A large inspiration for this analysis of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing (2012) movie is filmmaker Tony Zhou’s video essay on director Edgar Wright’s brilliant use of Visual Comedy[1] where he criticizes modern American comedy movies as being “lightly edited improv.” Zhou goes on to say how these movies are “overwhelmingly sound,” coming primarily from dialogue. These movies starring celebrity comedians like Will Ferrell or Kevin Hart are not able to utilize the full range cinema has to offer to comedy. With that in mind, this film by Whedon stands out in its genre. This film is a testament to the quality of not only Shakespeare’s comedies, but also to the standard that modern comedies should hold themselves to, but fall short in doing so. Whedon able to shoot a comedic Much Ado About Nothing film that earns laughs not solely from dialogue, but also from a variety of filmmaking techniques.
From the first few scenes of the movie two things are very apparent: Joss Whedon’s usual cast of characters and the Charlie Chaplin-esque atmosphere that the black and white of the film suggests. This film then is where Chaplin meets The Avengers when the viewer is confronted by a familiar Clark Greg in a suit, but in an alternate universe from the super-powered world of Marvel. Working with this familiar cast on a short timeframe and small budget while the blockbuster Avengers was also being shot, Whedon’s job is easy in this film. All he has to do is to shoot wide and provide his fantastic actors the space to perform. Before we go into the analysis of several of the film’s scenes, the choice to shoot the entire film in black and white must be discussed.
This singular decision is the most distinct choice Whedon makes throughout the entire film as it affects every shot. Upon seeing this in the first few scenes, the viewer instantly understands that this film is a comedy that acknowledges its masters: Chaplin visually and Shakespeare literarily. So the task at hand for Whedon was not to present a modern adaptation with a ‘creative’ twist on a classic, but instead to expertly execute a great adaptation. Not only did Whedon choose to shoot in black and white, but he also consciously decided that no attempt would be made to make the film’s costuming, environments, or props refer to any other time period than today in an effort to provide visual constants that a 2012 audience could connect to while the largely untouched Shakespeare dialogue remained. All of these choices adds to how carefully this masterful text to screen adaptation was crafted before one even analyzes a cut or a camera angle.
One guiding principle that is evident throughout this film can be summarized by action comedy genius, Jackie Chan, “when the camera angle moves that means the actors, they don’t know how to fight … I never move my camera always steady wide angle. Let them see I jumping down, I do the flip, I do the fall.”[2] Whedon holds his shots in this film. He understands his actors can act and so is disciplined with his cuts; this allows his actors to interact and spar with one another verbally, which stays true to how this story was originally written to be a play. In a Shakespearean play, there are no cuts and filmmaking magic to hide an actor’s mistakes. This use of wide, long shots that Whedon employs in the film is the closet a modern movie can get to capturing this traditional form of performance. Additionally, the entire film is shot on a handheld camera. It is almost like the viewer is a spectator or fly on the wall in this scene with the authentic and organic shakiness of the film’s shots. Whedon showcases how these techniques can come together to earn a laugh in first in the initial faceoff between Beatrice and Benedick.
Here the comedy is in the dialogue – the sound. However, the way Whedon celebrates that dialogue is different from the modern comedy approach. There is only one cut at the beginning and four at the end of the exchange. These cuts sandwich the long shot of their over minute long battle, a feat seemingly unheard of in a modern movie. This may baffle other directors. How can an audience stay awake through an entire minute of unedited dialogue? The engagement in the scene is created through the rhythm of the camera’s along with the character’s movement in harmony with the delivery of each line. Here the eye is able to move and settle on Beatrice, then the rose and flower they interact with, and then to Benedick without a single cut because of how they change positions from seated to standing and moving from one side of the frame to the other, out of frame, and then back in. There are no need for excessive cutting. The simplicity of this scene as one long dance between the two before they even know they are in love with one another keeps the viewer focused on their romantic tension and the humor in their interaction. An important part of the film’s masterful crafting is in the variety of techniques Whedon uses to earn a laugh and after sound, he uses juxtaposition.
When Benedick and Claudio tussle in a child’s bedroom, there is a visual juxtaposition of character and environment. Seeing two grown men in suits acting like two children talking about their crushes and wrestling one another next to doll houses on tiny twin beds, can only illicit a laugh. We’ve all been there before. The audience can connect immediately to the scene’s innocence and purity. The the viewer can only grin and laugh at the intentionally childish performances of Benedick and Claudio which is only broken up by the arrival of ‘father’ Don Pedro. The epitome of the use of visual juxtaposition for comedic effect in this scene happens in the shot of a seemingly oversized Benedick sitting in a chair next to a doll house. This shot presents a hilarious contrast that requires nothing other than its own ridiculousness to be funny. Seemingly out of place and out of character, not only does Whedon use a visual cinematic device here to earn a laugh in this scene, the effect is amplified by the innocence here that anyone can connect with thereby making that laugh more meaningful.
In the most true to Chaplin parts of the film, Whedon uses dramatic irony and physical comedy in the Benedick and Beatrice eavesdropping scenes. Here Whedon plays with what is in and out of the frame. Benedick slips in and out of view of Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro while the trio try their best to move into positions where Benedick can see and hear them. Benedick pops up into frame, action rolls into a hiding spot behind a branch that hides nothing but his face, climbs and falls onto a handrail, dives backwards out of frame, and creeps sideways back in. In this scene and Beatrice’s, the viewer can focus on the visual and auditory comedy simultaneously. When Claudio is being too obvious and heavy handed with his exaggerated storytelling, one can also see Benedick struggling to listen without being spotted. Both Benedick and Beatrice, in their efforts to eavesdrop, move from position to position clumsily much to the audience’s amusement.
Compared to the dips and dives Benedick takes in his scene, Beatrice falls and crawls. In these scenes Whedon is not only using wide, long shots to get a laugh, but is intentionally placing action and reaction in the same frame, and sometimes with a cut to achieve the same result. The best moment of this action-reaction cut is when a Beatrice first overhears that Benedick is in love with her and falls down the stairs with a cut back to see Hero and Ursula’s reaction and a cut back to see Beatrice’s head pop up into frame from the stairs. Then the dramatic irony of Hero and Ursula going over to talk right above Beatrice’s hiding spot allows Whedon to frame them all together in a low and wide shot to capture both the devious expressions and delivery of the two girls above while also getting Beatrice’s scared-of-being-found face. In these two scenes, Whedon fully utilizes the frame to deliver yet again another way of getting a laugh from the audience.
Later in the film, Whedon uses a unique ‘punchline’ style of scene structure where there is a set up and punchline shot in the arrest of Borachio and Conrad. This scene seems to translate this format of a joke from language into a visual. The tension and the betrayl of Claudio sets the stage for this scene where Borachio and Conrad are caught not just lighting a small illegal fire, but also admitting to be the ones behind the betrayal. As the tension of this specific scene rises and reaches its climax when the two watchmen pop out and arrest the two at gunpoint, the awkwardly wide and long shot of the two being held at gunpoint is hilarious. There was no need to settle on the shot for longer than a second, but the fact that Whedon did made it more awkward and funny despite the content of the scene. It is also made even so by a well-timed owl hoot right before the cut to the next scene. In this scene the use of this punchline scene structure, an awkwardly long and still shot, and a fantastic sound effect timing comes together to form another laugh different from the ones that preceded it. Here Whedon shows how one can make a scene funny despite its need to be dramatic and act as a crucial part of the plot.
Following the dramatic climax of the film at Claudio and Hero’s wedding, Shakespeare introduces Dogberry and Verges as comic relief. Arguably the most entertaining duo in the entire film, Dogberry and Verges deliver an amazing comedic performance in their interrogation scene of Borachio and Conrad. The dynamic range of volume the two use in the entire scene set the foundation for their visual humor. Dogberry transitions from mocking laughter and conversation with the two criminals to a whispered aside to Verges, and then immediately to a loud call to the two watchmen. This hilarious diversity of volume reaches its peak when Conrad calls the police chief an ass. Before that, however, one cannot help but chuckle at the silliness of Verges failing to look intimidating by falling back into a wall. This peak of volume then happens at the moment where Dogberry is most silent and angrily points the watchmen to carry Conrad out of his sight. He explodes and goes on a tirade about the disrespect this woman treats him with, revealing the hilarious character defect of his insecurity. So distracted is Dogberry by Conrad’s remark that he puts on Verges’s much smaller jacket. This physical comedy mixed with an amazing control over the scene’s volume as well deliver again another different laugh.
As the cherry on top, Whedon presents the audience with one final silent gag between Dogberry and Verges. They lock themselves out of their car. After this shot, we can look at all the different ways Whedon has utilized the range of cinematic devices to not just get a laugh from his audience, but to earn them. From wide and long shots focusing on the scene’s acting, to visual dramatic irony, to a setup and punchline style of scene, Whedon creates a comedy film that truly sets the bar for the genre’s directors to reach. He shows how word and image can come together to create a comedy film worth paying for and to quote Tony Zhou, “the next time you go to a theater and pay $15 to see a comedy, don’t be satisfied with shit that is less inventive than Vine.”[3]
[1] Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy (May 26, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag
[2] Jackie Chan – How to Do Action Comedy (December 2, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PCtIaM_GQ
[3] Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy (May 26, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag
From the first few scenes of the movie two things are very apparent: Joss Whedon’s usual cast of characters and the Charlie Chaplin-esque atmosphere that the black and white of the film suggests. This film then is where Chaplin meets The Avengers when the viewer is confronted by a familiar Clark Greg in a suit, but in an alternate universe from the super-powered world of Marvel. Working with this familiar cast on a short timeframe and small budget while the blockbuster Avengers was also being shot, Whedon’s job is easy in this film. All he has to do is to shoot wide and provide his fantastic actors the space to perform. Before we go into the analysis of several of the film’s scenes, the choice to shoot the entire film in black and white must be discussed.
This singular decision is the most distinct choice Whedon makes throughout the entire film as it affects every shot. Upon seeing this in the first few scenes, the viewer instantly understands that this film is a comedy that acknowledges its masters: Chaplin visually and Shakespeare literarily. So the task at hand for Whedon was not to present a modern adaptation with a ‘creative’ twist on a classic, but instead to expertly execute a great adaptation. Not only did Whedon choose to shoot in black and white, but he also consciously decided that no attempt would be made to make the film’s costuming, environments, or props refer to any other time period than today in an effort to provide visual constants that a 2012 audience could connect to while the largely untouched Shakespeare dialogue remained. All of these choices adds to how carefully this masterful text to screen adaptation was crafted before one even analyzes a cut or a camera angle.
One guiding principle that is evident throughout this film can be summarized by action comedy genius, Jackie Chan, “when the camera angle moves that means the actors, they don’t know how to fight … I never move my camera always steady wide angle. Let them see I jumping down, I do the flip, I do the fall.”[2] Whedon holds his shots in this film. He understands his actors can act and so is disciplined with his cuts; this allows his actors to interact and spar with one another verbally, which stays true to how this story was originally written to be a play. In a Shakespearean play, there are no cuts and filmmaking magic to hide an actor’s mistakes. This use of wide, long shots that Whedon employs in the film is the closet a modern movie can get to capturing this traditional form of performance. Additionally, the entire film is shot on a handheld camera. It is almost like the viewer is a spectator or fly on the wall in this scene with the authentic and organic shakiness of the film’s shots. Whedon showcases how these techniques can come together to earn a laugh in first in the initial faceoff between Beatrice and Benedick.
Here the comedy is in the dialogue – the sound. However, the way Whedon celebrates that dialogue is different from the modern comedy approach. There is only one cut at the beginning and four at the end of the exchange. These cuts sandwich the long shot of their over minute long battle, a feat seemingly unheard of in a modern movie. This may baffle other directors. How can an audience stay awake through an entire minute of unedited dialogue? The engagement in the scene is created through the rhythm of the camera’s along with the character’s movement in harmony with the delivery of each line. Here the eye is able to move and settle on Beatrice, then the rose and flower they interact with, and then to Benedick without a single cut because of how they change positions from seated to standing and moving from one side of the frame to the other, out of frame, and then back in. There are no need for excessive cutting. The simplicity of this scene as one long dance between the two before they even know they are in love with one another keeps the viewer focused on their romantic tension and the humor in their interaction. An important part of the film’s masterful crafting is in the variety of techniques Whedon uses to earn a laugh and after sound, he uses juxtaposition.
When Benedick and Claudio tussle in a child’s bedroom, there is a visual juxtaposition of character and environment. Seeing two grown men in suits acting like two children talking about their crushes and wrestling one another next to doll houses on tiny twin beds, can only illicit a laugh. We’ve all been there before. The audience can connect immediately to the scene’s innocence and purity. The the viewer can only grin and laugh at the intentionally childish performances of Benedick and Claudio which is only broken up by the arrival of ‘father’ Don Pedro. The epitome of the use of visual juxtaposition for comedic effect in this scene happens in the shot of a seemingly oversized Benedick sitting in a chair next to a doll house. This shot presents a hilarious contrast that requires nothing other than its own ridiculousness to be funny. Seemingly out of place and out of character, not only does Whedon use a visual cinematic device here to earn a laugh in this scene, the effect is amplified by the innocence here that anyone can connect with thereby making that laugh more meaningful.
In the most true to Chaplin parts of the film, Whedon uses dramatic irony and physical comedy in the Benedick and Beatrice eavesdropping scenes. Here Whedon plays with what is in and out of the frame. Benedick slips in and out of view of Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro while the trio try their best to move into positions where Benedick can see and hear them. Benedick pops up into frame, action rolls into a hiding spot behind a branch that hides nothing but his face, climbs and falls onto a handrail, dives backwards out of frame, and creeps sideways back in. In this scene and Beatrice’s, the viewer can focus on the visual and auditory comedy simultaneously. When Claudio is being too obvious and heavy handed with his exaggerated storytelling, one can also see Benedick struggling to listen without being spotted. Both Benedick and Beatrice, in their efforts to eavesdrop, move from position to position clumsily much to the audience’s amusement.
Compared to the dips and dives Benedick takes in his scene, Beatrice falls and crawls. In these scenes Whedon is not only using wide, long shots to get a laugh, but is intentionally placing action and reaction in the same frame, and sometimes with a cut to achieve the same result. The best moment of this action-reaction cut is when a Beatrice first overhears that Benedick is in love with her and falls down the stairs with a cut back to see Hero and Ursula’s reaction and a cut back to see Beatrice’s head pop up into frame from the stairs. Then the dramatic irony of Hero and Ursula going over to talk right above Beatrice’s hiding spot allows Whedon to frame them all together in a low and wide shot to capture both the devious expressions and delivery of the two girls above while also getting Beatrice’s scared-of-being-found face. In these two scenes, Whedon fully utilizes the frame to deliver yet again another way of getting a laugh from the audience.
Later in the film, Whedon uses a unique ‘punchline’ style of scene structure where there is a set up and punchline shot in the arrest of Borachio and Conrad. This scene seems to translate this format of a joke from language into a visual. The tension and the betrayl of Claudio sets the stage for this scene where Borachio and Conrad are caught not just lighting a small illegal fire, but also admitting to be the ones behind the betrayal. As the tension of this specific scene rises and reaches its climax when the two watchmen pop out and arrest the two at gunpoint, the awkwardly wide and long shot of the two being held at gunpoint is hilarious. There was no need to settle on the shot for longer than a second, but the fact that Whedon did made it more awkward and funny despite the content of the scene. It is also made even so by a well-timed owl hoot right before the cut to the next scene. In this scene the use of this punchline scene structure, an awkwardly long and still shot, and a fantastic sound effect timing comes together to form another laugh different from the ones that preceded it. Here Whedon shows how one can make a scene funny despite its need to be dramatic and act as a crucial part of the plot.
Following the dramatic climax of the film at Claudio and Hero’s wedding, Shakespeare introduces Dogberry and Verges as comic relief. Arguably the most entertaining duo in the entire film, Dogberry and Verges deliver an amazing comedic performance in their interrogation scene of Borachio and Conrad. The dynamic range of volume the two use in the entire scene set the foundation for their visual humor. Dogberry transitions from mocking laughter and conversation with the two criminals to a whispered aside to Verges, and then immediately to a loud call to the two watchmen. This hilarious diversity of volume reaches its peak when Conrad calls the police chief an ass. Before that, however, one cannot help but chuckle at the silliness of Verges failing to look intimidating by falling back into a wall. This peak of volume then happens at the moment where Dogberry is most silent and angrily points the watchmen to carry Conrad out of his sight. He explodes and goes on a tirade about the disrespect this woman treats him with, revealing the hilarious character defect of his insecurity. So distracted is Dogberry by Conrad’s remark that he puts on Verges’s much smaller jacket. This physical comedy mixed with an amazing control over the scene’s volume as well deliver again another different laugh.
As the cherry on top, Whedon presents the audience with one final silent gag between Dogberry and Verges. They lock themselves out of their car. After this shot, we can look at all the different ways Whedon has utilized the range of cinematic devices to not just get a laugh from his audience, but to earn them. From wide and long shots focusing on the scene’s acting, to visual dramatic irony, to a setup and punchline style of scene, Whedon creates a comedy film that truly sets the bar for the genre’s directors to reach. He shows how word and image can come together to create a comedy film worth paying for and to quote Tony Zhou, “the next time you go to a theater and pay $15 to see a comedy, don’t be satisfied with shit that is less inventive than Vine.”[3]
[1] Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy (May 26, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag
[2] Jackie Chan – How to Do Action Comedy (December 2, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PCtIaM_GQ
[3] Edgar Wright – How to Do Visual Comedy (May 26, 2014) by Tony Zhou, Video Essay Series: Every Frame a Painting, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag