Dark Comedy, the Ultimate Oxymoron

     To aid me in my journey of creation I will be researching different pieces of media in the same or similar genre as my own piece. I have come to the conclusion that I will be marketing my short film as a dark comedy. A dark comedy is a style of comedy that makes light of a subject matter that is generally considered serious or painful to discuss.

     The following are pieces that I’ve found helpful for the development my own production.

     The Good Place is an NBC show that began airing in 2016. The show is about four individuals who have died in different outrageous ways and have now ended up in the afterlife. They are told they have ended up in “The Good Place” for having racked up enough points from the righteous actions and decisions they made on Earth. After reflecting on their past life, the four characters: Elanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason come to realize that they are not in some form of Elysium and they have actually ended up in “The Bad Place.” I bring up this series because of how the creators have constructed the afterlife. At face value it seems as though they are in a heaven, the mise en scene elements are all very cheery, appealing, and pretty, from the landscaping to the housing to the costumes; what makes this place hellish however, is what actually happens to them throughout the show. The characters are living in their own personal versions of hell and this is something I want to translate into my short film. My main character will experience what is in her opinion the worst, while maintaining visually pleasing and nice mise en scene elements. I also like the idea that is presented in The Good Place which is making the immortal beings of the show work the afterlife like a corporate job.

     Obviously it is very important that I watch plenty of dark comedy short films to aid me in the actual structure and presentation of my own piece. Every Six Month, is a short film I found on Youtube while researching. According to its description it is “a dark comedy about a woman who wakes up in a mysterious room. It’s full of taxidermy. The door is locked. And her delicate mind is getting the better of her (youtube.com).” In watching this short film I was reminded of a few components that I cannot forget to put in my short film such as, the title of the film as well as end credits. Every Six Months contained limited dialogue and the silences were filled with music of a mostly playful tone as well as suspenseful almost creepy stings and natural sounds, I imagine that at least half of my short film will lack dialogue so I must begin looking for music, stings, and other overall sound elements that I can add into my piece to develop the tone and contrast and balance of dark comedy that I see illustrated in other pieces of the same genre. This piece began directly into the action of the story, it did not waste time with unnecessary backstory. Rather, the backstory was developed throughout the course of the piece. The resolution was an ending open to interpretation although I like this concept I think my own short film will have a slightly more concrete ending than Every Six Months.





     Welcome to Hell is an animated short film posted to Youtube in 2013 (youtube.com). Although my short film is live action and not animated I feel the need to bring up this short film because it was extremely impactful to me when I first saw it in seventh grade, as it is what peaked my interest in filmmaking. So, when my instructor suggested I transform my plot into a more comedic one I immediately recalled, Welcome to Hell. Welcome to Hell is about a young person named Sock who murdered their parents and has been sent to Hell, assigned a human, and instructed to convince that human to kill themselves. I thoroughly enjoy the comedic aspects of this dark plot, it makes a nice contrast and balances well for the story. I’d like to use this piece to aid me in creating the comedic aspects and elements of my own piece. Similar to The Good Place, Welcome to Hell also paints the afterlife as a corporate workplace. I would like to implement a similar idea into my own work as it has proved successful for this scenario.