AnimSquad, first performance test: When You're Gone

I just started a course at the brand new Anim Squad with the very talented tutor Nathan Engelhardt and the main guy running the program, Marlon Nowe

The class has been very good so far. It's been good to get that fire under my ass to actually perform and create new pieces.

For the first week, we were told to bring a bunch of ideas for the tutor to pick from. I had a lot, but this is the one that won out:

Joe Dirt 

@ 01:28

It was honestly, not my first choice, in fact, it was that one that you throw in the list and like, but don't have your heart set on doing (which is generally the one that gets picked, at least in my experiences). But, it is from one of my favorite movies, and I did put it on my list of possibilities because it had potential to be a nice sweet/serious shot and a hint of subtext to try and sell.

So, with this clip chosen and got a fair response from my tutor, I moved ahead with blocking, and this was the result.

After crit, Nathan pointed out that I had the energy all backwards. The guy was moving too much and the girl was moving too little. Since the shot it about here, we want to be focused on that, so keeping the guy mostly still during the majority of the shot would help. It also made more sense that she is trying to get his attention, as opposed to him just seeing her at the end and going over to her. He also liked her gaze down at the shirt and felt it was the saddest moment so I should save that until the end.

That in mind, I set myself to completely destroy my idea and start anew. I do this all the time and definitely had my usual freak out mode where I question everything about my shot. Mostly because I knew the notes he made were basically meaning I had to start from scratch again, so I start to question all of my decisions and ideas about the shot. I got far to many advices, but enough to reflect on my feelings of them and realize where I needed to take the shot.

I switched it up where she's handing him clothes instead of him handing it to her, which got a good response from Nathan. I also tried to address the feeling of his notes.

From the crit, I got a few notes, mostly changing the guy's poses at the end so it's more appealing and focused on her. My blocking had him too engaged, but now he was too disengaged. Good old goldie locks up in this shot...

I'm currently working on those notes, but thought I'd get out a first post on this shot and give AnimSquad some shout outs.