Death, Now LaughSeniors from the infamous Italian Mafia are discussing how they’ll get alcohol from Italy to the States during prohibition. The main problem is that they only have two people left for the job: the newbies. Watch as the imbeciles fumble to get everything prepared for the job, complete with everything from morally questionable backstories to grandma-bible-theft.
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Death, Now Laugh
Topic: The Mafia
Directed by Emma B., Written by Isabel D., Edited by Noah F.
Starring Karen C., Richard SW., Johnathan M., Gunnar G.
In our film we show the events of the mafia, while in our film it is taken as a comedy, there are a lot of layers to it. The Sicilian Mafia is a renowned criminal organization, also known as “Cosa Nostra”. This organization is still exists today in Sicily, and has been present since the 19th century. The term “mafia” is generic as it could be used or refer to any criminal organization. This is why the Sicilians used “Cosa Nostra” to represent more specifically as the Sicilian Mafia anywhere else the organization has moved on in the world. A common belief about the mafia is that it first started in Sicily through the major rules and power-hungry groups that were on the island. There is not a lot of proof to confirm this besides records of their presence dating back to the 19th century. The very beginnings of the Mafia were mostly small scrappy crime groups, but that changed once the prohibition law was put into place. Prohibition banned the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. on a constitutional basis. This, obviously, caused many problems as alcohol was (and still is) extremely popular in beverages, which led to many people seeking illegal methods of getting alcohol. That’s where the Mafia came in, they would supply alcohol to U.S. citizens and because they only had competition among other Mafia groups, they made significant money doing so.
For the film, we decided to go with a mysterious aura and a black and white vibe to it because usually, pop culture portrays mafia films or TV shows as very mysterious. Since it takes place in the 1920s and the mafia was known for murders and crimes, we used a dark aura to portray bad events. Our editor wanted it to be edited like a parody of old B&W crime movies, like the ones watched at home. To accomplish this, the script was written like a crime movie, with the two seniors Giovani and Tony acting as you’d expect, but that expectation is diverted with Guido and Fabio, the two new guys acting with the grace and intelligence of Abbott and Costello. We also put in a few small funny gags like how throughout the movie they’re smoking on pasta straws, and the two seniors never saying Guido’s name correctly. One element that we really didn’t want to overdo was the gags and comedy.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/the-mafia-in-popular-culture
https://wearepalermo.com/the-history-of-sicilian-mafia/
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/mafia-in-the-united-states
https://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia.htm
http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/the-presence-of-the-american-m/overall-effects-of-the-america
https://www.history.com/news/prohibition-organized-crime-al-capone
https://www.biography.com/news/famous-mob-mafia-bosses
For the film, we decided to go with a mysterious aura and a black and white vibe to it because usually, pop culture portrays mafia films or TV shows as very mysterious. Since it takes place in the 1920s and the mafia was known for murders and crimes, we used a dark aura to portray bad events. Our editor wanted it to be edited like a parody of old B&W crime movies, like the ones watched at home. To accomplish this, the script was written like a crime movie, with the two seniors Giovani and Tony acting as you’d expect, but that expectation is diverted with Guido and Fabio, the two new guys acting with the grace and intelligence of Abbott and Costello. We also put in a few small funny gags like how throughout the movie they’re smoking on pasta straws, and the two seniors never saying Guido’s name correctly. One element that we really didn’t want to overdo was the gags and comedy.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/the-mafia-in-popular-culture
https://wearepalermo.com/the-history-of-sicilian-mafia/
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/mafia-in-the-united-states
https://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia.htm
http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/the-presence-of-the-american-m/overall-effects-of-the-america
https://www.history.com/news/prohibition-organized-crime-al-capone
https://www.biography.com/news/famous-mob-mafia-bosses
