 Welcome back to the acting analysis Friday Meters and today it's going to be part four of season one of Succession That's right part four. We're closing in on the end of season one I got three sequences to show you let's get straight to that first up Is this where we have a set up of three characters? And this is exactly what I like where it's all about reactions and staging where you have two people and you don't know if there's a third one But there is a suspiciously big gap here where you can put in another person So watch out how this person reacts, right? It's in the elevator looking somewhat as we all do at the numbers or whatever levels Sees a person coming in and has that reaction again for you could be something totally else that could be Embarrassed they could be angry they could be nervous whatever it is But that's already interesting because it's a reaction to something that we don't see so we anticipate Oh, what's gonna happen and then that character comes in so now you have a set up with this where you have a Visual hierarchy, maybe this person is the boss like in this case And then you have that visual hierarchy of him being higher You can also do something where your characters are actually higher in frame these two could be here And the other person is here mad or whatever and it's a smaller person then you have a dynamic of that So you can think about three characters and think about the relationship in terms of height and scale and distance and everything Then on top of that because this person cannot see what these guys are doing You suddenly have this to play with so you have reactions to this person you have reactions between these two guys It's all very nice and complex. So these two have their reaction there and then he tells them Blah blah blah you like something and then you can play with him turning around and how much does he turn around? He's barely turning around his shoulder. Does he want to engage as you respect those people? Is he curious you can see this here? He has this polite turn around and it's about almost halfway through there with a 90 return And then they have their back and forth and you can see his reaction So again, you can play with their reactions They can say something then you can play with his reaction and this could be something of he's happy because he meets them or He is polite and turns around to face us and they make some sort of facial reaction because he does not like them So there's a lot you can do because they don't know what he's doing and he doesn't know what they are doing And that's a lot of circles All right, then he tells him something else say by the way a blah blah blah and I love this where he's kind of like All right, how much longer is this going to go? He wants to get out of this elevator He doesn't want to talk to those guys. So again little things posture looks but then it tells him something really nice So you can see how he stops he looks Waits and then turns more you can see this where there's a slight turn and pause and then you got more He turns around more to face him more because he's more interested So again for you think about the staging in terms of where they are the how do they face each other? Do they want to face each other and so on and so on and this continues on and he has more reactions He has some more things and it's again, you can do all kinds of Set up in terms of the audio and then his reaction He's pleased at this point, but again, this is for you You can be very creative where even if the audio is positive he can still pretend and you can kind of show the subtext It's like he can show the subjects to the audience But they don't really know what he's really thinking and because you have three characters right one and two and with that third one Once the other character engages Then you can make the turn here and then you can think about contrast Maybe he really likes this person turns around the way we see it here and engages right where he turns around a bit more And he wants to talk to him, but he really does not like him So when he says something think about maybe the turn this way is different and sharper or He turns around completely so we don't see his face and suddenly his face turns into shock Seeing that oh wow, he's really looking at me and he's not happy about whatever I said So to me this is all very interesting staging and a lot of opportunities for reactions and pantomime and lips and things and Sub takes in all kinds of stuff. I think this is a really interesting setup for three characters This is a short sequence where he talks to this guy, but I like this where he just tells him All right, are you in or not and look at this So you have this pose with the hand thumb all that good stuff head and hands, but he holds it, right? So watch this he holds and Then one more thing which is kind of like a pose that he strikes and then a sub pose It's the same kind of but instead of just having that moving hold or just that weight You can do one more thing just a little bit of a tweak of an existing pose that he starts with the eyebrows It leans in a bit more and changes kind of like are you in for a handshake and then come on come on He wants to really make a point of come on and shake my hand. Let's let's make this deal so think about when you do have a pose and you hit that it is the moving hold is it just a Pose that you're gonna hold for a second or two Can you make potentially put in a sub pose where it's a bit more interesting and kind of emphasize the point a bit more So just food for thought speaking of pose. We're going back to this They're supposed to vote on his dad and I just like this for contrast You can see how you have they're very much the kind of nervous very stiff You got the contrast of them like this and him hunched over like that with this awesome finger pose He has great pose in the show and you can see how he regresses. He goes back Shoulders up head is down such a contrast. So again, if you have multiple characters think about this think about suddenly He's not a strong thing about the height hierarchy. Is there a power dynamic? What is he going to do? You can see this will be move forward here. He's not quite sure even his looks Can't really look at them like I had to barely head move He just wants to disappear because of his overbearing father This is the whole sequence where he's trying to race towards this and even this like he's not really I Don't want to raise my hand and it's about voting out his father and of course He's like, oh, yeah, you're not gonna do this and he tells actually you need to really smell your armpit by that And then you can see how it just kind of there's not much going on in the upper body If this was a shot I would critique I would even tell you do more of the upper body when this arm goes down But it's just he's so stiff me even this he goes up Yeah, I guess not this could totally work for animation as well as a slight little lean But even then that lean makes him even smaller. So again, think about multiple characters Even if it's just to what's the contrast imposing is that important? Do you want this character to feel like you're hiding or they're just uncomfortable versus someone that is very confident but potentially also a bit stiff because they're stressed or nervous and this goes on for the rest of sequence where he just Scrumbs around it doesn't really do much all through here. It just has yeah, I don't know I don't know what I want to say and he stays within this and this very meek pose there What else is cool in here is that as this character is complaining saying wait, wait, this was a vote it counted He just talks over him says, oh, let's move on and tells him you shouldn't be here This is illegal. Watch his face. He listens to him. Look at that. He forms Whatever he wants to whatever he forms that shape way ahead So for you if you have audio where one character is talking the one is talking and you might even have a pause or not Think about well, how is that one character now leading into his next part? And with this could be a very very long dissipation forming this shape to say Whatever and this could show that this character is not waiting for him Like he doesn't I mean he's kind of waiting for him, but he doesn't want to listen to him He's just I don't care. I'm just gonna wait until you're done and then say Whatever and that long anticipation can show something someone that's dismissive. That's disrespectful But for you to think about if you do have a line and then pause and in a line Don't go back into the default like your default shape should not be happening It could be one sort of emotion into another emotion and also facial shape in and you know Whatever shape you're gonna have here that leads into this because it could be angry surprise even angrier Or it could be where you have your lip sync and you really want to talk about this the characters really focus on this So whatever shape really leads into this It's a massively long dissipation to the next emotion and to the next shape or you know, whatever he wants to say And speaking of which he says here whatever I like that little Whatever with that little turn and with a little nod. It's kind of hidden in the shake, but like come on I'm not waiting for you. So good There you go succession the gift that keeps on giving there's so much in the show There's so many different characters and that's why I like this as well Where you have different character depictions in terms of their attitude their movement how they walk how they look How long they keep their eye contact or not so again for reference a highly highly recommend the show And of course as always if you feel like any of this is interesting to you and you feel like that's cool I want to use that for my shots and you want me to help you with your awesome shots You can sign up for my workshop so we can have a one-on-one You can send me your work and I can help you if you want to link in description As always and my workshops are always open for sign-ups and if you do feel like this is helpful You can also subscribe. 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