 Welcome back today's Thursday and that means acting analysis for animators and today I'm going to take a look at the movie Game Night. So usually in animation we try to not overact, we don't try to do big broad gestures or very obvious acting choices where you have like scratching behind the neck or pose like this when someone's uncomfortable or tapping the foot, there's just a couple of things that we just try to avoid because it's been overdone and it's kind of cliche and it's just not that original and creative anymore, it's just been overused. And one of the things that you want to avoid technically is to act out words. So when you have a scene where someone goes, I want you to get out. That's kind of acting out the words and it's not that original, but at the same time it can also be really fun. It just all depends who is doing it, what type of character, what's the environment and is it appropriate for a scene. So when you have something like Monsters Inc. Where Sally has to do something to convince a kid to go to sleep, it's okay because the broad acting is appropriate when you talk to a kid. And this is the reason why I want to bring up a scene in Game Night where a character is pretending to be an FBI agent and it's all very theatrical and very exaggerated and just very, very broad. But in this case it's okay and that's the humor and it's appropriate. So let's take a look at the scene and see what the character does. So let's take a look at what the actor, Jeffrey Wright, is doing in this scene. And this whole sequence is absolutely amazing. I love already how he walks in. It's a very confident walk. You see the swinging in his arms and then the look. And of course he wears sunglasses at night. It's great. Now I did truncate the sequence of it. I cut some of the shots out here, but I'm just going to show you the highlights here. So you got already that fantastic walk. I'm showing you this because of the end, the contrast of how the character is moving once things are different. So again, go back. You got that type of entrance, the long look, and all reacting. And it starts already here. So he wants to be very clear about, all right, I'm part of the FBI and I love how he swings that around and then does this. I love that. That just a little change over there and then pointing it out, a little pinky out there. It's so great and the big facial expressions. And of course it's legit. He totally buys it. And I just love that type of thing of the frown. I love how he takes off the glasses. It's so exaggerated. I love the pausing goes the bureau. And so when you do a lot of exaggerated acting, it's very like bad acting on purpose. You can get away with twins gestures and just kind of not very original arm gestures and pointing. And he does that here. So he talks here. There's something very violent going on in this very neighborhood. So again, very twins, lots of pointing. And then the awesome part is here when he goes, we have reason to believe that one of you here, so he says that one of you here, maybe the next victim. That's what he says here. But I love how he has this one here. And then he uses that the same hand to go one, two, three, like one of you because he's looking at this group here, right? So he's pointing in all those characters. But I love this. It's just such that he could just point and have his arm just point at the characters right here. But I love that change of one here. This is one of you, maybe the next victim. And it's so awesome because it's just this one, two, three, all of you. It's so exaggerated. And I got a point at every character here. Of course, they love it. And then he continues on with showing all these other documents. And it has to be all very clear, classified. It's just all so exaggerated. It's so good. So same thing here, the very exaggerated and dramatic dropping of the files. Because he's so serious. Of course, you know, he doesn't bite at all. And then he has this massive outcry. But is it kind of questioning him? It's so good that I love that. Just a little moment of pause with the lips. And then something else that I, of course, always love. And I think I mentioned that before in a couple of the acting analysis clips here is how when you have gestures, they're somewhat off-screen. So you can see this here, it's some slight jiggle here. I'll say jiggle, but they're moving in the shoulders. This is gesturing with his arms. And you can see it here. And especially this is, again, one of those where you act out words. Because N.I., and he points at himself. And then he continues on that he's not going to stand by eitherly while innocent people are getting, you know, slaughter and stuff. But he has that content. He's, again, it's very twins, but off-screen gestures. They love it here. And then once this is done, he has to have a disclaimer and he asks about allergies. And you can see how he's much more relaxed. So suddenly he gets into this. But I mean, he still has twin gestures. But again, in live action, it's just also a bit different. It's okay. But if you listen to this, and I can play it here with sound here, his voice is totally different. So when you go back to, when he yells, let me go back in, I'll play this sound quickly here. And then he gets back to here and he has this dramatic pause. Then he continues. It's not a joke. People are in real danger and you're running out of time. All right, it's very exaggerated here. And then when he gets back to here, listen to the voice here. Before we get started, I'm required to ask if any of you have any food allergies. It's awesome. And then he continues on and these characters come in and even that walk, right? So look at this walk here. And that walk is so totally different compared to the beginning when he enters. So you can see here, slow, so good. And then you go back to here and then he's done with his spiel. And then you can see that difference here. He has kind of the chest out, but kind of less swingy arms. Like his face is so good. And then he continues on. And then, wait, wait, this doesn't work. And bam! And then I love it because I think it's still the game. So some of the things are a bit more subtle when he has, you know, these type of facial moments there. And again, gestures that are off screen. And you can have, you know, very exaggerated eyebrow action there and all of that. And he's pointing. So again, for this character, it's appropriate. It's okay to do all of this. And when you go back to when he flashes his badge, that type of movement, especially down here. And then my favorite where one of you in here, it's just so good. Now, if you have this in a regular scene, I would probably say, I don't know. I don't know if you want to point all the time and say I and then you and all those gestures. It's just too exaggerated. But in this case, it's okay. So sometimes potentially you could choose a scene where your character is a bad actor on purpose. So this could be someone young or on experience or where it is on a stage, maybe theater. And it's just bad on purpose. You have license to overact and do big gestures and be exaggerated facial features. And when someone looks at your shot, they're not going to go, that's some really bad actors. Oh yeah, that character is supposed to be like this. And then for once you can go big and broad and might be a lot more fun, then more naturalistic and more subtle acting. There you go. That's it. And if you've seen the movie and there are other scenes where you think, oh, that's kind of appropriate with some big acting is a big acting choices on purpose. Let me know. Let me know in the comments. And as always, if you like this, I would appreciate a like and a subscribe and hitting that bell button and all that good stuff. You know the drill. And if you watch this whole thing, deal the variant, I really do appreciate it. And I will see you in the next clip.