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ARTICLE FOR DISCUSSION
MICHAEL CARL O'NEIL's "MIME" CLASSES
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND.
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Phuket, Thailand in 1992. |
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Article for Discussion in Workshop Class
Exceeding the Speed Limit
by Mack Sennett
Chief of Comedy Productions for the Keystone Film Company
The secret of the successful film-comedy lies in a not-too-clamorous getaway with a whirlwind finish. In other words, speed, constantly increasing speed, right up to the climax of the picture, with everybody going on "high, must be an axiom with the producer.
Speed is no secret in the world of comedy although, to insure success it must be properly regulated by experienced hands. People demand in a comedy picture a good measure of humour together with an ever-increasing tension, the latter injected for the purpose of keeping the attention of the audience constantly at focus.
The production entitled "Tillie's Punctured Romance", which is having a very successful run, is an example of what "exceeding the speed limit" means in screen comedies. In this particular film which was the first six-reel comedy produced, the question of speed was given much thought and consideration. In keeping with the temper of the audience, the first reel is launched in matter-of-fact fashion followed by a gradual opening of the throttle, until when the film is half run the audience is jogging along with it at a fairly good gait, perfectly content with the measure of humour ladled out to it and still keen with
anticipation over what is to come.In the remaining three reels it is a case of "let'er run wide open" with the result that, at the climax, everything is at high voltage, the air is alive with mirth-producing electrons and the audience is in a state of uncontrolled convulsion. Anyhow, this was the goal sought while the film was in course of production; speed and humour being the dominating factors.
The idea of constantly increasing speed in film-comedies is not a new one. All comedies should commence in an easy manner and without fanfare of trumpets. No modern audience will stand for a man shooting off a bomb from the proscenium immediately after the first curtain-raise. The audience is in no psychic or physical condition to applaud the noise. There should be a constant application of the current of humour right from the start, with nothing injected to disturb the nervous equilibrium of an audience.
When an audience is keyed up to the desired receptive mood, then all the thunder may be turned on without fear of serious consequences. This is the psychology of modern stage and screen humour. It is a hard and set rule with successful producers who will change it no more than a magazine will supplant the pretty girl on the cover. The public prefers the pretty girl, so why bore it with something "just as good?".
Though speed is essential to the successful comedy there are other elements which must receive due consideration, among them the players themselves. You may term the average film-comedian a mere automaton, wantonly abused at times by inexorable directors, but such is not the case. He must be possessed of enough "sand" to do what he sets out to do, without wasting film and in a manner that will net him a credit mark for producing one laugh. He must have a post-graduate knowledge of the word "speed" and its discretionary use to film-comedy. These are matters the director can not tell him.
"Watch the laugh speedometer" is getting to be one of the most oft-used studio expressions in comedy-land. The risibilities of an audience must be kept at high tension at all hazards. There is no such thing as a whimpering laugh. It must be a whole-souled, right-from-the-sides chuck and not a weary affair parading under false pretences.
The audience must chuckle from the start or the film will be a chuckle-less affair. Don't make too much mileage at the start but keep going well, and, above all things, don't get ahead of those receipt-builders out there in front. After the half-way station shall have been passed, get a severe attack of speed-phobia and never let up until the climax. This is one side of successful comedy and a very important one, without which a film would have a very mediocre run indeed.
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