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| Brian Sommer |
 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:14 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Posts: 65
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We have often mourned, here on the board, the loss of actors being allowed to organically perform certain effects in the studio. Producers and directors have opted instead for pre-recored or electronically created effects. So, I was quite pleased that during a recent video game session I was allowed to perform an honest to goodness Spit Take in the studio. While it may not be an 'effect', I expected it would be something added later from an audio library. I was delighted to be handed one cup with water, and a big empty coffee mug. A few takes later (with accurate aiming into the coffee mug) the director had what he wanted.
Any comments or tips on this classic gag Corey. |
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| CB |
| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 4:04 pm |
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Joined: 14 Dec 2007
Posts: 905
Location: HERE!
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Brian Sommer wrote: ...I was allowed to perform an honest to goodness Spit Take in the studio. While it may not be an 'effect', I expected it would be something added later from an audio library...Any comments or tips on this classic gag...
A Classic Jimmy MacDonald technique for Disney Animation might even involve compounding the vocal and mechanical effects in editing: Overlaying a "P'tooey" sequence with both hissy balloon deflation honk/sputter and drippy liquid splats hitting appropriate surfaces nearby as defined within the particular scene (could be cloth, metal, plastic, paper, or possibly a porcelain basin). If animated and dressed up with atmospheric noises and/or musical highlighting, a lippy tuba "fart noise" (minus mouthpiece and instrument, of course) may be all that's needed to season the visual part of the gag.
Audio-only, however, needs to be completely defined - usually incorporating a performer's innately entertaining playground schtick, recalled from their personal experiences of childhood laugh-getting successes. Could even fold-in a vocalized undercurrent of shock or disbelief to lend deeper meaning to the spray effect, if it rings true to the characterization. But as with all comedy performance, timing is the primary element that gets the laugh: Where, in the surrounding dialog or action sequence, the character might specifically react with convulsive surprise - at what point would the subject realize and succumb to the particular flash of humiliating exposure or informational shock, over what's happening beyond their control. If it sounds arbitrary, it will merely blend into the general soundscape unnoticed - an effective spit-take needs to punctuate the character's inner thought process at the ripest instant, if it's going to trigger a big laugh. Directors may tell you "Just have fun with it!" - but as the old saying goes: "Comedy... Is Hard!". |
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