FMP – TomSka Videos Research

One YouTuber whose videos I have enjoyed is “TomSka”. His real name is Thomas James Ridgewell, he is a 30-year-old British YouTuber, also a filmmaker, director, writer, actor, voice actor, producer, comedian and musician and the founder of the media production company Turbopunch Ltd. At the end of last year, his YouTube channel had nearly 6.7 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion views.

The first two videos I watched are:

Fun Facts & F**k-Ups (39.48)

 and then

Bodyguard (by TomSka)

The first video is TomSka talking about fun facts about many of his videos and showing behind the scenes footage. Some of the “Fun Facts” are not relevant to me making a comedic video, or are where things went wrong, but since TomSka makes a lot of comedy videos there are some interesting and helpful bits and pieces. For example, at 4:20 he talks about the “Bodyguard” video above, and at 5:38 he talks about “Psycho Girlfriend Smashes Xbox”, which is below.

Bodyguard is about a bunch of what look like students sharing a house, and one of these students has a bodyguard. In Bodyguard, there are a couple of shots involving Xboxes that are clever. I’m not talking about special effects or clever cuts, or camera movements. I’m talking more about other small things that still make quite a difference to the video. For example, in one of these shots, the Bodyguard picks up an Xbox that a guy is playing on and smashes it on the floor. When I first watched this, I though “ooh that’s expensive”, but in the “Fun Facts” video TomSka explains that he went to a computer repair shop where they repair or get rid of old broken equipment and got a cheap old outer case and some “insides” cheaply. So the Xbox that the Bodyguard actually smashes is not the Xbox the guy was playing with. I like this thinking outside the box a bit to get props. This also backs up some of the things that I mentioned in a previous journal about comments in the “BFI Future Film Festival” webinar that I participated in on the Art Department, where the presenters, from the Art Department of the film Saint Maud (2019), were mentioning having to be inventive with props, e.g. using a small tank of water to pretend there was running water at a sink in a “kitchen”.

Also, there is a scene in Bodyguard, immediately after the Xbox getting smashed up, where the guy whose Xbox has just been smashed says “Awww! Not again!” and goes and opens a cupboard and there are 6 other Xboxes all lined up ready, implying that getting his Xbox smashed is a frequent occurrence, which adds humour. TomSka explained that to do this shot he borrowed lots of Xboxes from his friends. It’s very simple, but these little touches really add to the comedy, and without breaking the bank. Budget is something that I need to be aware of for my project.

Another thing that I noticed is clever use of Foley. One of the students attempts to punch the bodyguard in the stomach. Instead of the impressive punching sounds, that I saw in my Foley project are often made by hitting a phone book or a sofa, the sounds are very pathetic, quiet sounds. This also adds comedy. So I can add some comedy by careful use of Foley sounds too.

I have noticed that often with comedy you need to do something a bit out of the ordinary, and sometimes that may be considered a bit extreme. For instance, in my Pixilation videos, I made use of the fact that I have over 50 trilby hats (which some people may say is extreme) to add part of the comedy when I had them forming a “trail” behind the chairs (that were being used as “cars”). Most people don’t have that many hats, never mind 50 of the same style of hats, and I feel that this absurdity is part of what makes people smile and hence adds to the comedic value. I have watched TomSka’s videos for several years now, and I enjoy his sense of humour. What I liked about his “Fun Facts” video is getting to “look inside his head”, which I feel will be helpful for me in creating my own video with comedic elements.

A simple thing like thinking outside the box to get an old Xbox that COULD be smashed without wasting lots of money is very clever. I always try to think outside the box with my projects, for example a spy theme is not the obvious way of selling toast, but many people have commented how entertaining they find my spy-themed toast advert from Year 1 of this course, and how amusing it is. TomSka’s explanation encourages me to take my existing “out of the box” thinking and apply it to all elements of my FMP, not just the storyline. Thinking outside the box with respect to props is a large part of what makes the Bodyguard video amusing.

This is another video by TomSka that he explains in his “Fun Facts” video above.

Psycho Girlfriend Smashes Xbox

In it, a man (TomSka) and his “girlfriend” are playing a game on the Xbox. She gets mad because she keeps losing and eventually she gets so mad that she grabs the Xbox and smashes it on the floor. The way TomSka gave the illusion of it being the Xbox that they were playing on that she smashed, is by having a friend hiding behind the curtains in the scene holding the ACTUAL Xbox they were playing on. This third person pulled the cable out of the real Xbox at the same time as the “girlfriend” grabbed the fake Xbox, making it look like it was her action of grabbing the “fake” Xbox that caused the screen to go blank. Again, once you know, it is very simple, but when you are watching it, it does look like one of those girlfriend “freak out” videos that you get on YouTube, because smashing the Xbox comes as quite a surprise.

Again, it has encouraged me to think about clever ways to get any effects that I want in my Final Major Project.

Another one of TomSka’s videos that I like is “The Confession 2”

The Confession 2

This is about 2 cops in a police station, about to try to get a confession from a suspect. After several false starts e.g when the comedic cop character goes in and confesses something that he did instead of trying to get a confession from the suspect, they decide to try the “good cop bad cop” approach. But the comedic character keeps getting it wrong and doing “good cop rad cop”, “good cop sad cop”, “good cop dad cop” – you get the picture.

I like the humour in it, rather than being slapstick it is clever writing, which is probably more appropriate for my film than slapstick comedy. I love watching slapstick humour, like the “Make ‘Em Laugh” scene with Donald O’Connor from Singin’ in the Rain (1952). He is an amazing comedic actor with incredible slapstick timing. And slapstick is extremely physical too, just watch the clip.

1080p HD “Make ‘Em Laugh” – Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

When I did some research into this clip, I found that it is “noted for its extreme physical difficulty, featuring dozens of jumps, pratfalls, and two backflips”, all performed by Donald O’Connor himself. I heard he was bedridden for several days after filming it.

But I don’t think I will have actors skilled enough to carry out slapstick – I could well end up needing to use my parents as actors, depending on what happens with Covid-19 restrictions, so backflips are probably not on the table. But seriously though, I do need to be aware of my potential actors when I write the script. For example, some comedy relies on facial expressions and even this can be challenging for inexperienced actors. And even some of the parts of “The Confession 2” good cop bad cop video needs good acting. It would be nice to be able to use some of my acting friends, but, as I wrote about in a previous journal, I think I have to be prepared for filming in at least partial lockdown.

I know there are many different types of comedy, I need to do some research into the different comedy types and the theory behind them and decide on most appropriate and the best approach to take.