History of group genre

As a group we have chosen that our film we will make an opening for, will be a rural comedy. So in preparation for creating our opening, we felt it important to do some research into our chosen genre.

History of the genre

Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, some of the first ever silent movies were comedies, way back in the 1900's. Comedy worked well for silent movies, as it can be dependant on the visual action, rather than sound. They relied upon the actors' talents with timing and physical theatre. One of the earliest types of comedy used in silent movies was Slapstick which was made popular by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Slapstick humour revolved around physical mishap, accidents and practical jokes.

With the rise of sound in films in the 1930's, comedy scrip writers could now incorporate jokes and make complex story lines, which brought a whole new level to comedy films. Dialogue became the centre of comedies. One of the first new styles that emerged within comedy films, was the Screwball comedies which were short movies that featured over the top physical humour, that was common in cartoons of the day, a modern example of this is Mr Bean. When the 40's came, most of the comedy films were based around war or military themed. In the 50's comedy films were in decline due to the invention of the television, but the 60's saw a move towards comedies that used satire to address social change. The 1970s saw the rise of the dark comedy and parody amongst the genre. The 1980's saw a popularity of teen comedies and the start of action comedy films. In the 1990s, actors who could create larger-than-life characters using exaggerated voice, movement and expression dominated comedy, these included Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and Mike Myers, they became household names.

Some types of comedy that has evolved over the years, include dark comedy, subjected on a taboo subject such as war, and they are  based on fictional storeys. These comedies deal with dark and serious themes. Spoofs, which take films or documentaries of other genres and remake them, mocking them and using sarcasm. A popular type of comedy in films today, is the romantic comedy, where upon the film is based around a developing relationship for two characters, this is partially popular with females.

These days, unlike other genres, comedy has a fan base that is not limited by age or gender, as there are so many types of comedy films.