Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks:
Operative Words
By: Shawn Kelly
Hello Animators!

Welcome back to our little monthly Tips & Tricks article. I was thinking that since we've been talking a lot about the face and blinks already, maybe it'd be fun to switch gears entirely, and talk just a tiny bit about some acting/dialogue stuff. Specifically, the concept of operative words:

Tip #3: Build Your Performance Around Carefully Chosen Operative Words

Okay, so first off, what's an operative word? Well, an operative word (sometimes called the "main word") is the word or words most enunciated or most emphasized in the delivery of your dialogue. Sometimes it's simply the loudest word, but in some cases it may even be the quietest word. It probably has the highest change in volume or pitch, but not always. It's essentially the most important word in the line, and the coolest part is that choosing it will be entirely up to you.

However, you must carefully choose your operative word(s), because it's this single choice that will most dramatically affect all of the acting decisions in your shot. Because of that, it's important to understand how powerful operative words are.

We all use operative words every day of our lives. We have them in almost every conversation we have. Unless you speak just like that dude on Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?), in a complete monotone, you're going to be constantly choosing operative words to use in order to properly communicate (or hide) the truth of what you're saying.

Even in a short sentence, a chosen operative word can radically change the meaning of the sentence (which is why operative words and subtext are so closely related, but that's another article all together!).

A classic example of this is the phrase "I love you." Even in a 3 word sentence, you have 3 completely different meanings depending on the operative word chosen by the actor. For example, if the actor most powerfully exaggerates the first word: "I" and you have:

**I** love you.

What does that mean? Say it out loud to yourself, with the enunciation all on the first word. What's it sound like? He's not just saying "I love you," is he? More specifically, he's saying "He doesn't love you!" Right?

Now, if we move on to the next word, we have:

I **LOVE** you.

This is putting all of the exaggeration on communicating the depth of the love that is being felt. It's got nothing to do with some other guy, as the first example does, now it's all about the two people in love, and how powerful that love is. Completely different meaning, right?

Now onto the third word:

I love **YOU!**

Whoa! Now we've got a third meaning that is entirely different! What's he saying now?

I love *YOU!* = I don't love HER!

So you can see, even in a 3 word sentence, the choice of operative word radically shifts the subtext of the phrase. We do this subconsciously all day long, and when we analyze it, it seems like common sense, but it's the sort of thing most people would never consciously think about, but exactly the sort of thing animators MUST study.

Okay, so that's what an operative word is, but how do I use that in my animation?

Well, in a couple ways.

First, if you're recording your own dialogue, the importance of carefully chosen operative words should be clear. But as animators, we rarely record our own dialogue, so for the most part, the importance of understanding operative words is mostly centered around the fact that we need to be able to clearly communicate what actors were trying to convey with their delivery. We have to be able to listen to their dialogue, often months after it was recorded, and know exactly what they intended.

This is not to say that we should be locked into animating exactly what the actor performed - not at all - but the most closely you can tie your performance to their delivery, the more believable, entertaining, and emotional it will be. So it's essential that you have the skill to analyze the delivery of a line, and pluck out those operative words, and not only know which ones are most important, but WHY.

One important thing to mention at this point is that we must be extra careful not to choose too many operative words. Ideally you want one in every scene, but sometimes there are two. If it's a *really* long delivery, there might even be three, but normally you want to limit it as much as you can in order to avoid overacting.

Overacting? Yup - the most common source of overacting, in my opinion, is animators (or actors!) subconsciously choosing too many operative words. Why? Because other than knowing the subtext of a line, the other most important use of operative words is that they function as a road map for our acting performance. They are the signposts that say "do your biggest gesture here!" or "this is your big acting moment!" or "have your largest moment of contrast right at this exact moment!"

You see, we build our performances around these specific words, because that's what the delivery of the line calls for. That's what the deliver DEMANDS, actually. Choosing the wrong operative word is just as bad as choosing too many, and it will stand out as bad acting, or at the very least, "weird."

Let's go back to our "*I* love you" example, and let's say that the delivery we have been given is the first delivery (with the emphasis on "I" - meaning "He doesn't love you!").

So you listen to that line, where "I" is clearly the operative word.

However, let's say you make a mistake and choose "you" as your operative word. Your acting would all now be built around the word "you." Your character's main gesture will happen on that last word instead of the first, where it naturally would occur most of the time. Act it out yourself right now. Feel how weird it feels to say "*I* love you" but gesture (point at her, maybe) on "you?" We see this in student demo reels constantly, and it looks even weirder in animation than it feels to you right now!

The other common mistake is choosing too many operative words. Let's say you decide all three words will be operative words. Now you've got the character pointing to himself on "I", clutching his heart on "love" and pointing to his girl on "you."

Go ahead and act that out. It's completely ridiculous. No one would really communicate like this in the real world. The only way that acting performance would work is if the characters are deaf and are using sign-language. But once again, you'd be amazed at how much of this we see on demo reels.

So, to make a long story short - choose your operative words, try to keep it down to one or two main words, and then use those words as the moments that you will do your biggest acting/actions on. Your biggest gesture (or only gesture) should almost always happen during the operative word. Your biggest change in body posture should almost always happen during the operative word. The main ideas of the scene should be communicated usually during an operative word. Your biggest change in facial pose? Yup, you guessed it - make sure it's during an operative word.

Oh, and one other thing. Sometimes, you'll be handed a line of dialogue that's either completely devoid of operative words (it's boring, monotone, etc) or on the other hand, is jam-packed full of them. In both cases, these poor deliveries will make your job more difficult, but it will still be up to you to first decide what it is that you truly want the character to be communicating, and then choosing the operative word that will best do the job.

If there are no operative words, you may have to just make them up.

You'll have to choose the subtext for yourself, choose an operative word, and go from there. Your job as the animator is to take whatever dialogue delivery they give you, and MAKE it work. If it's a terrible delivery, well, maybe it won't be the best scene of all time, but hopefully you can at least elevate it from terrible into "passable."

That's a big part of your job. It can be challenging, but then again, it's also really fun to see how much emotion and communication you can try to squeeze out of even the most boring line delivery.

Conversely, you have the instance of having too many operative words to choose from. Unless the goal of the scene is that the character is manic and crazy and speaking a mile a minute and you're also working in a very wacky style, you're going to have to rein in your animation imagination (which will go bananas at the prospect of cramming a zillion ideas into the shot) and choose just one or two and ignore the rest. If you don't, you run the risk of your character feeling overacted, and your scene will be a jumbled mess of confused ideas that the audience won't be able to follow.

So.... choose those operative words carefully!

And, as always, have FUN!

-shawn :)


Book Showcase: Storytelling Through Animation
By: Mike Wellins
I'm 40. I've been a garage filmmaker since age 9. I come from a musician mother/air force dentist father family. I'm a freelance director at Bent Image lab. I worked at the now extinct Will Vinton Studios for 5 years. I've worked with Hanna Barbera, Disney Feature Animation, Warner Brothers and Fox TV. My films have been screened at Sundance, Sci-fi Channel, Cartoon Network and the Spike and Mike Sick and Twisted festivals, and Atom films. I've made three features and countless shorts both live and animated. It is the catch 22, unlike some artistic pursuits, that you can only improve by making more, and yet more take so long to make, so I've tried to make as much visual media as I can. Film and Animation is the best amalgam of art, photography, writing, acting, design, timing, pacing, sound, etc. and I'm never tired of trying to find the exact right combination of those in the form of a film of a story. Only now, at 40 do I feel I finally have the skills, patience and knowledge to truly tackle this process at the level I've always wanted. The only thing I value more than art is not having to wake up until I'm ready.



AnimationMentor.com:
What inspired you to write the book?

Mike Wellins:
There are countless books out there on animation and software, but I found none that deal with the most difficult and subjective aspect of good animation and film and that is storytelling. Storytelling should drive the most subjective decisions directors and animators have; but often the technical challenges of animation push the very story aside. I have dealt with that on-going challenge in my own films as well as the professional productions I've worked on. It's complex and always changing and it is the difference between a good film and a great film. I'm no expert, and the more you know about this process, the more you realize no one is the end all expert, and the very best visual artists remain students their entire lives.

I've tried to take all the most crucial fundamental ideas, specific tips and tricks, I've learned, across an array of disciplines to create a template that helps manage the production so that the story can be focused on. Animation is a very complicated process and I've learned a great deal from some incredibly talented people, so it was only natural to include art and interviews with people who are actually at the forefront of animation and storytelling.



AnimationMentor.com:
What were your intentions?

Mike Wellins:
I wrote Storytelling Through Animation for many reasons. There are many books on the specifics of animation and its tools, software, cameras, etc., but very few that try to deal with some of the most important and also the most subjective ideas. It's an interesting concept, that all this machinery and equipment; cameras, computers, lights, drives are all trying to manipulate human feelings. Filmmaking like any type of good storytelling is ultimately about controlling ever so delicately, intangible human feelings.

The elements that go into controlling and manipulating that audiences emotions effectively is very hard to pin down, and changes constantly. So, to the problem, I tried to take what I've learned about planning and managing, ideas, tools and specific processes effectively so that the real emotional connection storytellers strive for isn't lost because of technical challenges and problems. I also think that truly understanding the whole process and its basic driving forces allows the story to drive most of the decisions a filmmaker has to make in the course of a production. Making films of any kind is the fight between technology and imagination, and imagination is easily put in the back seat when technology becomes problematic, but solving these problems is the challenge and the fun of creating something as complex as a film or short.

The reader will take away a new understanding of the whole challenge of what making a film really is. I've had a lot of failures and a lot of successes and I think that filmmakers can always learn from each other and I have included plenty of techniques and ideas that I've learned in my career.

Specifically there are many direct lessons and plans to learn from in this book. There are also many direct dos and don'ts in this book, from creating animatics, to training the eye to be able to truly judge visuals, from lighting, design, pacing to frame specific animation and more. Also included are current ideas, artwork and words of some incredibly talented filmmakers, artists and animators, from the whole animation industry.

You can get more info about Storytelling Through Animation here.


January US Movie Releases
Your inside guide to US movie releases and the visual effect companies who made movie magic.
Underworld: Evolution
U.S. Release Date: January 20, 2006

Visual Effects Studio:
Luma Pictures

Synopsis: As the war between vampires and werewolves rages on, the legacy of both races is revealed. The personal histories of Selene, the vampire warrior, and Viktor, the father of modern-day vampires, are also revealed.
Nanny McPhee
U.S. Release Date: January 27, 2006

Visual Effects Studio:
Framestore CFC

Synopsis: Emma Thompson stars as a governess who uses magic to rein in the behavior of seven ne'er-do-well children in her charge.