BOOK REVIEW: "ACTING FOR ANIMATORS" BY ED HOOK

I'M SPEAKING AT WOODBURY!

Here's a few of the live action characters I've played on this site in the past year or so, starting with "The Smoker" (above).  Acting is fun, especially on the internet where you're your own boss and can do pretty much anything you want to do.

 


I'm on the subject of acting because I've been invited by the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive to talk about acting at Woodbury University this weekend. I won't be the only person on the bill, so you won't have to stare at my ugly face for the whole night. If you're in the Burbank area this Saturday Night, why not drop in?

BTW, that's "The Upstanding Swiss Mountain Boy" above.

Maybe the whole thing will be a disaster! I don't have time to prepare, so I'll have to speak off the cuff. I've delivered both my best and worst talks using that method, so whether I'll get lucky this time is anybody's guess. I'll just try to have fun doing it, so at least one person present will get something out of it.  



That's Captain Hook in the two pictures above. I did two photo stories about him, and I could easily have done four or five more.  I love that character! 

I stopped doing photo stories and movies for this site after I had an operation last September. Somehow people tinkering around in my innards had the effect of inhibiting my graphic sense. It even attacked my ability to draw for a while, but that's all over now. I'm working on all cylinders again, as if nothing ever happened.

But my photo sense...recovering that has taken months. I think I'm almost back to normal in that regard, and I'm nearly to try some more photo shoots. I'll give it just a few more weeks. 

Just to identify the pictures: The three above are The Card Sharp, The Old Lady and The Nerd.

 


At Woodbury I'll illustrate everything with pictures. 

I got these poses off the DVD that came with Ed Hooks' book on animation acting. I won't be talking about Ed's theories at Woodbury...like every egoist, I naturally prefer my own theories. 


I hope somebody puts excerpts of some of Hooks' video on YouTube. I no longer have access to the book and I'm dying to be reminded of what the other gestures were.

  


Here's the address and the time (below).  I've never been to Woodbury before, so I'll probably get lost, just like you will.  Maybe we'll meet each other wandering around in the dark. I met the Iranian filmmaker Marjane Satrapi that way after another ASIFA event. 

ANIMATION SALON: ACTING FOR ANIMATION

Saturday, Feb. 21st 8pm

Admission FREE to the animation community

Woodbury University

School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater

7500 Glenoaks Blvd.

Burbank, CA  91510

For the campus map:

http://www.woodbury.edu/s/131/images/editor_documents/8.5.08CampusMap&Directions7.08.pdf

For the location of Woodbury University:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Burbank&state=CA&address=7500+N+Glenoaks+Blvd&zipcode=91504-1052&country=US&latitude=34.206773&longitude=-118.341689&geocode=ADDRESS

For the ASIFA archive site:

http://www.animationarchive.org/

LABAN GESTURE EFFORTS

Recently I promised a teacher friend to repost what I'd put up about Ed Hooks (mistakenly referred to as "Hook" above) and the Laban theory of movement that he teaches. Well here are the sketches, pizza stains and all. I wonder if I made another mistake when I drew effort number one? My sketch looks like pinching rather than flicking. I don't have the book now, so I can't check it. 

I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Laban's theories. I think animators would better off spending the time learning how to draw. I have to admit though, that there's a germ of an interesting idea here. Seeing the ideas laid out like this does make me wonder if some type of just-for-fun, cartoonist Kata (a martial arts term) might be possible. 

Here's (above) all eight of the Laban gestures performed by acting students. The teacher shouts out the names of different gestures, and they have to adapt the gesture to their acting of the lines.  I don't think Shakespeare's very well served here, but it's just an exercise.



This video (above) on stage movement looks like a kind of yoga for actors and cartoonists. There's some nice moves here.