Very curious. It feeds into my theory that an audience has a much better chance of relating to animated characters that speak. There's something else going on when there's sound and vision combined. You can be the best animator in the world and compensate to some degree with an amazing mime performance, but introduce dialogue with a good lipsync and it's considerably easier to make that convincing connection with the audience.
This is why I tried so hard to write strong dialogue for my film, and it's just a shame that my lack of dialogue writing skills ultimately made the words redundant and we went back to silent characters. But it makes it much harder to make the performance connect with the audience, and demands a lot more from the animator.
Michael, I would have to differ with your theory. I think some of the most relatable characters are silent. Charlie Chaplain, Gromit, Luxo Jr., etc. Sometimes the more abstract or rudimentary the character the more the audience can relate, because they become participants in the performance by filling in the blanks in their minds.
Yes, but it takes a far stronger performance from the actor/animator in order to make a silent character as relatable to an audience. Even Nick Park himself admits that his animators avoid working on Gromit because he's so much more challenging to make him work (South Bank Show interview - YouTube).
Anyway maybe this is going off topic, but I was just saying that the combination of dialogue and visual lipsync/performance creates something more than the sum of the parts in the mind of the audience. So considering how easy lipsync is to do for an animator it makes sense that a dialogue shot is easier to make a connection with an audience than a silent performance.
I think that these silent characters are the best characters mainly because they work for everyone, no matter what your language. Nothing get's lost in translation. That's a shame that people in the industry avoid a good challenge.
Very cool, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteVery curious. It feeds into my theory that an audience has a much better chance of relating to animated characters that speak. There's something else going on when there's sound and vision combined. You can be the best animator in the world and compensate to some degree with an amazing mime performance, but introduce dialogue with a good lipsync and it's considerably easier to make that convincing connection with the audience.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I tried so hard to write strong dialogue for my film, and it's just a shame that my lack of dialogue writing skills ultimately made the words redundant and we went back to silent characters. But it makes it much harder to make the performance connect with the audience, and demands a lot more from the animator.
Wow! I tried it while watching the "v" shape, and with my eyes closed and heard 2 different sounds. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. I love the name too; McGurk. If only it were the Magoo effect.
ReplyDeletesuper interesting and relates to a shot i am working on now... awesome!
ReplyDeleteMichael, I would have to differ with your theory. I think some of the most relatable characters are silent. Charlie Chaplain, Gromit, Luxo Jr., etc. Sometimes the more abstract or rudimentary the character the more the audience can relate, because they become participants in the performance by filling in the blanks in their minds.
ReplyDeleteYes, but it takes a far stronger performance from the actor/animator in order to make a silent character as relatable to an audience. Even Nick Park himself admits that his animators avoid working on Gromit because he's so much more challenging to make him work (South Bank Show interview - YouTube).
ReplyDeleteAnyway maybe this is going off topic, but I was just saying that the combination of dialogue and visual lipsync/performance creates something more than the sum of the parts in the mind of the audience. So considering how easy lipsync is to do for an animator it makes sense that a dialogue shot is easier to make a connection with an audience than a silent performance.
I think that these silent characters are the best characters mainly because they work for everyone, no matter what your language. Nothing get's lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame that people in the industry avoid a good challenge.