Research – Analysis of my Spy themed “Toast” advert relating it to Comedy Theories
I decided to analyse the Spy themed “Toast” advert that I made in Year 1 using some of the Comedy Theories that I have been researching. I wrote it as comedy before I was aware of the various Comedy Theories that I have been researching now. I watched humorous adverts to try to work out what worked and what didn’t. But I didn’t delve I as much detail as I am now doing. My advert was only the 2nd project I had done in College, so I was still very much learning about everything, including about how to research and analyse. Through this 2 year course I have become more sophisticated in my research and analysis, which is helping with my Year 2 FMP.
Below is my analysis of my Spy themed “Toast” advert, and here is a link to my actual advert.
I think my opening shot ties in with the Benign Violation theory, since everything is set up to look like a typical spy movie opening. We see 2 “bad guys” in the distance who are obviously blocking in our spy hero, we hear the words “You’re outnumbered. There’s no way you’ll make it out alive” as if they are coming from an ear-piece in the Spy’s ear. Then we notice that the gun in his hand is actually a nerf gun – unexpected but harmless i.e. Benign (harmless) Violation (unexpected) Theory. This starts to make us realise this is not what it seems.
To emphasis this, we see a close up of the gun as he spins it. As well as benign violation, we also have delivery in a deadpan serious way that we would expect from James Bond. This kind of delivery is important since if he tried to say it in a funny way then it actually wouldn’t be as funny.
We hear the spy say, in typical James Bond style, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this,” and walk round the corner, gun firing. We see him “take out” one bad guy but with nerf bullets, again nerf bullets are harmless, Benign Violation Theory.
We get our first glimpse of the silver briefcase that he is carrying, as he uses it to deflect the bullets. It is the typical kind of briefcase that we see in James Bond and other spy films that contains “something” valuable that the spy has just stolen or is trying to deliver somewhere.
Next, we have a low angle shot of the spy aiming his nerf gun at the other bad guy. He says the words, “Looks like you’re toast.” This is a line that gets a lot of laughs, or probably more accurately, groans of laughter, as people see the reference to both the fact that the spy is about to “kill” the bad guy, who will thus soon be “toast”, i.e. “dead” but again obviously with nerf bullets so still benign, and also the double reference to toast which is what the advert is about.
After the spy “shoots” the bad guy, he walks off round the corner, and we get a second glimpse of the briefcase.
Next, we see the spy walk into the room of the typical “tech” type guy of his organisation, who says to him “so you made it” to which the spy replies “got the goods” holding up the silver briefcase which we are not surprised to see as containing “the goods” which we now assume are valuable since he had to fight off bad guys to protect “the goods”.
I deliberately lined up the 3 actions of “putting the suitcase on the desk”, “unclipping the top”, and “opening the briefcase” with 3 consecutive beats of the James Bond music, which I had timed to reach a crescendo at that point, with the third action revealing, for the first time, two pieces of deliciously golden toast sitting on black satin (to emphasise the “value” of the toast). On the fourth beat of the music, I cut to the final shot, of a close up of the delicious looking toast slowly spinning. The toast is leaning against a white ceramic toast rack consisting of the letters “TOAST”. The toast and the toast rack are in focus. The spinning is to echo expensive items that you would see in an expensive shop, on a pedestal slowing spinning. In the background I have put, deliberately out of focus, the spy and the tech guy eating toast.
Matching the 3 actions and the final cut to the beats of the music was because I often find this is “pleasing” and just sounds and looks right. I have never linked it to the poetry link that I read about Stephanie Lim making, but it makes sense. It is also something that the director Edgar Wright does in his Comedies, such as in Baby Driver (2017), which adds to the comedic effect.
To finish the final shot, I made it look like the words “TOP SECRET” were stamped on the screen, with the last words of the advert being said, “Toast. So good even spies love it. (pause). But keep that a secret, eh” said in a posh voice similar to Q in James Bond.
In looking back at this, I realised that I had relatively little dialogue. If I’d had much more dialogue, then I would have lost the pacing of the film. Some comedies do rely on lots of fast paced dialogue, but I found less dialogue effective in this situation, I think it works well. Having now read about the importance of timing, rhythm and pacing, this makes sense as to why it works. And the importance of rhythm ties in with why the 3 actions and the cut to the beats of the music work. Finally, the Benign Violation Theory could explain how the nerf guns contrasting with the total deadpan delivery works too.