Ed's Newsletter - October 2002

Big Idea's feature "Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie" is being released momentarily, and it is a delight. I had the opportunity to see a Chicago digital screening and can confirm a crowd pleaser, especially if the crowd is comprised of children. The story of Jonah and the whale is good hearted and welcome on its own terms in these difficult international days, but as told and sung by the Veggie characters, it is also a toot. On purely technical terms, this is an amazing achievement. Big Idea has cast the movie with vegetable characters that have no arms or legs and yet are delightfully animated. The music is fun and hummable and the whale is magnificently and hugely hungry. "Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie" is inspirational proof positive that excellent animation does not have to cost the family farm. This film reportedly came in for only $12 million! Considering that budgets of $80 million are routine now, this is an eyebrow-raiser indeed. They'll make that money back in a heartbeat. Mega congrats to the Big Idea team. You guys did a marvelous job!

MIYAZAKI'S "SPIRITED AWAY"
Maybe it isn't fair to send me to a Miyazaki movie and then ask for unbiased feedback. To me, this man is to animation what Shakespeare is to theatre. I was enraptured with "Spirited Away", just as I was with "Princess Mononoke". In particular, I appreciate the way that Miyazaki is willing to have his characters take time to think. American animation too often tends to fly by fast and to stay in constant motion. Shakespeare advised that actors "hold the mirror up to nature" and, in nature, we pause. It is not a violation of animation principle to pause. Miyazaki understands this perhaps better than anybody. And then there is the character design in "Spirited Away" - the disembodied heads and multi-legged creatures and nightmarish spirits in a haunted theme park. There is simply nothing else like a Miyazaki movie, and we are fortunate to have this great artist among us.

PLEASED TO JOIN ADVISORY BOARD
I'm pleased to join the advisory board of the Illinois Institute of Art, Schaumburg. Also, I've agreed to participate as a judge in the schools big student animation festival on October 30th. Thanks to Academic Director, Christopher Tedin, for the invitation. I'm looking forward to it!

"ACTING FOR ANIMATORS" IN MADISON, WISCONSIN OCT. 11TH
I'll teach a one-day open-to-the-public class in Madison on October 11th. For info on enrollment, contact Mitch Rosefelt at 608-231-0581 or via e-mail, AAW@thepixelfarm.com. Tuition: $125

HOOKS IN AUSTRALIA IN DECEMBER
We're organizing a trip to Oz for early December, hopefully to teach at Disney and Rising Sun Pictures. We're crossing tees and dotting eyes right now. :) If you are in Australia and are interested in an "Acting for Animators" workshop, now would be a good time to raise your hand.

CRAFT NOTES
"ENTRANCES AND EXITS"

Moving characters into and out of scenes is tricky regardless of the medium, but there is a special trap awaiting animators. Because animation is created one scene at a time, and because it can take so long to complete a single scene, it is very easy to overlook the fact that a character in a scene came from someplace and, after the scene is over, will go someplace else. There is a temptation is to have a character enter a scene, "display" while saying something and then simply end when this scene cuts to the next one. The acting error is that he is entering without a "moment before" or "moment after", and it can cause a scene to project a terminal feeling, a sense that this scene stands alone and comes to a dead end. It can give your project a temporary disconnect.

Consider the following two acting principles:

LESSON #1: SCENES BEGIN IN THE MIDDLE.

Scenes begin in the middle, not the beginning. When we pick up the action, we presume that the characters involved came from some other scene and, when this scene is over, they will move on to whatever scene comes next. For example:

FADE UP: A LIVING ROOM
There is a comfortable looking sofa, a couple of chairs, coffee table and, in the forefront, a telephone. It rings. It rings again. And again. Our Hero appears from off-left, running toward the telephone. She is dripping water and has a towel wrapped around her. She grabs the telephone from its cradle and says, "Hello!". Whoever it was hung up. Our Hero hangs up with a sigh and marches back out the same way she came in.

We presume she was taking a shower, yes? And after the telephone call is resolved, we presume she is going back to the shower. She came from somewhere, and she will go somewhere.

LESSON #2: THE CHARACTER SHOULD PLAY AN ACTION UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS TO MAKE HIM PLAY A DIFFERENT ACTION.

This is an essential rule of formal acting theory. Keep in mind that "action" in theatrical terms is not the same thing as simple movement or gestures. Yes, those things involve physical action, but when you speak about "action" in acting theory, it means the pursuit of an objective. For example, a man wants to rob a bank, and so he strolls in and cases the joint, checking out whether there are security cameras and planning a likely escape route. The action he is playing is to case the joint, and the objective is to rob the bank. In order to make the scene theatrically relevant, it also needs conflict, or an obstacle, and this situation contains conflict inherently. When the bank robber enters the scene, we presume he came from somewhere outside the bank. After he finishes looking around, he will exit, presumably to draw up his final plans. He needs to have a motivation for getting on and for getting off.

Constantin Stanislavsky, the father of modern acting and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theater, saw a scene as comprised of beads connected one to the other, like in a necklace. One action in a scene leads to the next in the same way that one bead in a necklace leads to the next. When he and his associates came to the United States, however, they were misunderstood because of their Russian accents, and the Americans thought the reference was to "beats". To this day, acting teachers and screenwriting teachers refer to "beats" in a scene. The concept is easier to understand if you think in terms of "beads." You can't have a space in between the beads in a necklace. If you do, you won't have a necklace.