Abhishek
17-12-2005, 11:10 PM
<P><!--StartFragment --><FONT color=#000066><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=4>FIFTY-TWO QUICK ACTING NOTES FROM ED HOOKS</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial color=#000066 size=4>www.actingforanimators.com</FONT><!--StartFragment --></P>
<P>1. Scenes begin in the middle, not the beginning. <BR>2. A character should be "doing" something 100 percent of the time. <BR>3. A character enters a scene for a reason, and he exits for a reason. <BR>4. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions; emotion tends to lead to action. <BR>5. A gesture need not be an illustration of the spoken word. <BR>6. Audiences empathize with emotion. The key to good animation <BR>is in empathy. <BR>7. Comedy is drama heightened, oxygenated. <BR>8. An action pursues a longer term objective. (Smile at the girl <BR>because you want to date her.) <BR>9. Short term memory causes eyes to glance upward. <BR>10. Long term memory causes eyes to glance downward, into the soul. <BR>11. The human sense of sight is many times more powerful than the <BR>sense of hearing. <BR>12. Humans act to survive. Find the survival mechanism in your character. <BR>13. Play an action until something happens to make you play a <BR>different one. <BR>14. A scene is a negotiation. <BR>15. "Actors are athletes of the heart" - Artonin Artaud <BR>16. Anxiety is a high or heady power center; confidence is a low <BR>power center. <BR>17. Emotions are automatic value responses. <BR>18. Characters that make steady eye contact for more than a few <BR>seconds are either going to fight or make love. <BR>19. The human smile says, "I won't hurt you." <BR>20. Never underestimate the audience. <BR>21. When you animate, you are saying to the audience, "I <BR>understand this." When the audience applauds, laughs or cries, it is <BR>saying, "I see what you mean." <BR>22. Actors lead; audiences follow. <BR>23. Background characters can be defined with shadow movement - a <BR>jiggling knee, a charcter's mouth moving when he reads the paper, <BR>biting fingernails and so on. <BR>24. "The Iron Giant" is an animation classic. Every animator <BR>should study it, like visiting Mecca. <BR>25. We see things before we hear them; we hear things before we <BR>touch them; we touch things before we smell them; we smell things <BR>before we taste them. <BR>26. A villain is a regular person that has a fatal flaw. <BR>27. A hero is a regular person that has to rise to extreme <BR>heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle. <BR>28. The "beats" in a scene or script are better perceived as <BR>"beads" in a necklace. One bead leads to the next to the next and so <BR>on. Put the beads together, and you have a story. <BR>29. The purpose of (character) movement is destination. <BR>30. Acting has almost nothing to do with words. <BR>31. Commercials convey almost zero actual information. They are <BR>about emotion. <BR>32. Humans and other animals negotiate status continually. <BR>33. To energize a scene, convert the character's "wants" to "needs." <BR>34. Theatrical reality isn't the same thing as regular reality. <BR>35. Acting is reacting. <BR>36. Animators are not mimes. Mime is a specialized art. <BR>37. A key ingredient of empathy is distance. <BR>38. Old people stoop because their bodies ache. <BR>39. A drunk character tries to counteract the effects of the alcohol. <BR>40. To show that a character is hot, have him try to get cool. <BR>41. To show that a character is cold, have him try to get warm. <BR>42. An "adrenaline" moment is one the character will remember <BR>when he turns eighty and looks back on his life. The best movies <BR>include plenty of adrenaline moments. (Re-read #24) <BR>43. A character analysis is like a character biography. <BR>44. When a character is faced with a choice, be specific. Avoid <BR>ambivalence. <BR>45. Allow your characters to be affected by the atmosphere in a <BR>location, the "feeling" it projects. (A car wreck has an atmosphere; <BR>a church has an atmosphere; a marriage bed has an atmosphere.) <BR>46. Yelling is a weak acting choice. <BR>47. We speak of memory in general terms, but it is referenced in <BR>specific mental images. <BR>48. A character that is listening to another is actually <BR>preparing to speak. <BR>49. The camera tends to follow the character's gaze. <BR>50. A scene should have conflict, otherwise known as an obstacle. <BR>51. Trick for suggesting villainy: tilt head forward; eyes peer <BR>upward, exposing whites in lower portion of eyeball. <BR>52. Character "personality" is actually character "behavior." </P><edited><editID>Abhishek</editID><editDate>38703.4876851852</editDate></edited>
<P><FONT face=Arial color=#000066 size=4>www.actingforanimators.com</FONT><!--StartFragment --></P>
<P>1. Scenes begin in the middle, not the beginning. <BR>2. A character should be "doing" something 100 percent of the time. <BR>3. A character enters a scene for a reason, and he exits for a reason. <BR>4. Thinking tends to lead to conclusions; emotion tends to lead to action. <BR>5. A gesture need not be an illustration of the spoken word. <BR>6. Audiences empathize with emotion. The key to good animation <BR>is in empathy. <BR>7. Comedy is drama heightened, oxygenated. <BR>8. An action pursues a longer term objective. (Smile at the girl <BR>because you want to date her.) <BR>9. Short term memory causes eyes to glance upward. <BR>10. Long term memory causes eyes to glance downward, into the soul. <BR>11. The human sense of sight is many times more powerful than the <BR>sense of hearing. <BR>12. Humans act to survive. Find the survival mechanism in your character. <BR>13. Play an action until something happens to make you play a <BR>different one. <BR>14. A scene is a negotiation. <BR>15. "Actors are athletes of the heart" - Artonin Artaud <BR>16. Anxiety is a high or heady power center; confidence is a low <BR>power center. <BR>17. Emotions are automatic value responses. <BR>18. Characters that make steady eye contact for more than a few <BR>seconds are either going to fight or make love. <BR>19. The human smile says, "I won't hurt you." <BR>20. Never underestimate the audience. <BR>21. When you animate, you are saying to the audience, "I <BR>understand this." When the audience applauds, laughs or cries, it is <BR>saying, "I see what you mean." <BR>22. Actors lead; audiences follow. <BR>23. Background characters can be defined with shadow movement - a <BR>jiggling knee, a charcter's mouth moving when he reads the paper, <BR>biting fingernails and so on. <BR>24. "The Iron Giant" is an animation classic. Every animator <BR>should study it, like visiting Mecca. <BR>25. We see things before we hear them; we hear things before we <BR>touch them; we touch things before we smell them; we smell things <BR>before we taste them. <BR>26. A villain is a regular person that has a fatal flaw. <BR>27. A hero is a regular person that has to rise to extreme <BR>heights to overcome an extraordinary obstacle. <BR>28. The "beats" in a scene or script are better perceived as <BR>"beads" in a necklace. One bead leads to the next to the next and so <BR>on. Put the beads together, and you have a story. <BR>29. The purpose of (character) movement is destination. <BR>30. Acting has almost nothing to do with words. <BR>31. Commercials convey almost zero actual information. They are <BR>about emotion. <BR>32. Humans and other animals negotiate status continually. <BR>33. To energize a scene, convert the character's "wants" to "needs." <BR>34. Theatrical reality isn't the same thing as regular reality. <BR>35. Acting is reacting. <BR>36. Animators are not mimes. Mime is a specialized art. <BR>37. A key ingredient of empathy is distance. <BR>38. Old people stoop because their bodies ache. <BR>39. A drunk character tries to counteract the effects of the alcohol. <BR>40. To show that a character is hot, have him try to get cool. <BR>41. To show that a character is cold, have him try to get warm. <BR>42. An "adrenaline" moment is one the character will remember <BR>when he turns eighty and looks back on his life. The best movies <BR>include plenty of adrenaline moments. (Re-read #24) <BR>43. A character analysis is like a character biography. <BR>44. When a character is faced with a choice, be specific. Avoid <BR>ambivalence. <BR>45. Allow your characters to be affected by the atmosphere in a <BR>location, the "feeling" it projects. (A car wreck has an atmosphere; <BR>a church has an atmosphere; a marriage bed has an atmosphere.) <BR>46. Yelling is a weak acting choice. <BR>47. We speak of memory in general terms, but it is referenced in <BR>specific mental images. <BR>48. A character that is listening to another is actually <BR>preparing to speak. <BR>49. The camera tends to follow the character's gaze. <BR>50. A scene should have conflict, otherwise known as an obstacle. <BR>51. Trick for suggesting villainy: tilt head forward; eyes peer <BR>upward, exposing whites in lower portion of eyeball. <BR>52. Character "personality" is actually character "behavior." </P><edited><editID>Abhishek</editID><editDate>38703.4876851852</editDate></edited>