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Ed's Newsletter - September 2003
"MILLE
GRAZIE, AUSTRALIA ANIMATORS!"
Names and thanks are swimming in my head. John Eyley and Trent
Ellis
at QCA in Brisbane, Andi Spark (...and Jenny Sabine and Craig
and
Andrea of Blue Dahlia Films...) at VCA in Melbourne, Murray
Pope and
the wonderful Zoe Diamond at Animal Logic in Sydney. There
were also
the many talented tech experts in all three venues that kept
me from
making a total idiot of myself when I had a clicker in my
hand.
Thanks, guys! It was a joy to see old friends ("Hey,
DJ!") and to
make new ones ("I still am marveling at your H-B background,
Don."),
and I send you all an animated cyber hug from Chicago. Thank
you so
much for being marvelous hosts and enthusiastically perfect
students.
Good luck with the exciting new AL project!
ANGIE JONES,
Ms. Spicy Cricket herself, is another of those generous
animators who are so willing to share wisdom and time with
newcomers.
I've known Angie for a number of years and every time I look
at her
web site, she has added eight more wonderful things. It is
chock
full of good info and drop-dead wonderful tutorials. Take
a look at
this page, in which she cleverly explains and illustrates
some of the
essential basics: http://www.spicycricket.com/SCA/SCA_anim_walks.html
CONGRATS TO LARRY
BAFIA, long time stellar animation director at PDI.
Larry is the new department head of 3D animation at the Vancouver
Film School. So from now on it will be ... ahem...PROFESSOR
Bafia,
thank you very much.<g> Have fun, Larry. I envy your
students.
THE
REVISED SECOND EDITION OF ACTING FOR ANIMATORS IS AVAILABLE!
ANY ANGELS WITH
INVESTMENT COIN?
Take a look at this website: http://www.julyfilms.com.
Click on the
trailer for "My Little World". Reminds you a lot
of Miyazaki's work,
doesn't it? I agree. The talented director is Mike Nguyen,
an
artist that found his way into my heart when he worked as
supervising
animator on Brad Bird's classic feature "The Iron Giant".
Mike needs
completion money for "My Little World", and if there
is justice in
the world, he'll get it. All rights are still available. This
is a
worthwhile thing to do with your money. It's good karma. Get
your
checkbook out.
ED HOOKS' S UPCOMING SCHEDULE
September 20-21 Sarasota,
Fla (Ringling School of Art and Design, pvt class)
September 23-24 - Orlando, Fla (Disney Animation, pvt class)
October 5-11 - Denver, Colorado (public class plus more)
Contact Anne-Elizabeth at: inside@centralvectors.com
October 14-15 Ohio State University (pvt class)
November 6-9 - Cineme, Chicago's first International Animation
Film Festival (http://www.Cineme.org)
November 26-29 - Swansea Animation Days, South Wales, UK -
http://www.sand2003.org.uk/
Jan 26-30, 2004 Animex 2004, Teesside England
CRAFT NOTES
"The Defining Moment"
A merely excellent scene
can often be rendered profound by the
addition of just a few frames. Consider Wile E. Coyote, after
he
chases the bird over the edge of the cliff and hangs there,
suspended
in air. An eternity seems to tick by, and then we see the
defining
moment in the coyote's eye, when it finally dawns on him that,
for
real, there is no ground under his feet and he is going to
plummet.
That moment -- the very instant -- when he grasps this truth,
is what
makes the scene ring the bell. If the realization of
air-under-the-feet did not hit him in a conceptual way, the
scene
would be simply an animated Keystone Kop moment. Instead,
it is
genius.
Remember the first time
you fell in love? In hindsight, it may seem
to have happened slowly over a long period of time, but if
you
re-examine it carefully, there had to have been a defining
moment.
It was probably nothing more than a simple glance, and your
lover may
not even have noticed. You glanced over and you knew -- you
suddenly
just knew -- that this person was passionately important to
you in a
way that he was not a moment earlier. The camera would have
seen
that. It would have seen the mental "click", that
defining moment
when you shifted from mere enjoyment into something much deeper.
The instant when Buzz
realized that he was a toy was a defining moment.
The instant when the
Iron Giant realized that humans are mortal was a
defining moment.
Now, please do not confuse
a defining moment with an adrenaline
moment ("...An Adrenaline Moment is one that the character
will
remember when he or she turns eighty-five years old and looks
back on
his life."). Wile E. Coyote may well have had an overall
adrenaline
moment when he plummeted to the ground, but the defining moment
within that memory is what I am getting at here. Wile E. will
not
ever remember the instant it came clear to him that he had
air under
his feet. His brain would have been too busy in a survival
mode.
The defining moment of that scene is not for the coyote, but
for us
in the audience to enjoy. And it took only a second.
If someone had been shooting
close-ups at Chicago's Candlestick Park
on June 3, 2003, Cubs baseball star Sammy Sosa would have
had a
defining moment when he realized that his corked bat had just
splintered in front of a national television audience. The
adrenaline moment would be the day the bat split. The defining
moment would be the look in Sammy's eyes when he realized
his
cheating had been exposed.
Medea surely had a defining
moment when she knew for certain that
Jason was leaving her.
Michelangelo must have
had a defining moment when he gazed up at the
Sistine Ceiling, scanned the work and, as he put down his
brush,
thought to himself, "Yes. I am finished."
A defining moment is
usually a small, almost undetectable and private
thing for a character. It goes by in less than a heart beat.
It is a
factor of a squint, the refocusing of a pupil, the bat of
an eyelash
... But if you, the animator and story teller, can isolate
it even
for a fraction of a second, there is a good chance the extra
effort
will pay dividends triple-fold.
One more: Charlie Chaplin
in "The Gold Rush". Remember the scene
that takes place on New Year's Eve? The Little Tramp has prepared
a
beautiful dinner for Georgia and the dance hall girls. Midnight
has
come and gone. He stands in the open doorway and listens to
the
refrains of "Auld Lang Syne" waft up the hill from
the saloon to his
cabin. Suddenly, in a very still and very sad moment that
is
captured on camera, he realizes that he has been stood up.
The girls
never intended to have dinner with him. They were making fun.
He
was a fool for trusting. That's a defining moment.
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