Saturday, March 6, 2010

Reel Feedback - Stephan Brezinsky

http://stephanbrezinsky.com/media/reel-StephanBrezinsky.mov

Stephan asked:

... can you explain to me what is it about the granny clip and the two following ones (walk cycle and jump) that you feel make them the strongest on the reel?


My thoughts on those clips:

granny clip - what cracks me up from the get go is the contrast between the set and the character. It's an old lady with a HUGE sound system. Then I like the contrast between the slow build up as she's looking for the right button to push and the huge impact the speakers have on her.
You know that the impact is going to be huge given that contrast, but what's funny is that she gets a bit closer before she pushes the buttom. The little walk up to the speakers is also funny anim wise. And you don't have her push it immediately, but it's with one swing up and then you have her push it. So all in all you're really drawing out the anticipation to the pay off. Since the audience knows roughly what's going to happen (at least they expect something given the "old lady vs. powerful speakers" set up), they're waiting for the pay off, but by drawing that part out, by prolonging the anticipation, you make the pay off that much stronger.
The pay off itself is really funny. It's great that she doesn't get blown away (like Marty McFly in Back to the Future for instance). She slowly gets pushed away. The fact that she fights against it shows character. It's not just a physical exercise, it shows what a character is doing when confronted with a conflict, which is always something you should strive for in your clips. When people have to make choices, that's when they get interesting.
The cheek flapping is awesome, same with the hair, the glasses fly away and at the end she's punching the remote. You build on the desperation of the character and consequences of the sound. Awesome.

About the walk and jump - I like the presentation but anim wise they feel very polished, the walk especially. It shows a good understanding of polish.

Nice work!
JD

1 comment:

  1. man, you worked on that sony commercial with the bunnies? I loved that commercial!

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