Hi everybody,
I think I've honed in on 3 clips that I'm trying to decide between. This list is ordered in terms of my preference. I would love some advice.
1.) Look like you like me:
A man and woman are standing on the altar at their wedding, he is in the process of placing the ring onto her finger. He is delivering this line "just look like you like me" to her, just before they turn to face the crowd. It's meant to be ironic that they've just gotten married and he is still feeling incredibly insecure about it all. Ideally I would also have a priest/officiant standing there making a confused face, I would keep the animation very simple on him. I like this idea because in spite of how ridiculous it is, I still think there is something genuine in there about how insecure this guy is, which I could work into the acting choices.
2.) Don't do your best, do it right:
This one I'm imagining a father and son. They are at one of those arcade claw machines, or maybe they are at a batting cage. The father is feeding more money into the machine and reprimanding the boy in a ridiculous way. The boy would be sad, but not defeated, as though he is used to dealing with his father's quirky impatient attitude without getting down on himself about it. He is trying to slip in a rebuttal, but his father won't give him the chance. This one has something funny/ridiculous about it, but there is also some honest truth that could come across in the kid's expression, because a lot of people deal with parents who are just slightly insane.
3.) Luxury cars:
I'm thinking of having this character in a non-luxury car that he has just crashed in some ridiculous way (manure truck?) and an officer is standing at the window seemingly writing him a ticket, and he is delivering this line as his excuse for why he crashed this non-luxury car.
Anybody have any opinions on these? I would enjoy animating to any of these, but wondering if they are lacking in depth and sincerity? Are they too ridiculous?
Thanks!
Ken
Hi Ken, I think these are all strong ideas. I think the 1st one is my preference, too. For the sake of believability, you might stage it as a court house wedding, not a fancy wedding in a church. Maybe she's visibly pregnant. I just don't think he would be saying those things out loud at a traditional wedding. For the sake of economy, I would suggest trimming the line by removing the 2nd "just look like you like me". This shot has at least 2 characters in it, so the the shorter the better!
ReplyDelete#3 would be my second choice. I don't think you need to worry about the crashed car too much. Just have him in the driver window of a rundown-looking car, talking to a cop who is staged with his back to camera. Let the character drive the entertainment - don't worry too much about the irony of the car.
Thanks Victor.
DeleteIn thinking about your notes, I'm feeling a little less drawn to the first choice. Changing it over to a courthouse with a pregnant bride makes me feel like it is a shotgun, miserable wedding, and that takes the tone of it down to a more serious level that I don't think I want to venture. I would rather keep this exercise somewhat lighthearted and fun. But I also agree with you that doing it at a traditional wedding may not be very believable and so it runs the risk of being confusing and the humor may fall flat.
I think I can derive a lot of entertainment out of the third option so I think I'll go with that one. I'm thinking about modifying the scenario a bit. Maybe the 'getting stopped by a traffic cop' idea isn't strong enough. Suppose instead he is sitting in the back seat of a taxi cab and he's complaining about how this cab isn't fancy enough for him. I can stage it so that we see the cab driver eye's just over the top of his sunglasses up close in the right side of frame, so we can see a bit of a reaction in his face, in his head he's kind of thinking, "yeah pal? why don't you kiss my ass.."
This is sort of the staging I was thinking, just without Jerry Seinfeld sitting there in the middle:
Deletehttp://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2015/03/26/26-seinfeld-cab.w750.h560.2x.jpg
Sounds good.
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