 Welcome back to an Akinosis and tips foranimators. And today I want to take a look at episode seven of Mayor of Easttown. It's the last episode of the whole season one. And you're going to talk about body language, body awareness, interaction with props, and sometimes less is more. So it has always packed. So let's go. Some of those clips are a bit more spoiler heavy. So warning spoilers. I'll try not to say too much or show too much. But this is the last episode. So maybe you can put pieces together and get things spoiled. So it's mindful about that. And before I continue, hi, my name is JD. And I do Akinosis clips like these. I do animation analysis clips. I do reviews, product reviews. I do feedback from my workshop. I do a bunch of stuff on this channel. This is pitch time. Check it out. If you like the channel, subscribe if you want. If you don't, that's fine too. Maybe I'll convince you later. But that is that for you to pitch at the beginning. Let's go to the sequences. And the first one I want to show you is when she gets back to this older person who he has a fantastic relationship with her mom. I'm not going to say more. And this is great moment of this year of it's kind of helping. It's kind of guiding. And it's also this reaction to having food here that doesn't maybe not smell is not the greatest to move it around. Then I get back into the actual big revelation discussion here. And the reason why I'm showing you this is because if you have a character, interact with another one, think about their relationship. First of all, in terms of scale, you know, there could be something you could do in terms of height difference. If it's a smaller person, they could hold hands and make sure that the child is safe or whatever. It could be something where the person is a bit older. So maybe it's less just putting the hand as a kind of comforting gesture. It could be also taking this arm here and holding this arm here kind of for support. Maybe when they sit down, they could be helping, could be a lip sync. They could be talking, but it could be that she is caring for him. And also, if you put one or two characters somewhere, you might even think about this. Maybe there could be something where the lip sync that you have could be a fun combination of what they're saying with a prop. So maybe the fact that she has to move this away could be a because it's not nice to look at, not nice to smell, or something that is part of a dialogue piece where it's interesting and funny, or maybe dramatic, whatever combination. So as always, when you put character somewhere, think about their relationship, their relationship with the set, the relationship with the props and how this all can work together into some really nuanced and layered performance. And actually continuing with this discussion here, she's taking notes. You can see this here later on, man, we see this here. So he's telling her a bunch of stuff that she's kind of politely jotting down. And you can see here, you got some thought process there thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can have some leaning in. You can see this later on, and she kind of leans in and see movement in the shoulder, kind of to indicate, yeah, she's still writing stuff down. And then as he says something that's of really huge importance, you can see the sun stop in the writing and then what? And I love this when you have secondary action. So when you have your character that does anything here, writing, going through the mail, cleaning up, you know, whatever in the house or something on the table, you can use this constant movement as kind of like an ambient layer of something that's going on. And then if you stop that, it will add extra contrast to an important moment. So yes, you can just do it like this. You have some ambient movement here because she's writing and then she stops and then she looks and that's totally fine. And you can also do this in a scene where it's like this and you can see what she does and then she will stop writing. And that is almost the anticipation to then this move. It's like he said something, she hears it, the body reacts and then she thinks about it and then turns around to face him. So if you have a shot where we see all of this and you do use props, it's just again, an extra layer to the point intended to use the layered system to get to that final reaction there. And that's why I'm always a huge fan of props and secondary action. As you can see, this sequence is really important. It's a really big relation on his end here. And this I'm choosing here because you can see this here. She is walking a bit faster, almost running, rushes in. And you can see here the getting ready. OK, but she can't believe what she just heard. She wants to check it here if that's really true. And then she starts checking and spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. And the reason I'm showing this is because you don't have to animate all of this. But imagine it could just be this or even just this because imagine you have a shot which could be this proper interaction or not could be pantomime. It could also be lip sync and it's tricky with lip sync because you're going to have to have audio where she sounds or he sounds out of breath. I mean, it has to kind of match. You don't want someone breathing heavily, but then the audio is all quiet. So there has to be some sort of match there. But even if to pantomime, what if the overriding thing is that the character just entered the scene in a hurry or exhausted or shocked or anxious. And then whatever you wanted to do in your animation has that overriding thing of the heavy breathing. Maybe the shuffling and she and she takes little steps and maybe not super coordinated hand moves because they are just coming in and still exhausted or, you know, whatever whatever you have for the character. So to me, it's always you have your scene. You put in your character and this could be again, pantomime, this could be Dalek, whatever. And then on top of that, think about, well, what if the character is exhausted? What if the character is tired? What if the character is super excited? What if it's all of those? It's just an extra layer to just add more contrast, potentially it's more something a bit more original to the first idea. So when you have your shot, think about, well, that's what I want to do. But then, OK, what is the next idea on top of that? And what is the idea on top of that? And so on, where maybe most people are within this realm. And as you keep brainstorming, you have maybe a shot where this is now your final idea and so much more original and creative than the original idea. And that way, you're real is going to stand apart from all the other, you know, animators that submit work to other companies. Now, it doesn't always have to be huge. Again, this is really getting into spoiler territory. So spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. Basically, the kid yells her name, that's the mom, she's slightly worried there, comes over and like that she comes in with the lead of the head. She really wants to know, so she's going to be leading here with the body in the head into what is going on. And he tells her that Mary knows and she's on her way. And it's it's definitely devastating because he's going to go to jail. And as a mom, it's absolutely brutal. And instead of freaking out and exploding and maybe worrying him even more and freaking him out, it's just kind of this this less is more that sigh, that slight, that slight lean over. Watch this here. I'm going to play this in full, just that reaction of the look, sigh, lean over. And then this, it's almost the get it together. It's not about you right now. I've got to go over there and comfort him because he is going to go through a really, really difficult time. And again, less is more. It might be tricky in a demo reel to just have something that small, maybe, but it could also be a nice contrast. Just it's it doesn't always have to be huge. And I know I talk about sets and cameras and props. And sometimes it's really just about the character and the smaller things. I just love that moment of what she does here because of that situation, what it means to her. And this actually continues here. So again, massive spoiler. But at this point, he does say out loud, I shot her. And then that moment of the look, trying to keep it together. She's to kind of look away a little bit to recollect and then continuing on. But it's not like, oh, my God, I heard this, oh, no. And like, you know, going over there and hugging him and crying, which comes later at a different appropriate time. But this is really just the I have to internalize this from a physical point of view, because it's, you know, this is not the place and time right now. And even Mayor has this reaction of, I can't believe I just heard this. And it's horrible for her to where she has to decide at this side. But, you know, because of her, the kid is now going to jail and destroys this family. And again, she knows all of this. And from the moment she realizes who the villain is, it just is really hard on her. And it's that little look and just that, oh, it's so good. And I know it's really tricky in animation to have even a shot like this, right? You want to show your body mechanics and your acting skills and everything. And if you suddenly have a shot like this with the characters that moving just does like a little move, I understand it might be tricky. You might want to do more. Just think in terms of if my reel already has bigger moments and bigger body mechanics and bigger acting choices and gestures and all that stuff. Then it's maybe a good contrasting moment to just go more silent. Again, less is more. And maybe that's something not for your reel. Maybe for your short or something where you have a character that goes through a certain arc and a change. Think about what maybe less is more like no arms. It's just all in the face and in the shoulders. And overall, the show, especially those actors, it's so good. There's such a range of people exploding, not like, you know, physically exploding, not like big acting moments and then really small acting moments. It's so tragic on so many levels. I can't recommend the show enough. And speaking of recommending, immediately sliding into my workshop. I hope that this is interesting to you and helpful and that it serves as a recommendation for my workshop. So it's a weird segue. But I do have workshops you can sign up at any time. I can help you with your awesome shots to make them even more awesome. Link in description with all information as always. And that is that for the clip. Thank you for watching. If you're still watching, thank you for your time. I appreciate that you're patient and you're watching this a little very end. And if maybe by now you like things and you don't want to miss other uploads, feel free to subscribe and hit the bell button. You don't miss any of said uploads. And that is that. Thank you so much again, concluding this season, season one, season two. And I'm going to continue, of course, with more on Thursdays. And that's that for me. Hopefully I'll see you in my next clip.