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Moods Settings and Personalities
by: Cydnee J Bogue
Moods
It is all in the matter of timing for slap stick comedy, even when the character is surrounded by utter chaos. The actor must understand when to look and when to leap, and if he can hurl himself right into the center of the chaos and pass through it safely.
In almost all slapstick comedies the characters takes a leap of faith against the universe. The comedies are founded on the principles of physics. To keep the show moving the character will use objects such as a wheel, a ladder, a bucket, a see saw, and boat. The character then sees through these ordinary objects and sees it for its adjustable possibilities, the objects then takes on an identity that are always temporary and always end as a joke.
In the Movie "Our hospitality" starring Buster Keaton. In the movie Buster is ridding along on a train, then in a short amount of time he finds himself in the coal car that launches off the tracks and falls into the pounding river. When he hits the water the coal car floats, so then buster automatically the simple chaotic situation and his surroundings and turns them into his solution. Buster uses the coal car as a canoe, picks up a shovel and uses that as an ore, then paddles to the shore as calmly as possible. All the while keeping his "stone face."
Settings
The settings in the movie act as an never ending pull of PandoraÕs box. Once you open that box up everything chaotic is about to come out. A small problem turns into a huge ordeal. The settings job is to provide the character with endless possibilities to find him in a royal mess. Often the settings are within moving objects such as cars, trains, and boats. A number of things could happen to the character no matter where he is. But the simplicity of the settings is always the most comical when the character creates a hurricane out of a small problem.
Personalities
Every slapstick comedy actor knows how to portray their characters personality in the films, even though the films were during the silent era the actors could portray their personality in several different ways. By the physical responses to the most horrendous conditions in which they find themselves in, relies on their facial expressions and body movements. Their eyes would bulge, or their jaws would drop, the comedy depends on these reactions in each characters personalities.
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