situation comedy research (dialogue)

Keywords: power distance

Verbal humour may call up different reactions in other cultures, situational

Humour however, is still harder to deal with. It might even create a kind of Culture

the following dimensions:

Power distance

Uncertainty avoidance 

Masculinity/femininity 

Individualism on the one hand versus its opposite, collectivism

Power distance is  the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally

Power distance includes high power distance and lower power distance. China is a high power distance country, American is a lower distance country.  In situation comedy, the dialogue is a good way to show the different between high power distance country and lower distance country.


Sample:  Friends（USA)  
                My Own Swordsman (China ）

Aim ：Find the characterize and difference in dialogue between China and American.

before my research, i search 'which dialogue you still remember for My Own Swordsman '
and ' which dialogue you still remember for Friends' ,because there are many lines of dialogue, so I just collect 50 lines of dialogue for friends and My Own Swordsman to Statistics to research the topic of humor.

Topic of humor
I choice three topics: sex, culture background, other

                                     sex            culture background      other

Friends                          60%                       10%                 30%

My Own Swordsman     10%                       70%                 20%

Both of them are talking about three topics, but Friends focus on sex(30), and My Swordsman focus on culture background(28).

In My Own Swordsman,  the actor always talks about famous book, if audiences don't know this masterpiece, they can't understand the meaning of dialogue.  It is the  characterize for high power distance, people need to know many culture background.

In Friends, culture background is some general advisements. Like ' Ben, Just do it'  audience sees this dialogue, they know actors is talk about Nike. It is the  characterize for high power distance. many dialogue use advisement's words , so every audience can understand it.

IMDb. (1994). Friends. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Last accessed Octorber 26, 2015.

Snellinx, R. (2011) ‘HUMOUR THAT DIVIDES, HUMOUR THAT UNITES: AMERICAN SITCOMS. A CASE IN POINT’,JoLIE, 2(2).

My Storyboard

Research methodology

Firstly, researching situation structure, thinking about the Chinese director and American director how to perform in the comedy. Selecting some research subjects, I stat that the research subjects is paramount， because they will give me much valuable information.

Secondly, I use Quantitative research method， because the quantitative data can reflect the different points of chinese comedy and American comedy. Also, there are many kinds of comedy in China, so, research some professional artifact can help me to collect some specific data. 

Thirdly, the research method includes case study and interview. For popular comedy, I choice interview some subject, I will produce 5-point Likett Scale question.  The 5-point is 5: strongly agree; 4; agree; 3: neutral; 2: disagree; 1: strongly disagree. The subject needs to select that point he think is correct.  I collect the point to analyze. In other aspects, for some specific comedy, I will do the case study because it can help me secure to analyze it.

Two films

In week 14, we watch film Ex Machina， and in week 15, we watch ky captain & tomorrow of the world.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 American science fiction action adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conranin his directorial debut. 

Ex Machina (stylized as ex_machina) is a 2015 British science fiction thriller film written and directed by Alex Garland. It stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno and Oscar Isaac. Ex Machina tells the story of a programmer who is invited by his employer to administer the Turing test to an android with artificial intelligence. Made on a budget of $15 million, the film grossed over $36 million worldwide and received positive reviews.

In this film, the narrative is very good, especially when the robot kill the boss,  the narrative is sooth. 
For dialogue is clearly, there are less dialogue but more body language. 
For robot, in other films, robot just a iron machine, but in this film, it is a self-awareness robot.

IMDb. (2015). Ex Machina. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Last accessed November 05, 2015.

IMDb. (2004). Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow . Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Last accessed November 05, 2015.

Learning agreenment

What is your general area of study with in the subject?

(200+ words)

In my general area, I want to focus on how China and other countries will perform the comedy, the reason I wish to research is that China became a significant market for the film, and there are many Hollywood comedies come to China every year. In another aspect, more and more American audience like watching Chinese comedy. However, some Chinese audiences think Hollywood comedies is more humor than Chinese comedies, some foreign audience cannot understand some structures for Chinese comedies, so, I want to compare those comedies and explain why this phenomenon is happening.

What is your research question?

(one question and less than 60 words)

Are there reasons why some Chinese comedies work abroad and others do not and the same can be said for foreign films in China?

Research aim(s):

(NOT A BULLET LIST)

What are the overall aims of the project?

The primary ain is looking at what is the similar points and different points between Chinese and other countries’ comedy;

The secondly aim is how to perform the various points between Chinese and other countries’ comedy and why is different between Chinese and other countries’ comedy(culture, shooting skill and so on).

Research objectives(s):

(use a bullet list and DO NOT include dates)

What are the specific tangible project objectives?

Note: these are separate to what you personally need to learn in terms of skills and knowledge, see learning objectives below.

Literature surveys on how director  to create comedy in different countries，like storyline，shooting skill and so on. Entries in reflective journal.

Film analysis of different kinds of comedy, like situation comedy, talk show, comedy film. Entries in reflective journal.

Produce some short clip examples to compare comedy in different country. Films and entries in reflective journal.

Interview some professional people and search artifact why some kinds of comedy don't publish in China, like Minions. Entries in reflective journal.

Methodology

(This is NOT just the research methods you will use but the more abstract research theory)

·      Outline the research, creative and intellectual methods you will employ to develop your research project.

·      Firstly, researching situation structure, thinking about the Chinese director and American director how to perform in the comedy. Selecting some research subjects, I stat that the research subjects is paramount， because they will give me much valuable information.

·       

·      Secondly, I use Quantitative research method， because the quantitative data can reflect the different points of chinese comedy and American comedy. Also, there are many kinds of comedy in China, so, research some professional artifact can help me to collect some specific data. 

·       

·      Thirdly, the research method includes case study and interview. For popular comedy, I choice interview some subject, I will produce 5-point Likett Scale question.  The 5-point is 5: strongly agree; 4; agree; 3: neutral; 2: disagree; 1: strongly disagree. The subject needs to select that point he think is correct.  I collect the point to analyze. In other aspects, for some specific comedy, I will do the case study because it can help me secure to analyze it.