I'm trying to write my first kids feature, and it requires a lot of physcal comdey. So I'm watching things like Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and so much of it seems to be worked out by the actors themselves. I can see how a tallented actor can work out and improvise, and that seems to be what makes it work... but how do you WRITE this?
Screenwriting : How do you WRITE Phycical Comedy? by Brendan Kelly
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I would suggest reading comedy screenplays or excerpts of scripts. I always find it helpful no matter what the genre is.
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Hey. Brendan Kelly. I've written Physical Comedy, but I didn't go into it thinking I was writing Physical Comedy. I was just writing a Comedy.
I wrote a short Action Comedy script once. In the opening scene, the protagonist (supercop) and his captain were meeting in a windy parking lot for her to give him details for an undercover case. He was clumsy, so he dropped the file, and the wind blew the papers around. I wrote something like "They chase the papers like they're chasing criminals."
I used an object, the protagonist's flaw, the wind, and something unexpected happening to make the reader laugh. Writers can use characters, locations, facial expressions, etc. too.
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Sorry, but I have to make the not-to-be mean, but obvious joke here: With an "S".
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Thank you Maruice. Just writing comedy is hard enough, writing this is a real challenge to me.
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Watching the classics is a great idea. I would also read the classics. Find out the style of comedy you are trying to write and learn how it's done. For example, my style of comedy leans towards Douglas Adams even as a screenwriter. So I studied his style and others I really loved, learned how they wrote action, reactions, character movement, adopted what I loved, made stuff my own and so on. Watching is great, but if you want to write it, you'll need to dive deep into written material to discover how to write it. Often I find action description by beginner and intermediate writers that I coach is descriptive, but it lacks the genre they are writing in. If it's a drama: Mike storms into the room. If it's a comedy: Mike shuffles in, every scuff of the floor with is feet would be a stomp if he had the courage to speak is mind. - Stuff like that. A great piece of comedic advice I got from a book on stand-up was that comedy is drama with immature decisions. That's kind of it. What's an immature decision someone can make. Don't try to be as funny as Buster Keaton or the greats. Be as funny as you can be in a moment and if it's not the best in your eyes, still write it and come back to it later. Often times we need to write, come back, improve, and continue.
You're welcome, Brendan Kelly. There's some articles online about writing Physical Comedy. I found some on Bing by searching "how to write Physical Comedy."
In this case AI would possibly be useful. Because AI has learned screenwriting by reading digitized scripts. So you can ask AI to give you an example of how slapstick humor was written in the silent era. But I promise nothing since I have not tested if this works.
And you can search for old uploaded screenplays which include slapstick scenes.