In 'One Week', this short, both partners are shown to be equals and in a civil marriage with the wife helping him to build the house and is given a lot to do rather than being forgotten about and leaving her her husband to do all the manual work. In 'The Scarecrow', Keaton is playing the romantic suitor who is in a battle with his brother to win her over. However, she plays a bigger role than a love interest as she is involved in the chase. She is shown to be the dominant one in this scene as it is Keaton who struggles to get on the horse with his the romantic interest at the front. The conventions of Keaton's short films include keeping a dead-pan face in any situation which started with his Vaudeville acts. while other silent comedy actors at that time such as Chaplin would have different facial expressions, while when a gag happened, the camera would cut Keaton keeping a 'dead-pan face'. Anther convention of Keaton is falling over but each time he falls in a different way and does not repeat the same fall each time. Another key convention of Keaton is his lack of editing in his films. The action is played out on screen with fewer cuts which makes for invisible editing. Usually when Keaton cuts it is when action is playing out on the screen. The only time a piece of editing is visible (which is uncommon for Keaton) is when he falls backwards of the top of the building and cuts to him on the ground. This was necessary to do as it would off been hard to frame Keaton falling of the house and landing on the ground in just one take. For the mise-en-scene in 'The Scarecrow', the table in the multi-purpose room is framed in the dead centre of the screen. This is so you can see them use all the functions of the house without having to cut. In 'The Scarecrow', Keaton's short stature is used for comedy when his Brother who is a lot bigger than Keaton, which allows for more comedy between the two of them battling it out as the romantic suitor.
The conventions of silent comedy's are present in Keaton's short films. In 'The Scarecrow', a ladder is used for the dog to run up. Using animals for comedy is also a convention of a silent comedy. Another convention of silent comedy films are the chase scenes. In 'The Scarecrow', the majority of the running time is devoted to Keaton's character being chased. He is first chased by he dog and at the end, he and his wife are being chased on a horse. The fourth wall is broken a couple times across both films. In 'One Week', as the wife is about to get out of the bathtub, she stops when she sees the camera and a hand then covers the lens. This is a very modern pun which you would expect to see in comedy nowadays.
A convention of silent comedy which is shown in the 'High Sign' is the use of the banana peel. Bananas were imported to America in the mid-19th century and were often thrown onto the street. When they rot, they got slippy. They were used for gags in silent fils in the 1890s Vaudeville acts. However, Keaton flips this convention by not having anyone tripped it. Keaton is portrayed as the outsider who gets hired to be a hitman and the protector for the same man. There is the use of the media when Keaton finds the hitman advertisement in the newspaper and falls off the bench straight after which is a classic Keaton gag.
In 'Cops', a convention of silent comedy is the use of animals for gags. Keaton uses a horse for the first part of the film. Modern technology is shown through Keaton using a telephone to communicate with the horse. At the police parade, a town is thrown which lands beside Keaton. This is a representation of the 1920s anarchists who bombed Wall Street in 1920 which killed 38 people. The audience would of caught on to the anarchist bombings were prominent in the media at this time. The cops are represented as ignorant, stupid, pathetic and weak as the whole police force chases Keatons character through town with no one catching him despite Keaton being short. Keaton plays the romantic suitor.
