AND208 - Animated Performance - Dialogue
Exercise 1
Take a short piece of film dialogue from the clips provided (http://filmsite.org) or select a clip of your own
choosing and, in your sketchbook, thumbnail the body language of the characters involved. You can choose to
use a character you have created previously and you need to be aware that you are not being assessed on your
character design for this module – it is how you make that character act and react that is important here – it’s all
about the performance.
Listen to the dialogue, the phrasing, emphasis and emotion and ‘block’ the positions of the key phrases.
Note where the volume peaks (or dips) over a phrase or words and ensure that the body action emphasises
these changes.
Always block the body action first to reinforce the emotion of the words and only focus on the lipsync and finer
details afterwards.
When you are satisfied with the thumbnails, take them into an animatic and a rough line-test. Refine further with
more iterations.
Exercise 2
Consider character – how it is defined by story events and revealed by the choices and decisions made.
• How characters have specific external qualities and traits as well as discernable internal motivations
and objectives.
Consider how the character has to deal with conflict/obstacles – either externally or from within themselves
and how this impacts on their behaviour.
• Create a background and contextual information about your character.
• Consider dominant psychological and physical traits.
• What does the character want? What are they trying to achieve?
• How does the character react with other characters and props?
• Consider the character’s age, build and size and how they move - what part of their body ‘leads’ when
they walk?
Exercise 3
‘The Secret’ – subtext and performance.
For this final exercise you are to consider how a character has to struggle to maintain a lie during a conversation
with at least one other character. They are hiding something from the other character(s). You can source a
scene from a pre-recorded soundtrack if you wish or create your own dialogue. Your scene can be dramatic or
comedic.
It is important that you first thumbnail your ideas in your sketchbook and block out the emphatic body
language first. Take this through to a rough line-test. Consider staging, pacing and composition carefully and
you need to include a brief but detailed piece of lip sync, supported by soundtrack analysis evidenced in your
sketchbook.
Remember that it is important to convey the emotion and emphasis of the scene in line-test format only. It is the
characters’ performance, dialogue and the staging of the scene that is being assessed not a fully rendered film.
Your final line-test should run between 10 - 30 seconds.
Subtext adds depth to a story, giving it layers of meaning. It adds depth and nuance to characters and dialogue,
revealing elements of personality, internal conflicts - what they are really thinking when they are saying
something else. It can be used to reveal essential character traits that can be masked by social conventions
such as politeness. It can show bias, discrimination, inequalities and can be used for dramatic irony or to give
an implicit meaning when an explicit comment might be deemed offensive.
A story or character without subtext can appear superficial and one-dimensional. Consider the character’s goal
and what they want but also consider the different forces acting upon them – for example, their desire to be liked,
or to get their own way, or to conceal their true feelings for fear of embarrassment – different forces will have
different effects on their actions.