DZ-116: Writing physical comedy

How do you make extended technical scenes funny on the page?

Mel joins Chas to tackle physical comedy. We limited our homework selection to extended scenes (as opposed to moments and sight gags) in live action projects and - with the help of our Patreons - selected early sequences from BRINGING UP BABY, the pilot for HAPPY ENDINGS and that wonderful food poisoning scene in BRIDESMAIDS.

We discover how these incredible writers take their time (on the page) to set up geography, framing and running gags. We also get tips on judicious use ALL CAPS, ellipses and M-dashes to recreate visual gags… and when to just let a paragraph go long and draw attention to itself.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 – Cold Open
• 00:00:19 – What physical comedy scenes are we looking at?
• 00:10:27 - BRINGING UP BABY
• 00:31:44 - Thank you Arc Studio Pro!
• 00:34:34 - HAPPY ENDINGS pilot
• 00:58:15 - BRIDESMAIDS
• 01:27:31 - Key learnings and wrap up
• 01:33:56 - Patreon thanks

RELATED EPISODES:

• DZ-16: Masters of Time and Whitespace
• Shot Zero - Why is Ryan Gosling so funny?
• Shot Zero - How is oner from GAME NIGHT so seamless?

LINKS:

• Every frame a painting - Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy
• GAME NIGHT by Mark Perez
• BRINGING UP BABY by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols
• HAPPY ENDINGS Pilot by David Caspe
• BRIDESMAIDS by Annie Mumulo and Kristen Wiig

This episode brought to you by (drum roll) ArcStudio: go to https://www.arcstudiopro.com/draftzero for $30 off a pro subscription!

And how can we forget our awesome Patreons? Especially Lily, Paulo, Alexandre, Malay, Jennifer, Thomas, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Theis, and Khrob.

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We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

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