in bluegrass music. Your medieval epic may not work if you have a jazz pianist recording the soundtrack. Great filmmakers know when to use music and how to use music. There are many great texts and articles on film music and I suggest you pursue them before this stage of the film. If any of this article sticks with you, please let it be to finish the script before you do anything else. You don’t want to spend 13 years working on the same film like I did :)   “Standard” music notation, as we know it today, arrived at its current form, more or less, during Bach’s lifetime (early 1700s). One big reason for this was that before the 1700s, keyboard instruments were not tuned in even or equal temperament meaning that not all half steps sounded the same. Before this, the difference between C and C# did not sound the same as the difference between F and F#. Once keyboards were tuned so that every half step was equal, a player could play a piece in any key and the scale degrees in relation to each other would be the same. This means that music could be transposed, or moved up and down to different keys in order to better accommodate a singer’s or instrument’s range. Soon after, we see horns that have valves and woodwinds with more keys to be able to play chromatically, or by half steps in every key. Our symbols of music notation tell us the pitch of each note (the letter name), the length of each note (which we call rhythm), changes in dynamics over time, how notes should be “attacked” with articulations, and the key of the music (flats and sharps that result from the starting note of the scale). For other information we rely on numbers (time signature), letters (dynamics for sections, chords) or a combination of words and numbers (expression descriptions, tempo, etc). Without understanding the system, someone familiar with the style of music being written would be able to see the basic beat structure in each measure and whether the notes are moving higher or lower, regardless of knowing the letter names or specifically what the rhythmic symbols mean. Notice how a knowledge of what sound the symbols represent is a prerequisite. Without knowing the sound, the symbols are meaningless. It’s like trying to understand symbols that represent a forgotten language, if you are not sure how the spoken language sounded, the symbols would not help.  Try singing this song! Immediately, one can see how written notation can be a barrier to someone who never learned to read it. Even with knowing the definition of each symbol, the style of the music will change it. For example, eighth notes in jazz may be written as eighth notes, but intended to be played as a “long-short” swing pattern. Knowing how the eighth notes should sound in other styles would not help unless the reader were familiar with the style of jazz. Another rule-breaker is the entire concept of rubato, very common in many styles since the 19th century. Rubato describes the subtle slowing and quickening of the tempo regardless of what the overall pulse of the piece is. Often this is indicated with the word rubato and not any change in the symbols used. Another shortfall of our notation system is it really only works for Western music. If, like me, you have ever tried to transcribe a traditional Indian piece, you will soon notice that their rhythms and pitches do not fit into our symbols, or rather, our notation system was not made for Indian music. Traditional Indian scales use quarter steps (between the space of two half steps). Western listeners have a very difficult time identifying these and not hearing them as wrong notes. The Indian rhythmic system is actually based on ragas. A piece may use Raga A, Raga C, and Raga M (I made up these labels). In other words, each rhythm pattern is a different idea, not made of smaller divisions or larger combinations of the beat. Many traditional styles of African music are very difficult to reproduce rhythmically in Western notation. The issue one runs into is the Western idea of a time signature. When music is more or less steady, it helps to have beats grouped by measures with time signatures. Of course, later Western classical music did use changing meters or changing time signatures, but it still does not capture the pulse of multilayered rhythms that we find in many African styles. Just like any language, written notation has its shortcomings. As musicians, we need to remember that written notation is a tool--a wonderful tool that can open many doors to explore other styles of music, but the symbols on the page are not music in themselves. The music comes from a person interpreting those symbols. When I introduce composition to my youngest students, I do not require them to write in standard notation. Some of them choose to follow it fairly closely, others create their own, equally valid, system, and others use a hybrid of familiar notes and their own way of interpreting them. The only requirement I use is that the student should be able to explain their system and teach it to a classmate. I even had a student once write rhythms for bongos. Not only did the student have a way to know the pattern he was playing but also a way to identify which bongo he was playing, something that is more difficult in standard notation unless the first measure has high bongo and low bongo labelled using text. I write this article simply to encourage us to reconsider what many of us grow up learning may not be the only legitimate way to record sound on paper. We also must reconsider that reading standard notation may not be the only correct way to learn and to understand music. In many music schools, students are not accepted into the program if they cannot read standard Western notation. Once I completed music school and began to make music with musicians that learned in ways other than myself, I had the privilege to make music with many people that learn music by ear.  Two ways to notate the same music. Learning music by ear is not a deficiency as many would lead students to believe. Music is an aural art form and I have found that those that rely more on their ear than their eye can often respond and react more quickly.
Musicians that do not read standard Western notation are not musically illiterate. They may in fact be reading something, just written a different way. There have been many very successful musicians that solely read chord symbols. If you are not familiar with chord symbols- with just a couple of letters or note names, the experienced player knows which notes to play and based on the alignment of the chord symbols over the lyrics, when to change chords. By only showing the changes, this can often give players much input for the rhythm of the chord repetitions between changes. Although the letter system of chords comes from Jazz. Even in the 1600s-1700s, there was a system of chord shorthand known as figured bass. The bassline would be written out in standard notation and the harmonies would be implied by the figured bass symbols. Other forms of notation work especially well for string instruments like bass, guitar, and ukulele. Fretboard diagrams show the player where to put their fingers on the strings and sometimes even number the dots to show which finger to use. Similar to this, tablature shows the strings of the instrument themselves and which fret of the instrument (no fingers down would be 0) to press on that string. Fretboards and tablature are most helpful when the player already has an idea of the beat or rhythm of the piece. As you can see, standard Western notation has been well developed for very specific instructions and helps musicians to share ideas without hearing something first, but it is not the only way to write and to share musical ideas. If we can expand our thinking on how we share music, we open the experience of playing and creating music to more people. Please share your thoughts in the comments.  Listening can often become a rather passive activity. That is not entirely a bad thing in the scope of life. Sometimes having music playing and just being is great. However, in the structure of a music class, it is rare that we want listening to be a completely passive activity. Expecting students, especially the youngest learners, to sit completely still and silent for several minutes while they listen to a piece of music can be unreasonable. Instead, there are degrees of active things that students can do while listening.  One idea that a lot of different companies have published are called listening maps. Often, they go with classical pieces, but the idea can be easily developed for other styles of music as well. The listening maps have a visual for students to focus on that usually traces the form, instrumentation, and texture of a piece. When the sound changes, the visual changes. A variation on this idea is to have students raise their hand, hold up fingers, or another physical sign when they hear a specific thing happen in the music. I like to use this when the piece we are listening to has some type of repeated melody like a fugue. Every time the students hear the theme start again they raise their hand. Keep in mind that fugues do not simply have to be from the Baroque era of Bach and Handel. A couple that I have found work well is “The Shark Cage Fugue” from the Jaws soundtrack and “Going The Distance” from the Rocky soundtrack. Continuing with the visual element. For some pieces, watching a video performance of an orchestra, choir, or band may help to add a concrete, human element to something that is abstract. Listening activities like this can easily be connected to a unit on vocal range or instrument families.  The next category of active listening is different movements that can help with listening activities. To start simply, students can pat or tap the beat that they hear. This is especially good when the piece has tempo that gets faster or slower over time or stops suddenly. To add some variety to this, handheld rhythm instruments can be used. If you have a good enough sound system, students can use rhythm sticks, maracas, hand drums and still be able to hear the recording. For exploring melodic contour or dynamic shape, having students trace the shape in the air with their hands can be useful. For slightly older students, basic conducting patterns can be used in much the same way. When older students get confident with simpler conducting patterns, it can actually help them to feel the organization of beats within a piece. The most complex level of movement while listening can be full dances. Dancing is a natural activity that all young students seem to enjoy. When they get older, some get self-conscious, so modifying dance activities can help all students to feel comfortable. I like to do a balance of “free dancing”- meaning that students decide how they move based on what they hear and “structured dancing” in which students follow a set of steps like a line dance, circle dance, or ballroom patterns.  Like with any activity, I make sure to establish procedures for safe dancing from the beginning. The basic expectations that I use all have to do with safety: stay in your own space (so not moving all around the room; occasionally we will plan a conga line); keep all body parts to yourself, and keep feet on the floor (it is amazing how many students want to lay on the floor during dancing time and this is just asking for fingers to get stepped on). Once you establish the procedures and review them several times, dancing time comes with the expectations automatically.
One game that students of many ages love is freeze dance. This is a good way to guide students to listen to patterns if you pause the music at specific points. The students freeze when the music is paused and dance when the music plays. It is also interesting to pause the music at unexpected times like in the middle of a phrase and discuss why pauses during a phrase sound wrong. A variation on freeze dance is hot potato, which works well for long pieces. I usually have a soft object that students pass from one to the next. Just like with the dancing expectations, we review procedures of not throwing the object before ever doing it. When using simple modifications like ones I have mentioned, students are still listening to music (and may listen to pieces that last 5-10 minutes long), but feel like they are not just listening as their minds and bodies are active the entire time. I have found these activities are very successful and often, students look forward to them. 12/21/2020 0 Comments Profile- Jaws Jaws is quite possibly my favorite movie. The plot is so simple and has been imitated hundreds of times, but no imitation has ever come close to the original. In terms of film history, it is probably the second blockbuster after the Godfather three years earlier and the breakthrough first success for director Steven Speilberg. Speilberg is probably still the best known director in the world 50 years after he started. Speilberg comes from the generation of filmmakers that trained via film school. Earlier generations of filmmakers worked their way up to director and producer often through the apprentice model. An eager filmmaker would begin as an assistant, and learn the trade. Of course, the older generation of filmmakers that had “put in their time” did not immediately embrace the new, university-trained filmmakers. One thing that the older and younger generation of filmmakers and viewers could all agree on was that Jaws is a great film. The structure of Jaws is basically two parts. The first takes place on the island with a series of shark attacks. The second part takes place on the boat with the three protagonists trying to find and kill the shark. The part that audiences seem to remember best and the majority of the marketing hype comes from the first part, yet it is the second part that has more character interactions and subjective, or character-driven drama.  While Amity is not a real island, the film was made at Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Cape Cod. My grandparents lived on the southern coast of Cape Cod for about 20 years and growing up, I would spend a lot of time there in the summer. I do not know for certain, but I can imagine that the filmmakers did not have to change or exaggerate much to get the Cape Cod feel of a small, tourism dependent town and the chaos of tourists coming off ferries. When I was about 15, I got to travel to Martha’s Vineyard and see the original movie locations, which was quite an exciting trip for me. One of the aspects of the film that still makes it hold up today is the fact that the shark is not seen for most of the film. What today is acknowledged as brilliant withholding of the shark in the spirit of sustaining suspense, was actually done due to technical difficulties. A large mechanical shark was built for the production, which the crew dubbed “Bruce”. The shark would work brilliantly out of water, but when it would be placed in the water, it broke down so many times that Speilberg was starting to worry if the film could be made at all. That’s when the idea came to barely show the shark. But this detail was not enough to make the film the classic that it became. The music of John Williams is as much to credit in the building of suspense as what we see on the screen. The basis of the Jaws theme is so simple, just two alternating notes a half step apart with a third lower note to provide accents. Williams has said that his inspiration for the simplicity of the theme was the primitive hunting instincts of the shark. While the rhythm of the theme is inspired by heartbeats with a pulse that gets faster and faster. For the first few attacks, the viewer never sees any part of the shark. The only way the viewer knows that the shark is present is the music and the reactions of characters. It is about an hour into the film before the viewer even sees the shark fin. Arguably, the part of the film that breaks the illusion of realism is at the very end, when the shark climbs onto the back of the boat and its movements are more mechanical than they are organic. Even so, the textured look of the mechanical shark still holds up much better than computer generated sharks of even high-quality imitations like Deep Blue Sea.  Although the characters of police chief Brody, marine biologist Hooper, and fisherman Quint are introduced before they board the boat together, it is when it is only the three on the boat that we get to know the characters best. The contrast between them is what makes it so believable when they have to work together. The educated Hooper acts on logic and scientific reasoning. He sees the shark as something to be studied. The working class Quint acts on instinct and personal experience. He sees the shark as a bounty or a job. Brody, who is afraid of water, and insists they get a bigger boat, is the balance between the two extremes. The function between them works as if they are different aspects of the same character.
In the years and decades that followed, the legacy of Jaws has been spoiled by three poor sequels and almost infinite imitators that feature not only sharks, but orcas, squid, piranhas, alligators, and sharknados… It is difficult for modern viewers to watch the original Jaws without the backstory of all the ripoffs lingering. If you can let go of the poor shark movies that you have seen, Jaws is a thrilling and moving experience. I still am not crazy about swimming in the ocean. That effect is fine filmmaking at its best.  The origins of film comedy began with the birth of humankind. Comedy appeared the first time someone tripped over a log, the first time one person performed an impression of another, or the first time someone did something foolish and looked around to make sure that no one had seen it. Freud had explained how comedy is an alternative to repression of thoughts and actions that are taboo. Instead of holding back, comedy rewards an outward display of forbidden subjects through the safe expression of laughter. The comic character as an outsider—one that exists within society, but is not necessarily a part of it, is a common theme that recurs throughout the different eras of comedy. Perhaps the human tendency to seek heroes and role models is what draws people to many non-comic presentations. Throughout history the same comic characters, as well as similar situations and themes recur in notable comedies and across art forms—as some of the common threads that I have already mentioned that appear to be constant across many subgenres of comedy. Film reviewers and scholars form opinions about what makes a good film and what does not—often on the basis of critics and scholars of the past who have researched other forms of comedy. As I guide the reader through the various eras of comic presentation and comic theory, it will become apparent that critical views of particular comic works change over time, from favorable to unfavorable and vice versa. The section headings that I have chosen are a general way of demarcating different eras and distinct forms. For some sections, terms within the heading may pertain to different cultures or different artistic media in different ways, which the subheadings should clarify. Classical Comedy (Greece: 600~250 BC; Rome: 250 BC~100 AD) The first records of comedy and theories of comedy come from about 2,500 years ago. From the earliest examples of comic plays, one can see the foundations for contemporary film comedy. Since its birth, comedy has been the enjoyable, yet less praised sibling of Tragedy. One important thing to understand about the first comedies is that they began as private exhibitions for the wealthy, much like Classical music of the Eighteenth Century. Only later did playwrights present comedies for the public, a change that critically marks a shift in favor of comedy, recontextualized for the masses. We will see this difference once again when we examine film comedy specifically, for some films seem to appeal only to critics while some capture audiences and disappoint critics. Certainly, presentations of comedy occurred across the world before the first records in ancient Greece, but unfortunately, it is impossible to analyze directly the ancient comedies that have continued through oral tradition. Traditionally, we separate the styles of Classical comedy into Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy During this period, intellectuals began to write about comedy. Already, different styles of comic characters appear. One is the clumsy buffoon that does not fit within the society—a pariah. It is important to realize, however, that in Ancient Greece, it would have been more respectable to exist in society as someone to be mocked than to face exile from the society. Another is the more refined character that relies on verbal rather than physical comedy. The reader may note that the comic character did not exist for its own purpose, but rather as an obstacle to test the hero—an almost proto-taboo figure. In addition to these two distinct comic types, we also find the first examples of the “straight-man”. The straightman serves to contrast with the comic characters so that the audience may have a point of reference by which to judge how funny the comic characters are. Aristophanes (ca. 446-386 BC) was the most prolific comic writer from this time period. However, his works did not find universal acceptance. His social criticism of Greek society actually caused him trouble. Scholars praise Aristophanes for the sentimental qualities of his comedies that he is able to elicit, much in the same way that they praise Chaplin. Both artists show that touching moments need not be removed from comedy. Aristophanes was one of the first playwrights to explore the potential of parody. Parody finds a source of comedy in mocking an original serious idea, instead of creating an original idea. Aristophanes assumes his audience has prior knowledge of the original work that he parodies. Middle Comedy After Aristophanes, Greek Comedy entered its second stage, now known as Middle Comedy. No major comic works of this period that will later influence film comedy vary from the conventions previously established in Old Comedy. However, during this time period, philosophers began to theorize about comedy and to create philosophies of comedy. By far the leading philosopher of this time period when it comes to many things, Aristotle never actually created a theory of comedy as he did for tragedy. New Comedy The New Comedy works present us with something drastically different from the Old and Middle Comedy. While plays hearkening back to the style of Old Comedy still existed, just as films in that style still exist, New Comedy presented a formula that clearly demarcated it from the qualities of the other styles of comedy. It is important for the reader to realize that this style of New Comedy did not end with Ancient Greece. Many scholars would argue that New Comedy never really died. It certainly can be found in many of the comedies of Shakespeare, the operas of Mozart, the films of Lubitsch and Cukor, and in the Screwball Comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. Litterateurs credit Menander (ca. 341-290 BC), the most prolific comedy writer of Greek New Comedy, with giving women a higher place in comedy. Throughout history, especially in the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, as well as in the Screwball Comedies, we find comedies in which a female character is no longer the object of comedy, but rather the instigator of comedy. The role of a female protagonist as a controller of the comedy is another theme that recurs across eras and subgenres of comedy. The fact that comedy allows for strong female characters also reminds us that comedy allows for what may be seditious topics at the time, such as women holding positions of authority in the Ancient World. Comedy only truly works when the audience expects to encounter a comedy. However, a joke can only work if the punch line is unexpected. As Menander’s Misanthrope teaches us, and so many film comedies echo, one must understand the conventions of comedy in order to appreciate comedy fully.  Roman Comedy Plautus was the first great Roman comedian. The key to understanding the negative attitude towards Plautus has to do with the fact that he wrote many of his plays for the purpose of receiving income, instead of for strictly artistic reasons. The commercial appeal/ aesthetic appeal debate is as old as art criticism itself and is most definitely still a factor for films. Plautus was extremely popular with audiences of the time. Time and again we see comedy as a way to safely criticize one’s own society.
Succeeding Plautus, Terence (Anglicized from Terentius) was highly influenced by the Greek comedies and became one of the most prolific Roman writers of comedy. One can see that ancient critics recognized the merits of comedy. Of the two Roman playwrights profiled here, Terence is closest in style to Menander. Throughout the different eras, we see how multiple styles of comedy enrich one another in any given era. For example, one could never confuse the comic style of Groucho Marx with that of Cary Grant. Regardless of which writer one may favor personally, scholars concede that both men created a style that succeeded and went on to influence later styles and eventually film comedies. The different comic approaches used by Plautus and Terence, helped to lay the foundations of the different subgenres of film comedy that exist today. Many scholars credit the writers of New Comedy in creating the conventions of romantic comedies, or what became the Screwball Comedies in the mid-1930s. Even in Ancient Rome, the comedy of manners became something distinctly different from the physical comedy, now known as slapstick. The zany situations and fast-paced banter define the former style, just as the pratfalls characterize the latter. While the contrast between these comic styles becomes even more apparent with the films of the early sound era, it began in ancient times. In every art form, one finds that innovation occurs in two ways: an artist choosing to expand upon the foundations set down by another, or an artist reacting against the foundations set down by another, instead deciding to travel in a new direction. In this way, Classical comedy has influenced the comedies of every subsequent era, whether writers wished to follow in the Classical model or wished to avoid it. Comedy draws from real life—one reason why the same or similar gag can elicit laughter for a millennium. Gags seen in nearly every film comedy have their roots in earlier eras.  I have written this article to serve two purposes, either to get you more confident with understanding standard notation, if you are not yet confident, or as a way in which notation can be taught to others. I will start with very broad concepts and then address more specifics or exceptions to rules. Two of the most basic elements of music that can be represented through notation are pitch --how high and low the notes are; which can also be thought of as letter names, keys on a keyboard, finger position on a string instrument, etc-- and rhythm-- the organization of sound through time. We will start with pitch. Pitch In our Western system of music, there are only 12 letter names. Each of these 12 notes is the same amount of space apart (we call this a half step). Since the letter names are only A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, the other notes in between would have the same letter name with a half step higher called a sharp (#) and a half step lower called a flat (b). These 12 pitches can be read on the music staff, a background of 5 lines and 4 spaces. On a typical note, when the circle part of the note moves higher up on the page, the pitch goes higher, and the next letter name up would move forward in alphabetical order. From line to the next space and space to the next line, we move up by one letter. So if our bottom line is E, the rest of the spaces and lines would be F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F at the top line. It is exactly the opposite situation moving down the page, the lower the circle, the lower the pitch and we go in reverse alphabetical order. The nice thing is that the names of the lines of the spaces stay the same no matter where the notes move.  That is the basics of pitches! Knowing this, you can follow the up and down contour of a melody even if you do not know the exact letter name in the moment, you can see whether each note is higher or lower than the note before it. Now, on to rhythm. Rhythm As I said above, rhythm is the way we organize sound through time. No matter how high or low the circle part of the note is, that does not affect how the rhythm is written. You have probably noticed that when looking at music, some notes have circles that are colored in, some have a single line attached, some appear to be two notes attached together, and there are even notes with no lines. That’s a lot to remember. Over time, you will be able to recognize and remember how each note looks, but there is another way to figure out the basic rhythm of a phrase. When you look at a piece of music you will notice that there are lines that go down through the staff and seem to separate groups of notes. This is no accident. Depending on how many beats are in a measure of music (the space between two lines), every group of beats will be separated by one of these barlines.  But how do we know how many beats are supposed to be in a measure? Look at the very beginning of the music, the top left. You will see two numbers, that look like a fraction. For now, we will just worry about the top number. If you see a 4 on the top, it means that the quarter note gets the one beat.  If you see 4 of these in a measure, it means the counting is simply 1 2 3 4 and the next measure begins again with 1. In this way, it doesn’t matter how many notes are in the piece total, each measure starts again with 1.
Without memorizing the names of eighth notes, half notes, whole notes and more, for well formatted music we can think of the amount of space that each note or group of notes takes up. If you see two notes in the space of one quarter note, it means they are each half the value of the quarter note (1 2 and 3 4). If you see a note that seems to be taking up more of the measure than one quarter note, it could be a 2 beat note (1 2 3 -) or if there is only 1 other quarter note left in the measure of 4, then it would be a 3 beat note (1 - - 4). You don’t have to know the exact definition of each rhythm symbol, just see how many beats should be in a measure and how many notes are written in a measure. If there are very few notes in a measure, the music will sound slower. If there are quite a lot of notes in a measure, the music will sound faster. You do not have to know everything about pitch and rhythm to be able to follow the basic structure of written notation. Hopefully these few tips can help. Please let me know if you have questions!  One of the best ways to set a great tone for class and to build relationships with students is to be at the entrance to your classroom as students arrive. It is also one of the simplest actions you can take. Even if things get chaotic before a class and you aren’t as setup as you hoped you would be, spending just a couple minutes greeting each student is worth your time. I am fortunate that in my music room, there is a long ramp that leads to the classroom door so I can see students arriving from quite a distance. Unless a group of students is held up in a previous class, usually they arrive at a manageable pace so that I can greet each of them by name. Saying someone’s name when you greet them has a great psychological effect on anyone. At the beginning of the year, when there are some students that you are just getting to know, the doorway greeting is a great time to either remember their names or ask “remind me of your name, please”. If you have students as their first class of the day, a nice greeting can really start off their day with a positive first impression.  Another great benefit of greeting students at this time is to ask them about things they have told you about from outside of class. For example, if a student told you they were going to have a soccer tournament last weekend, ask them how it went. If a student won a spelling bee the day before, congratulate them as they arrive. There is also nothing wrong with asking them how something related to class is going. Ask them how the note they are working on with their instrument is going. If they had a chance to listen to the example you shared, etc. Greeting time is also a good time to remind one or more students about class procedures and expectations. If a student seemed to be talking out of turn a lot during the previous class, remind them of the expectation to be called upon before speaking. Don’t do this in a threatening way, but more of a collaboration between student and teacher to maintain a respectful class environment. For my youngest students, I will often remind each one of them as they enter to walk to their assigned spot (I often use velcro numbered spots to assign places for the youngest learners). But because I am greeting them at the door, this procedure becomes one of making contact with students and not just telling them where to go. Think of it as hosting a fancy dinner party and inviting a guest to sit.  The space right outside the door where you are greeting students can also be a space if a student needs to take a break. If a student arrives to class upset about something and they do not wish to speak to you about it or go visit the school counselor, you can invite them to sit or stand right outside the classroom entrance until they feel ready to join class. This way, you can still keep an eye on them but they do not feel like everyone is staring at them.
If there is a task that you would like all students to do like fill out a survey, sign a thank you note, take an item, you can have a small table set up right outside or inside the classroom door. It is funny but I will sometimes literally put a table in the walkway so that students have to walk into it in order to forget to do what is on the table. These are just some of the ways that greeting students at the door can help to build a stronger classroom environment. It is a super simple action that can go along way to building positive relationships with learners. 11/23/2020 0 Comments Profile: Manos: Hands of Fate Today, I share with you one of my favorite movies. Unlike many enjoyable movies, nothing about Manos: Hands of Fate is good. I can critique it, since I have made several of my own cheesy movies. Just start with the title. If you are bilingual in Spanish and English, you know that the tile is really Hands: The Hands of Fate. The story of its production is something that I couldn’t make up. Hal Warren, the filmmaker, was a fertilizer salesman. Somehow, he met Stirling Silliphant, the screenwriter of In The Heat of the Night. He thought it was a great film, but he bet Silliphant that he could make his own movie for less money… much less money. He wrote the script himself and hired local theater performers to be the stars. He saved the coveted role of “Mike” for himself. To create the scary atmosphere of the film, many of the outdoor scenes were filmed at night. In order to see the action, he had to rent huge lights. The downside to these lights is that many bugs were attracted to them and the lights were so close to the camera that most of the nighttime scenes had bugs flying in and out of the shot. But I guess this was appropriate for the satanic, lord of the flies, cult feeling that Warren was going for.  The film’s opening sequence is breathtaking--in the form of a yawn. It appears that the scenes of driving were meant to be a backdrop to the title sequence, but after “Manos: The Hands of Fate” appears, there are no other words that appear. Just endless scenes of the people in the car (who we don’t know yet) driving around while sexy saxophone music plays. I would say it is about 10 minutes into the movie that we hear the first dialogue and the characters admit that they are lost, so they sing Row Your Boat to pass the time. After passing a whole bunch of signs that tell them where various destinations are, they decide the best course of action is to stop at a rundown shack. For fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that first saw Manos on that show (like me), this is when the movie really starts, with the introduction of Torgo. His name does work in the canon of evil sidekick names like Lobo, Igor, and Mongo. But he could also fit in with Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx. I have read that it was Warren’s intention that Torgo be only part human and maybe part goat?? Supposedly someone designed this contraption that would make it look like Torgo’s knees bent from the back. However, the actor playing Torgo wore the contraption backwards so instead, Torgo just appears to have massive knees and needs a staff to avoid falling over.  After the lost family asks for directions and gets nowhere with Torgo, our hero Mike seems determined to spend the night at the rundown shack. Now, I have watched this movie more times than I probably should have, but I still can’t figure out why Mike is so anxious to stay there. Torgo has to think it over, because after all “The Master wouldn’t approve” (who is The Master??). Torgo thinks for what seems like an eternity and decides they can stay there and he even carries their bags into the house. At this point, the viewer hears for the first time “The Torgo Theme” a repetitive motif that may be the least threatening villain theme of all time. I may not have made it clear yet, that more or less this movie plays out in real time. Once they enter the house, the family passes the time trying to make conversation with Torgo and admiring the minimalist decor. Finally, some action happens when Debbie wanders off and they have to search all two or three rooms of the house to find her and then the car won’t start! It’s once Mike goes to fix the car that the wife’s affair with Torgo begins. Kidding!! After Mike leaves, Torgo and the wife just stare at each other. Torgo says some awkward things. I believe Warren was going for some type of assault, but Torgo flicks the lady’s hair and that’s it, so she slaps him and calls him a beast. Later on that night, we learn that Torgo has many women on his mind and goes to the evil cult altar where there are like 8 or 9 women in nightgowns in some sort of spell/sleep/trance type thing. He helps himself to tickle the arm of one of the women before going back to the shack to peep on the wife in the bedroom (twice!).  Just when things couldn’t get any worse, The Master wakes up and demands that the family be sacrificed to their god, Manos. All of the captive women (which turn out to be the Master’s wives) wake up and get into an argument about what to do with the family, which turns out into a big all-out brawl. As they fight, The Master finds Torgo asleep in the shack and tells Torgo that he may no longer require Torgo’s services as… whatever the heck Torgo does.
The Master breaks up the fight and tells the women they must kill Torgo. Their first attempt at an aggressive massage doesn’t seem to do the job. So the Master takes matters into his hand and takes Torgo by the hand. He touches Torgo’s hand to one of the logs in the campfire and through an abrupt cut, there’s a pretend explosion and Torgo runs away. In the end, the family cannot escape The Master and Mike becomes Torgo’s replacement, while his wife and daughter join the Master’s wives (yuck). But honestly, once Torgo is out of the movie, so is the real drama. When the movie was finished, either something went wrong with the sound that was recorded or no sound had been recorded, as much of the dialogue had to be dubbed in postproduction. For bigger budgets, this usually isn’t an issue, but not every performer was available for the dub. The best example of this is near the beginning when Mike gets pulled over for speeding. Warren had to dub the voice of Mike and the police officer, so he is literally talking to himself. Warren went all out for the premiere in his local town. He rented out a theater and a search light for out front. He even rented a limo for the actors, but only wanted to pay for one limo so it would drop off one actor and then drive around the corner to pick up another actor. According to what I have read, the premiere was a disaster. Pretty near the beginning, the audience started laughing, which continued the entire time and eventually the cast crawled on their hands and knees to escape the theater. Warren did have good instincts when he admitted that he could simply rebrand the movie as a comedy and have a hit. Unfortunately, the film did not find a large audience until Mystery Science Theater in the 1990s. Many people today enjoy the film and appreciate Warren’s work, even if his first intention was not to make a comedy.  I do not want the reader to misinterpret the above statement as claiming “critics and scholars determine comedy to be bad”; however, by ignoring its significance, they seem to argue that it is not good enough to have aesthetic value. To demonstrate to the reader how comedy is left out in much of the literature of film criticism, I have compiled data from a variety of film associations and media publications. In 1998, to mark the 100th anniversary of the invention of the motion picture, the American Film Institute decided to create a list, ranking the 100 greatest films of the first 100 years of filmmaking. They clearly touched on a popular idea, for many other institutions and publications followed suit. In the list of the 100 greatest films of all time, AFI only includes ten comedies: Some Like It Hot (#14, directed by Billy Wilder 1959), Dr. Strangelove (26, Stanley Kubrick 1964), Annie Hall (31, Woody Allen 1977), It Happened One Night (35, Frank Capra 1934), Tootsie (62, Sydney Pollack 1982), The Gold Rush (74, Charlie Chaplin 1925), City Lights (76, Charlie Chaplin 1931), Modern Times (81, Charlie Chaplin 1936), Duck Soup (85, Leo McCarey 1933), and Bringing Up Baby (97, Howard Hawks 1938). To clarify, The American Film Institute has determined that of the 100 greatest films ever made, only 10% are comedies. Notice also that three of the ten films are works of Chaplin. In 2008, AFI decided to update their original list to 13% comedies, including The General (#18, Buster Keaton 1926), The Philadelphia Story (44, George Cukor 1940), and A Night At The Opera (85, Sam Wood 1935). Some Like It Hot (now #22), Dr. Strangelove (39), Annie Hall (35), It Happened One Night (46), Tootsie (69), The Gold Rush (58), City Lights (11), Modern Times (78), Duck Soup (60), and Bringing Up Baby (88) return to the list, though in a different order than in the previous list. Once again, the reader may notice that Chaplin still has the most entries. On American Movie Classic’s Filmsite, editor-in-chief Tim Dirks compiled a list of the 100 greatest films that appear on many such lists. He elected to include 13 comedies: Annie Hall, Bringing Up Baby, City Lights, Dr. Strangelove, Duck Soup, The General, The Gold Rush, His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks 1940), It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges 1941), Modern Times, A Night At The Opera, and Some Like It Hot. Apparently, he was feeling more generous towards comedy when compared to other critics. Critics at Yahoo.com include 11 comedy films in their list of the “100 Movies To See Before You Die”: Annie Hall, Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks 1974), Bringing Up Baby, Dr. Strangelove, Duck Soup, Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis 1993), It Happened One Night, M*A*S*H (Robert Altman 1970), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones 1975), National Lampoon’s Animal House (John Landis 1978), and Some Like It Hot. When Time Magazine set about to declare the “All-Time 100 Movies” in 2005, critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel decided to include only 6 comedies: The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey 1937), City Lights, Dr. Strangelove, His Girl Friday, It’s A Gift (Norman Z. McLeod 1938), and Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer 1949). According to these two critics, of all the greatest films, only six of them are comedies. Only 5% of Total Film Magazine’s “Greatest 100 Movies of All Time” list from 2010, are comedies: Annie Hall, Dr. Strangelove, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, and Some Like It Hot. The lowest blow to film comedy came from The British Film Institute, which did not include a single comedy in its Top 10 Films list in 2002. If we were to create an aggregate from the percentages of comic films represented in these lists, we would find that the general consensus among the critical community is that only about 8% of the most significant films are comedies. Also, consider that from the above examples, the same handful of films appears on multiple lists—indicating the small canon of currently recognized comedies. These facts suggest the clear state of the current critical and scholarly view of film comedy. The lack of study of comedy indicates that many academics feel that it is not worthy of study, not that there is a lack of comedy films to analyze. As we look further at the state of comedy film criticism and research, it will become quite clear that a lack of a clear critical language specifically crafted for the analysis of comedy is one of the leading causes for critics to overlook comedies: they simply do not know how to write about it.  The Current State of Film Comedy Research Many before me have written about the history of film comedy, the significant comic minds of the Twentieth Century, and how the films are a reaction to the times. The significance of the historical and cultural contexts in which films exist cannot be overstated. The effect of historical events and changes in the culture are important to the comedies that appear at specific times, and sometimes the films themselves may influence the culture. Some academics catalogue the various comic styles, defining them as “comedian comedies”, “slapstick”, or “Screwball”, among others. Although a few scholars have tried to discover what makes a comedy funny or to compare or contrast comedies to non-comic genres, to the best of my knowledge, no scholar has ever tried to determine why critics do not give comedies the recognition that I argue they deserve. Viewing comedy as a social activity is much more a component than with other genres, For example, with a gathering of friends, it would be commonplace to watch a Pink Panther or a Marx Brothers picture. This situation could possibly be due to the fact that a comedy (which can be quite episodic) can withstand an interruption such as a conversation during a viewing, which could be disruptive to the viewing of a non-comic film. It would be rare for friends to gather as a social activity and then view a tragedy like Love Story (Arthur Hiller 1970) or Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli 1968), although I do not wish to negate the ability for people to bond through watching a tragedy. The idea of comedy as a communal experience helps explain what makes comedy unique.  A Definition of the Comedy Film I must begin this section by reiterating that there is no universal, unified definition of comedy, While dozens of scholars have attempted to craft definitions of comedy since the earliest days of Greek comedy, it is difficult to even gauge what the components of a successful comedy are.
To help me in the study that I did, I found common things among the comedy films I watched, I dub them the Four Principles of Comic Effect. Together, these Principles do not form a universal definition of comedy, rather they reveal the themes and conventions that make comedy what it is—which is perhaps the closest one can get to a functional definition of comedy. First, is The Principle of Comic Timing. This Principle includes the elements of surprise, discovery, revelation, and anticlimax—shown so well through the medium of film with which a filmmaker can disclose or withhold information through shot choice. Expectations and assumptions of the audience—either previously held or encouraged by the filmmaker’s use of patterns—fuels the Comic Timing, Here is where comedy and horror films diverge. Both rely on the unexpected, but comedy uses an aspect of surprise for its comedic absurdity, while horror uses it as suspense. The surprise of comedy occurs when the comic performer goes against the viewer’s conception of what is socially permissible. However, for the suspense of horror to work, the viewer must anticipate that something horrific will happen—the unexpected occurs because the viewer does not know when the horrific thing will happen. Some may argue that the surprise of horror results in a more predictable outcome of fright or shock, while the surprise of comedy may lead to many things such as absurdity, unpredictability, chaos, a pause, or even a shift in the narrative. One may see a great example of the element of surprise as a narrative shift in comedy in the “and now for something completely different” style of the Monty Python pictures. Following expectations, points of coincidence fall under Comic Timing. At its greatest extent, this Principle can totally catch the viewer off guard with a total reversal or opposition of what the viewer expects. Through this Principle, the comedy may go against socio-cultural expectations, entering the domain of taboo. The second Principle of Comic Effect is The Principle of Comic Logic. Under this Principle fall the comic methods of exaggeration, excess, caricature, imitation, and mockery. Exaggeration follows as a product of the logic of the absurd by functioning in a way that makes sense within the frame of the comedy, but seems ridiculous outside the comedy. Following these methods are the complementary methods of repetition, recurrence, and intensification. As I shall demonstrate using the case studies, recurring events and repetitive actions and motifs result in a compounding of the actions or motifs, intensifying with each repetition. The third Principle of Comic Effect is The Principle of Comic Experience. Comedy brings attention to the external, physical, and literal. Under this Principle, we have the comic trait of impersonation and disguise—most commonly seen by the cross-dressing gags in movies like Bringing Up Baby and Some Like It Hot. The last Principle of Comic Effect is The Principle of Comic Sense, which describes the lack of awareness featured by so many comic characters. Comedy often comes as a result of absent-minded characters, From Cervante’s Don Quixote to Peter Seller’s Inspector Clousseau, a character that is unaware of his own flaws makes us laugh. Physically enacted, this absentmindedness leads to clumsiness. As for a comic character’s traits, her precipitance, or penchant for jumping into situations without any forethought of consequences comes from this Principle—best shown by Katharine Hepburn’s character of Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby. In terms of interaction among characters, comic sense leads to the possibility of misunderstanding, confusion, and deception—again seen in Bringing Up Baby, as well as in The Ladykillers. Following the Four Principles of Comic Effect, I shall now present the first four themes that I have identified as commonalities across many comedies. First, I find that comedy goes against the conventions of filmmaking. 1) Comedy can break the Fourth Wall. In comedy, the narrative is no longer the be all and end all, as gags often exist outside of the narrative. 2) A film comedy does not require closure—the resolution necessary for a fulfilling dramatic narrative. The comic heroine or that comic heroine’s situation may appear at the end of the film exactly as it had appeared at the beginning—with no apparent transformation within the heroine or with her situation. 3) In comedy, when one actor can play several roles, it not only works, it shows true comic merit. Often, the comedienne takes precedence over any character she may be portraying. As I stated above, in addition to these broken film conventions, comedy is the only genre of film that comfortably, and frequently, addresses social taboo. The second common theme among comedies is that comedy is a struggle between limiters and disruptions; In comedy, gags may upset the narrative structure with no undue consequences. It is up to the filmmaker to craft a narrative that makes it possible for other narrative events to keep the gags in check. Typically, every comedy has at least one comic character and one serious character, or ‘straight-man’, in order for the comedy to work. As part of this balance, we often see comic characters that are ‘The Other’, one who does not fit into the preexisting social mold. This is frequently true in the films of Chaplin as well as the anarchic comedies. The third common theme is that comedy is an essential part of humanity, marking us as distinctly human. Comedy gives us the opportunity to deal with life honestly, because with comedy we are forced to laugh at ourselves, no matter how uncomfortable. It causes us to drop our guard in order to deal with truths that might otherwise be painful, Comedy forces us, as viewers, to acknowledge the flaws that we all have. The nature of comedy allows us, as individuals, to lower our defenses and to address issues openly and honestly. In this sense, comedy is necessary for a fulfilling life. I would even argue that life is the great comedy—if we allow it to be that by acknowledging and expressing our genuine selves, flaws included. |