Being “Original”
A commenter on my previous post asked me this:
Hey, so how have you and other interns found this subtext animating?
This is certainly an area of animation that is hard to teach, and the learning of it usually comes down to the individuals talent. I know people who can learn the basics and principles very well, but dont have the born with talent to progress onto great character performance through acting.
I think the larger question that might be at play here is how to be “original”or “unique” with your acting choices- or anything else you do. Well there is certainly no definite answer here… professionals are generally very vague in this area as well. I don’t know how many times I’ve just been told to “be more original”. I usually nod… then 2 hours later I’m wondering what the hell that means.
I lived in the constant fear that my “originality” might suddenly leave me, and every project I would feel terrible until the moment I finally thought of something. I had one basic assumption: Originality was the creation of new ideas in my head using no outside ideas. I had read this in art books and books on writing. “Sit in a room with nothing in it and think!” It wasn’t until I started studying how to write arguments and papers that I completely changed my idea of originality.
Originality is attained by integration, NOT by creation from nothing.
What do I mean by this? When I wrote papers in school I quickly realized I couldn’t think of a good thesis that wasn’t already explored. So I started taking other papers and mixing them together. For instance, I wrote a paper about making video games using methods from argument structure.
How does this apply to my post on subtext? Well, it is a way to think about your acting choices. Instead of trying to come up with completely new gestures from nothing, think about gestures you know and mix them together. You might take an iconic gesture like shaking your fist when you are angry. I see this ALL THE TIME. So here is my thought progression:
Step 1) What is my character’s personality? If she is shy, the fist shake might be very small and barely noticeable. How does she hold herself? If she is broad and large, her whole body may go into the fist shake.
Step 2) What is my character feeling? (Well in this example she is angry, but what kind of anger?) What context is she in? Is she in public, alone? She might be trying to hide her anger, or maybe she wants everyone to know. Maybe she is angry and disappointed- her fist might go limp after a few shakes. What just happened?
Step 3) What is my character thinking? Once you have the context write the actual thoughts. “I can’t believe he forgot my birthday” is very different from “I would kill you if I could”. And show the thoughts through body language rather than through vocalization. The birthday example: the fist shake might be purposeful and short. The murderous example: the fist shake might be more involuntary and sustained.
Step 4) What is my character doing? Once you have all these elements in your fist shake, combine it with the environment. Is your character washing dishes? Conducting an orchestra? Writing a letter? If you can, make the gestures are affected and affecting the physical context of the scene. A character washing dishes might shake their fist as they pick up a sponge.
At the end of all of this, you hopefully won’t have a very recognizable iconic “fist shake”. Ideally, you’ll have a new movement much more unique to your character. At Pixar I have not been told to be more original: there is a slightly better maxim “be more specific“.
Here is a very appropriate clip a friend of mine showed me from a French film called Moleire.
Again, this is more of a rough way to frame the word “original” in our minds. I’m sure there are many ways to come up with ideas, this is something that seems to work for me.
-Tom
August 4th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I strongly believe that there is no originality in this world. Everything stems from something else, and has an pre-existing origin.
What I do believe as artists, we should be accept this concept, and focus on how we represent, portray, vary, and use what we have in a new and exciting way to make it unique, although it wont ever be original.
playing on what you said, originality comes out of nothing, but we can’t do that, so we need to mould originality to create something unique.
Personally though, I prefer things which are exciting and well executed, rather than somthing different, yet not inspirational.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:47 am
…what I really should have said, was ‘there is no originality left in this world’.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Hey Tom I am Jacob Gardner’s office mate. He told me you were blogging some of this stuff and I have to say that it’s such great material here! I had mentors from Pixar that would talk about this same stuff all the time, and I really feel that it takes good motion into the realm of good performance. Please keep writing this stuff when you can. It is really amazing to read and I for one really appreciate you sharing! And the examples are really good too, keep giving examples when you can. Inspiring stuff, keep it up.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hey Brandon! Thank you for the kind words. I’ll be sure to keep writing, and never hesitate to share your thoughts and advice.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Great post, I find that everything that you have mention translates to 3d sculpture as well. Because of your post I am staring to look a my models in a whole new light. In fact, I feel as though I am starting to gain a better feeling for the personality, mood and style of my characters. Thus allowing for the creation of more realistic, in depth characters.
Please keep the post coming as I find the material to be of great value in my development as an artist. Keep up the great work at Pixar!
Dale.
August 10th, 2008 at 5:28 am
I’d like to concur with the comments here and say that this is an extremely valuable and helpful post. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and its been a great help as I’m starting to animate my next shot. Thinking on the adage of “being more specific” is really helping me to make particular acting choices and ask myself questions about my shot and character motivation that are really going to help make those choices seem “original” to the character.