Evening movie review

Several weeks ago, someone related by blood urged upon myself a DVD box set of episodes of a defunct TV sitcom called Seinfeld. I had never seen the show and knew nothing about it.

But the author is nothing if not open-minded, so I loaded up my DVD player and sat back in my recliner. A couple of weeks later, I had gotten through the four DVDs that contained the seventh season of Seinfeld. It seems that these were originally aired around 1996.

Midway through the fourth disc, I finally stopped asking myself why I was still watching. The answer was that this show, despite its shortcomings, owes a lot to P. G. Wodehouse.

Now a typical Wodehouse plot goes like this: One of Bertie Wooster’s aunts, a domineering type, summons Bertie, a passive and obliging character, and sends him on a simple errand, like picking up an antique brooch from a jewelry repair shop. But Bertie bungles everything and lets the brooch come into the possession of someone who will not give it back. The situation becomes hopeless, but at the last minute, through an ingenious plot twist, Bertie’s man Jeeves sets everything aright.

Then take the plot of “The Bottle Deposit,” the 21st episode of the seventh Seinfeld season. Elaine’s boss, a domineering type, gives her a simple errand: she is to go an auction and bid up to $10,000 on a set of golf clubs once used by President Kennedy.

But she bungles the job, first by rashly bidding twice as much as authorized (just the sort of thing Bertie Wooster would have done!), then by entrusting the vintage clubs to Jerry, who leaves them in the back seat of his car, which is then stolen by a crazed auto mechanic. The clubs end up mangled and bent. But in a hilarious, last-minute plot twist, Elaine’s boss jumps to the conclusion that the clubs were bent by the late President himself in moments of golfing temper, and Elaine comes up smelling like a rose.

Then there’s the gag that runs from the first to the last episodes of the seventh season: George Costanza has rashly become engaged, and, like Bertie Wooster in nearly every Jeeves and Wooster novel, he is desperate to get out of it. This is classic Wodehouse. As Bertie Wooster said after one of his dangerously close brushes with matrimony: “I was in rare fettle and the heart had touched a new high. I don’t know anything that braces one up like finding you haven’t got to get married after all.”

Wodehouse might have written “The Bottle Deposit” himself, and I would be very surprised to learn that Larry David, the principal writer for Seinfeld, did not know his Wodehouse. In fact, Jerry’s friends Kramer and Newman are stock Wodehouse characters, amoral ne’er-do-wells and moochers who, like Wodehouse’s Ukridge, spend all their time dreaming up easy money schemes. (I find that blogger Mark Grueter has also noted the relationship between Larry David and P. G. Wodehouse.)

So the writing in Seinfeld, grounded on the Wodehousian formula, isn’t bad. But the eight hours or so I spent on these episodes served as a bracing reminder of why I don’t watch network television shows.

Let’s start with the laugh track. In the old days, when TV shows were filmed live, audience laughter was natural enough. But canned applause annoys me more than I can say. And this show isn’t always funny. I was surprised, for example, at how little I found to laugh at in Jerry Seinfeld’s opening monologues.

Then there’s the debased popular culture portrayed in Seinfeld. Emsworth is no prude, but Seinfeld and his friends have the sexual morals of characters in a soft-core porn movie - not for comic purposes, but just because that’s the way they live. The essentially sluttish Elaine, for example, is ready to bed someone she has just met, but hesitates because she has only a limited number of discontinued contraceptive devices. Should she waste one on him? Elaine’s schtick over whether he was “sponge-worthy” was cringe-making.

But worst of all is the yelling. Jason Alexander is clearly a talented actor. So why does his character, George Constanza, always yell at fellow characters who are only six inches away from his face? Why don’t TV sitcom directors realize think that high-decibel discussions are only funny if they’re the exception, not the rule?

When filmmakers set out to shoot a film most of them are aware of all the problems that can happen. You are not working alone and must learn to manage the writers, actors and crew to ensure that everything goes according to plan on your film shoot. It is the director’s job however to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

The first thing you should do is make sure that the script is done before you begin searching for actors. This will give the actors plenty of time to review the script and decide if they want to be involved with your project. With a developed script you will have fully developed characters that can be explored by the actors when they are reviewing your script. It will also help you to determine which actors are appropriate for the roles.

Give yourself plenty of time to audition the actors for your film. Try to schedule several days for the auditions to give actors plenty of time to make it to the audition. You will want to take a look at a number of people so that you can be sure to choose the right actor for the job. Try to record or film the auditions so that you can look back on them when the auditions are over to choose the best actor. Keep notes of your thoughts during the auditions so that you can refer back to them later. You are looking for the actor that can become that character. Look for one that will deliver the lines in a way that brings the character to life.

The next step is to plan your schedule for shooting the film. Try to give yourself as much time as you can. You don’t want to run over time and you also don’t want to have to rush through the filming process just to meet the schedule. Add some flexibility to your filming schedule to accommodate unforeseen events. If there are no problems that happen during your filming you will end up with extra time at the end of the production. This is better than running over.

Finally, you will want to give yourself plenty of time to edit the film. You will need to make adjustments to the sound, edit out scenes, change the lighting with the software and a host of other adjustments that will make your film the best that it can be. Editing can be as big if not bigger job than actually filming the scenes. If you are working on the editing full time you might need as long as a month to complete the editing work. If you must work another job as well, you will probably need more time. Taking your time through this phase of your project will ensure that you deliver a high quality result at the end.