Active Acting

As intended, today was for some reference in acting!

Met up with Kamil on the way to B124, but apparently it was being used - Sarah was on her as well, so instead we headed to the life drawing studio next door and waited for Tom. During that time, Kamil showed us the character designs he whipped up for the presenter - he essentially stuck to the sexual appearance that Tom was after, drawing from inspiration such as The Incredible's Elastigirl and Edith Mode. Sarah took the most liking to Elastigirl's design inspiration, whereas I felt that another design of his - a lady of Victorian-era civility - nailed the feel of her juxtaposition. That said, the choice is down to our director, who arrived shortly thereafter.

Our plan was to have Tom, along with Phil Farmer, act out some of the scenes which are now in the early storyboarding stages. Phil wasn't available however, as he is ill. Instead, Tom gave his friend Ben Oren a call and he popped on over to lend a hand. Ben was the original partner to Tom during his pitching act, so it certainly helped to retain the same essence that was presented.

I was a fool and forgot to charge up my video camera, so it only had about 12 minutes of power left! Even then, I managed to get all of the important shots in. We tried a variety of different acts, recreated, and filmed in different angles - some had to be changed and modified though. One in particular was the rule of "no touching"; at first, the antagonist would shake around the unfortunate protagonist next to him with his spare arm in a rather crass and flimsy manner. When acting it out however, we felt the action wasn't getting across the "no touching" rule in a clear enough context so we thought about other ideas.

I suggested the antagonist wipe his hands over the protagonist's face, or maybe crossing streams. The latter wouldn't translate well into the humour, and whilst wiping a hand on somebody's face could give shock and disgust, Sarah brought up the point that it would be too hard to animate. (And given my record for the 30 second narrative, I'm unwilling to task risks this time) Eventually, Tom decided that the antagonist give our poor hero's bum a cheeky squeeze. The idea is simple enough to shown through the film's simplistic visuals but punchy enough to warrant a surprise.

We took a couple of takes on this act, with the 3rd going forward on Ben's input of the protagonist letting out a gasp. The extra sound and bounce really added a lot more to it, and is easier to express in our early years as animators.

We finished up, and Sarah had to head off for her game in net ball. (Hope it went well for her.) Tom and the gang were hungry and felt inclined to head over to a McDonalds or Nando's. Me and Kamil headed back to our homes, though.