Scene analysis - personal effects

Hi to all animators! Potential and professionals... This is my first time that I'm writing down something like this in my blog. So here it is first attempt to analyze a scene. “It's all in the eyes” - great phrase but since I'm the worst animator when it comes to the eyes I thought I'll give it a try and see what I can get out of this shot. The shot its taken from a lately released movie “personal effects”. Not the best movie but I'm a believer that you can get good stuff from every movie. Although, in the beginning I was stuck with Ashton Kutcher's performance, as I was watching it again and again, I think that Michelle Pfeiffer's performance is far more superior in this scene.

So we start with both characters in the scene. Kutcher's character doesn't look straight to Pfeiffer. His looks float all around the place. For the first 10 seconds he only looks at her for 10 frames and then he shifts his look down again. He seems very stressed out, very anxious because of the fact that he is alone with her. Doesn't really know what to say to her. Even when she talks to him, he still has to take a breath and then he doesn't really say anything apart from “ahh”. And then another 15 frames of a look and out again. I thought this was a nice way to convey how uncomfortable this character feels.

Michelle's character seems a lot more dynamic in this shot. She starts with a serious look at Ashton, that's because of what it was said a few seconds before on the shot and then smiles – changes emotion, ready to say something different. Although she was looking at him straight in the eyes, when she starts to speak she lowers her look. I had a couple of thoughts on the “lowering look” choice. Firstly, it could be because she felt a little bit uncomfortable when she said that. In a way she is asking him out on a date and although as he have seen through the movie, these are friendly dates, we can see the subtext of this phrase. She starts to have more than friendly feelings for him. My second thought on that, is that as people very often imitate each other, she just subconsciously looked where the other character was looking, down. As I already said I think she seems to feel uncomfortable as well, but because she is older she can control it – hide it better. Although this uncontrollable moves of her body while she is waiting for an answer, revile her emotions. I really like how she acts the second phrase. She looks away and then a couple of half blinks and back at him, raising her eyebrows up, almost telling him “do you wanna come?”.

We cut to the other character. He is very consistent with his acting. His head is rotated down even when he is looking at her. His body is straight at the camera and only his head rotates a little bit towards her. Very protective - insecure gesture. A small shift of his look towards the other side and then back to her. He thinks but still doesn't say anything.

In the next shot Pfeifer starts by looking a little bit away from the character standing opposite her. She feels the pressure of the other guy not saying anything. She more like feels that what she is suggesting might be a little bit boring for the other guy. Still, she smiles with her nice little movement (shoulders up) , trying to convince him to say “yes” and she finishes with a straight stare to Ashton, passing him the ball to answer. But NO he wont.

One funny thing that happens between those two characters is the misinterpretation of how Ashton feels. Pfeifer believes that what she suggest to Ashton is boring and that's why he doesn't really say much, but what really happens is that Ashton feels blocked because of his feelings for her. He doesn't really know what to say – he doesn't know how to behave. Thats why she keeps on going by telling him how they met and blah blah blah but the other guy doesn't really care about all these details. He is absorbed by his thoughts about “how do I react in such a case”. Even when she explains all these things his reaction is completely identical to his previous ones.

In shot 5, Pfeifer starts by looking to Ashton but as she says the first phrase she starts to look away. Very nice way to show a little bit of uncomfortableness because of these little funny details that she says. As she finishes she turns her look back at him but as it is expected he doesn't say anything. Ashton character is very consistent. See how stressed out Ashton is, even when she is telling him a funny story he doesn't react. His unsecured looks continue.

Shot 7 is very interesting in terms of acting. Even if its a close up we can see how Michelle holds her initial pose with some rotations of the shoulders and the body through out the monologue. One very impressive thing is that they rarely do those two characters look one another at the same time. Most of the time someone is going to look away while the other is looking at his/her face. A very nice way to add to this uncomfortable feeling between them. Although, most of Michelle's away looks are because of a thought process while she talks, Ashton just supports his anxiety. “He is a professor ...” - Michelle squeezes her eyes and brows and looks away – is a good example of this thought process. I love the way she shifts her look after she says “ its crazy” - she sees that Ashton doesn't really react as he is expected so she feels weird. After that she gets really serious, almost pissed off that after 44 seconds Ashton hasn't said anything. A look straight in the eyes. Of course after a while that nothing has been said, she lowers her look down thinking and again an even more serious look at him. Eyes wide open just a couple of darts and thats it. Seriousness.

I like how Ashton reacts after Michelle finished her talking. It feels like he has completely forgotten what she was just saying to him and for the first time he gets rid of he anxious look and he stares at her with pleasure. His true feelings.

That's it for now. Of course, there are a lot more things to be said in terms of acting, composition and staging, but I need to stop somewhere :). Now that I noticed, in terms of staging see how there is always a vertical line in the background separating those two characters from one another. Very clever way to support the idea that there is a gap of communication between those two characters.

Feel free to add any comments concerning this little clip. Thank you