Thursday, June 18, 2015

Kung Fu Panda 3 - Trailer

Can't wait for this one! Loved the first two! But man, the music in trailers nowadays... I must be getting old....


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Add Character

As many of my students know, I'm always harping on about CHARACTER, to a point where it became a meme in my last AAU class. Thank you George...


To me it's just more interesting to see a character make choices that are influenced by their emotional state, by what's happening to them via outside forces (through another character or environmental forces, etc.) and so on as opposed to seeing just movement (like a dance or martial arts).

You can have underlying character traits inform the character's acting choices. Your character can be honest, loyal, determined, adventurous, pessimistic, mean, rude, greed, cruel, picky ,silly, fidget, deceptive, etc. etc.

You can also have gestures or body tics that are specific to one character. It can be tricky to put that into one shot as it might seem repetitive or just look like bad acting:



... but it's still something to think about. As mentioned above, the environment can also alter your acting. Take your current acting scene but place it somewhere where it's really cold. The character's posture is going to change, some gestures might be faster or reduced in their scale maybe because he/she wants to go back to putting his/her hands into the coat pockets or whatever. 

A simple gesture or someone grabbing a prop is going to look different depending on your character's emotional state of mind, character trait, environment, or even if the character is familiar or unfamiliar with the environment and/or prop(s).

All in all, every move should hopefully tell the audience something about your protagonist/antagonist/extra/etc., so don't forget: add character. :)


A Case Of Doubt