 Welcome back to the acting analysis and tips for animators and today I'm going to take a look at the Netflix show The Haunting of Bly Manor. This time I got six sequences I want to take a look at before I do. If you're first time here on the channel, hi my name is JD and I do acting analysis clips like these. I do animation analysis clips, I do rig reviews, I do product reviews, animation news, lectures about animation, all kinds of things. You know the pitch, you know you can browse around the channel. If it's something that you like, you can also subscribe if you want to. And that is that quick and short. The pitch, it's YouTube, you know the drill. But enough of this, let's go straight into the sequences. First up, we have this one where the main actress comes in and it's an interview and you can see that he does not acknowledge her when she comes in. So that's a big thing I always talk about in classes when you have eye contact. Do you hold? Do you look? Do you look away? And this is what this whole sequence is about. She comes in, you can see she's excited, she's preparing her hair, she's kind of adjusting here, you can see that maybe she's got some sweaty hands, you never know, could be nervous, but she's ready to look. And you would think that in a normal polite way, he would look and acknowledge her, but then he doesn't. And you can see that she's got that look of, okay, that's kind of weird. So for your shots, think about that. If a character is coming here and introducing herself, himself, whatever, is your character going to look up and do the same? Is that polite or not? How is that going to feel like for an audience of, hmm, that's weird, this guy's not looking, that's kind of weird, that's kind of rude. And then you can play with just panting, I'm in reaction because there's no lip sync. So you can see that she's slightly concerned, a bit nervous. And I like this too here when he finally looks up, you can see how as she was slightly looking around, she is looking at him right there. She probably was hoping that well, now that he looks up, he's going to look at me as well, but he still does not. And then you can see kind of that slow breakdown of, okay, right, then she's trying to make small talk, says something, tries to be polite, but he still doesn't look. And she's trying and trying and trying. And then he starts talking, but he's still not looking at her. And you can see her reaction, okay, the hell's going on. And all of that just completely looks away. And again, something for you to think about, do you look, how long do you look and at what point do you look away? Is that because you're now angry, frustrated, you just did the interest is gone. So that is the whole thing about this. You're not the end, he finally looks, but then it gets a bit more heated. And it's a really cool sequence. What I like that introduction between the two where it's an interesting, almost kind of like, not a staring contest, but it's a non-staring contest, kind of a test of power in a way, but it's really cool. And I like her reaction into the constant change there that she has, trying, being polite, and just her awesome reaction of, the first slips and especially this looking really, really, and then looking away. And you can see that change in the mouth as well. So good. And I'm actually going to continue the sequence because he is talking here and it tells her, don't bother me, right? I'm really busy on this is something really important. Don't bother me. And the thing is, she goes, okay, well, one of my rather unique traits that I have or accomplishments or whatever. And this is, it's hard for you to see here because she actually does talk. So she says something. And as we cut to him in the audio, she is still talking. And instead of looking at her and following her being interested in being polite, he starts to do this while she is still talking. So again, this is something for you. What if this is your setup? And this is your shot is your lip sync. And this is the other character listening. So instead of doing the full shot of one card, whoever it is talking, you do maybe half of it, cut to another character who is listening. So you can do more reaction type pantomime. And then you do something bigger where the character is actually looking away. And that's really rude. And it's kind of, yeah, whatever. And then he interrupts her. He says this while again, she's still talking. So think about that for your setup. Again, your lip sync doesn't have to be the focus for the whole shot. You can cut in between and go between talking and reaction or half talking, half reaction with something that's really not in the audio at all. But you can really play up the character and being rude or whatever your choices are here during a non lip sync moment where this is your pantomime. This is not really acting and or anything with props or sets. But I love this in terms of screen direction because usually when someone is in the car, right, they're all going left to right. And you could stage this when he is talking. It's still left to right. So you can flip that image so that he is here looking this way because they're all going in the same direction. But what I like about the camera actually showing her left to right and then going into right to left is that it looks like they're talking to each other. Even though they're facing both the same direction forward, this looks like you can see as they go back and forth quickly, they are looking at each other. And I thought that was really, really neat just in terms of staging and how they look and how they sit so that they can have a conversation. He has every now and then a bit of a look back. Sometimes in the shot, we see her sitting and looking to the left. But generally, I thought that was really cool just because it makes them look like they talk to each other versus we're just both looking one way because we're driving and facing that same direction. Here's another one about eye direction and contact here. So this is all about he's moving around to have them and her and someone else test the beginning of the batter he wants to make a cake or something. There are a couple things. First off, I have a very creepy look and it's something where you have to think about if my character is just looking and not doing anything that starts to be again rude like the other character not looking or rude because you're just staring or it could be creepy. He has a couple blinks here was he changes was he's thinking about things but then he has that reaction because he is jealous because the thing is she spending to him too much attention to him and this is his whole conflict later on in the sequence. But again, think about that. If you have characters, how long do they stare without blinking without doing anything? Are they kind of like half blinks and little blinks? Just a little stuff like that. You just because you are in full control. Are you having the character blink? Do you make them blink and hold the eye closed for a couple frames or are they never blinking? All that stuff is really important on a really frame by frame basis. But this is this is a whole lecture about something else about eyes which is going to come. But what I want to show you here is this. This is finally done. I like that that they're running after. It's kind of this entourage there. But he tells him, okay, it's now your turn. You got a taste and he's not really taking it seriously. Huh, the pressure. And then this is the main thing in terms of character behavior, right? This is again why I like props. So he's holding this and he's been giving this to people. Now you might argue if everybody starts licking the front part and you put it back in here. That's also gross. Okay, sure. But still, he's handing him this because he wants him to taste that. And what does he do? He puts his fingers in and that's gross. So think about that. If you are using props, it's not just to have props, but this is something where you would expect the character to use this, but he is using this. That non usage of prop is in a way telling you how rude this character is to everybody else. And you can see this, his reaction here. Yeah, he doesn't like that. And even she goes, that's weird. So again, all of this is telling us something more about the character. And this is all through the usage of props, expectations by the audience and this guy, and then the reaction to what he actually did. Seeing with this character, he has a conversation with her. And this is all about personal space. And you can see they have a discussion. She's kind of confused and he gets weirdly serious. I don't want to spoil it while this is going on. But you can see his lean forward, right? He's talking. He's very serious. As I'm scrubbing forward, you can see this here. He starts to lean. Then she starts to lean back. And as he goes forward, you can see this here. She gets very uncomfortable. And then we have that, that very interested look forward. Everything is pointing in aggressive, pointy shapes. And she is going back and what is going on. This is not right. And then he has that huge outburst there into this. But what I want to show you is this. So again, if you have multiple characters, let's pretend just two, but could be also multiple, whatever, right? But think about, even if you just have two, what is their distance? And is it important to change that? If one character goes forward, is the other character going to react and go back? If he's going to lean forward, maybe she's leaning forward as well. All of that has meaning and it tells us how they'll feel about each other, how the situation is for the audience. Are we supposed to feel creeped out or uncomfortable just like her? So as always, character distance and how they relate to each other and how one movement affects the other character's movement is super important and something that you can use in your shots. And in this one, it's all about a little gesture. She has a conversation with her and she just kind of makes a remark that she thought it's funny, but she doesn't think it's funny at all. And also something else that you can look at is is not the point of the sequence, but I contact again, I feel like this whole thing is all about eyes and eye contact here. You can see a long look, long look and no blink, long stare and she realizes, oh, maybe what I said that wasn't right. And she is still holding the gaze, right? She's still looking, but you can see all the movement in the body and in the head. And then she looks away, it's like, all right, maybe what I did, that was not right. And I should just end this conversation. But what I want to show you is this, right? She's still no gesture, no nothing, just a stare. And then she goes, all right, well, let me get out of here. Now look at what she does with the arm. So she puts her hand up there. What I like about this is the next shot, right? So as we cut to this, she does this. And then tap, tap, tap and then down. So it's not to me just a gesture that a lot of students put in where it's, you know, your dreaded W pose or some arm, you know, the arm fanning out thing. So if you are already using something, well, maybe that is your, I'm contemplating things, you might argue that might be cliche or not. It's like a certain waiting pose, but it's this, the tapping here. It's she is thinking about something and then making a choice. And that is externally visualized by the hand going, all right, let's go. It's kind of that thought process. And at the end, she made the choice. And this is the tapping here to communicate. All right, that's it. I made the choice. Let's go. She gets up and gets into the other room. So if you have something like this, again, why do you move your arm up like this? Is that just for a pose? Or do you potentially want to externalize a thought process through something? She could be doing this. She could tap this. If this was a bit more active on the table, let's go. But all of those moves with those arms, think about that in terms of it's a gesture that is helping us understand what the character is thinking, what the character is feeling versus a character just doing this, that all those gestures that are kind of overused that you can see a lot in the shots. If you are already using the gesture, is it something that will tell us more about the character, more about the situation or something that just gives us a better glimpse into the character or another character or the interaction between the characters? And speaking of interaction, if you want those pitches, if you want to interact with me with your work, anyway, at workshops, if this is something that you like and you want to apply to your shots, you can sign up at any time, link in the description with all the information, you know the drill, the workshops are open, you can sign up whenever you want to and that can help you make your shots even more awesome because they are already awesome. And of course the ending pitch, like and subscribe, but you know the drill, you don't have to subscribe, but it helps my channel grow and that way if you hit that bell button, you won't miss any of my uploads, but I do upload almost every day except weekends, but now my change of weekend thing. But anyway, enough of me, more about you, thank you, and I'll see you in my next clip.