 Welcome back, it is Thursday, that means acting analysis, finding meters. And today we're gonna take a look at the fantastic show on HBO called Chernobyl. That's right, it is fantastic. It's in fact so good, I love everything about it. The music is great, the sound design is fantastic. The cast, the acting, the composition, the colors, just everything, so good. Actually I have so much to talk about that I wanna do a series for every episode. So it's gonna be up to one, two, three, four, five because I can't talk about everything, it would be hours. But anyway, so there's a long list for episode one, let's get straight to the clips. First up is this tiny little thing here as he prepares the tapes and wants to roll them up or does roll them up in newspaper here. What I love about this is that it's just slightly off, whoop, he stops and corrects. Now, besides prop handling, that's always interesting to me in terms of animation, but it's just an interesting detail that if you do have a character and there are props in the scene and they're aligned or it's something like a book or something where anything where you can show off that the character is very particular about details. I think it's just an interesting character moment. It doesn't have to be so on display, it can be a tiny thing like one of the previous acting analysis that I did where the character just adjusts the shoes and because she's so picky about this, she knows that a book is kinda misplaced. So there are little things that you can push in terms of character for a sequence but just as a tiny thing here, I like this. Next up, after the incident, the explosion occurred and I love this here. I love the introduction of the character and what the camera does and the change of composition. Now, you could technically cut out that middle part but what I wanna show you here is how it ends. So A, you have somewhat of a full body, you know, a full body kind of a waist out thing but so it can show a lot. It's a bit more about body posture and silhouette and everything. And then you have an intro of the second character. He just kinda comes in when he was sleeping but you can argue that maybe in your shot the character can stumble in or run in or maybe something happens in and pushes off the door or maybe still it comes in from the outside and there's a coat on and takes the coat off or whatever you wanna do but I think it's cool that you have one character here and because so much is empty here, you expect another character to enter. So I think it's a cool two character set up and I like how it goes from this to that and you can show this through just a simple pan followed by the characters and then you can show off full body, somewhat full body, right? Body mechanics, two facial close up. It's also interesting, we can see both of them but it's mainly that as a focus, although that with the hair you won't see much but it's something that you can obviously tweak but still you can show off multiple things in terms of body mechanics and then get into a close up. I think that's a really, really cool change of character composition. Here's something that I'm always a big fan of and that is doing something that is slightly off screen. He is a firefighter, he puts on boots. Puts on the boots and then that's it, second one, you talk about things and he gets up. So what I like about this is that the character does something that he would do and it's not specifically framed for that. Obviously you want to see the face and he just happens to put on the boots which kind of reminds me of that spider-verse shot where the character closes the door but it's not super visible, it's kind of just with his leg. I'm just a big fan of that more naturalistic performance where the character does something but we are focused on this and we just happen to kind of see what's going on off screen, it's not distracting, we still don't understand what's going on and it's not overly presentational. This section is really neat because I'm always a huge fan of putting characters in sets, using props and having environments and using environments to change specific acting choices or drive certain acting choices. And what I like about this is that if you are putting a character in an environment, make sure that the character is aware of the environment of what happened, what's going on and can you use this to your advantage? So in this case, given that this is all broken even if you watch this, you're here, stuff is breaking and creaking and the specific sound right as it goes in. And what I like about that is that he is aware of the environment. The sound of the environment influences him and his acting. Because if you just have a walk and opening a door can be interesting from a mechanics point of view but if you let's say, whatever set you wanna add it could be something where stuff is broken and then there's maybe water dripping out. So as the character starts to open maybe because of the opening of the door or something happens and stuff drips on his face and then he or she can wipe that off. So anything that makes it a bit more interesting than just having a character, as I always say in an empty scene. So having a character in this here and having that, even if it's just through sounds but it will still be something that triggers more interesting acting choices. And speaking of set, here's another one. What I love about this is that as the characters go into this and they are framed by the door frame look at what this character does. The talk can exit and you just see the hand, yes he comes in and it's an interesting thing of A you can show off two characters and then you can do something where you only act through a hand which to me is always very interesting where you can kinda push certain things where a character is kinda cut off and a character can even hold a newspaper and flick it or just do this but also for contrast what I like is that he's doing this and it comes back in just for a little bit of contrast and change and then out and then he does this thing here but something like that to me is again interesting where it's not just we have two characters and you gotta watch them and it might be boring you can add something a bit more interesting a bit more contrast and also do some interesting finger acting and if you need to hand finger acting watch anything with Harrison Ford. This one I thought was neat because he is talking but he's not in focus, we are looking at him. So he says something and we did everything right whatever the line is and there's just that reaction the doubts and potential panic what I like about that is I'm always a big fan of characters reacting and listening to what another character says now this is kinda neat because this could function as your first time lip sync so that you're doing the lip sync for this and because it's out of focus you won't really pay attention to it but you can still kinda practice but the focus is all on this character listening, taking all this in thought process and reacting this could be something more subtle like that a little bit of a swallow which I'm always a big fan of because that's not really available in rigs or you can do something bigger could be a smile, could be a bigger reaction but kinda like this idea that you do have a two character shot and you do have technically lip sync but you can kinda like, let me just practice and there won't be so much focus because it's actually not in focus and everything that I'm gonna polish is on this character listening. Here is a classic wait assignment he is carrying another victim of this accident but it's not like it's a bag of potatoes that he just kinda swings over and just kinda lets it fall look at how delicate he is with putting it down read lots of little adjustments there making sure that the character is not getting hurt despite being already extremely hurt and even at the end here that little bit of a there's that little extra long hold on the hedge just I care about this character make sure that this character doesn't fall onto the ground but again, if you have something where it's a wait assignment what is the character carrying? Could be against a bag that's uneven so it makes it more challenging to hold kinda like the way you have it here with a lot of adjustments versus a big box that you have very obviously very strong corners and areas where the character can hold and always have a steady grip so to me it's if you do a wait assignment where the character carries something think about what is the object obviously and that will drive the acting choices and does this character care about what he or she is holding and carrying and putting down or lifting or whatever your assignment is this is all about lip sync but to me it's always what's after the lip sync that's also interesting so he kinda threatens this character saying you know I can't make it better for you but I can certainly make it worse and then he realizes all right well this is not a good thing here I'm not gonna fight this then he says well do the thing that I'm telling you to do I'm paraphrasing horribly by the way and then he says yeah, yeah, yeah but I like it about that is the end so after he says yes long look and then that turn I love how he turns away I love that actor that look, blink and then turn and he's constantly so kinda relaxed but also it doesn't really give a crap about things attitude in this despite the horrible incident but I love this technically so you would have lip sync and then your audio file kinda stops but you don't really have to stop the shot what if you add one more thing especially if you start with the shot like this it's on a weird ending kinda book ends you know this and this but I love this I love that you have that and then his long judging look and then turn away and I love that he doesn't blink either so one of those things where when do you wanna blink? lots of blinks, no blinks very threatening just that stare so good but the one thing is that so if this character talks you know obviously you got your wave file your sound file and blah blah blah and you got noise and if you stop then you suddenly have just dead silence so what I would do is I would find files that give you room tone, room noise whatever you wanna call this and actually I'm gonna put a link in description that has all kinds of stuff so if you have something where your audio stops here maybe you know this is your lip sync and then you wanna add one more thing at the end that's this reaction here so what you can do if you have this here find room noise and then put it over the whole thing now this clip might already have room noise you gotta find something that's similar and make it very small you know in the volume and then obviously bring it up more here but I would just pay attention to those kind of things where if you do have something where the sound cuts off it's not noise, noise, noise in music and then suddenly silence anything you can do to smooth out that transition it's very picky this might just be me but something to potentially pay attention to but again I love that this is such a cool ending to obviously the whole episode is awesome but as I'm picking out this moment here it's a good exchange especially his lines and again you don't have to stop when the lip sync stops you can still add one more thing to give him more character is he more menacing or okay or suddenly he could smile and make it a creepy smile or is he smiling and realized hmm he actually wasn't that serious he was just kind of a joke so whatever you can do you can change the scene by adding one more thing at the end now this is not potentially something you can do in your reel but just speaking of that sequence I love this moment where he tells him he tells the other guy on the phone if I'm up then he's up but what I like about that editing is that when he says that if I'm up he's up then it cuts to bam we know exactly oh well that's what he is talking about and it's a simple thing that again you can't really use on your reel potentially but what I want to show you is this he is waiting and this is your classic waiting assignment but I like the changes especially like the little swings and how the fingers are in you can barely see this but that little thing there a little nervous tap there he does a bit of a scratch which classic already does that but I love the pacing then he sees the car and I also love that and then he changes straight to a fast little move and again the fingers a little tightening there lots of things even here getting ready okay I'm gonna start talking to him nervous just all those little things here I love that and this is your classic waiting assignment that you might get at whatever school or that you wanna do at home for yourself and you can do again something where you have a full body shot waiting assignment in terms of I'm gonna show this my arms and my legs and everything or do this or both right you do full body and then you wanna cut to something that's a bit closer for more detail in the face potentially but I wanted to show this as an example because a waiting assignment is a classic thing that students do at school I mean at least I did it I'm assuming nowadays it's still being done I think it's a good exercise but anyway, that's just an example I wanted to show and that's it now speaking of something that students do is at least to me I think it's too much gesturing with arms and then you end up being in a pose where it's too twinned and it's just too gesturing and too big and it's always kind of the default thing that students usually go or gravitate towards what I like about this is that he does have, I wouldn't say gesture but it's a smaller thing with his fingers he's somewhat frustrated he's bored on angry but he's also a bit nervous and I like that little tiny thing now sometimes you shoot this reference and then you start adding this in animation and it becomes too poppy and it's weird and you might not be able to exactly take all of this and use the fingers but my thing is always if you start a shot and you act it out, put your arms behind your back and just act it out just with the body and the head that to me will always be more interesting and then you will add one or two gestures for contrast and emphasis but I do like that little thing on the finger end up the hands in general even here on the second shot just that, just those little things here you can show all of this all of the tension, the impatience and everything and it doesn't have to be a big hand or arm gesture but just that tiny thing here still adds to the, you know, again so the panic or to the nervousness that this character goes through or feels this one is potentially tricky again not, I don't know if you can take this directly for your for a shot, as a real shot or for an exercise but I wanted to show it anyway I love this guy that comes in look at that face it seems like he's just judging fam, judging that guy right away or judging the environment but as this guy stood out to me I love what he does afterwards so watch him he goes and then walks around and then he checks the chair he checks the chair and goes, nope I'm gonna sit somewhere else who does that? who does that? did the director tell him to do this? this is something that he decided to do I don't think you would see this in an animation movie this is something so weird and specific actor-wise I don't know this is so cool it cracked me up but anyway, do you wanna do this in your shot and your reel? maybe maybe not, I'm not sure and again, the same thing with this afterwards but basically what I wanna show you I just love this whole this first episode it's so good throughout just everything again, sound design and acting but these guys have to brief everybody else and obviously they're slightly nervous and they wanna make sure that they don't say that everything is horrible they're making a joke mainly this guy makes a joke and I love the reaction of this guy he goes, hey, hey, right? right guys, right guys? then he goes back to maybe it's not that funny but also I like the reactions of other people there's a slight little smile maybe he does something maybe but I love this I love that you have that nervous moment here and that okay, well, let's diffuse attention then make a little joke and that little weasel does, yeah, yeah, yeah, I find this funny even though it's not funny at all anyway, can you use this for a shot? maybe, I mean, you can argue that in the audio that you chose for your lip sync that it's clear that this character is nervous and is making a horrible joke trying to distract those people from the horrible truth and maybe you wanna put another character as kind of a sidekick that's kind of that weasel that does this actually, why not? This could be an interesting thing if you just take this moment imagine it's a longer shot not this here but this goes on for a bit longer and that's the end of it could be interesting I just love that guy, such a weasel now I talked about exercise and here's another one it's not just sitting down but a standing up is also an exercise what I like about this is that if you are given the exercise of the character has to stand up while you can just do a regular stand up or you can do a stand up with a prop but you can also do a stand up with character and I like that he is so impatient and he's like, eh, waves the guy off I love how he waves he uses this one thing so you can almost imagine your shot would be this without these guys and you have maybe whatever maybe it's a person in the hospital and someone, a nurse maybe the nurse wants to help him and he just waves him off or her and it's something that just adds one more thing in terms of character so it's not just body mechanics it's also, this is what the character feels that's his character here in terms of being kind of rude and then maybe you can have a funny reaction of how this character stops but I like this it's a simple thing it's not huge so if you do have a sit up assignment that could just be something that you want to add to give this a bit more flavor and you can see that the cane is a little wobble there I mean, obviously it's old but anyway, I thought this cracked me up when I saw it and it made me think of an exercise right away because a stand up is an exercise that you could attempt speaking of gestures I love this here the soldier tells him that he is waiting for him I don't know why I'm drawing all this but I like to draw so I'll love this here again, as you can tell in the especially if you watch my channel I'm a massive fan of long judging looks where you are confident enough in your shot that you take the time for character to just wait and look and judge and stare and also what's cool is this ah, I love this he doesn't say get up and it's this kind of a this board let me almost start to look away right before it cuts and I love that it's kind of a it's a very simple gesture, right? there's nothing fancy with a wrist flick or anything with the fingers or but it's just that look that pose and just that is such a I don't want to see you but I guess all right, come on, get up I'm ordering you to get up here such a cool move oh, I love this with this working animation this might even be too simple you never know, sometimes stuff in live action works then you put this in your animation it feels like well did you forget to animate the wrist or the fingers you want to add some contrast in there it doesn't always translate but I wanted to show it anyway and also this and you don't really hear what they're saying or whispering so this would be kind of a pantomime thing and I love that, I love that he's already seeing him but he does that extra ah stare, no blink ah, so good this is a long shot I'm including the subtitles so you can read what they're talking about or especially what he is listening to and I love this too in terms of reactions I love that as he listens to and he realizes what he just heard about the running per hour there's no blink, right? there's almost no darting here just kind of listens then he realizes the way, what? and it's that little anticipation where that you start with the eyebrows and then he goes, wait a minute I think this is pretty significant he gets cut off throughout the sequence he gets cut off all the time and it's a simple thing here too with his lips together and the lifting of the head and if you watch my channel you know I'm a massive fan of head accents so you could just leave the character always in this pose but I love that little change through there but the main thing I want to show you is mainly his eyes and the blinking when does he blink? when does he not blink? now he's being told he's being roughly again and being told what he's supposed to do here and you can see that little squint there but not that much blinking and then he realizes, wait what? and you can see again the widening with the eyes and the brows going up and then he just processes what he just heard and you can look at the blinks lots of blinks, lots of processing and wait, wait, wait, what's going on here? and again, think about that as you do your shot, when do you blink? when do you not blink? do you have something where the character just kind of listens and he's not blinking that makes him very concentrated or maybe kind of spaced out and actually not really listening or something where like, wait did I just hear this? oh, I got to process what I just heard and then he got more blinks like that that could be something that's nervous or something where there's just so much going on that he just heard that he has to take a second before he answers lots of good stuff and the funny thing is if you have a two character audio maybe you wanna be fancy with your audio editing but maybe the original shot is two characters talking but you eliminate one and whenever that character talks you put an audio filter on it so it sounds like he's on the phone or she and then you can concentrate on just one character on the phone listening to the other character and it's all about listening, reacting and having fun just with those moments of when do I blink, when do I not blink when they're putting eye darts do I have a bigger reaction do I move my body with a reaction it's even like something like this that I love so again, if you do have a two character dialogue you don't have to have both characters in the scene you can actually have none of the audio performed on screen it's one character listening to two characters so you have this constant back and forth of who I'm listening to or what I showed before where one character is blurry it's all about the character listening and reacting so this could be something where like I said the foreground is blurry but you can do some sort of lip sync and it's gonna add some balance to the composition you wanna do a character shot that way or like the last thing that I looked at where you take one audio and you tweak it it sounds like it's always on the phone or maybe behind the wall and then you just have a character listening and then do the lip sync and reacting and then that constant back and forth could be really interesting so you don't have to stick to if you hear two voices to portray and animate two characters there you go, that's it, episode one I will hopefully see you next week for episode two and so on because there's so much to talk about so much to show next week, lots of stuff with props but anyway, I hope you're gonna watch the show and if you have, let me know in the comments let me know what you liked or did not like about the show and if you watch this until the very end as always, I appreciate it you know, I am very appreciative of the time that you take to watch this and if you like this, you can give us a like also, if you think that all that stuff is interesting and you wanna use that in your shots you can sign up for my workshops where we can talk about that stuff and we can work together on your shots where we can implement those acting choices and take your shots to the next level if you want to, my sign ups are always open for my workshops and that is it if you don't wanna miss all that stuff that I'm posting then don't forget to subscribe hit that bell button for all notifications if you want to get notified about all my uploads because I do upload almost every day and that is it if you're still here, you're a champ and I will see you tomorrow and next week