The Most Important Aspect to Character and Performance in Animation
An investigation into the use of character performance and how it works without dialogue and the impact it has on the story
Introduction
I am writing my dissertation on character performance in animation and how it works with dialogue and the impact it has to storytelling. The aim of this research dissertation is to investigate and explore how the use of performance can affect the story through the performance of the character and investigating the features and characteristics within film and animation and examining how or if the use of sound and music imitates a character’s performance. I will examine how a performance can be achieved without dialogue through facial expression,body movements, and music. This will get into depth and exploring the characteristics and features of animation in relation to performance.
I have chosen this topic because I have always been interested in animation and developed a strong interest in 2D,3D, films and video games. However, my main focus is the relationship between the animated characters and their performances, and how non dialogue works with performance and whether or not it can aid a character in storytelling through animation.
I am going to divide my essay into five parts, The first chapter is summarising the methods and resources that will be used in this essay to conduct research and findings. The second chapter will investigate and examine different features in animation and film of the performance of a character in the silent era 1898-1926 in both film and animation, two of the non-dialogue films would be The Cabinet of Dr: Caligari (1920) and The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). This will then decide whether the features and characteristics of animation remain relevant to a story and putting this part of the essay into practice with another example of a modern non-dialogue animation such as: Zing (2015). The third chapter would be a case study of an analysis of the characters performance in Tom & Jerry, this will be dedicated to an analysis of each character with a comparison drawn to their performance with non dialogue and dialogue. This will be comparing both franchises such as Puss Gets the Boot (1940) and Tom & Jerry- The Movie (1992) and weather the characters performance in both dialogue and non-dialogue impacts their characterization and storytelling.
The last chapter will be my practical response to how this study will aid me for my final year project. This dissertation will then be concluded with a conclusion to summarise everything that has been proposed, as well as referring back to my question in order to directly answer it.
Chapter 1: Methodology, Case studies, and Literature Review
I will be analysing two animation characters from the same franchise, these are Puss Gets the Boot (1940) and Tom & Jerry – The Movie (1992).
In my case study the use of facial expression, body movement, and music are important keys when it comes to a characters performance, story, and characterization. Both analysis such as Puss Gets the Boot (1940) and Tom & Jerry – The Movie (1992) has the same slapstick performance in dialogue and non dialogue. Film critic that goes by the name of Roger Ebert gives a review of the movie by discussing how the action and situation of Tom and Jerry loses its comedy by using dialogue. Another article written in 1993 by the name of Vincent Canby discusses how the movie loses its main focus of the performance from Tom and Jerry originals.
Firstly before analyzing the case study, I will need to provide a basis for my research, this will get into depth where it all began (Silent era of performance 1898-1926) of animation and film. As the main question to this dissertation is finding how a performance works with no dialogue and the impact it has to a story, two books such as Silent Film Sound and An Introduction to Film Studies will give me an understanding of how facial expression and music relays on one another to making a story function and the importance of these elements are to a character and performance in film. An Introduction to Film Studies will also give me an insightful knowledge of how body movement can express emotion and how characters have to rely on exaggerated movements in a pantomime performance.
Robert Kolker’s book Film,Form, and Culture: Four Edition offers information on music and emotion, and how it made connection with the viewers in the audience, and the feeling they should be supposed to feel. He also gives an insight to classical style of narrative and how facial expression and music are the main mediums that reflects emotions to characters. As for the animation part, Understanding Animation examines and shows the importance of music,body movement, and facial expression to a performance and storytelling. Paul Wells discusses the use of synchronized music and movement of characters and how significant it is to a performance, rhythm,speed, and timing of music also plays a big role in this part of the discussion and the impact it has to a performance. Another book such as: Shadow of a Mouse: Performance, Belief, and World-Making in Animation by Donald Crafton, he discusses the importance of character movement to a slapstick performance and how it conveys emotion through the way characters move through facial expression, and the functionality it has to a story.
To put this dissertation into practice, I have provided a film and animation from the silent era and modern era as examples such as: The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920), The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), and Zing (2015) by explaining the features and characteristics of film and animation that I have studied from my literature review and apply it to practice with these films as shown above.
The method of research will be done by watching and examining the films and animations and identifying the key features of a character and performance, and how the story is delivered to the audience, most screenshots will be shown through the film and animation as figures to backup my points. Film critics will also assist me with my arguments in the case study.
Chapter 2: The Silent Era of Performance in Film, Animation, and Story (1898-1926)
“Silent films were rarely shown silent” (Kolker, 2015, pg. 219).
Before understanding how a character performance works with non dialogue, this study has to focus on the characteristics and elements of film and character at first. As the main question to this essay is investigating how the use of character performance works with non dialogue and the impact it has to a story, this has to be looked at where it all began, the silent performance (1895-1928). To begin with, between 1898 to 1928, film and animation were all silent as old films and animations never had great or modern technology to conduct sound that is narratively spoken by the actors or animated characters and audible dialogue for music which resulted to non dialogue at the time, cinema had no choice but to make do with available technology and existing practices. (Altman,2004, pg. 345). The use of facial expression,music,body movement, and the impact it has to a story in the silent era of film and animation between 1898 to 1928 that this part of the dissertation will be focusing on. This will get into the discussion of how the use of facial expression, music, and body movements are relatable and relies on one another that presents the story without the use of verbal-communication in the silent era of film and animation. Facial expression,music, and body movement will be examined and whether it remains relevant in modern day storytelling in animation. An example for the analysis to backup the points will be a film and animation in the silent era and modern era such as: The Cabinet of Dr: Caligari (1920), The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) and Zing (2015) that will put this part of the essay into practice.
Rick Altman in his book Silent Film Sound discusses the importance of music and facial expression in silent film by discussing that the ‘player’ should learn to read the facial expressions in order to identify the emotions ‘on which musical accompanishment must depend’ as Lang and West puts it. (Altman,2004, pg. 370). Rick Altman further on discusses that organists or musicians should keep their eyes on the actors or actress face as this way it determines a look of, ‘sorrow , discountent, love, happiness or any other emotion’ as Harold J. Lyon prescribes it. (Altman,2004, pg. 370). In the book An Introduction to Film Studies, Jill Nelmes explains that in the early days of film, it depended mostly on the exaggerated body movements, the meaning of the film can be expressed through the slightest movement of the character. (Nelmes,2011, pg. 69).
As a result of facial expression and the use of music were very popular mediums in the golden era of silent films, this can tell us that facial expression has a relationship to music and can be an important component to making a story function and is very important to use as organists has to focus on the face of the actress or actor most of time as different expressions or emotions will change from time to time, as critics insist that studying the character will benefit the musicians. (Altman,2004, pg. 370). This shows that music also relays on the facial expression of the character as the shift of music can be played differently to determine the emotion, and as for the ‘players’, the members of the audience are the participants in the story which are able to focus on the facial expression of the actor or actress in order to identify the emotion, music then can help and shape their experience. Although music did not interact with the film at all in the beginning of the silent era as it was there to avoid silence in the theater but later on there will scores written for film but mostly they were in a smaller theater, a pianist in a piano will just improvise music to the film which relays much on the characters facial expression and movement to convey a certain idea and emotion to the story, music will oftenly synchronize in live theatres with the characters movements. (Kolker, 2015, pg. 219). As for the story, Rick Altman continues to state that “Facial expression…is the most important barometer of the dramatic progress of the story”, (Altman,2004, pg. 370) ,which is noted by Frank Stewart. Facial expression is shown to be important in the story and the progression of it, and that musicians needed to learn to ‘decode’ facial expressions. As mentioned above, in silent films, the relationship of the characters facial expression and music relies much on one another as the shift of music changes from the plot to characters which plays an important role in the characters emotion and in the development of the story. (Altman,2004, pg. 370). This also shows that music is a accompaniment during the silent movie era and plays a role of ‘confirming’ the emotions to the audience by leading us to a particular way of seeing a sequence. (Nelmes, 2011, pg. 78). Body language in silent films were very important especially when no dialogue was used and was mostly exaggerated by the characters in the early days of film, an example can be Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin was very known for the use of comedy and slapstick in the silent-film era, his character “The Tramp” relied on the exaggerated body movements in pantomime performance which in other words a slapstick comedy performance, this was done by putting emphasis by over dramatizing the movements, emotional continuity had to be maintained by the character’s facial expression and physical movements in order to compensate as silent films lacked voice dialogue and sound for verbal communication, this medium is very important for the narrative and story as it allows the viewers in the audience to identify the character’s emotions,intentions, as the meaning of the film can be expressed through the slightest movement of the character. (Nelmes,2011, pg. 69).
In the book Film,Form,and Culture: Fourth Edition, Robert Kolker discusses that in silent film (1910) ‘music provoked the emotions’ and that it made connections between the audience and the characters on screen were supposed to be feeling.(Kolker, 2015, pg. 219). Robert Kolker further on discusses that in the classical style of narrative, facial expression is used over and over again to verify that the viewers understand perfectly what is going on in film. (Kolker, 2015, pg. 107). Music remains an important element of film.(Kolker, 2015, pg. 219).
Silent films were very much the same in audio visual spectacle that we watch today as one can observe that both music and facial expression have strong resemblance to the narrative and story, although narrative and story in film are somewhat different. Robert Kolker explains that narrative is ‘the actual telling of the story’ and story is ‘what the film tells us’. (Kolker,2015, pg. 48). However, Robert Kolker states above that ‘music provoked the emotion’ (Kolker,2015, pg. 219). This can tells us that music in film outlines the narrative as it shows importance in which it reflects to the emotion and character. When discussing emotion in film, an emotion is how a facial expression reflects an emotion, as emotion is the way we feel which the face makes. Both music and emotion are important components to a film as it makes connections between the actor or actress and the viewers in the audience to identify the emotion and music that can help and shape their experience. As a result of facial expression, Robert Kulker tells us that it is ‘used over and over again’. (Kolker,2015, pg. 107). We can observe that the emphasis of facial expression plays a big role in silent film most of the time as it is a language of play, and it helps the telling of the story function and presented in many emotions from an actor or actress facial expression to the viewers in the audience as facial expression can create an emotional impact from sorrow, discountent, love, happiness or any other emotion.
A great example is the film The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920). We can see that both Dr. Caligari and Cesare, as seen in Figure 1, are played maniacally in their unique style, Caligari is somewhat presented with a bizarre body language throughout the whole film, as the film’s genre is into thriller/horror and mystery, this fits well for his character as Caligari is portrayed in the narrator’s mind as a madman; Cesare, on the other hand, usually has a calm self-assurance, with intermittent breaks from being a calm person to attacking people during the scenes, and therefore has a mysterious and erratic aspect to Cesare which makes it share the bizarre life of abstract forms. As the genre of the film is melodrama and experimental, the body movement and music is exaggerated as much to capture the horror in the film. The use of light and shadow in the film is dark most of the time to capture a surreal and eerie atmosphere.
Storyteller’s also added appropriate visual interest to the film, this way it creates a surreal atmosphere. The visuals ideally reflect to the movie’s abnormal nature, as the film is one of the first examples that uses the “unreliable narrator” trope, it also uses a non-linear narrative technique. It was an easily adaptable film despite this intricacy. The character’s performances (Cesare and Caligari) fits to the world that is primarily taking place in such as a surreal atmosphere and setting.
Music,body movement,and facial expression is a main component for storytelling in silent animation, the use of music is used to synchronize the movement of the animated character was not very similar to silent films as the ‘rhythm’ in silent cartoons had no strict timing other than the artists had to make sure that the use of performances such as drama and comedy was timed just right so it can resonate with the viewers in the audience through the pantomime or visuals, as personality, actions, and narrative flow in the screen are part of the performance in animation. (Wells,2013, pg. 17). In silent films, scores are usually written down so it can later on synchronize with the actors movements or facial expressions, but in silent animation film, the scores had to ‘echo’ the mood of the animated scene. Oddly enough, early years of silent animation had sound effects but these were not recorded sound but instrumental sounds were played in a theatre such as a bass plunked together with a drum to create the visual, an example can be when a bigger character falling with a thud sound to the ground, if music was visualised it would look like ‘shapes’ and ‘colours’ moving through time with different movement, speed, and rhythms. (Wells,2013, pg. 46). The use of music is completely related to its ‘appropriateness in the determination of mood’. Experimental animation usually have a strong relationship with music. ‘Music may be normally interpreted through the feelings it inspires’. (Wells,2013, pg. 98). Body movement in an animated character is important to a performance and story as In Donald Crafton’s book, Shadow of a Mouse: Performance, Belief, and World-Making in Animation, Donald Crafton discusses that all the characters created were ‘defined by a movement’. The characters wouldn’t be seen funny if they are ‘not seen in the movement’. (Crafton,2013, pg. 23). This is similar to silent slapstick performance film, Charlie Chaplin would not be funny if he didn’t emphasize the movements that conveys a pantomime humour or facial expression. (Crafton,2013, pg. 23). ‘Cartoon characters convey thought and emotion’ through the way they move from ‘stretching’ and ‘squashing’ themselves. (Crafton,2013, pg. 23). Facial expressions is also a main component to help the characters create their personality and express their emotions. It helps the telling of the story function and presented in many emotions from the characters facial expression to the viewers in the audience as facial expression. As silent animation had no verbal communication, characters body and facial expression had to be used for communication. Artists had to use a limited number of gestures and had to easily be understood by the viewers in the audience, (Crafton,2013, pg. 23), a character that is created to perform in a specific manner should normally fit with their mannerism. As Donald Crafton stated that a cartoon characters conveys thought and emotion through the way they move. (Crafton,2013, pg. 23). As seen in Figure 2, the illustration shows nine characters with distinctive movements, facial expression, and their actions fits well with their personality. The viewers in the audience can easily understand it and base the characters personality of how they dress, the way they move, and the facial expressions made.
A great example of a silent animated film is The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926),
the magician was given a basic yet brilliant design in the scene, as seen in Figure 3, the performance in this character is very much abnormal, yet it is very easy to understand what the character is doing in the scene which is interesting because this shows that silent films never had great or modern technology to conduct sound that is narratively spoken by the characters, so background instrumental music, facial expression, and body movements were depended on for silent films. This is where the art comes in, Lotte Reiniger used her skills in puppetry to allow them to communicate with the viewers very well. As mentioned above about non-verbal communication, Lotte Reiniger relied on this very much as no voices will be used, so Lotte moved the bodies of the character’s silhouette around to capture different shapes by combining abstract and non-abstract form in movements. The style of this performance technique is very genius as Lotte uses it to combine the characters with the environment so that it fits well in the scene. Although occasionally, facial expression is very difficult to see as the characters are made out of silhouettes, other than that we see the characters body language more as music synchronizes with the the rhythm of the movement that often tells the story successfully.
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