James Baxter

James Baxter is going back to dreamworks, and did some lectures on his way in. Here's some ideas from Seward Street's notes from the lectures. Also Animated Buzz has an old interview with James.

the different acting theories.

Stanislavsky was the one who focused actors more on their preparation rather than on acheiving results. Method acting is the process of moving away from thinking about what you are going to do in a scene and instead, focusing more on what you need to do to prepare to make the scene honest and true. In this way, you allow the spontaneous to happen.

Meisner believed it wasn’t enough to rely on sense memory - that your memories were inadequate for the task of acting.

Sandy Meisner’s famous quote that great acting is - “the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”

Both interviews the tent pole idea got brought up, strong poses throughout a scene are like tent poles holding up the whole structure.

Talks about Milt having technically very strong poses and all, but Frank could bring individuality to the characters, make very true moments to that unique person. Madam Mim it's Milt up until after he says "Merlin's magic is useful" then it's frank as she looks at him from the corner of her eye.

To be true to the character what's important to them, what they think is important (even if it's not in the script).

the 2 frame lead on sync comes from confusion of what really makes the sound, live action is always synced, why shouldn't animation be? the 2 frame lead comes from the sound being different then the mouth movements (happening with the tongue or throat instead)MBP shape is not a sound, it's the anticipation needed to make the sound.

T is the sound of your tongue coming off the roof of your mouth (not just touching it)