The docu-comedy : towards a new genre in the expression of social commentary through comic performance, using documentary film techniques and reality television discourse

A 26-minute docu-comedy product of my studies in film and television production, The Traveling Jewish, captures improvised moments of social interaction through documentary filming style. Through filming, editing, animation and music, it becomes an entertaining half-hour of television and social commentary. It is with each cut, layer, added graphics, omitted sound or musical accompaniment, that the viewer is guided into the cultural understanding and comedic inclination of the creator of such a piece. In doing so, I believe we are opening up a new genre of Television, the Docu-Comedy, which aims to explore comedy in site-specific landscapes, through primarily improvised scenes, using the discretion of the director to do otherwise when narrative comprehension is at risk. In this way humor exists in a way not often exploited on television. As humor serves as a forum to bring to the attention of society activities, beliefs, morals, etc., at the same time challenging their validity or even ethical realities, its mere existence is often seen as a sign of the health of a society. This paper looks at all the technical and theoretical elements of such a proposal.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Centre for Film and Media Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Gilliam, Eva

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Weare, Chris

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13980

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13980