The importance of location in situational comedy

The use of location in situational comedies is important, as most locations are frequently reused throughout a series. If the series was filmed in a studio with a live audience, the fourth wall is rarely depicted and the cameras must operate from that perspective, never crossing the threshold into the world of the characters. A sense of containment is formed within the limited space the creators must work with and this can create a sense of conflict within the scenes.

Camera placement is somewhat restricted and more likely to involve static camera placement with little movement. The acting is always “for” and in the direction of the camera and the sets are designed with this in mind, as there is no need to see what is behind a walled desk, or on the inside of a fridge if its door opens towards the camera.

Due to the static nature of the cameras, action must occur within the same key areas of a set, resulting in the spatial awareness of the creators being a critical factor in filming. For series not filmed with the restraints of a fourth wall or static camera placement, confined spaces are still used to generate conflict within the plot such as within the surgical tent in M*A*S*H (Gelbart, Reynolds & Metcalfe, 1972-1983), or the characters’ many impromptu meetings in supply closets in Scrubs (Lawrence et al., 2001-2010).

John Lloyd noted on the production of The Blackadder, “Because there was no audience seating in the studio, we could have huge sets and put the cameras almost anywhere – this meant it took longer to shoot and (to be honest) none of us really knew what we were doing.” (Roberts, 2013, p. 88). Without a studio audience restricting filming locations, The Blackadder has some vast scenes, such as in the forest in “Born to Be King”, at Bosworth Field in “The Foretelling” or in the village in “Witchsmeller Pursuivant” (Curtis, Atkinson & Shardlow, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c, respectively).

This caused production to go over budget, with the show being dubbed by BBC insiders “The show that looked a million dollars, and cost a million pounds” (Roberts, 2013, p. 177), and the spatial awareness previously discussed was not as relevant due to the freedom of camera placement and epic sets. Scenes within the banquet hall, however, were subject to the same restrictions in space as any other show may be. Regardless of this, it was still possible for camera placement to be anywhere, as they were not confined behind the fourth wall of a studio.

Moving into production for Blackadder II, producers were required to make radical changes to reduce the budget and increase viewership. The new restriction of camera placement had a significant effect on the comedic value of the series. The smaller sets and restrictive scenes created the possibility for conflict to be the key driver in the comedy where, should they have been filmed on location, a punchline or situation may not have had the same impact. One such example can be found in “Head” (Curtis, Elton & Fletcher, 1986), where Edmund, in Traitors Cove, hides the head of Lord Ponsonby on the back of his belt so Queenie (Queen Elizabeth I) does not see it. The confined space creates this conflict with him desperate to keep his body between the head and Queenie.

The characters were fine-tuned and “while in the first series, Blackadder is still depicted as rather naïve himself, the remaining instalments turn him into a highly cunning and malicious character, whose only motivation is to maximise his personal gain.” (Sedlmayr, 2016, p. 157), with Baldrick taking a step in the opposite direction. A format where the situation is consistently rarely resolved in Blackadder’s favour was created and Blackadder was brought closer to Charney’s definition of television sitcoms. As John Hartley wrote:

With Rowan Atkinson taking a step back from co-writing, it enabled him to focus on acting, and in turn enabled Blackadder II to focus on the dialogue and acting, which was suddenly far more important due to the restricted space of filming within a studio. Atkinson being a “seriously funny actor” in “fictional situations” was a necessity for the ongoing success of the series.