 It is Thursday and that means acting analysis, right amateurs and today I'm gonna take a look at episode eight and nine of season one of Succession. All right, I got four parts, three shorter ones and a look at a longer sequence, which is fantastic. I can't wait to get into this. So let's go. First up is this sequence and this is about a prop. He is watching something that is bad news and he is selling a BS. Yes, this is bad news, blah, blah, blah. The thing I like about this is what he is going to do with his glasses. So watch this. He's angry, he's upset, he's frustrated, he wants to take them off and this happens and what I love about this is a couple things about this. Imagine you are mad, you're angry, right, and you want to get to the point and talk to him, but taking those glasses off and seeing how that is stuck behind the ear is only going to aggravate this person even more. It delays the immediate idea of I need to talk to this guy. So having this prop can emphasize and aggravate the whole frustration part. You can see how that face I react. He has to do this. And in order to make up time, and I'm making this up here, this is not probably what he did, but I love this to me. This is kind of like, come on, hurry, hurry, because he lost time doing this. So he's doing this as a sense of, come on, let's go, let's go there and let's get to the point. I need to complain about things. So when your character has glasses, think about what kind of glasses are they tiny from the nose, maybe they slip off the nose, and that's an aggravating point that's your conflict in the shot in a way, or they have those rubber band thingies or hooks behind here that will make this even more complicated to take off. So if you have glasses, think about the properties, the size, the weight, the gimmick that can be attached, all those things can help you create a more interesting and a more original performance with moments like this, where you can have some like a little quick look of just that anger, that frustration in there, so good. Second one is just all about posing. You got Greg in the back here, he's running, he is late, and he wants to say hi, and he is going to give her a hug. And the thing is, look at the hug, how awkward it is, ready and awkward. So he gets in and it's not like a full embrace, it's just a little bit, they're not quite touching here. He's not quite putting his head on the shoulder, because he realizes as well that she is not engaging at all, like her arms are not moving at all, there's no reciprocation of the hug, just kind of, okay, the head goes up, because she wants to create some distance here, it's great, all of that stuff. And I like his little, okay, second, okay, okay, I guess, I guess no hug, okay, all right, so good. This one is all about him and his reaction here. So in this sequence, she is briefing the company here, which is again him, saying now, well, you know, the angle is always that you are a good dad, he says here, you're a good dad, and he goes, go, well, why not? Like, to him, he's like, well, why wouldn't I be a good dad? And she just reaffirms, no, because you are, you are a good dad. And he goes, and for him, it's, yeah, right, right. So it's kind of like, maybe he doubted himself for a moment, but she reassured him that, look, okay, and I love the next scene. Watch, and he cracks me up. Really, a good dad, really? Oh, and I love this. So why am I showing you this? So if you have a set up, right, where you have multiple people, and this could be shot in a way like this, where you can actually see the third person here. So we understand what's going on. We have three people in this room talking. And the lip sync is between this person and this person, right? But again, the focus is on the person listening. So you could do it like this, where they are talking, you got lip syncing profile here, and you got a reaction shot here. And you can play off with another reaction shot here. And you can still have lip sync from the person that's off screen. But you can still focus on this person reacting to what he just heard. Really? Did you really just say that? So good. I love how slow it is. It's not a what? What? What did you say? What? It's just very slow. Hmm. Really? All right. That little bit of a slight movement in the body too. It's almost like his body is kind of had like an inner laugh. Like, all right, with that slow look up here. So good. So good. And lastly, this is a longer sequence I can scrub through. This is basically they are about to get married. And she is not quite faithful to him. And he has a kind of an idea that's what she does. But he's a bit of a pushover. And he doesn't really have his own opinions and own agency in this show. That's part of his character. So as I'm scrubbing through here, this is a fairly long sequence discussing all of this, what is going on. He challenges her and she gives an excuse and has a certain reaction at the end. Now I want to go through this one by one. So they come in and she still needs something from him. She's asking for a favor. She needs more information that he so far hasn't given her. I want to talk about body language and movement and eye darts and looks and just attention in this room. So for now, she is fairly bouncy, is flippy. She's taking her shoes off and she's telling him, you know, that thing you want to talk about? I still want to know and that she has a smile. It's all playful. It's all good. Then look at him, right? As she turns around, all right. So he's not bouncy. He's leaning a bit, hands in the pocket, like something's going on. He's thinking, all right, well, let me just talk to you about something. This might or might not make her uncomfortable. She already has crossed arms. You can read into this, whatever you want to. But look at this. He has a lot of moments where he's thinking, not looking at her. And then bam, starts to look. And usually he's not really good at eye contact and holding eye contact. So for him to be this calm and not nervous and fidgety is unusual. So already going, oh, this is kind of serious. And what he says here is that, well, I met Nate. Nate is what he says here. Nate is a person she's working with and she has a relationship with. And he is not happy about that. And he's challenging her now. So what about Nate? And look at her. She has that tiny little head shake because I can't believe you just asked me this, like what? And now she realizes, oh, that's just a coworker. And now she's trying to be evasive. And she doesn't like that confrontation. She wants to get rid of that awkward moment. So what does she do? She walks away from that discussion, turns her back towards him. And you can see how he goes, all right, then it's a cool moment of putting her out of focus. And she gives all those excuses. Oh, you know, it's just a coworker. It's fine. Look at his reaction here. Can't believe she just did that. Oh, right. She turned around. Really? She tell me all of this. She knows. And look at that. It's like, uh, uh-huh. Okay. So now he takes steps closer because again, this is for him not over. So, all right, well, let's talk about this. And again, she is trying to have some other business and like, I kind of waves it off. Ah, she's fine. It's just a guy. You know, it's kind of weird, but you know, kind of like a okay way, whatever. And she still has her smile brings up lots of excuses. I thought I told you this. Again, no eye contact. She's just trying to evade all of this. Lots of busy body stuff here. She's kind of nervous. Look at how she does this. And then she has that look. Oh, I thought, purse lips here. Oh, I thought you're okay with this. And look at him. It's that very defeated sit down. Oh, you can see the impact on the head there. He realizes, all right, she's going to lie about this. She is not honest about that. And look at that. Every now and then couple looks, that's a very questioning look. That's kind of unusual for him here. It's like, all right. And this is almost like an internal dialogue for him. He looks at her and judges her like, all right, well, she's not going to tell me the truth. All right. There's no, there's no audio here. There's no dialogue. And he does that not. It's almost a not to himself. All right. Well, I see where this is going. So then he starts like, all right. And now he's getting a bit nervous because he has to challenge her and he's not comfortable in that position, touching the face, trying to get into a pose, lots of fidgeting. And he starts to question, okay, what is going on? Are we, are we okay? Are we doing this? Again, they're about to marry each other. You can see this massive distance between the two. So he goes, wait, what do you mean? Yeah, we need to do this. I want to do this. It's not like she gets closer to him or sits next to him, comforts him, assures him or is honest. No, no, no. I'm going to sit down here as well, slightly tense, slightly awkward. Because again, there's a massive trust distance between those two. So right. So you got your hand out. It's almost, it's not, he's accusing her in a way where it's a pointy finger. It's not like the finger goes, you, it's, it's an open hands. Like, help me. I want to, I need help. I want you to help me and be honest with me. And again, he's a bit nervous here doing all that stuff. So as he continues on, she gets, wait, wait, you want, you mean this year? You, we're getting married. Like, yeah, I want to do this. And he tells him, everybody's here. And he goes, yeah. And look at that. No awkward blinking, no nothing. It's just kind of his reaction of, yeah, they're all here. Bam, stare. And then look at that. And then she gets a bit more nervous here. Lots of little quick moves. You can see the tiny little shakes in the head. That big contrast of him. Let's go back here. Silent. Look at that. Bam, no movement. Just a challenge in here. Oh, no, no. I mean, yeah, that's, let's do this. All those little gestures. That for me is, because I complain a lot about gestures. If you watch my channel, I'm always, oh, not too many gestures. In her case, she is nervous. She's fidgeting around. And that to me makes sense. All those little moves, all that stuff, busy stuff, because she's nervous, contrasting with him was not arms down. And then look at that. So now he's getting a bit frustrated. All right, what's going on? You can see this. He's slightly uncomfortable. He wants to say it. All right, he goes, all right, well, and then he's starting to question her. All right, so are we, what's going on? Are you cheating on me? And then that's when she has that reaction. Tom, no, I would never do that. But of course he is. And now, because he said that, and she had a bit more of a stern reaction, he has a reaction. All right, okay, well, it's, I got it. I got it. Tell her this and you can see now, eyebrows up, more eye darts, lots of different mouth shapes and a little shakiness. Look at that. He's just uncomfortable. You know, he has to change position and be like, I don't want to say this, but you know, this is just not right. So now he goes, all right, I got to do damage control. Let's fidgety. So now she's trying to regain control of the situation. And then she starts to lie and say, oh, no, no, I am not doing any of this. And look at that. Again, he's like, all right, well, she's still lying, bit more eye contact, a bit more fidgeting around, but a bit more. Look at that. Just a little thing. There's still that energy, that nervous energy, that frustration in there, but he still looks at her. He still says all of this. Okay, well, you know, this is just not right. We need to do this. And look at that. So he's asking, is this real? Are we, are you with me? Do you love me? Basically, that's what he says. And look at her. Look at that. This light changed there. She has a very hard swallow and you can hear it in the voice where she goes, yes. She goes, honestly, and then she has that big exhale and you can see a little bit in here, and you can hear it in the sound. If you, if you watch the sequence, if you have access to the show, it's a very suppressed swallow. And now she goes, yes, this is real, but it's this look of, I have to lie. This is real. And she waits and she tells him this. No, no, this is working for us. Look at that. Long look. Oh, this is so good for him. He's usually so fidgety for, for this. Look at this. Long look, long look. All right. All right. And that's this little, that one blink going, all right. Well, she made that choice. And look at that. It's not like he's relieved, gets up close to her or she's like, no, no, I love you. It's up and there's a hug or anything. This is this very uncomfortable pause of, no, this is real. I love you. He goes really, bam, into the next shot. Oh, still the very, very cold distance, even just the way she sits there and the way he's hunched over. No, there's more power, there's more strength in there. And he's just kind of defeated. So good. It's so good. And then his reaction after all of this realizing, all right, she's going to lie, he goes, all right. And he goes back into his usual self, push over a forced smile. And he says, all right, well, that's all I need to know. That's fine. And look at her. Look at her. The relief, the relief where she goes, oh, good. She relaxes all that tension is gone. All right. But slightly embarrassed, slightly nervous still. She realizes I did something wrong. This is really pushing it. And he is just doing his usual thing. Because again, he says, all right, well, you know, it's fine with me. I'm relieved. That's all I need to hear. And you can see that look there. It's almost, is it pity? It'll tilt her, is it? Is she questioning herself? Is she pitying him? But now she starts saying things like, well, you know, this is good. I love you. And I need you. Now she realizes I got to do some damage control. Look at that. All right, I got to do something. So what does she do? She gets up. She goes, well, I need you. And it's not like she says, I love you. I want to be with you. She's actually honest. She needs him. That's all she needs. She forces that contact, trying to be more warm and sensitive. And he, you know, no eye contact there. And look at this. This forced hug, because she doesn't want to look at him and look at her face. Ready, end? Uh-oh. She knows. Look at that. She knows something's wrong. I think I pushed it. He doesn't believe me. It's no good. Now, not a massive hug. As you can see, he's not quite into this. But once again, the push over, trying to be helpful to everybody. And he says, all right, well, you know the thing, the secret thing that you want to know, I'm going to tell you. So once again, he does this. And you can see the status, high status, low status. Once again, he's the underlings. All right, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to do this. And look at her face. Like, oh, I got my thing. All right. That's good. She's slightly shocked. But yes, because he says, I want to tell you this because this relationship is based on trust, right? Another challenge. Look at her. Oh, look at that. Oh, I love this. Just that little moment of not quite there. Not quite there. Not quite honest. Can't hold eye contact. And then the scene ends. So good. I love this. It's so uncomfortable to watch, but I love it. And if you have access to the show on HBO, I highly recommend you watch it. There are so many different characters, and they have all their different quirks and personalities and the conflict between all of them. They're all different enough. So good. I love it. Now, if you love this as much as I did and you want me to try to find a segue at the end, but if you like, this is cool and helpful. You want to take those points and put that into your shots. I have workshops, link in the description for all the information. Workshops are open at any time you can sign up whenever you want to. And let's work together so I can help you with your shots and then give me your ideas and you can make your shots even more awesome. Speaking of awesome, if you're still watching this after all this time, you're very patient. Thank you so much. And if you don't want to miss any of those uploads, you can subscribe and hit that bell button if you want to. And that's it from me. I will see you in my next upload.