When I direct a new animator I haven't worked with before, I will often ask him/her not to forget the most important person in the scene. Naturally, they will agree, but then I ask if they know who that is.
"The main character?" they reply with some timidity.
"No" I will gently say. With a kind sigh and small head shake, I will clue them into one of the most important bits on information for a performer: The most important person in the scene is....
The Audience.
Never forget the audience. They are the one's watching, the reason you are doing this in the first place. They are the ones you are trying to reach, to communicate with, to elicit an emotional response (or a laugh) from. Give the audience the best show possible.
I was recently at a school function where the Principal read a poem on stage, while the school band accompanied between the stanzas behind her. The Principal had obviously practices this many times facing the band, because that's what she did during the entire performance. There was a lecturn there with her poem and a mic. She walked up to it, picked up the paper and microphone, turned and read the poem to the band, leaving us a splendid view of her derrier.
She forgot her audience.
Obviously, this is an extreme example of a no-no. But I try to remember at all times that somebody will be watching. Sounds vain, I know. But if you are going to give a performance, make it a performance worth watching.
It's a delicate balance. You have to become fully immersed in your performance, forgetting the outside world. But at the same time, you must train your subconscious to remember that you are performing. We're not making documentaries here, we are performing.
This is a principle that I don't have to remind live actors of. They instinctively know. But animators work in darkened cubicles, cut off from the outside world. You are separated from your character by the glass monitor screen, you aren't acting in front of a camera and interacting with other actors in real time. So while you sit there, imagine yourself in a theatre full of two hundred other people watching what's on your screen. Are they enjoying the show as much as you are?
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3 comments:
Tim: (gently) "The most important person in the scene is the Audience."
New Animator: "Right. (pregnant pause) Wanna see my animations now?"
Tim: (grabs baseball bat) "AAAAAAHHHHH!"
Tim,
Haven't had time to comment about your posts recently, however I want you to know that this post came at the perfect time! My particular situation has nothing to do with animation (though I catch my students drawing during class regularly), but the same week you posted this, we began studying a play in reading class. I was able to use your comments about "the most important person" as a way to inspire my students to put more feeling into what they were reading. The result? A typical boring classroom exercise (reading a play) became a drama extraordinaire! By focusing on making the play more interesting to the listener, they actually helped draw each other into the story. I then took your idea one step further, including it in our language class as we discussed the writing and development of narrative paragraphs. Needless to say, asking them "is the paragraph you're writing something that you would enjoy reading?" and "would you sit and listen to the play you're reading right now?" has really helped bring their attention to detail up a notch or two.
So, from a 6th grade teacher desperately looking for ways to inspire kids who are sometimes less than well-motivated, I want you to know that your ability to instruct helps more than you realize, and all I can say is...
Thank you!
A Nonny Mouse
Yes, Thom, you know me all too well. Someday I will blog about how the pluralization of the word "animation" is like nails on a chalkboard to traditional animators.
Nonny, glad to have helped. Yup! this simple principle is applicable to all the arts. Hemmingway said (and I paraphrase greatly - Ernie's language was much more colorful than I dare use here)... The first draft of anything is (crap). All of it is for me and the reader gets nothing. By the time I am finished with it, I hate it. I don't get anything and the reader gets everything...
I have felt that, too. Especially after spending a week in post production, watching a show several times a day, making minute changes in audio levels, cringing at visuals I want to adjust, but it's too late for, Arg!
Then when I screen the show with an audience, I much prefer to watch the people, rather than the show.
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