 Welcome back to another Acti Analysis and today I'm going to talk about the movie Ad Astra. That's right, so today it's Ad Astra and we'll take a look at one specific sequence and as always let's not waste time let's go straight to it. And in this sequence it's about a briefing with these top people and Brad Pitt right there. So as they go through and they show him very confidential material what I want to look at is this and now it's a bit of a tweak of what I'm actually want to talk about because to me everything is all about looks and it's very interesting the sequence where they address him obviously they look at him as they talk and they always couple glances around to other people that are in this room. Now what I like about this is that when they show him this this is clearly they are sitting together so we know this is the proximity and I kind of also like that composition but what I like about this is that even though we know we're there what I'm taking out of this is this so when he does this that long look we know he looks at Brad Pitt and we know that he looks at Brad Pitt this is Brad Pitt right here this shadowy figure and this part here this is this guy standing here but what I like about this and this is something a bit of a tweak is what if in your shop imagine he's sitting here but he is actually here potentially and this look here and this look here is actually them connecting meaning that one guy looks here and the other guy that's here or however your placement is my main point is that one guy is here one guy is here and the other guy of interest is watching whatever and it is all about them here exchanging looks because they curious how this person is going to react that's my whole thing about these secrets which I like so again they're looking at him and they kind of want to see his reaction too so he gets his material and then as they continue on he will look at this and have the briefing and blah blah all kinds of reactions but what could be cool is that what if in your shop this could be a radio this could there could be a tv this could be a laptop whatever where there is audio and visuals whatever you know that this is relaying information to this person and this person is hearing this for the first time and it is all about them reacting so your setup would be that however you want to stay just could even be like this but again one person here one person here and sits down and I would probably do something where it's more like this where you you almost start if I would do a sequence and tweak this I would probably do this where this as an establishing shot we understand the material that he's going to look at and here's a person and here's a person this person can always go off screen afterwards that's your shot one shot two would then be either like this where he might look at them okay or what am I supposed to look at and you can do your nice close-up acting then you see this and then that's the material that is potentially shocking or interesting or whatever so even the audience is a bit more interested in it and you could potentially cut back to something like this where then the character is reacting but I will technically go then from this we see the information and we're going oh what is going on what is this interesting and then you can technically cut back to something like this this person who might look down to the iPad and we can see parts of your character watching this but then looks up and this look will be meeting this person and I think that would be really interesting to animate where this character and this character are nodding they're doing some faces whatever something some reaction some connection based on what the reaction of this person is who watches this this sounds really complicated and elaborate now that I said this out loud after I thought about it it sounds very complicated I just like the idea of someone looking at someone and reacting but in not in isolation where they might go oh yeah and then they look at the other person and then they meet like their gaze meets and they have this connection like oh yeah that's that was important or see how this person reacts whatever it is but I kind of like that so that you have technically the audio of the tv the ipad radio whatever and it's not about that it's not about lip syncing to that it's about the person looking at this going what is this and the audience goes what is this and then the two people who watch the person watching is going yeah that's also my dog that's my dog next up is still the same sequence and this is something where spoiler he is asking wait my father is still alive and he goes yeah we think so the couple things about this a he throughout the whole movie is usually more like this relax looking not that much blinking very much in control never nervous they even make a point out of him having his heart rate never go up to the couple things here just from a technical point of view in terms of lip sync he goes well my father still alive i was waiting for this and i like this too in terms of lip sync where he is forming the the b the b there but then it says it it's like the beginning of it but waits a bit and then the line happens was cool and it's a patient and just a reminder that your shapes and whatever whatever you dial in for your lip sync doesn't have to be exactly when the audio starts think about what is the character thinking are they trying to say something are they nervous dude do they want to hesitate or you know is there some anxiety behind it it's a cool reminder of just that little detail of doing this or the main thing i want to talk about is the contrast so he usually has not very blinky eyes again because he's very calm very confident or at least very relaxed and then as he asked and you can see that little slight hesitation there and this where like wait a minute my dad is still alive and he goes yes we think so the cool thing is this watch his eyes there's now a lot of darting just within all of this dart dart dart darting darting darting and the cool thing too in the audio is that if you watch this movie you can hear his voice and then as the shop progresses the voice gets lower and lower and a bit more echoey and so we can just purely focus on him and it's like he is not really listening to this and just realizing wait a minute my dad is still alive and again you can see all the looks and all the eye darts and and it's not even that much blinking as i scrub through there's actually no blinking here but it's all just a continuous moment of darts and darts very interesting so again for you when you animate something when do you blink how often do you blink is it a half blink is it quick darts is it important do you want to show that the person is thinking is it kind of like a shocked thinking whatever it is and also cool thing is that the sound afterwards goes back up and gets clear as he concentrates back on the character that's right there and you can see this oh and now he's back and you can see that little thing of he is done processing and it's that change you can see this a little bit in the eyebrows and even here as he has a little half blink like a third blink it's almost like okay click let me go back and actually concentrate on what's going on and you have a little bit of a blink there not even it's again like a little slight change there in in the eyelids as he looks around and then concentrates and the sound is back on and they keep talking and he asks him so are you doing this for us or not it's very cool that's all subtle detail stuff the last thing which again is here is within the sequence they ask they just ask him are you going to do this with us and you can see again darting around a little blink looking around and he goes yes yes sir i'm doing this so again thought process you want to look at darts blinks how do you want to just have a stare like how do you want to communicate to the audience that this person is thinking making a choice or making you know in this case he makes a choice but whatever thought process that you want to visualize to your audience why am i showing you this though i like the idea of the staging here is that he's thinking and she's just waiting she's blurry there it's not a super focus there but you wait and what happens is that when he has finally his decision of going yes sir i'm doing this look at her bam she starts moving okay let's go and then this i love this so you imagine we're ignoring this this is not your shot you're not adding all of this if this is just your single shot here but i like the idea that there's an outside hand coming in that can tap him on this shoulder on his back you know me nor it could be whatever it could be someone the wife caressing his hair or a little kid's putting some dirty socks on the show so whatever it is whatever your setup is in terms of the characters and the scene in the situation but to me this and this just opens up the scene and you can stage it like this where it's blurry you don't see too much this is not too much animated in terms of just the hand i will probably bring it in for animation purposes and being a bit clearer here thumb hands blah blah blah i mean you might have some finger animation that might be a bit more technical but i like that it's that the moment he said this and he made that choice the outside reaction is through her sudden movement so a change in contrast of her waiting waiting waiting and let's go and that extra thing here and this could be someone who maybe it's a test and they said the right thing and now suddenly you have this hand the multiple hands come in and they all shake him and congratulate him high five and it just adds more to it it opens up the world so it's not just him and there are multiple people there and it's i was like that stuff that it's it feels more like this is a shot where a character is living in the world with other people it's not a shot as always as i always say a character in an empty scene where it's just kind of like i'm delivering a line and just presenting my animation in a clean way which again 100% is valid i just like that expansion of the world and kind of the the treatment of this is a shot unless of an exercise and it's a shot where again the character lives with other people there are consequences and there are influences around this person and this could be part of a sequence and for you it's also a practice to think about that to think about other elements around the character because as you are potentially working on a movie you will work within a sequence within other characters that will influence your main character and you have to think about shot flow and editing and all that good stuff so to me this is just more of a an expansion of your exercise animation i usually do and a practice for a future job situation potentially maybe hopefully speaking of hopefully if that's a segue if you feel like this is helpful and you thought that's cool i'm gonna put that in my shot but i want a bit more help i have workshops as always link in description my workshops are always open you can sign up at anytime and i can help you with your awesome shots so sign up whenever you want speaking of want you can also subscribe if you want and hit the bell button to get all the notifications because i do upload a lot despite those times i will keep the schedule up and still upload and do my lectures and reviews and all that good stuff so subscribe hit the bell button if you want to get notifications about all of that other than that if you're still here and still watching as always thank you for your patience and that's it from me and i will see you in my next clip