Ghost Family
Executive producers (& created by): Andrew Michaan & Zed Cutsinger
Directed by: Daniel Gray Longino & Andrew Michann & Zed Cutsinger
Duration: 23 minutes
"Ghost Family is an absurdist take on a coming-of-age sitcom, about a high school kid whose family dies and continues raising him as ghosts until their unfinished business is finished"
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| Screenshot from shortoftheweek.com |
The short sitcom is about a young boy, called Alex, who has found out that his parents and sister have been in a car accident and unfortunately died. Alex is left confused and unsure on what to do next, until his family return to his side as ghosts. They explain that they need to stay and haunt the house until they have completed their unfinished business - helping Alex become a man. Alex then goes onto making a speech to other pupils about voting for him for class president, which is made easier when his ghost parents turn up to watch him. Alex asks his fellow students to vote for him so girls would want to sleep with him, and then his family can go back to heaven as he would have become a man. The other contestant stands down and Alex wins the vote.
In the next scene, we see the ghost family giving Alex advice on how to talk to girls, telling him to act cool and don't seem too eager. The next day one of the girls, Jasmine, asks to go out with him, he tries to act cool but turns the girl away instead. Luckily, another girl Rebecca, approaches Alex and asks to come over that night. Meanwhile, the ghost parents realise that their wedding vows state "till death do us part", and because they don't want to leave each other they decide to renew their vows and promise "till nothing do us part".
Rebecca ends up leaving before they get the chance to sleep together, but on the news there is a report about Jasmine, who Alex pushed away, and another boy who died while sleeping together. Alex realises that being cool, and acting like he didn't care actually saved his life. The ghost parents realise that he is growing up before their eyes. Alex says that he's learnt the lesson his parents came back to help with - love is meant to be complicated. His parents unfinished business is now finished and they can return to heaven.
The show has an interesting tone between genuinely adopting the heart-warming aspects of family sitcoms, and vulgarity, similar to classic spoofs like Wet Hot American Summer and Strangers With Candy.
My thoughts
- The first thing I noticed in Ghost Family was that there is a lot of sound effects, they emphasised normal everyday sounds, such as a cup hitting table, Alex spitting his coffee out, and the swoosh noise when a message sends on a phone.
- Each scene is very quick and to the point. The first scene is finished by 1:23, and by then we have met each of the characters in the family. We have a sense of their personalities, Alex is a shy, socially awkward teenager, and his sister is an emo and often talks about death, they both have an abnormally intimate relationship with their parents. Within the first minute, there are jokes about breast milk and the dad mentions sending an inappropriate photo of himself to Alex.
- The music is so important in Ghost Family, they have music suited for each emotion and when we see this emotion there is a short piece of music played which just cuts off as soon as the emotion has gone. For example, fast upbeat music on quick parts e.g. the teacher pushing Alex into the middle of the stage, when we see the ghost family we hear eerie music and when Rebecca comes to Alex's house in a red dress we hear romantic music.
- There are times when the sad music will cut on a joke, taking the tone from sadness to humour.
- There are opening titles displayed at 7:54, about a third of the way through the film.
- There are opening titles displayed at 7:54, about a third of the way through the film.
- Even though the Alex's family have just died, we don’t dwell on this, the sad parts are quick and are combined with sad music but this emotion doesn't last long.
- This sitcom is full of dark humour - Alex's is informed that his family have been in a car crash by a teacher at school, just before he's about to make a speech. The teacher approaches him and whispers "a car crash, your family is in critical condition, you need to get to hospital as soon as you can" - the teacher receives a message - "oh actually take your time, they're dead". Once Alex runs out of the hall, the teacher informs the pupils that he's just had some bad information, and to give him time to grieve, but he'll be back to finish his speech tomorrow.
- This sitcom is full of dark humour - Alex's is informed that his family have been in a car crash by a teacher at school, just before he's about to make a speech. The teacher approaches him and whispers "a car crash, your family is in critical condition, you need to get to hospital as soon as you can" - the teacher receives a message - "oh actually take your time, they're dead". Once Alex runs out of the hall, the teacher informs the pupils that he's just had some bad information, and to give him time to grieve, but he'll be back to finish his speech tomorrow.
- The props add to the humour, when Alex decides he's not going to read from his paper, he screws it up and throws it into a bin nearby with 'discarded speeches' written on the side. This is a continuing joke throughout the film because Alex makes two speeches and throws both papers in this bin, then while the ghost parents were giving their vows the dad throws his vows in the bin, but this time written on the side is 'discarded vows'.
- When we hear about Jasmine and the boy dying, the news report states their ages, Jasmine was 17 and the boy was 15. As the other students and Alex are probably around the same age, the producer or production manager of Ghost Family would have had to get permission for the teenagers to be in the film as they are under the age of 18. We will not be having any young people in our film, during casting I will ensure that everyone is over the age of 18, therefore, I won't have to look into getting permission for them.
- The storyline was very interesting and I didn't expect it. In a weird way it does make sense and follow as a story in general, it also flows with the tone of dark humour
Reflection
- Watching Ghost Family has made me realise how punchy and to the point our film needs to be. We learn about the main characters 1 minute and 23 seconds into the film. Then within the next couple of minutes we learn that Alex's family have died in the car accident. The film needs to be quick to bring the comedy out, if it's too slow it'll drag on and the comedy won't be as sharp. Therefore, the length of each scene and how much we learn within the different scenes are something I'll be looking at during the script drafts.
- All the actors are really good and believable. The cast would have been an important part in this film because they would have needed to have experience in comedy. It's not just the jokes which make the film funny, it's the reactions and how the cast act, it's almost deadpan comedy. I already know that it's essential that our cast are experienced with comedy from our previous project, it's the cast and the script combined which helps make a sitcom successful.
Ticky Tacky is a dark comedy about a wealthy man who finds out about his girlfriend cheating on him with his cousin. He gets given some photos of the two of them together when she was meant to be in Paris. That night he sends the little boy, Gabriel to get a selection of guns. The next day the girlfriend returns from 'Paris' and then the cousin turns up as well. They're both sitting in front of the wealthy man in his office, when he shows them the photos and exposes the affair. He talks to them for a little bit, before shooting the cousin in the chest.
The girlfriend leaves and the cousin wakes up, Gabriel takes his pen knife out of his pocket and starts stabbing the cousin multiple times to finish him off. Once Gabriel has left, the wealthy man calls his assistant for a drink and a can of petrol. He has the drink and then starts pouring petrol around the room. This is shown by him dancing around the room to a type of ballet music, in and out of slow motion. After this we see him light a cigarette, the film ends here but we can imagine what he is going to do next.
Below is the trailer to the film to help explain the petrol scene:
My thoughts
- It is slower paced than Ghost Family but we still find out a lot quiet early on. We learn about the girlfriend and the cousins affair at 1:34.
- It follows the tone of a dark comedy. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but subtle instead. The cousin wakes up after being shot and we witness the young boy stabbing him multiple times while the wealthy man just watches. The dark tone continues when we see him filling the room with petrol by dancing around to music.
- The whole film is set in one room and it works really well. The location is a large office area and from this room alone we can tell that the man is very wealthy. We can guess that outside the room is probably a very big house. Even though it is shot in one location, I didn't get bored of watching, I didn't even think about needing to see another area of the house. The film is 15 minutes long but it doesn't feel it, I got into the storyline so before I knew it, the film was finished.
- The actors would have played a vital part of keeping the single location interesting for the 15 minutes. If the cast weren't very good, then it would have become boring.
- There is not a lot of music, no where near as much as Ghost Family. The longest part of music is the ballet type music during the petrol scene. In general, it's got very little sound, but this can keep the focus on the characters and what they're saying and doing.
- The location is low lit, there is no natural lighting. The artificial lighting is made from lamps around the room as part of the set, and probably some lights behind the cameras to give the whole room lift in light. This low lit atmosphere and the lack of music adds to the dark comedy.
Reflection
- Sitcoms use a very little amount of locations, similarly to the one location in Ticky Tacky. We will be using more than one location, but we won't be using many (4 at the maximum). It will be my job to liaise with Alex to find out what locations he is thinking of for the story. I will then go away and get in contact with different locations to find the best price and availability.
- The cast are essential to this film to prevent the one location getting boring, similarly to VET-MAN: On the Road, we need to make sure the cast are experienced in comedy work as if the cast aren't good then it will bring the quality of the film down. Auditions will be essential to pick out who we believe will be best for the film.
- The pace is very slow compared with Ghost Family. We will want ours to be fast paced and punchy to add to the humour of the film. Ticky Tacky works well as a slow paced film because it's shorter than the 23 minutes of Ghost Family. If Ghost Family was slower paced then it may have dragged on and become boring for the audience.
- Music is essential in a film as it can change the your emotions or tone of the film. We are pitching VET-MAN: On the Road as a dark sitcom, but before I watched Ticky Tacky I didn't think about the type / amount of music for a dark comedy specifically. I can imagine a lot of music in a normal sitcom, but if we're making a dark sitcom then the music needs to reflect this. In Ticky Tacky the low lit atmosphere and lack of music combined worked well, however, our film will be based on location the majority of the time and we will be working with natural light, therefore it may make sense to use more music.
- When we hear about Jasmine and the boy dying, the news report states their ages, Jasmine was 17 and the boy was 15. As the other students and Alex are probably around the same age, the producer or production manager of Ghost Family would have had to get permission for the teenagers to be in the film as they are under the age of 18. We will not be having any young people in our film, during casting I will ensure that everyone is over the age of 18, therefore, I won't have to look into getting permission for them.
- The storyline was very interesting and I didn't expect it. In a weird way it does make sense and follow as a story in general, it also flows with the tone of dark humour
Reflection
- Watching Ghost Family has made me realise how punchy and to the point our film needs to be. We learn about the main characters 1 minute and 23 seconds into the film. Then within the next couple of minutes we learn that Alex's family have died in the car accident. The film needs to be quick to bring the comedy out, if it's too slow it'll drag on and the comedy won't be as sharp. Therefore, the length of each scene and how much we learn within the different scenes are something I'll be looking at during the script drafts.
- All the actors are really good and believable. The cast would have been an important part in this film because they would have needed to have experience in comedy. It's not just the jokes which make the film funny, it's the reactions and how the cast act, it's almost deadpan comedy. I already know that it's essential that our cast are experienced with comedy from our previous project, it's the cast and the script combined which helps make a sitcom successful.
- The location is clear with the first shot being an establishing shot of the family house. The majority of the story is filmed here and the rest is filmed at Alex's high school. Two simple locations which are easy to create a story from. In order to film at a school, the producer would have needed permission and possibly would have had to pay a fee to film there. They would have probably needed to film while the school was closed because it would have been hard to get a school hall and corridor controlled with no unauthorised students walking through. Whereas, the house would have been a lot easier to film in as it could have been one of the crew's house with no cost attached to it.
- The use of props to add to the comedy aspect of the film was something I hadn't thought of, obviously we'll need props for the characters to hold in accordingly with the script, but maybe we can do something with the props or have something funny and related to the film written on them.
Ticky Tacky
Producer: Dan Berk, Brian Petsos & Ryan Farhoudi
Written & directed by: Brian Petsos
Duration: 15 minutes
"When a powerful man is betrayed by the closest to him, he devises his revenge under the guidance of his trusted confidant in this dark comedy starring Oscar Isaac"
- The use of props to add to the comedy aspect of the film was something I hadn't thought of, obviously we'll need props for the characters to hold in accordingly with the script, but maybe we can do something with the props or have something funny and related to the film written on them.
Ticky Tacky
Producer: Dan Berk, Brian Petsos & Ryan Farhoudi
Written & directed by: Brian Petsos
Duration: 15 minutes
"When a powerful man is betrayed by the closest to him, he devises his revenge under the guidance of his trusted confidant in this dark comedy starring Oscar Isaac"
 |
| Screenshot from shortoftheweek.com |
 |
| Screenshot from shortoftheweek.com |
Ticky Tacky is a dark comedy about a wealthy man who finds out about his girlfriend cheating on him with his cousin. He gets given some photos of the two of them together when she was meant to be in Paris. That night he sends the little boy, Gabriel to get a selection of guns. The next day the girlfriend returns from 'Paris' and then the cousin turns up as well. They're both sitting in front of the wealthy man in his office, when he shows them the photos and exposes the affair. He talks to them for a little bit, before shooting the cousin in the chest.
The girlfriend leaves and the cousin wakes up, Gabriel takes his pen knife out of his pocket and starts stabbing the cousin multiple times to finish him off. Once Gabriel has left, the wealthy man calls his assistant for a drink and a can of petrol. He has the drink and then starts pouring petrol around the room. This is shown by him dancing around the room to a type of ballet music, in and out of slow motion. After this we see him light a cigarette, the film ends here but we can imagine what he is going to do next.
Below is the trailer to the film to help explain the petrol scene:
My thoughts
- It is slower paced than Ghost Family but we still find out a lot quiet early on. We learn about the girlfriend and the cousins affair at 1:34.
- It follows the tone of a dark comedy. It's not laugh-out-loud funny but subtle instead. The cousin wakes up after being shot and we witness the young boy stabbing him multiple times while the wealthy man just watches. The dark tone continues when we see him filling the room with petrol by dancing around to music.
- The whole film is set in one room and it works really well. The location is a large office area and from this room alone we can tell that the man is very wealthy. We can guess that outside the room is probably a very big house. Even though it is shot in one location, I didn't get bored of watching, I didn't even think about needing to see another area of the house. The film is 15 minutes long but it doesn't feel it, I got into the storyline so before I knew it, the film was finished.
- The actors would have played a vital part of keeping the single location interesting for the 15 minutes. If the cast weren't very good, then it would have become boring.
- There is not a lot of music, no where near as much as Ghost Family. The longest part of music is the ballet type music during the petrol scene. In general, it's got very little sound, but this can keep the focus on the characters and what they're saying and doing.
- The location is low lit, there is no natural lighting. The artificial lighting is made from lamps around the room as part of the set, and probably some lights behind the cameras to give the whole room lift in light. This low lit atmosphere and the lack of music adds to the dark comedy.
Reflection
- Sitcoms use a very little amount of locations, similarly to the one location in Ticky Tacky. We will be using more than one location, but we won't be using many (4 at the maximum). It will be my job to liaise with Alex to find out what locations he is thinking of for the story. I will then go away and get in contact with different locations to find the best price and availability.
- The cast are essential to this film to prevent the one location getting boring, similarly to VET-MAN: On the Road, we need to make sure the cast are experienced in comedy work as if the cast aren't good then it will bring the quality of the film down. Auditions will be essential to pick out who we believe will be best for the film.
- The pace is very slow compared with Ghost Family. We will want ours to be fast paced and punchy to add to the humour of the film. Ticky Tacky works well as a slow paced film because it's shorter than the 23 minutes of Ghost Family. If Ghost Family was slower paced then it may have dragged on and become boring for the audience.
- Music is essential in a film as it can change the your emotions or tone of the film. We are pitching VET-MAN: On the Road as a dark sitcom, but before I watched Ticky Tacky I didn't think about the type / amount of music for a dark comedy specifically. I can imagine a lot of music in a normal sitcom, but if we're making a dark sitcom then the music needs to reflect this. In Ticky Tacky the low lit atmosphere and lack of music combined worked well, however, our film will be based on location the majority of the time and we will be working with natural light, therefore it may make sense to use more music.
References:
- Ghost Family, https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/06/07/ghost-family/
- Ticky Tacky, https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/12/03/ticky-tacky/
- Ticky Tacky trailer, youtube.com
- Ticky Tacky, https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/12/03/ticky-tacky/
- Ticky Tacky trailer, youtube.com
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