A close look at BAD ACTING and GOOD ACTING

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"bad acting" is subjective - but there are certain repeating concepts that always seem to come up when ever we see bad performances on TV, animation, paintings. plays etc. Here's a short list of a few things I believe can be the difference between good acting and bad acting. I've been reading some great stuff about acting in articles around the web, I thought I could share! Enjoy!

Emotional armor. When I watch actors, I want to see vulnerability. I am not necessarily talking about wailing and crying. Take a look at Anthony Hopkins in "Remains of the Day" for an example.



      Some people have too much armor, the biggest hurdles some actors have is portraying the uglier sides of human nature. Others have certain feelings they'd rather not explore; some simply don't want to look unattractive, others can't imagine ever PRETENDING to hurt a child. Bryan Cranston is also great because he drops his armor, it is so good (see "Breaking Bad") because he'll do scenes in his underpants literally and figuratively.

Pushing. Stanislavsky, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski's_system the great Russian acting theorist, helped us understand that acting works better when actors pursue goals rather than try to emote. Bad actors think their job is to emote. See Mel ("Give me back my son!") Gibson and Nicholas Cage. They EMOTE and force their acting.



LOL^

Lack of confidence in your delivery. If you are an animator this relates to the confidence of your acting choices and execution. If you are a painter or drawer: it's the confidence of your lines or brush strokes.  The key to not fall apart when something goes wrong is confidence! If one night your file crashes and you lose 4 hours of work, confidence can be the difference of falling apart or saying to yourself, "Nah I can do it again... AND BETTER." Confidence is when one feels like "I actually know what I'm doing, I enjoy doing it, and I can do it any time, anywhere, under any conditions, and I can recover from mistakes."

Understanding the power of words. They are your main tools when acting. Animators and actors can emphasis words as weapons or even aphrodisiacs. 

Own the way you/or your character looks. be comfortable with your body. and if you are animating, use the characters body in their personality! Skinny, fat, tall, short, ugly, or even beautiful - these body types can influence a performance/personality. 

Planning! The purpose of prep is so your mind is ready to let go and explore in the moment of execution. Unplanned situations will have you running back to comfort zones and boring choices.

______________________________________________________

A short collection of some Great Scenes

1.  Taxi Driver -- Travis talks to Wizard, a fellow taxi driver, trying to convey the growing rage and dangerous thoughts building in his head.  ...feels so very real...



2.  American History X -- Derek sits at the dinner table with his girlfriend, his mother, his little brother and sister, and his mother's Jewish boyfriend, as they all discuss the then-recent L.A. riots in the aftermath of the Rodney King case. Edward Norton delivers an incredible performance... Also take notice how the camera shows the growing influence he is having over his little brother and the lose of control the parents have. 



The Dark Knight -- The Joker, captured by Gordon and the police, has arranged the kidnapping of DA Harvey Dent and Dent's girlfriend, Assistant DA Rachel. But the Joker doesn't know Rachel is the love interest of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, as well. But he's about to find out. Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance is among the best villains in cinema history. Take a notice of Christian Bale's under appreciated performance and see if you could spot the moment he snaps. 



On The Water Front -- Marlon Brando influenced acting for everyone who came after him. Schooled in Method acting he was able to fuse vulnerability and ferocious rage (like how Ryan Gosling does in DRIVE, James Dean also had a similar style.) Check out how he listens and pursues her in this scene from "On The Waterfront."



A Single Man -- NO EMOTING EXAMPLE FOR THE WIN :) "starting the scene in one emotion state and finishing in another" is how Colin Firth said he tackled this scene. George Falconer (Colin Firth) is a closeted gay college professor in Los Angeles in about 1961. In this scene, he takes a phone call. His partner Jim has died in a car crash in Colorado while visiting his family, and a sympathetic cousin calls George to let him know. Jim's parents had not wanted to contact George, and he is not welcome at Jim's funeral. In this scene George experiences enormous emotion, and Firth conveys it while not really visibly emoting at all; he holds it together completely until he loses it completely. It's incredibly powerful. Also listen to what he has to say about his thought process through that scene. Check it out below.



Dark Victory -- Betty Davis plays a socialite, who has a brain tumor. She tries to live as much life as she can. This scene begins when she goes blind. She knows the absolute last stage of the tumor is when she loses her sight, and at that point has only minutes to live. I like how she shows hint of her subtext while her supporting actors are not. Wonderful contrast. 



Michael Redgrave's final speech in The Browning Version. His performance is simply devastating, and it comes together in this scene. The whole film is a work of genius by Redgrave. :)



The interview about the performance and acting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poEci3xFXfE

Lord of The Rings -- GOLLUM :)



Colonel Drummond (Spencer Tracy)'s closing speech in the courtroom scene from Inherit the Wind (1960) THIS IS A PERSONAL FAVORITE that set the bar so high, all court room dramas still strive to get an ounce of what was captured here. 



GIANT -- James Dean



^Coolest Exit ever..


        I have many more clips, I guess I'll have to do a Part 2 of this post pretty soon. I hope you guys liked all these great insights and clips I've gathered from around the internet. Remember I didn't do the raw studying of these clips and I didn't come up with these acting theories myself. I'm just passing along information and I hope it reaches who ever is looking for it. Enjoy the rest of the week!

ARL: ANIMATION RESEARCH LIBRARY

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       If you are an artist.. no let me say that again, If you are Disney Fiend AND an artist the animation research library is the place for you. What is it this you ask?

       Every piece of art made by the Walt Disney Animation Studios goes to this place and is stored. I'm talking about original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs concept art, original animation cells from peter pan and more! This is our in-house resource to a wealth of art that almost spans a century. They are entrusted with the responsibility to conserve all this cool art!

 

This is where decades of magic are stored. Imagine all the art that never see's the light of day!! 

         With millions of pieces of art at their finger tips they use their access to create great books and projects like the one below. The animation Research library are responsible for installations all around the world such as Walt Disney world and cruise lines everywhere. If you guys have not checked out the new Ipad app DO IT. This is a must have and here's a video of a guy going through it if you aren't familiar with it. This app is a gold mine with hours upon hours (nay, i say MONTHS!)  of fun! the video shows off the app better than I can ever do. So enjoy!

All The art from this book is from the ARL

       The ARL is located in Glendale California. I do not know the status and conditions about visiting the ARL if you are not a cast member. but I don't see any reason why you can't look them up and call! The ARL tries to make itself very accessible. They have their own Facebook page that they update frequently with cool facts and images! Here is the link DISNEY_ARL_ FACEBOOK. Here is a sample of knowledge they like to drop from time to time! They also have a twitter: ARL Twitter URL and a YoutTubeChannel: ARL Youtube Channel Check them all out! 

 Did you know, that one of the early songs of The Beatles had something of a Disney connection? John Lennon explained:

"My mother was always... she was a comedienne and a singer. Not professional, but, you know, she used to get up in pubs and things like that. She had a good voice... She used to do this little tune when I was just a one- or two-year-old... The tune was from the Disney movie - 'Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell. You are standing by a wishing well.' So, I had this sort of thing in my head and I wrote it and just gave it to George [Harrison] to sing."

That was how "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" came to be written.

"Gawrsh!" Remembering performer Vance DeBar Colvig (though we know him better by his childhood nickname, "Pinto"), born the 11th of September 1892.

Best known as one of the actors who performed the voice of 'Goofy' (a role currently performed by Bill Farmer), Colvig did voices and sounds for other characters in the Studio's animated productions, including both 'Dopey' and 'Grumpy' in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, the 'Practical Pig' in "The Three Little Pigs," and 'Pluto.' Pinto was honored posthumously as a Disney Legend, in 1993.

Outside of the Studio, he worked for studios such as Warner Bros. and M-G-M (which included the voice of a 'Munchkin' in "The Wizard of Oz"), and he was the first 'Bozo the Clown' for television.

In this photo, Pinto (left) is shown with director Jack Kinney, along with the storyboard from the 1945 short, "African Diary." (Story is credited to Bill Peed [Peet].)

I did this post because a lot of people don't know that these places and people exist and their efforts to preserve and keep the Disney Heritage going is remarkable. 

DISNEY ANIMATORS..

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Guess what we've been doing...

Just guess..

       Making a Brand Spanking New DISNEY PRINCESS! About 67 of the worlds greatest animators have been in the trenches for the whole summer. They've been working their butts off to bring to you a whole new movie that FEEEEELS like a Disney Classic. It feels like Little Mermaid and Lion King.. and it feels like Disney is back. Stay patient, bc once this movie comes out in November, it won't disappoint.

        But bringing new Disney princesses to life is hard work! Here is how your favorite Disney Animators unwind at Griffith Park, short drive from the Walt Disney Animation Studios. These are the faces that help bring past time favorites such as Emperor's New Groove and Wreck it Ralph! These are people are like you and me, these are my friends, these people are artists. I think it's very important to see the smiles behind the movies people grow up with :) enjoy the video!





        I hope everybody is enjoying their summer! And do not forget, if you are an aspiring animation student and are looking to further your education to the next level, these Pie throwing Disney animators also TEACH. (schools name is called AnimSquad) I specifically want to point out that if you don't have the time/money to take a semester in this Downtown Los Angeles school, These Disney animators are doing a Master Class that is only a weekend long. If you want more info here's the link!

http://www.animsquad.com/weekend-masterclass/

Cars 2: What I've been Working on...

So I've been busy.   ..busy animating a movie...

         -Pixar redecorated it's walls in preparation of the hoard of journalist that are about to flood the studio..

      

        Working on my first production has been CRAZY. You get to see the 'machine' in action. The whole studio buzzing, everyone with a job to do and guess what, they ALL do their job damn fucking good. 

         My animation job at Pixar can be called no less than basically 'Quality Control'. There are 12 of us that are on this 'quality control' team. We are the last animators to touch the film, and once it leaves us, it better be mistake free bc there is no one after us to catch it. Talk about putting on the pressure right? 

         So what kind of things come up that we have to check and fix? Well they can be little mistakes, like a blink or some intersections... but we also get heavy fixes such as; having to reanimate a lot of dialogue, and sometimes they even tell us to just redo the whole shot. There are a variety of fixes that come our way that we encounter, so our knowledge of animation (technical and aesthetically) has to be always fresh, we have to be on top of our game every day.

         Between us 12 fixers (thats what they call us) we easily hit more than a hundred completed fixes a week. like nothing. because we're bosses like that. (winning) It's been a real hell of an experience sitting within 20 feet of John Lasseter and the other animation leads as they direct and over watch the making of this film...

         Well I'm not here to geek out and gloat about this experience but I do want to say that this movie WILL be entertaining. It will hit it's target audience like a hurricane. I'm sorry you older people but you guys are gnna have just take it bc this movie is not for you, it's for the 4-10 year olds that for some reason LOVE, with a capital L, Cars to death. They made it a little people phenomenon bc Cars has made easily over 8 billion dollars world wide JUST on merchandise. Little boys like cars.. who knew? haha. here's the trailer (UK version bc i do think this one is better than the US version) I do hope you check it out and be on the look out for my name in the credits! 

Cars 2 Trailer 'Extended Version'

I know this is CARS.. but I've seen the movie... and I'm STILL excited to see this movie. All I'm saying that you better go to a movie theatre with a bad ass sound system...


Stay classy,
-Daniel Gonzales

The Magic of Timing and Texture

Timing: is the time when something happens or the spacing of events in time.
Texture (Music): is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition

       The understanding of these words will help your work like how toilet paper helps you out when you really need it...

Seriously..
     The use of Timing can sell a point or emphasize a moment. The use of Texture can communicate a feeling or can be used to build and keep interest in a piece over time. These words by them selves are concepts but with a medium applied you can get an experience.
     Usually these two concepts are used to help improve the piece of animation or film, but rarely do you see an artist try to show off Timing and Texture all by themselves, or at least give them the spot light. It's a hard thing to do.. so DO IT. Walt Disney gave it a shot with the movie Fantasia. He did it with the help of classical pieces of music and great animators. In the film Fantasia, Disney uses traditional animation with western story telling as well as some abstract conceptual animation. The experience of the animation was amplified using the perfect timing and texture of the classical music. But Disney wasn't the first to do this and he wasn't the last.
     This is a recent piece form Director Joe Write. He uses color and light as his medium. (I wasn't able to embed this video so here is the link) It kicks ass... or.. um.. .. your eye's and ear's asses...  ?

AMAZING TIMING AND COLORS and TEXTURE

     If you do not know what is so special about the video in the link above, you need to STOP (breathing) and find out from someone who likes music. Maybe this next short will help you out. This short doesn't only use color and shapes with timing and texture, it uses characters.. but not in the way you might expect. One thing that makes this short stick out to me is that it still not only keeps your attention with very nice use of timing and texture, but it has a thought behind it, a message to say. Which I think saying something or expressing a thought is always the full potential of any medium. Here is David O'Reilly,


The External World from David OReilly on Vimeo.

      If that wasn't your cup of tea, ..don't drink it. But still learn the importance of Timing and Texture. That's all for today and I swear I swear I'm going to load my animation up soon. But crunch time working on cars2 keeps me late at the studio, so THAT takes priority over the blog.. hope you understand.

-Daniel Gonzales

A Critique of Blocking

Here is a recent critique I did. Thought I'd share because it deals with the blocking stage of animation, and people always fine this the hardest part to get through. So hope this gives insight.

Next post on (SOME TIME BEFORE FRIDAY) will be my side animation I've been working on.

THE LETTER in raw form:

Hey ______,

      Very very entertaining. Things to tweak but not things that you missed. Just PUSHING things you already touched upon. Which is very good. This means you are not missing the point and there for do not have to learn anything from scratch. So far so good _____. 

So in this long ass critique, I'ma talk about two things. SELLING YOUR IDEA and ANIMATION. The latter being just regular animation notes and the first one is mostly about your CHOICES, not your technique. Second one skill, first one Personal. Cool? ok.. here we go...

SELLING YOUR ANIMATION-

    Your audience is number one number one number one. You are doing character animation so your audience by default is number one. Character animation isn't conceptual or just animation for animations sake, you are doing it for your audience. 

    Your idea gets across. it's gum. on a shoe.. and he wants it off. YAY, but don't pop champagne bottles over this just yet. As a character animator to get the idea across is NOT THE POINT. (And if you get ANY ONE THAT SAYS OTHER WISE give them my address so they can come to MY HOUSE and I can tell them personally. [bc I'm not going to go waste my time going to their house to tell them something I know..]) I repeat, to get the idea across in an animation is not the FINISH LINE. You have to make us experience with the character what the character itself is feeling. The point as a character animator is to make us Feel what the character is feeling. And we do this by emphasizing story points and having good acting with correct timing to compliment the mood. Movement has texture that highlights whats important and what is not. everything works together like how all the muscles in the arm, back, and torso controls a ballerina's delicate arm motions during a performance. 

Ok, Now to business. ~FRAME 51: this pose. THE MONEY POSE, this is the pose your whole assignment is revolving around. very nice. Clear silhouette. BUT you only give it 12 frames for the audience to register it. You need more. Here's why:

-You give the walk more than 20 frames..You give 37 frames to pose after he looks at his foot (the OH SHIT WHY ME pose i call it). 25 frames are given to the nice entertaining walk to the edge of the curb.. You give 20 some odd frames to him scrapping the curb with the bottom of his shoe.. 30 frames to scraping the sidewalk with his shoe at the end.

    Just about every action is given more attention than the crucial pose on frame 51.. You give it 12 frames AND you still have to ease into it so i say you actually have given it 6 frames. So when starting an assignment here's what I look at.

'Can I take out this Pose/Action and the assignment still make sense?'

      There are only 2 poses/actions in your shot that if we took out, would cripple your shot: The Walk and The First Look underneath the shoe. Everything else is icing on the cake. So priority is always to be given to these two poses. the walk is fine. :) but you neglect the Look at the Shoe pose like a little red headed step child. haha. Give it more time and you'll be fine. 

    PS. I know your limit is 200 frames, I'm not insensitive to that, and I do recognize the feet sliding at the end is actually some of the most entertaining animation you have in this assignment.. My solution?  You have TWO foot scrapes on the side of the curb.. Make it ONE. Take that time and add it to hold your story telling pose (first look underneath foot)

That's just one note.. hahaha

(DISREGARD this note because I just found out that the eyes cannot be animated.)

Ok second note. I know i know you are short on frames. Other wise I would say to make the second look underneath the foot longer. BUT you can't. bc of restrictions.. doesn't mean we over look the note. Can his eye's be animated in any way more than a blink? If so, please atleast show him get angry in that pose (only in the eyes) it would really compliment the last foot sliding action. The foot sliding action right now comes out of no where (which is funny) but you can not REALLY make it come out of nowhere. everything needs a lil anticipation. so his eyes getting angry (that the gum is still there) is his anticipation to scrapping the shit out of the gum until it dies :)

Other than these two notes I hesitate to say more. bc I really want your idea to shine and be made to work. This is where as commentator I have to recognize I am ONLY a commentator and not the animator of this shot. I am to improve it not change it to make it my own. Only supply changes that can help make it stronger. 

I won't talk too much of specific animation notes bc this is just blocking. Just watch your arcs. (heels, torso, hips, shoulders, head, knees.. EVERYTHING in other words) watch momentum (inertia), and remember to keep your poses and not lose your timing when you move forward with this. 

ONE real fast animation note. The foot scrape on the side of the curb.. very nice. nice leg animation and head animation... even good side to side hip animation! BUT try doing that action in real life... to keep your torso at that height with out going up and down during scraping GUM of the bottom of your shoe... not possible... unless it was a sissy scrape...

So watch out for that. When doing a physical action YOUR TORSO WILL ALWAYS BE MOVING. every avar. even if it's just a little. Never should be flat flat flat in your graph editor. so watch out for that.

Hope everything goes well. I am very excited for this shot and look forward to seeing you progress on it. Your going to do fine.This blocking already kicks ass as it is.

PS.. ima post this on my blog..

:)

Daniel Gonzales III

How do I do a Short?

No sleep... No food.. No football on TV... No bathroom breaks... No social life.. No woman..

WAIT!.. You got to draw the line somewhere but not that far. I need My Woman..

      Where was I? oh yea, a lot of no's.. What I'm trying to say is that you need to keep your eye on the finish line. You don't necessarily have to give all of those things I mentioned up when trying to finish your work, but you HAVE to be prepared to give them up if they stand in the way of your work. As for me? I have a good balance of everything. I'll still go out to catch a screening of True Grit for the second time even when I have something due in a week. I'm not a hermit, but then again I know my limits and how hard I can push myself if needed so I can afford to spend that time on superficial pleasures :)

     Do you know how hard you can push yourself? What's your breaking point? You don't know?? Then you better break yourself now before you accidently break yourself when you least want to. I know I can animate for 4 days with 3 hours of sleep (and I never the fuck want to do that again..) I broke and I have eye witnesses if you need them to vouch for me. They say I wasn't a human being, I was a zombie shell of who I used to be. I looked tore up from the floor up...  Knowing my limit, I found my comfort working zone (5 hours). I most of the time do from 9PM to 2AM in the morning animating and still wake up at nine. (that's pushing it) but still I know I can do those hours no problem. FIND OUT YOUR LIMITS OF WHAT YOUR BODY CAN HANDLE. That's information you will find the most helpful when you need to weigh how bad crunch time is going to be and how much work you can realistically finish in a given amount of time. 

Right now I am doing a short on the side. It is about 19 seconds long and done on paper. I started January 3rd and plan on finishing around Feb 4th. Here is some photos from like one or two weeks ago..

      You might notice some small pieces of paper on the lower left hand side.. that's the perfectionist in me. I plan every frame before I ever draw a line. If I'm using music or a sound clip I need to figure out any patterns or irregularities there might be, I need to dissect it and plot it out so I can see it clearly. This way I can plan my animation movements and acting choices accordingly to make the most out of it. I use a lot of math and precise measurements to make sure everything is timed out and matches my drawings. A bit dorky but if I wouldn't have it any other way. This allows me to animate it ONCE and only once and nail it the first time I down shoot my animation. For example.. If you are familiar with my work, the animation called 'Death and Beauty' was done in one try. (over a period of 2 weeks) If your planning and math is right.. then your animation will right. Most of animation is physics (weight, inertia, potential, and kinetic energy, etc).. If you are lucky enough to of listened during high school, then animation should be a breeze... 

       And to the right of those papers that you will see I animate on ONE sheet of paper before I start 'animating' for real. I need to work all the arcs and poses on top of each other to make sure they work with each other and adjust their spacing in needed. This way when I start animating I know EXACTLY what I need to draw. The exploring and mistakes are done when I start on animating frame by frame. Why waste time and paper when you can plan it out before hand? 

This picture above is once I started 'animating'.. yes I BLAST my music when I animate. though I do only play music with the same tempo as the action I am animating... if I am doing something hard, fast and physical, maybe some Ice Cube will be playing on my itunes.. If my character is moving slow and mellow.. maybe some Jack Johnson. You get the idea. Music does affect your animation, even if you might not know it.. 

Ah.. walks... stupid stupid walks.. :) do not underestimate the walk. If your still in school, make sure you learn the 'walk' inside out and how to do all kinds of walk. I love walks, infinite kinds of walks, all different, yet they follow the same formula...

Here is one frame so you see how I draw my character with no clothes. I have to make sure I get the anatomy right and the weight. All the details can be put on later.. 

In two weeks I will post my animation. And then you'll have the chance to rip it apart. I hope this post helped those who might of needed it and gave insight to those who where just curious. Until next time,

-Daniel Gonzales

Something That Blew My Mind and Makes Me Feels Small,

     Once in a while something comes along that blow's your mind. I mean really does. I came across an example of what the full potential of animation can do. Not character animation, not experimental animation, but Animation as an Art can do. Everyone should strive to be able to create something that can make someone think and feel and look mazing. Like this piece, I will even go far to say, This is beautiful.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

http://ryanwoodward.blogspot.com/