Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy

This video compilation by Tony Zhou perfectly demonstrates not only the cinematic flair and comedic talents of Edgar Wright but also analyses how the English auteur uses every frame as an opportunity to tell the story visually. And it reminds me how pissed I am that he's now not directing Ant-Man. Stupid Marvel.

Tony's beef and disappointment with American comedies is well articulated, calling them out for their lazy filmmaking - "the use of picture and sound to deliver jokes is... boring." He rightly argues that when you're predominantly using close up shots of your actors delivering dialogue, you're not using the full potential of cinema. And this is what Edgar Wright does so well - visual storytelling. In Tony's words, "the frame is a playground, so play."

Show Don't Tell

Nice little instance here of how much you can tell by showing. This is from an Elmore Leonard novel called Swag, about two armed robbers who devise a list of ten rules to successful armed robbery, but start breaking those rules and shit gets real. This here is the introduction of the cop who's on their tail when the proverbial shit is really getting real. From the character taking a simple sip of coffee we learn where he works, the type of office he has, and that he likes coffee.

It's not a long description, it's short, punchy and to the point, delivering the essential information snugly wrapped around the action of drinking coffee.

Elmore Leonard is a don of crime fiction, for seedy but sumptuous characters, dazzling dialogue, and unexpected story turns, he smacks it every time. Tarantino owes him big - his flair for dialogue, as well as Jackie Brown outright, and Pulp Fiction watches like three short stories written by Elmore Leonard. This isn't to take anything away from Tarantino obvs, it's just interesting to know where the masters got their influence from.