 Welcome back to another Acting Lasers Finameters, and today I'm going to take a look at the movie Just Mercy. Alright, lots to cover, so let's not waste time, let's go straight into it. First off, we have the opening scene where we have this moment and then the reveal. And by reveal, I mean you might think that, I mean it's a little bit visible here, but you might think that with the corrections officer here, him kind of looking at the bars and covering the rest that he is actually in jail. When this opens, you can see, well that's not your typical attire, and as the camera goes back, it reveals his actual outfit, it's kind of changing your perception there. And then starting with the movie, but then it's also clever framing that no matter what he does, he's still oppressed by the system, so in a way he is still confined by a certain system. So for you, as you do a shot, you might think about something like this where it could be a door, it could be a door opening like this, it could be something sliding open, whatever it is, that might then reveal something else. Again, something in terms of a costume, something in terms of a character reveal. You might also use just that camera move here to reveal more, maybe there are more people that reveal more context or just a different situation. And the frame within a frame composition is again something that you could consider for your shot. Next up is this, where he has his first clients, and what struck me here is that he is so used to what is going on, putting on the handcuffs or taking them off, just the whole process is the same. He doesn't look at him, even as he crosses the eye line, there's no change, because he's just looking at him, who's standing in front of him. Now for you, as you do a shot, I mean that tells me that there's a certain focus, this could be a surprise, this could be contempt, it depends who the characters are, as they meet for the first time, is it something positive or negative, but think about that as one character does something to someone else. And this could be someone putting on a costume for a show or whatever other context you want to put in, it's just interesting that you have that very concentrated gaze, while something else is happening in front of him. And if you are adding something like this, you can see as he takes the handcuffs off, and as he's done, you can see the effect that it has on him. So whatever you have here in terms of props or anything that's related to the character and the costume, always think about how that environment is affecting your character. Next up we have this scene here, where he has a specific reaction to this here, and this goes back to acting as react. Now clearly this is a very big move, it's very loud as well, of course he would react. You would think that this is the bigger action, that the focus would be on him, you would film everything, but he is in the foreground, he's out of focus, but it's all about him, him reacting, but it's also look at his composure. He tries to say something, has that reaction, but then waits and listens. So again as you have your character, and depending on this could be now it's a reaction by a character, this could be an environment, this could be sounds, whatever it is, think about maybe your shot is more interesting for the audience by concentrating on what the character is reacting to. To me it's interesting to see how he reacts, but then continues. And just generally speaking, his performance and Jamie Foxx's performance are fantastic. Absolutely recommend that you watch that move besides all this stuff that I'm talking about here. Continuing with the reaction part, so as he tells him his story and what is going on, look at this here, you have a lot of looks, stairs and all of this, I love all that here. As he tells him that that's not going to be him, that's not how he's going to treat Jamie Foxx. Look at his eyes, look at the darts, and right there, it's tiny, tiny there, but he follows, he follows the eye line, he looks at his character, he's really invested and concentrated, he has a moment of thought here and goes back, it's very subtle. So for you when you do a shot it doesn't always have to be a character that's you know the upper body, it's my awesome drawing, and that is your framing, right? So you got your maybe character sitting whatever it is, you can think about a tighter framing like this and really think about what is the character looking at and what is the character's reaction to a character that's in front of him, he just said something so you want to know how this character is going to react to what he just heard, all the tiny little details in the brows, the eyes, the tension in his jaw, long hold, I love all this, just the performances are so good in this. And continuing again with this sequence, he doesn't see that this is not going to help him and I love how he gets up here. So even though he says, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on, he keeps talking to him, it's a very specific, it's just so tired of this system and the stuff that happens to him and it doesn't lead to anything, you can see that tired lean, getting up and just alright, let me get out of here. There's no interest, he turns his back towards him, it's just he completely disengages, but also if you look at the framing, after all of that, this is not comfortable framing, you can see that as he looks right to left, there's just not that much room here, so you have all of this here, that's just weighs on him, and he's just the smaller person in frame, unsuccessful in convincing him to stick with him. Now, speaking of standing, there's this sequence here where he wants something from this guy, but this guy is really not helpful, and at this point, he decides that the conversation is over, and you can see this here, it's very subtle, as he says this here, look at that, he's got that tiny little knot, watch his head here, a knot, it's like he saying, all right, in his mind, this is done, I'm done with this, all right, let me get up and say bye. And of course, he's still sitting, but he did not expect that, so when you have your characters, think about the thought process, think about whatever the character is going to say, can you anticipate that through a look, through something in the face, through a gesture, be it a head gesture or an arm gesture, and if two characters are sitting, think about what if one person just gets up, and it's not part of the line, you wouldn't really think that the character is about to get up, that still tells us something about their relationship, him getting up and reaching out the hand for a shake says, I'm done, I'm done with this, and then you can play this with the character getting up and reciprocating that handshake, staying seated and looking at him going, really, really, this is what we're going to do, so you can do a lot of things in terms of their relationship, just visually, the hierarchy of him being higher, lower status, higher status, there's a lot that you can do that is not part of the audio, just by you adding more subtext, adding more little details, and thinking about well, what would the character do at this point that is not part of the audio, but how can I push that moment even further by gestures or posing or the distance, that relationship, all of that is super important in establishing an interesting shot with more layers to your characters. Back to sitting, she's on the phone and she has specific news about another character and you can see the change in him, he is leaning back, here's the phone call, obviously has to lean forward, but also like for me, I like this that is to the side, like you know, in terms of I don't know how they staged this, if they thought about that, but to me this is interesting because it forces a lean, it's not, you know, it's not one axis symmetrical, he has to lean over for asymmetrical posing, and as he takes the phone here, takes the call, he realizes, wait, wait, something's going on and you can see that too, as he's looking out, a couple of things happening, watch his face, you see the dart, the eye dart, there's more of a thought process, lots of darts, you can see the change in the body posture, but even before that, look at the height of the arm, whoops, see that, it's tiny, but it goes up, there's a change there, there's tension, you can see the change in the eye, the change in the arm, it's very subtle, but realize, wait, something's going on and then you got the change in posture, the different look, he's almost looking at her, who was there to see, hold on, hold on, something's going on here, and it's the change from leaning back now to leaning forward, resting on his arm, the shoulder going up, just everything changes, so for your shot, do you want your character to be always like this, or do you want it to be always like that, it's probably better to get a certain progression that gives you contrast and posing, but it also shows progression and intensity, going for more, all right, I don't know if he's relaxed, but like, oh, okay, something's going on, maybe not, and then going to, oh, I'm interested, I'm more tense, I'm more alert, all of that tells us more about the state of the character and the potential arc of the character within one shot, I guess the theme is sitting here, now that you have this character telling, again, bad news for him, there's a constant standoff, you can see the inhale, the frustration in him, looks over, and I love this too, now you have eyes first, so tense that it's just eyes are going first, and then the head follows, and then you have this, such a turd, you have that, it's a relaxed pose, you think that would be somewhat friendly, but it's this long stare with the back and forth rocking on the chair, and it's just this defiance, like this defiant relaxed pose, just giving that extra exclamation point to what he is saying, so you can have lip sync of one character saying something, this could be positive, negative, whatever it is, then you have a reaction shot for you to do your pantomime, and then you can add another character who doesn't have to do anything, I mean it's basically animation wise, it's fairly simple, rocking back and forth, a look, is he blinking, I don't think he's even blinking, right, it's just a defiance there, but now you can add one more thing that goes against this character just by adding another character in just this stare, and that confrontational look with that fake relaxation on that chair, definitely something else to think about, and again goes to me towards the usage of prop and sets, and that's why I love it, you can use all of this, this would be different if you would just sit, of course it would be effective by him just sitting there and staring, but to me just that additional rocking of yeah, I'm relaxed because I am in charge here, I have the power over you, it just adds that extra layer of tension and conflict there, next up is this one and this speaks again to the fantastic performances of Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx and everybody in this movie, but there's very specific news that he's waiting for, that he's about to read and process, and you would think there will be potentially a bigger reaction, but as you go there you can see this, he starts to read, so obviously you got the eye darts, you got the looks, now look at that reaction, so by now right around here he realized what is going on, and it's so tiny, it's a slight change in the mouth, it's a slight relaxation in the brows, so good, and he got a little bit of a more quieting of the body, and then that's it for the reaction, but you have that almost that relief, inhale, exhale, you can see the shoulders going up and down, it's just not what you would expect, it's such contained reaction there, so good, so for you in the shot and especially because you are in such a close-up, you don't have to go big and sometimes just less is more, and last up is this here, no spoilers, but as they all stand up as the judge comes in, I wanted to point towards the posing, so you have just the different ways of sitting, he's obviously tense and nervous, same for him, but slightly more relaxed, then you have specifically look at him as he gets up, look at that, it's just like he's just impatient, he just looks around, he doesn't want to be there and you can see, does he tap? No, it's not a tap, but it's always a tap there with that foot, but you can see just that lean on that leg, you got that foot out there, you got arms like this, completely different versus looking down, more tense, it's more mirror in terms of the posing, it's stiffer, now not that I want you to add in all those characters and animate all of these, but if you have something like this with that many characters, think about their initial state, how are they sitting, how do they get up, does the transition between the sitting and the getting up, and how do they end up, like what is their last pose, if I end on that last frame here, these are all different ways of being, and especially with him, he absolutely stands out, but he has also a bigger scene afterwards, no spoilers, but think about that, think about as always contrast imposing as you have multiple characters in the frame, and this is just a small sample of the movie, just the whole thing, it's just really really well done, I highly recommend you watch it, the performances are fantastic, I always love how Jamie Foxx just kind of disappears in his roles, he can be very big, he can be very subtle, and Michael B. Jordan just has a really good presence on screen, so again this is just the tiny sliver of the whole movie, watch it if you can, and if you feel like any of this was interesting and pertains to your shot, and you want to incorporate those ideas in terms of framing, staging, proper usage, or character development, I have a workshop you can sign up at any time, so we can work together on your shots, and if you don't want to miss anything that I upload, feel free to subscribe and hit that bell button so you don't miss any of those uploads, and as always if you're still watching this after all this time, I appreciate that you put in all the time to watch this until the very end, speaking of the end this is it, thank you for watching and that's it from me, I will see you in my next upload.