A big thank you to our May session speaker David J. Smith. His session was Acting Styles and Animation – a great mix of animation know-how and insight into performance. David presented acting styles across the range of subtle cinematic approaches to the theatrical and the cartoon styles. Describing them in terms of both animation and live action performances, with excellent examples from classic animations such as The Jungle Book and Elvis films, David explained how to find nuanced performances through characterisation and emphasis.
Explaining how actors use transitions to show changes of state, he highlighted the importance of this for animators through choosing poses and facial expressions to capture these emotion-revealing moments in performance. As David said, “Animation is dependent on strength and clarity in performance and expression.” He emphasized the value of finding identifiable physical attributes for characters and knowing how to hold the pose or the expression for exactly the right beat to get the performance across.
David summarised by saying that it is important to look to live action performances and to practise acting techniques. He recommended Ed Hooks’ Acting for Animators:
and classes such as those at The Actors Centre and Actors Studio in Sydney.
David’s session covered the importance of voice performances and sound as well so for those who want to make sure your films exploit the full power of film craft, next month’s session will be on Sound and Image with Steve Murphy, a fantastic educator and sound professional. Steve was formerly the Head of Sound for the AFTRS and Dolby consultant for Australasia. With many credits and students with great credits being another credit to him, he is someone to come and hear!
However, a last word on the issue of sound. As we have to leave our venue on time, the events will start on time and so for those of you who are running late could we please ask that you join us quietly. Our speakers are terrifically generous in giving us their time and expertise so please acknowledge this in your participation. Many thanks!
