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- 主题发起人 wuwei
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Acting for Animators Newsletter http://www.edhooks.com
http://ActingForAnimators.com
June 2008
ED HOOKS ON THE MEND
I'll spare you the details because they bore even me, but suffice it to say that I have spent most of the past two months in hospitals in Germany and Chicago, being treated for bacterial pneumonia. It was pretty awful, and I am delighted to be back at home now and recuperating. Barring any unforeseen medical developments, I expect to be able to resume international travel with Acting for Animators in September and hope to reschedule the various commitments I had to postpone or cancel when I got sick. I never did make it to India or Stockholm or Montreal, all of which were on my calendar when my world turned to one populated by doctors. I want to express thanks to all those who found out about my medical situation and sent "Get Well!" wishes. You really lifted my spirits. And, in particular, I must thank Thomas Haegele from Filmakademie Baden-Wurtemberg and FMX in Stuttgart for stepping up to the plate when I was at my most vulnerable point. Thomas helped me and my wife, Cally, out in ways that stretch even the broadest definition of friendship, and I will forever be grateful to him.
CONGRATS TO A BUNCH OF SHORT GUYS
Down in Texas, a group of animators started getting together several years ago, sponsoring an event called Industry Giants, in which well-known pros go down there and lecture. I've been a couple of time myself and can heartily recommend them to you. Anyway, their 2008 event was on June 6th and 7th and, according to Short Guys VP Tom Ottinger, it was a blooming success. If you want a closer look at what they're up to in Texas, check out their website: A Bunch of Short Guys .
CRAFT NOTES "KUNG FU PANDA"
Ask George Lucas. You can't really go wrong if you structure a story as Joseph Campbell suggests in his book "A Hero with a Thousand Faces". That is what DreamWorks did with its most recent animated feature "Kung Fu Panda", arguably the finest movie to come from that studio to date. The story is worth telling and is shamanistic ("Trust yourself; there are no special secret ingredients to success in life..."), the characters are well defined, the close facial emotional expressions are among the best I have seen in any animated movie, and the voice actors - Even Jack Black -- were kept on a tight reign. The movie isn't tainted or dated by a lot of hip pop-culture scriptwriting, and the audience can empathize more often than not with the characters.
My only real problem with "Kung Fu Panda" is that, as wonderful as they may be animated, the fight sequences tend to go on too long. I realize I am simply shadow boxing with myself with this criticism because, as Miyazaki pointed out in an interview, western animators are somewhat afraid of stillness on screen, what Miyazaki refers to as "ma". There are a lot of action sequences in "Kung Fu Panda", many fights and Kung Fu training. I have in me personally a kind of switch that wants to turn off when this kind of thing goes on too long, mainly because a fight is predictable thing. Yes, a fight contains the elements of a scene: action, objective and conflict, but it is still a fight. The only real question is who will win and how long it will take. I personally prefer more subtle stuff in performances, but that's just me. As I say, the action sequences in "Kung Fu Panda" are among the best executed I have seen in any American made animated feature film, and I don't expect DreamWorks or Disney to stop highlighting action sequences any time soon.
There are also occasions when this character or that one will go into what amounts to a state of depression. Directors and animators often mistake such moments for "good acting" because the character is striking a mood. The truth is, however, that a character in depression is more of an illustration of a mood than a performance. Good performance must 100 percent of the time include acting in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle. It is always more interesting to see what a character does when he gets depressed than it is to simply point out that he is depressed. Does he try not to cry? Does he put his fist through the wall? Does he try to avoid interacting with other characters? Mood alone is never enough; emotions, in and of themselves, have zero theatrical currency. The audience wants to see what kind of action the emotions tend to lead to.
In "Kung Fu Panda", I was particularly impressed with the expression of emotion in the characters' faces. We humans have seven basic emotions but many thousands of possible expressions. For many years, animated characters displayed happiness, sadness, anger, etc. But the truth is that we humans rarely express a single emotion all by itself. Emotion is more like a painting that lives, shifting hues from one moment to the next. By the time the audience recognizes that a character is happy, he is probably going to be already into the next moment which will contain elements of yet other emotions. The DreamWorks animators on this film should take special pride in what they have done here with the expression of emotion, especially in close-up. They also have successfully created the illusion that the characters are actually listening to one another, which is something of a hat trick. Too often in animated films, the characters seem to be waiting turns to talk. Acting is doing, but acting is also reacting. Acting may involve words but, as an art- form, it has almost nothing to do with words. We want to see what a character is feeling and thinking and what he might be doing about that.
I also very much appreciated the detail work of Production Designer Raymond Zibach and Art Director Tang Heng, both of whom did their level best to make China look like China. Great work!
I have heard that this is the directorial debut for John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, and I applaud their launch. They may still have some things to learn about what makes a good and compelling performance on a moment-by-moment basis, but that comes with practice. The important thing for now is that they have done DreamWorks proud. Mr. Katzenberg, give these guys a raise!
Until next month...be safe!
Ed Hooks
http://www.edhooks.com
http://www.actingforanimators.com
"Actors are Shamans"
http://ActingForAnimators.com
June 2008
ED HOOKS ON THE MEND
I'll spare you the details because they bore even me, but suffice it to say that I have spent most of the past two months in hospitals in Germany and Chicago, being treated for bacterial pneumonia. It was pretty awful, and I am delighted to be back at home now and recuperating. Barring any unforeseen medical developments, I expect to be able to resume international travel with Acting for Animators in September and hope to reschedule the various commitments I had to postpone or cancel when I got sick. I never did make it to India or Stockholm or Montreal, all of which were on my calendar when my world turned to one populated by doctors. I want to express thanks to all those who found out about my medical situation and sent "Get Well!" wishes. You really lifted my spirits. And, in particular, I must thank Thomas Haegele from Filmakademie Baden-Wurtemberg and FMX in Stuttgart for stepping up to the plate when I was at my most vulnerable point. Thomas helped me and my wife, Cally, out in ways that stretch even the broadest definition of friendship, and I will forever be grateful to him.
CONGRATS TO A BUNCH OF SHORT GUYS
Down in Texas, a group of animators started getting together several years ago, sponsoring an event called Industry Giants, in which well-known pros go down there and lecture. I've been a couple of time myself and can heartily recommend them to you. Anyway, their 2008 event was on June 6th and 7th and, according to Short Guys VP Tom Ottinger, it was a blooming success. If you want a closer look at what they're up to in Texas, check out their website: A Bunch of Short Guys .
CRAFT NOTES "KUNG FU PANDA"
Ask George Lucas. You can't really go wrong if you structure a story as Joseph Campbell suggests in his book "A Hero with a Thousand Faces". That is what DreamWorks did with its most recent animated feature "Kung Fu Panda", arguably the finest movie to come from that studio to date. The story is worth telling and is shamanistic ("Trust yourself; there are no special secret ingredients to success in life..."), the characters are well defined, the close facial emotional expressions are among the best I have seen in any animated movie, and the voice actors - Even Jack Black -- were kept on a tight reign. The movie isn't tainted or dated by a lot of hip pop-culture scriptwriting, and the audience can empathize more often than not with the characters.
My only real problem with "Kung Fu Panda" is that, as wonderful as they may be animated, the fight sequences tend to go on too long. I realize I am simply shadow boxing with myself with this criticism because, as Miyazaki pointed out in an interview, western animators are somewhat afraid of stillness on screen, what Miyazaki refers to as "ma". There are a lot of action sequences in "Kung Fu Panda", many fights and Kung Fu training. I have in me personally a kind of switch that wants to turn off when this kind of thing goes on too long, mainly because a fight is predictable thing. Yes, a fight contains the elements of a scene: action, objective and conflict, but it is still a fight. The only real question is who will win and how long it will take. I personally prefer more subtle stuff in performances, but that's just me. As I say, the action sequences in "Kung Fu Panda" are among the best executed I have seen in any American made animated feature film, and I don't expect DreamWorks or Disney to stop highlighting action sequences any time soon.
There are also occasions when this character or that one will go into what amounts to a state of depression. Directors and animators often mistake such moments for "good acting" because the character is striking a mood. The truth is, however, that a character in depression is more of an illustration of a mood than a performance. Good performance must 100 percent of the time include acting in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle. It is always more interesting to see what a character does when he gets depressed than it is to simply point out that he is depressed. Does he try not to cry? Does he put his fist through the wall? Does he try to avoid interacting with other characters? Mood alone is never enough; emotions, in and of themselves, have zero theatrical currency. The audience wants to see what kind of action the emotions tend to lead to.
In "Kung Fu Panda", I was particularly impressed with the expression of emotion in the characters' faces. We humans have seven basic emotions but many thousands of possible expressions. For many years, animated characters displayed happiness, sadness, anger, etc. But the truth is that we humans rarely express a single emotion all by itself. Emotion is more like a painting that lives, shifting hues from one moment to the next. By the time the audience recognizes that a character is happy, he is probably going to be already into the next moment which will contain elements of yet other emotions. The DreamWorks animators on this film should take special pride in what they have done here with the expression of emotion, especially in close-up. They also have successfully created the illusion that the characters are actually listening to one another, which is something of a hat trick. Too often in animated films, the characters seem to be waiting turns to talk. Acting is doing, but acting is also reacting. Acting may involve words but, as an art- form, it has almost nothing to do with words. We want to see what a character is feeling and thinking and what he might be doing about that.
I also very much appreciated the detail work of Production Designer Raymond Zibach and Art Director Tang Heng, both of whom did their level best to make China look like China. Great work!
I have heard that this is the directorial debut for John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, and I applaud their launch. They may still have some things to learn about what makes a good and compelling performance on a moment-by-moment basis, but that comes with practice. The important thing for now is that they have done DreamWorks proud. Mr. Katzenberg, give these guys a raise!
Until next month...be safe!
Ed Hooks
http://www.edhooks.com
http://www.actingforanimators.com
"Actors are Shamans"
