96 Acting far Animetors Mirrors are a good way for the animator to check and analyze poses, broad action, facial expression, that kind of thing—but you'll get into trouble if you try to actually act, “in the present moment” while watching yourself in the mirror. In other words, if you try to go through an entire full-body scene, for one thing, you will necessarily have your face turned toward the mirror so you can watch yourself, which may not be appropriate for the scene. Stage actors are taught not to think about externals or “results.” Facial expressions are “results.” [fT hit your toe with a hammer, you'll make a facial expression without thinking about it. If you sniff a vial of ammonia or a skunk in the woods, you'll make a face without thinking about it. An animator has a different kind of problem: He will say to himself, “My character smells a skunk. Now what kind of face would he make?”-—at which point he gets out the mirror out of the desk drawer and wrinkles up his nose for inspection. An actor would consider this to be “indicating,” or playing a “result.” An actor would not say to himself, “I need to let the audience know I smell something bad... hmmmmm, . .. What kind of expression can I make? ...” Instead, he would actually smell something, the air in the room probably, and play mental tricks on himself to pretend the smell is obnoxious The issue with mirrors, from an actor's perspective, is that if he watches himself in a amirror, he'll be tempted to re-create that look or expression on stage or in front of the movie camera. And that would not be acting at all, but a form of mimicry. (“Lessee the bad odor facial expression goes like this.”) The proof for animators is in the pudding of course, Mirrors have been a valuable hand tool for many years, and if they work for you, then keep using them. But if you really want to sce how facial expressions and body movement occur naturally. it would be better to videotape yourself acting out a scene, and then replay the tape for study. That would generally be too time consuming, righ? So go ahead and use the mirror. But keep in mind the limitations.The Form 9 Comedy The animator should know what creates Iaughter—why do things appeal t0 people as being funny. —Walt Disney memo to Don Graham December 23, 1935. If what you're doing is funny, you don’t have to be funny doing it = —Charlie Chaplin There is only one way of making comedy richer—and, paradoxically, fun nier—and that is by making it more serious. —Walter Kerr, The Silent Clowns Tooisess that, as an actor, comedy is my Achilles’ heel. I can be a funny guy on stage and, at times, I enjoy my own performance too much. Once I get an audience laughing, the temptation is to say to them, in effect, “Hell, if you think that was funny, at which point I try to top myself and, of-course, the laughter If or points too take a look at this! dries right up. The audience doesn’t like it if the actor laughs at him: overtly to the joke. They want to participate, to use their imagination, and if the actor is telling them where the laughs are, they get insulted If you want to find the comedy in a scene, forget about being funny and ask your self what is true, What is the scene really about? What do the characters want? Where is the negotiation? If you're trying to be funny, you're on the same slippery slope that carried the Keystone Kops into oblivion 97