Acting & Thought process

A good animator has to manage to create the impression that their character thinks, because the camera has the capacity of constantly reading the thoughts of the character. If our character stops thinking for a moment, they will look as if they were daydreaming and the audience will perceive it immediately. At that point, the spectator will disconnect and the illusion of the movies will vanish… Why?

ACTING & THOUGHT PROCESS

All our actions start in our mind, We value what happens around us according to the way we see the world and, depending on our thoughts, it will cause an emotional reaction that will encourage us to do some kind of action.

External stimulus -> Subjective thought -> Emotion -> Physical action

A simple example. Our character is at home, nervous, waiting for an awkward phone call and suddenly, the phone rings. They can react in two ways: bravely, they get up and pick up the phone. cowardly, they stay motionless, deadly scared, waiting for the ring to stop and the anguish moment go by. In both cases, before an external stimulus which is the phone, the character reacts based on their characters, bravely or cowardly. In both cases, an emotion will arise: courage or fear. Finally, an action will be triggered: they get up and pick the phone up, or shrink over the sofa covering their ears with the cushions.

The phone rings -> they think who’s calling -> they feel fear -> they cover their ears with cushions and don’t pick the phone up.

The phone rings -> they think who’s calling -> they summon courage -> they get up and pick the phone up with determination.

If our characters don’t act according to this process, the spectator will see their actions forced and unnatural, will disconnect and the magic of the movies will be broken. There is a fundamental rule in acting:

Nobody moves without a reason, without a motivation to do it, and that motivation has its origin in the thought process of the character.

You have a very good example in this sequence of As Good as it gets. We can see how Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are full time in an active thought process. There are even moments where there is no dialog, but we can still keep track of what is happening because we can read their thoughts, feel their emotions and perceive their actions .

If the actors are not committed to a thought process the story just breaks into pieces, so before you start your next acting shot, remember this principle:

ACTING IS THINKING!