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Latest Updates 2

There is not much to report.  I am basically done with everything except for actually doing the final presentation.  My essay was completed a couple weeks ago and I have also finished the slides for my deck.  All my interview notes are also complete and ready to submit, as well as my mentor meeting transcripts.  As I cannot think of anything else to say, I will simply post some of my favorite moments in comedy movies.

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Latest Updates

Last week I wrote my “first draft” of my final paper, which ended up a little over 5 pages with 1.5 line spacing.  I sent it to my professor and arranged a meeting to review it for any suggestions.  He said it was “96 percent” done, with only a few small recommendations.  One note I received was that the scene in Spy where the dead men crush the woman repeatedly needed better description.  I made the adjustment, but will also include an image of what that looks like below, just for fun reference. I also compiled my interview notes for my 3 different interviews so they are ready to submit when the time comes.  

I will also be completing my presentation slides today, so that I do not have to worry about that in the future.  Overall, there is not much to report, as most activity on the project has now been complete.  I was happy to hear that my mentor can attend the presentation.  

Also, both related and unrelated to my thesis, I finished my comedy editing project in advanced editing this week.  While I will not reference it at all in this project, I was able to use principles learned through the thesis research and apply it to my edit.  I think it turned out great, and was confident with the feedback I received showing the fine cut.

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Sixth Mentor Meeting and Other Updates

My last official mentor meeting was relatively short but productive.  She has spent Spring Break watching films at a virtual European film festival.  An insight of hers was how European comedies often do not translate well in the U.S., as a different cultural foundation is needed to find a lot of the humor funny.  We assume the same works between the U.S. and other nations too.  The exception is good physical comedy, as it is about the universal body and expressions, rather than witty dialog, political jokes, etc.  Next, I asked her to help me refine and come up with any additional ideas for what to ask my third interviewee, Jamie Gross.  She is a big time Hollywood comedy editor whose past projects include “Booksmart”, “GameNight”, “Macgruber”, “Vacation” (the movie referenced in my blog profile picture), “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”, and “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later”.  These are the questions I ended up asking: 

1: What is the most challenging aspect of editing comedy?

2: Do you have any go to tricks when something is falling flat?

3: What is your favorite comedy project you have edited and why?

4: Why do you prefer editing comedy over other genres?

5: What comedic projects/actors/editors have inspired you the most in your career?

6: How do you know something you have edited is the funniest it can be, despite watching the same sequence and similar clips repeatedly?

7: Is there a type of comedy you like editing the most?

8: If I wanted to get an editing internship or assistant editor role after graduating on a bigger budget studio comedy, what steps would you recommend?

The responses were great!  They will come in handy for my paper.

Additionally, my mentor assigned me another project: a scene breakdown for a physical comedy.  I chose the plane scene in “Spy” (the movie referenced in my blog heading picture) with Melissa McCarthy.  Having far more shots than the Nacho Libre scenes I broke down, I did not have the time to go into every detail.  However, I focused on pacing, distribution of jokes, shot setup, and overall patterns such as repeating jokes.  Overall, I am happy with the breakdown, and might be able to use some of my insights as examples in my paper.  As I am still waiting to hear back from MURAL about a downloadable high-def version (usually takes a couple days), I will post an unreadable screengrab here, with a closeup sample.  I am looking forward to writing a first draft of the paper tomorrow, which should not be too difficult as it is only 5 pages and I have a wealth of resources.  I just have to choose what is important, and not stress about it.

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Fifth Mentor Meeting and Other Updates

My fifth mentor meeting we discussed how to best get into contact with people for my second informational interview, as well as other movies we both find funny.  We joked about needing more comedy work for my portfolio that I am allowed to upload, because while I have lots of funny projects I did in high school, I would never want that work in my professional portfolio.  Over spring break, I worked on reaching out to 6 different editors, some primarily 1st assistant editors and others head editors, but all with vast experience in comedy.  I have officially hear back from 1 directly so far, and these are the questions I am asking her:

1. As a 1st Assistant Editor in comedy, is there anything unique about managing the editing suite for that genre versus others?  Different way of organization, different attitude of the head editor, etc.?

2. What are challenges to editing comedy you have not experienced in other genres like drama?

3. How did you land spots as a 1st AD in comedy projects?  For example, did you submit or show any comedy work of your own?

4. What has your experience been like with Women in Film?  From the organization have you gotten any lasting connections or ones that have led to work?

5. Is there anything you enjoy in particular when working on comedic projects, and why?  If not, that is fine too.

The second contact I got ahold of was an editor’s agent, who gave me the personal email for her client, who I have now emailed directly.  

In my advanced editing class, my teacher gave a presentation on editing comedy, with lots of great quotations and insights that I will use in my paper.  She focused on the importance of identifying the type of comedy, and different editing tips for each type.  This is not the focus of my paper, but I might touch upon the different styles of editing associated with each type in one of my earlier paragraphs.  My professor also had lots of great examples for different editing techniques in movies and television, of which I will likely reference a couple in my paper.  My two favorites are the spring break fistfight scene in “22 Jump Street” and “Dear Sister”, an SNL digital short I have watched many times before.  This coming week I will be editing the second half of a short film, with a focus on making it funny.

I die just looking at the “Dear Sister” image.

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Fourth Mentor Meeting

This past week I had my fourth mentor meeting, which was fairly uneventful.  We discussed the complexities of working as a female creative and how to set certain boundaries both with ourselves and our work expectations.  

More importantly, I had my first informational interview!  I took notes, but she did not want to be recorded, which is understandable.  My interview was with Melinda Hill, a comedian, actor, and director in Los Angeles.  My mentor has worked extensively with her in the past.  I sent her my interview questions in advance, which were:

1) How did you get your start in comedy and what has your career journey looked like so far?

2) I notice you promote your comedy as using laughter as medicine, particularly for trauma, and comedy as healing.  How did you go about deciding on this mission statement?

3) What do you look for in an editor when directing your own material. What it is important that the editor understand?  What do you hope the editor can bring to your work?

4) What comedians or comic works do you look to for inspiration in your own comedy?  

5) What is your favorite medium through which you do comedy. For example, movies, filmed shorts, standup?  Why?

6) How do you approach determining the best timing for your comedy, both in standup and in other formats, and do you rely on the editor at all to help pacing?

7) Are there any major changes or shifts you have seen in your career in the world of comedy  in terms of what audiences expect or subjects that are more or less accepted?

8) Have you ever faced severe criticism or negativity towards your work, and how do you approach/handle this.  How do you tell what might be something to listen to versus what to just ignore or avoid entirely?

9) How have you built a network within the industry of comedians to work with and other industry professionals to collaborate with?

Something else I accomplished was making the final touches on and updatng my website, which can be found here: https://groederh.wixsite.com/mysite

I have a domain name I purchased for it through GoDaddy, but the problem lies in the previously unknown fact that I have to pay Wix a considerable amount of money just to link my already purchased domain name.  Since my site is still available to the public at a less simplified domain name, I am simply sticking with that.  I do not want people to stumble across this site on their own anyways, it is more for personal distribution purposes.  I am proud of the final product, and think it looks professional and showcases my work.  There are 4 pages to visit within the site, as well as downloadable documents, links to other sites, a way to contact me, and more than one photo gallery.

I was able to upload more videos on Vimeo, but with the 5 GB a week limit, there is still a lot left.  

I will be presenting the outline for my paper and overall progress in the different elements of my thesis project today.  I feel prepared.

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Third Mentor Meeting

Below is the completed result of me placing some different tracks from The Supervisor into the two “Nacho Libre” scenes I have been working with.  This challenged me to discover how to search for a range of music that might fit a scene, across genres and moods.  I also had to place the music keeping tempo in mind, and trying to sync certain swells and beats in the music with the scene itself, all trying to make it “funnier”.  For fun, I found a music track that turns the first scene into a very serious drama and edited the second scene with 70s disco that actually ended up being my favorite method.  

In my third meeting, we discussed my additional notes on music in Nacho Libre (in pink) and then ventured into the realm of how to connect with industry professionals, specifically the ones I researched.  I was assigned to complete more in-depth research on the backgrounds of these editors, and the goal is by the end of the semester to have reached out to all of them, and try and inquire about shadowing or internships if possible.  She also requested I scour over the editor’s guild website.  Our conversation then ventured into my love of the Mojave desert as I mentioned I have an event there this weekend.  It turns out my mentor filmed a movie in the small town there, which she sent me a link to.  I also discussed how the beauty of that area plays a major role in the comedy that I LOVE: “Land of the Lost”.  

On my own, I worked on my Google Drive document: Editing Research Sources, and pulled all the text into it relevant to my subject matter from my four digital sources, and typed out quotations from my one physical source.  I plan on reading these through in detail, having a now condensed and manageable length of material to draw on for my paper.  One of the sources did two great editing breakdowns of comedy movie scenes, one of which was a scene from “Mr. Bean’s Holiday”, a forgotten childhood favorite of mine.  Reading these breakdowns helps me grasp the details of comedy editing and gain invaluable material for my paper. 

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Second Mentor Meeting

I had my second meeting with my fantastic mentor, Beth Dewey.  Our conversation steered primarily into comedy music, and the different terms surrounding music that are helpful to a comedy editor.  For example: contrapuntal.  We brainstormed (mostly her) different phrases one can use when searching for music to use in a comedy.  My new list includes words like: quirky (different than kitchy), pitsacado, upbeat, spaghetti western, triumphant, and choir.  I also learned salsa music is often good for comedy as it has a lot of natural starts and stops, and that searching for rip offs of classic movies like “Jaws” and “Psycho” can work too.  I was asked to rescore the scenes I broke down the previous week, as well as add more notes in my Mural about the music, thinking about genre, tone, and pacing.  Furthermore, I was tasked with finding 10 editors, at least half of them women, whose work I liked and might want to interview as a second subject.  My list is below, with some of each editor’s work examples.  I will be discussing this list with my mentor during our next meeting.  

Greg Hayden: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370742/ 

Tropic Thunder

Zoolander 2

Austin Powers Goldmember

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me

Blades of Glory

Yana Gorskaya: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1251520/ 

Thor Ragnarok* Editorial Dept.

What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

Hunt For the Wildereople

I Am Not OK with This

JoJo Rabbit* Consulting Editor

Jamie Gross: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1265901/ 

Vacation

Game Night

Booksmart

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

Children’s Hospital

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Joel Negron: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0624504/ 

Thor Ragnarok

Jungle Cruise

Team Thor (both shorts)

The Nice Guys

21 Jump Street

Sandra Adair: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010471/ 

School of Rock

Bernie

Boyhood

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

Andrew S. Eisnen: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0251948/

Guardians of the galaxy Vol. 2

The Mandalorian

Brightburn

Melissa Bretherton: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0107855/#editor 

Spy

Long Shot

Editorial Dept:

The Other Guys

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Talladega Nights

Anchorman

Caddyshack

Step brothers

Matilda

Elisabet Ronaldsottir: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0739894/ 

Deadpool 2

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Atomic Blond

Sandra Montiel:  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0600059/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr47#editorial_department 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (37 episodes)

House Arrest* Assistant Editor

Unrelated to my mentorship, in my advanced editing class I had to choose a movie and re-edit its genre in the form of a trailer.  I edited “Nacho Libre”, since I was already working with the material, into a serious and religiously themed drama/romance.  The link to that project is here:  https://lmu.box.com/s/wt414k0k53xk90gfanrrtdto2mu5nrdm

Even though I was not editing a comedy, it helped me think about the different editing tropes associated with editing comedy versus drama, as I had to deconstruct what made the film funny and mold it into something else, or at least try to do so.  Lastly, I finished reading Steve Kaplan’s “The Hidden Tools of Comedy”, and so I give a few more quotations that I find particularly useful.

“Your characters have to be the master of their own disaster,” (137)

“The dynamic of Straight Line/Wavy Line is the idea that comedy isn’t us watching somebody do something funny, but rather us watching someone watch someone do something funny.” (172)

“The Wavy Line goes back and forth, with multiple points of focus.” (185)

“A Comic Premise is a lie that imagines an impossible or improbable world that could never happen, but what would happen next?... Once the premise is established, you cannot tell another lie.” (219, 222)

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Nacho Scene Breakdown

Here is the breakdown I completed zoomed out entirely, as well as a close up as an example.  To view on Box, use this link:  https://lmu.box.com/s/z4vr3ek44kh30gbs5h1ok8l2tfsac936

I made a key of colored sticky notes for different elements including pacing (yellow), tension/release (orange), body language (green), the protagonist’s journey (blue), music (pink), and shot sizes/types (purple).

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First Mentor Week Review

I met with my mentor, Beth Dewey, and was surprised how much she had already enthusiastically prepared.  We discussed the basics of comedy, what kind of editing techniques work, and general terms. She used a scene from a reality TV show starring Fluffy, as well as a scene from Bridesmaids as examples.  For the following week, I was tasked with breaking down two scenes from “Nacho Libre”, chosen because I said it was my favorite movie.  I was also tasked with light research of 4 different connections my mentor has to figure out 1 of my informational interviews.  I chose Melinda Hill, and watched her special “Inappropriate”, as well as some of her YouTube sketches from her web series “Romantic Encounters”.  I developed interview questions for her afterwards. From my mentor’s recommendation, I purchased a book to help with my research paper called “The Hidden Tools of Comedy”.  I have now read about half, and it aided me in my Mural breakdown of the Nacho Libre scenes.  Please see the next post for the breakdown itself.  Below are a few quotations from the book that I find particularly insightful in the way I should approach comedy:

“Comedy is the art of telling the truth about what it’s like to be human.” (14)

“Comedy is about an ordinary guy or gal struggling against insurmountable odds without many of the required skills and tools with which to win yet never giving up hope.” (27)

“Winning is the idea that, in comedy, you are allowed to do whatever you think you need to do in order to win, no matter how stupid or crass or idiotic it makes you look.” (31)

“‘What does the character want?”  The question of what “wins” for the character is at the heart of getting past “funny” to arrive at comedy.” (46)

“Comedy is not the interruption of the narrative for yucks.  Comedy is waht occurs as characters go through the narrative.” (82)

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Artistic Vision

I want to tell stories that enable growth.  I am coming from a creative background and entering a business career, and so whether I am working in a strategy team or in marketing, I want to tell stories that enable either a company or its clients to see potential and spur investment, whether monetary or otherwise.  I want to use storytelling, written, visual, and verbal, to present the best of what a business has to offer.  I always want to have a moral heart to the stories I tell, and use my creative passion to serve companies whose missions I believe in.