As somebody who recently completed a BA in Fine Art Painting, where all my creations had been still images, I was looking forward to creating moving images. One area, I really enjoyed was the silent movie body acting brief because I was able to use the skills, I had learned from creating still images of figures and apply them to this brief.
The brief was to create a moving image between 10 and 20 seconds long in the style of a silent movie. To contextualise the process, I started by watching silent movie scenes online and seeing a range of different body movements depending on the mood and situation. Then, answered the seven acting questions which ranged from the character’s name, temperament, and environment to get an idea of the character and situation I wanted to create.
I decided on a silhouette trying to get a jar of sweets from the top of a tall fridge and getting frustrated in their attempt to get the jar. At this stage, I wasn’t sure if I wanted this scene to be comical, in a Mr Bean style, or for it to be a more serious scene in the style of a training video.
I sketched a background scene which was a kitchen with the fridge in the centre and then I filmed myself acting out the scene. Part of this process was to stand in one spot, without walking around, so my body movements would be more animated in one space.
I followed this up by creating storyboards for each frame of the scene because I had to consider the length of the outcome and ensure all elements were included so the outcome made sense to the viewer.
The final part of this process was to develop the project, so using TV Paint software and the sketches, live-action video, and storyboards I had created were used to facilitate the outcome.
My journey in creating the silent movie challenged me to look beyond the static silhouette, I was so used to creating in fine art and instead, breaking down the body parts and focusing on each part individually to create believable movements.