I made this as an exercise for ARHT2652 class, on August 27th, 2017 with iMovie.
This video aimed to investigate the meaning and a role of “fall down” in slapstick comedy, especially in relation to the use of music. It starts with a clip that Charlie Chaplin as a tramp explains himself as a “charmed life” person. It is important because the character’s pain, injury or death cannot be a comedy if the audience thinks they are serious or real. Although slap comedy makes humour with a lot of violence and overacted action including falling down, they look funny because the audience knows it is a fiction. The audience can laugh with stupidly falling down characters because they understand that actors are not really injured. Also, a “fall-down” action is easy to become a humour. It is a very simple action which emphasises the character’s foolishness. Moreover, it usually does not require any knowledge of the audience to laugh. The audience can laugh because (1) they can expect that characters falling down in the next few seconds (expectation), and then (2) they satisfy or wonder with what actually happens. Music is one of the most important features that make a comedy as a comedy. Comedy often uses pop, funny, and up-tempo music. By changing this kind of music to calm, sad, and nostalgic type of music, this video changes “funny fall down” scenes into “tragic” or “painful” moment. Although they are the same clips to Chaplin’s great comedy films, sad music sympathises sad feeling or makes a pierrot kind of character to a poor person.