The
first few shots suggest a hospital setting due to the hospital machinery and
the diegetic sound of breathing. This is confirmed by a long shot of a nurse
attending to a passive patient lying in bed and accompanying this shot is a
voiceover that begins by saying “this is me”.
In
terms of Altman’s theory of “Semantic and Syntactic codes”, we would associate
a hospital setting and hospital machinery with a dramatic/sad genre due to the
way it’s keeping someone alive because they are badly hurt and suffering,
causing the genre to also be fairly serious and emotional. But instead, the
voiceover causes the sequence to become comic and funny despite the serious
semantic and syntactic codes that wouldn’t usually be laughed at, which conveys
a comedy genre. Buckingham’s theory of “Negotiation and Change” justifies why
this has become an acceptable thing. Genres evolve over time and the
iconography, themes and issues change on the way, as demonstrated in this short
film. The themes you would expect to see in a film that starts with a hospital
scene would usually include: sadness, death or recovery. But due to the comical
voiceover, the themes alter and the sadness is completely drawn out of it,
perhaps due to the way the voiceover doesn’t create any sympathy for him, but
instead comically narrates and addresses the issues in a very informal way.
The
setting changes to a sunny garden, contrasting with the previous gloomy
hospital setting. It appears to be the same man that was lying in the hospital
bed. He still remains passive, but in a relaxed and calm way, this is
emphasised by the relaxed non-diegetic music that begins to play. Comically,
the relaxed non-diegetic music gets interrupted by a screeching diegetic sound
of a low flying plane that covers the sun and casts a huge shadow over him as
it flies over, just after he says how his garden is London’s “best kept secret
garden suburb” which again highlights the comedy genre as he gets contradicted.
After the plane passes, the voiceover returns and he talks directly to the
audience. The direct address is sustained as he begins introducing Max who
turns to the camera and does exactly what the voiceover says. Once again, the
voiceover makes another fairly serious matter comical as Max swallows a toy
plane. This relates to Neale’s theory of “Repetition and Variation” as the idea
of mocking a serious matter is repeated again. This is common in comedy genres,
due to the way we laugh at other people’s stupidity to place ourselves above
them which is also demonstrated in the classic slapstick genres such as Laurel
and Hardy.
After
Max swallows the toy plane, bland non-diegetic music that would usually be
described as ‘elevator music’ begins playing, which adds to the comedy genre as
it creates a soothing atmosphere despite the serious issues that are happening
in the sequence, which causes the non-diegetic music to become contrapuntal.
In
terms of Neale’s theory of “Repetition and Variation”, this sequence repeats
the fast paced cuts usually found in comedies to convey chaos and energy. In
terms of this sequence, it’s also used to deliver lots of information quickly,
as the voiceover speeds up with the cuts.
The
voiceover begins to explain the process of how the plane disposes of human
waste by showing close ups of the book he’s reading about it, which justifies
how he ended up paralysed. The clever use of an animation at this point adds to the variety of techniques in the sequence and increases the comical notion. Comically, his wife doesn’t seem to be bothered as
she sits reading a magazine. In terms of Buckingham’s theory of “Negotiation
and Change”, usually, his wife would have been absolutely devastated and
distraught about her husband, but instead, she simply makes an insurance claim
from the airport that caused this accident and enjoys her new life of money,
which shows this is a modern day comedy and demonstrates the change in culture,
but also highlights the comedy genre as he slags her off in the voiceover.
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