Seminar on Acting for Animators 2011 @ All ICAT Campus

Chennai

Bangalore

Hyderabad

A Memorable day for ICAT students with world’s number one Acting Maestro ED HOOKS for his master class 'Acting for Animators'

ICAT Design & Media College had organized workshops on Acting for Animators’ on 22th Aug 2011 at Hyderabad, 24th Aug 2011 at Chennai and 26th Aug 2011 at Bangalore for animation aspirants. Students of ICAT were very privileged and honoured to have ED HOOKS to conduct a one full day workshop for world famous master class "Acting for Animators".

Ed Hooks boasts of a prolific career in acting, and has been teaching the same for the past 25 years in Los Angeles and New York. He happens to be one of the rare masters, who teach acting to animators and aspiring animators rather than stage actors. Ed Hooks pioneered the acting for animators’ classes in 1998 with his first lecture being with DreamWorks/PDI.

This seminar helped students to understand the various facets of connections between thinking, scene construction, characterization, emotion and physical action and also the most realistic story telling experience. ED HOOKS explained on various principals involved in acting theory. He said that "A major difference between acting theory for animators and for stage actors is that stage actor’s work in the present moment. An animator does not need to be taught how to stimulate himself in the present moment the way that stage actors do. He needs to understand the synergie between thinking, emotion and physical action Vis a Vis scene construction, characterization and storytelling." He told students and professionals to always remember where the character is coming from and where he is going once the scene is enacted. An animator or a game artisan must fix the moment before the scene. Artist must put himself in the shoe of the character and ask himself - What profession am I? Artist/ artists must ask himself "Why are they doing that?". The audience is looking for the extraordinary moment not the ordinary moment. When something really good or bad happens to you the mind gets bathed in adrenaline and we remember that moment – He advised students/ professionals to use those important moments. He said to watch any scene with the sound turned off so that it will be easier to find out good acting and the bad acting.According to Ed Hooks an animator needs to know a lot about acting, but he doesn't need to know everything about it.

He needs to learn some basics about acting, among them:

Acting is doing.
"Anticipation", in acting terms, is a bad thing.
Emotion is the result of thinking, as is movement.

He also highlighted on various subject in his workshop, how to negotiate within a Scene, Value of Conflict, Playing Actions, Pursuing Objectives, Overcoming Obstacles, a detailed study on Character Analysis, Status Transactions and Power Centers, Empathy – what they are, why they are important, psychological gestures, comedy vs. drama, heroes and villains, etc.

He had shown many films and deconstructed to explain how nuances of good acting enhance animation/film. He showed the film "Father & Daughter" which got awards in every competitions which had no expressions in it – nether had any dialogue and explained why. This film left audience spellbound only the background music of the film (Waves of the Danube) till lingering.

Ed concluded his session mentioning "It is the nuances and aesthetics of good story telling, a good characterization and good acting which make a good animation or a good film". Great companies making great films do not look for a professional who makes good hair or a good model. They are always in a look out for a person who can tell a story well.

HHe appreciated ICAT’s initiative to educate students on these important factors. He told students that they are the special few who got these opportunities and should implement their learning into their work and shared his mail id to keep in touch in future.

The experience and the exposure students received through Ed Hooks programme was truly a master class quality!