Opposing Action

Dave Burgess has done an ECritique for the 11 Second club and provides some interesting insight into the good and not so good bits of Philip Hall's short clip.

One of the ideas I picked up as having use for the flea circus film is that of "Opposing Motion". Loosely based on Newton's 3rd law (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) the idea here is that actions look more natural and are clearer if there is an opposing motion to complement them. For example as the character raises their head they also lower their hand. The Flea Circus RingMaster makes these kind of movements with his magnifying glass and tweezers. This is not the same as overlapping action which would be something like hair or floppy ears following a head movement by a few frames and follow through which would be those items keeping moving once the head had stopped.



Dave also has some good points to make about arcs and follow through so I recomend watching the whole of his critique.