Tuesday, November 15, 2011

WEEK 11: Character Acting 1 -- Acting for Cinematics 1: Monologues, close-up

We're very fortunate to have Ed Sahely with us for a few more weeks to teach us some real acting skills. Moving from close-ups to long shots and finally to multi-character shots, we'll learn some of the secrets of creating believable, compelling performances.

As I've mentioned before, animators should always be acting out their scenes, creating video reference to study for their own shots. On high-end productions it is common to have to act out ideas in front of directors and fellow crew members. How many animators are truly comfortable doing that? Well .. one person who is obviously gifted in this area is Blue Sky animator Jeff Gabor. He's put up a great video demonstrating his creative use of a voice track, and the resulting detailed animation performances.


You're going to create 3 of these videos over the next 5 weeks.
First up -- Close-up monologues.

Here's the link to the tracks for this week:
http://soundcloud.com/taranimator/sets/monologues-close-up/

If you'd like to print the dialogue click here for links to scripts or excepts.

Spend some time listening to the tracks.  Choose one to use for class this week.
Download and bring in the track on an mp3 player and don't forget your headphones.
If you like, bring in small, simple props (ex -- a glass, a bottle, a fake gun, a magazine).
You might also want to use a mirror for practice.
Remember that animators need to be comfortable acting out both male and female roles, of any age.

Assignment 5:  Monologues Close-up
Assigned: November 16th
Due: December 4th <-- NEW!!
% of Final Grade: 10%
Please keep file sizes under 2MB
Filenames:
tdonovan_closeup.avi

Description:
Choose one of the close-up monologues and deliver a compelling performance to the voice track. Record it on video using a camera or webcam.  Make sure the audio and video sync well, it's in focus, well-lit and well composed.

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