AS Level media coursework analysis

1. Dumband Dumber:
The typical codes and conventions of a comedy have been clearly demonstrated in the
opening credits of this film. In a comedy there is always a ‘hot woman/girl’ the film opens
focusing on a hot woman stood at a bus stop, they focus the scene on her by getting the
other actors at the bus stop to face the opposite way so you can only see her face. One of
the main characters played by Jim Carrey approaches the woman, another
thing you’ll see throughout comedy films. His character is dumb, they show
this by making him look dopey he has a bowl cut fringe and a chipped
tooth but we also know this as when trying to guess where the woman is
from he says ‘new jersey?’ when her accent is Austrian and when she tells
him he then pretends to be Australian making himself look like an idiot and gets rejected by
the girl which is a typical convention of comedy.
Comedies are usually set in highly populated areas; this film is set in a
city. This is shown in mid shots and a wide shot of the city. Dumb and
Dumber is a slapstick comedy and shows a typical convention when
he tries to climb over the seat and beeps the horn but also when he
tried to get his head in the window and got it stuck, using physical
humour. When the title comes on the screen there is non-diegetic
sound added in like a swoop, the title flies on to the screen and bumps into the other name
and the physical bumping shows signs of a slapstick comedy
too. (Tried to get a screen grab) Also how some of the letters
are in capitals and some aren’t also gives another insight to
what genre the film belongs to. They use a wide shot to show
the entrance of another character who is wearing a dog
onesie, you can assume that he is another main character as
he then gets into a truck looking like a dog which shows a low
end job meaning he could be ‘Dumb’ or ‘Dumber.’ A typical convention is the lighting is
generally all bright to show the light-heartedness of the film and that its ‘happy’ this film
follows this convention as well as using generally bright colours for example the credits and
title are in bright greens and whites. They use mainly mid
shots to show the expression of the characters and this
screen grab shows the expression and he looks ‘dopey’ and
‘unintelligent’ they would of done this to show that he is one
of the typical idiot characters that you will find in a slapstick
comedy.

2. Stepbrothers:
The filmopens with darkness with the credits which are in
playful, chilid-likewhite font they could have chosen to use this
typography as it reflects the characters that we are about to
meet in the film. The sound we can hear over this is of someone
opening a packet of crips and emptying them onto a plate and
then it cuts from the credits to a wide close up of a man putting
cheese on his crips, typically in a comedy they will use a lot of mid shots to show mainly
emotion but in this instent its used to show the childlike loves of a character. The
background music starts to play when the character presses the microwave button. The
song is upbeat and child like again showing that the characters in this film maybe acting a lot
younger than their age which can be seen as ‘idiotic’ typically in comedies there are idiotic
characters which the storyline follows. The song that’s been editted
over adds humour to the filmwithout having any spoken dialogue
yet.
They use an other mid shot to show the chrips in the microwave
but it also shows you the age of the character which adds a level of
humour as he is steryotypically too old to be eating that kind of
food. Typically in a comedy filmthere are characters that are seen as the intelligent ones in
this film it is the two main characters parents, they both are suited
up showing their bussiness men and go to work they are also
usually socially awkward however its too early on in the filmto
make that judgment, whereas the two characters do not go to work
and still live with their parents which is the main comedic element
of this film as typically you would of left home by you are aged 40.
When Breenen’s mother is talking to him she uses a patronising
tone as if she was speaking to a pre-teen this could be to show that he is one of the typical
idiot characters that you will find in a slaptstick comedy however
when Dale’s dad is speaking to him he uses less of a patronising
voice but when Dale responds he responds in a child like moaning
way showing that he too is a slapstick typical idiot character, we can
see this as they use another typical shot (mid shot) to show the
emotion on his face. The lighting is typical to a comedy as comedies
tend to use bright lighting and bright colours which this film does. The camera work is
natural but not hand held, this is another typical convention as they want it to seem
realistic. The only non-diagetic sound in this clip is the song added over but typically in
comedies there are more to add extra humour. Step Brothers is a slapstick comedy so as the

3. film progresses you would expect to see certain things like physical injuries caused or given
to the main characters in a funny way .