BA2a experimentation

https://www.dragonframe.com/download/Using%20Dragonframe%204.pdf

Blog with masked creatures: http://visualfuturisk.tumblr.com/post/18032040872/i-am-no-longer-a-humanist-therefore-i-shall

Music video. Camera moves back and forth + people walking in the background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ONRf7h3Mdk&list=RDApXoWvfEYVU&index=5

Someone's Dream Journal: https://zenandtheartoftightropewalking.wordpress.com/category/dreams-and-dreaming/

https://www.theartstory.org/movement-performance-art.htm

This website suggests that contemporary performance stemmed from artists who wanted to revive their work and went to live performances and acting as a way to do that, calling it ‘body art’.

- “The foremost purpose of performance art has almost always been to challenge the conventions of traditional forms of visual art such as painting and sculpture. When these modes no longer seem to answer artists' needs - when they seem too conservative, or too enmeshed in the traditional art world and too distant from ordinary people - artists have often turned to performance in order to find new audiences and test new ideas.“

- “Performance art borrows styles and ideas from other forms of art, or sometimes from other forms of activity not associated with art.“

Umbra sits at the desk and notices someone. They turn around excitedly and welcome the person talking loudly with their arms. Then they stand up and walk up towards the person, shaking violently the closer they get until its face is in the other persons face. 

Later we see Umbra drinking a coffee at a tall table talking to someone. Then Umbras arms go stiff. The host starts to take over. They try to put the mask on the table and finally manage it. The host then feels about their face through the material before hugging themselves tightly and walking off screen. Just as they do the Umbras arms begin flailing towards the mask and they both get pulled back, throwing themselves onto the table and swiping the mask back under their body. Staying still a moment they stand up and regain composure before noticing they knocked their coffee cup on the floor and pick it back up and take a drink as they walk away of frame again.

Finally, Umbra waves from the top of the street and walks to greet someone. Arriving in front of them Umbra puts an arm on the person's shoulder and talks a moment before wrapping an arm around them and walk towards Umbras house where they walk up to the house and the door opens by itself. Umbra enters and stands in the corner of the room as the door closes itself.

Ancient Greek theatre.

^ I’m not sure how true this is obviously to the real thing however the way people are used as objects and voices to inform the audience is interesting and quite different to how we see action of communities react to an obstacle in todays movies. Rather then speech we would be shown these actions in a movie. 

^ This is very informative video that doesn’t exactly do a lot of comparing but is helpful in giving me some context. 

Gertie the Dinosaur, the first key framed animation. You can see that the character Gertie has a kind of naughty personality but it doesn’t get stretched in the same way we’re used to so I find that it’s a little bit boring, especially as it’s quite long and repetitive but I’m sure it would have been interesting at the time. Perhaps this is just due to people and animators having a better understanding now of character performance?  

http://www.animationarena.com/acting-and-animation.html

“ Good acting is believable and interesting.”

“Suddenly you believe your own character. Suddenly it's alive, it's there in its own right. Those are the moments of believable acting. ”

“Believable acting means that the audience feels that the character's actions are the result of its own inner motives, and not the animator's inner motives; that the character feels, thinks and reacts consistently according to its personality and mood.”

“Try to "feel" your character when you create animation.”

“Look for opportunities to show thinking process, which leads to decision and action.”

“ Every action must have a reason. Make sure you know what your character is reacting to, and that the reaction is reasonable”

“ Try to get to know your character the way you know a family member or someone you work with. What makes him tick? What is he afraid of? What are his problems? ”

“Mood resembles personality - it, too, dictates the character's reactions - but unlike personality, its effect is temporary.”

“The actor/animator's task is to carefully read the script, study the storyboard, and try to "get into" the character.”

“A good actor doesn't invent his acting - he discovers it. ”

http://thinkinganimation.com/acting-for-animators/

- Emotion is not actable. Creating the illusion of life is not acting.

- Every human action has a purpose. All acting theory is based on that premise.

- if you ask characters “What are you doing?” that character needs an answer.

- Objective -> Action -> Obstacle. 

- Rango was recorded with actors performing together. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFr89i9NPuY)

- Animator doing each others reference videos for a fresh perspective.

- Actors think of intentions and objective.

- Film references aren’t meant to be good. 

- Boy and the World has good use of blinking. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAberaF1cE)

- 3 blinks a min to keep eyes healthy everything else is calculated. 

- When you complete a task, comprehend, understand, talk or feel an emotion you blink differently.

- Screen time is often spent on the character talking rather then the one listening and reacting. 

https://vdocuments.site/acting-for-animation.html

“Chaplin gets foot stuck in a bucket. Keaton would try to shake it off erratically to get the quick, cheap laugh. Chaplin would try to keep his dignity and through embarrassment hide the bucket behind him causing empathy for his problem. This is more clever and more funny. The laughter can be stretched too through his trying to hide the fact his foot is tuck in the bucket. After the intitial erratic move by Keaton the laugh is done and it looked practiced int he first place.  “

- THE AUDIENCE IS SMARTER THAN YOU THINK - DO NOT OVER ANIMATE. 

- It becomes comedy when it is an "extension" of the moment.  

- Working with short takes...convert the motivation from want to NEED  

- The audience is looking for the extraordinary moment not the ordinary moment. When something really good or bad happens to you the mind gets bathed in adrenaline and we remember that moment -- use it, these are the important moments. 

- The big problem for animators and acting is that they have to focus on the externals of a character like facial and body movement while actors know those things are a RESULT of what is going on internally; therefore, actors begin with the internals and do not work with the externals...those are the result!  

- Scorsese uses story boards but the actor doesn't see those, they use the script for motivation. If you are stuck ask for the script and read many pages before that scene to get your character's motivation.  

-  Anticipation is bad acting. Expectancy will kill your scene. Don't tell them what is funny with over acting, keep it honest. The temptation is to act MORE - but you do not have to. 

-  Human undertone and empathy: Charlie Chaplin movies Gold Rush, City Lights and Modern Times.  

- Age, Height, Weigh,t Gender, Childhood, Ethnic, Background, Profession, Dreams, Morals, Health, Environment, Education, Sex, Life, Intelligence, Idiosyncrasies Need/Purpose Body Structure.  The audience doesn't have to know the character's long term purpose or objective, but! that long term purpose effects the character's short term actions. 

-"The more obvious you are the more original you appear" Keith Johnstone (king of improv) 

- High Status = Very Still, make eye contact, comfortable. Low Status = Looking down a lot, touching face, uncomfortable. 

-Watch any scene with the sound turned off and you will immediately see the good acting and the bad acting.