Sorry for the late post, moving into my new apartment this weekend was pretty crazy. I'm going to be late to class tomorrow because of a wedding rehearsal also.
I cut the shot length down to 5 seconds. I've been thinking about the character/situation, and I settled on this, let me know if it's too much subtext/situation to be clear.
Write A Song blocking
breakdowns
To me, the heart of the shot is loving what you do but feeling like a failure. I think if I can make her honest and relatable in the way she pushes through her inadequacy to show what she's written, the shot will accomplish it's goal. I'm going for the feeling we all have right before we show our shots haha.My character is a young singer, about to play a song for her band's lead singer/songwriter who she respects musically and is in love with. She's at his house for practice and he asked her to play her new song for him- she's self-conscious because the song is about him, but she is willing to risk exposing her romantic feelings because his opinion means so much to her.
The character is kind of a mash up of Juno, my band's singer Jared, and myself.
I cut together reference- my first take from last class, then juno (who I thought could be an inspiration), then more takes. I can't decide between these two subtext ideas:
"I didn't want to show you yet.. it's no big deal..." or
"I didn't want to show you yet.. but this song is about you..."
ref mashup
Here's a visual of the energy I think the shot's dialogue has.
One more thing.. I want to try and stay away from being too similar to this shot- I'd prefer for people to not compare me to something awesome they've already seen haha. Any ideas as far as situation/character goes to avoid being too similar? Or do you think my shot is different enough as it is?
Hey Nicole!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be too worried about the coincidental similarity of your shot idea with the one by Arut. Being aware of that shot is good, you just want to make sure it doesn't influence your work. But even though your shot is a similar situation, I'm betting the way you animate your character will be unique, especially since you've delved so much into her backstory. And that's going to make it it's own awesome shot!
Anywho! Speaking of the backstory you made, I think that's rad! It may be more than you need, but it just means you really know who you want your character to be, and that will allow you to make more unique and interesting acting decisions, which is gonna be really cool.
As for your ref, I like how you're referencing other characters from movies as well. I think Juno's character is similar to the one you're going for so that was neat to see. Overall I like your references you acted out. I think your later ones are stronger than the ones you had at the beginning. They feel more motivated by her emotions, and I like that you're playing more with her eye direction.
However, I do think that in those references her eye direction is changing a bit too often, which kind of muddles the clarity of her acting. I could totally be off base, but from your reference, I get the feeling that you're not actually talking to someone, so maybe trying a couple takes with having someone there for you to look at while you're talking could help the eye direction in your reference feel more focused and motivated. Really though that's a small note. I could go on and on about eye direction and that kind of stuff, I tend to ramble haha
As far as the main stuff and body language in your reference goes, it's looking great! And I can see that translating really well into Maya. So good luck with it! I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
Cheers!
-Robert
I like the backstory/ref! I agree with Robert about the eye direction - you want to get the sheepish/embarrassed feeling without it feeling like she isn't locking on someone at all, even for a little bit. The second thing I would consider is reshooting your ref in a chair that doesn't swivel. I think you're introducing a lot of extra movement that is getting a little distracting - if you can mentally remove that element while blocking your shot, kudos to you! :) I have to reshoot my ref this week to clarify some things too!
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole, you're off to a good start and I like all the reference and thinking about context and subtext. I think the 2nd line of subtext you listed is stronger - it makes her more vulnerable. I'm going to disagree with Lazz & Kathryn's comments about eye direction - I think having her look away is key to making her feel sheepish and uncomfortable. It's hard to look someone in the eye when you're laying your soul out to bare! There's some great little ticks, flutters, half-blinks and winks in your reference that you should mine. As for the blocking, I like it so far, though I feel the first expression looks too worried, and I want to see some of the nervous eye darts throughout. See you tomorrow!
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