Mime Trapped in a Box

The craft of acting is the action of a person willfully pretending to be something (an animated object or an animal) or someone for a limited period of time in any circumstance for any purpose. On the other hand, the art of acting is the use of the craft of acting for artistic purposes for example, acting used in a theater context and in some forms of storytelling. (Taylor, 1997) This discussion will be based mainly on the art of acting without props with reference to the use of mime and how it can be applied to animation.

Jeff Taylor states that, the craft of acting always has some element of communication as part of its purpose in any given instance and has highly subjective communication which deals in those regions of our humanity that are best shown and felt rather than described. An example I can give in support to Taylor’s argument is found in miming. Mime is one of the oldest forms of theater which expresses the dramatic art of representing scenes from life through bodily and facial movements. This can be seen in a pantomime, which tells a story in movement and gesture and normally consists of short comic acts. As the mime tells a stories, the movement of the hands and body help viewers picture the characters and actions in the environment. This can be applied to animation when creating key frames in order to depict strong actions which would make the animation effective and easy to read.

When looking back at pantomime in Greece, they often took the form of mimetic dances, which was the art of gesture called orchesis, were the word orchestra came from, a Greek term for dancing place. Romans also were especially fond of pantomime, sketching plays often as afterpieces to written plays, or even between acts. Two famous players (both freed slaves), were Pylades and Bathyllus.

“The turn of the century saw the most astonishing burst of creativity that marked the beginning of modern day mime. Mime was popular in vaudeville, music halls, circus, and Ziegfeld Follies. Rudolf Laban, teacher and theoretician of mime and movement, trained some famous dancers, several of whom incorporated mime in their dance work. Angna Enters was truly great, the first popular concert hall mime. Charles Weidman often used literary sources, like Thurber and Beerbohm, for his serious and comic work. Kurt Jooss' anti-war piece, The Green Table, became immortal and is still performed today.” (Rensburg, 2003)

Under silent film, comics played in motion pictures for the most part, because of their many actions and facility in physical expression.

“France was the innovator, with Georges Wague who saw film as a continuation of mime, and music hall star Max Linder reeling off one-reelers beginning in 1905. Charlie Chaplin saluted Linder as his "professor"; then followed Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon, and others. At first they simply improvised before a stationary camera, but soon learned that film was different from the stage, and developed the techniques that made them world famous in a few short years.” (Rensburg, 2003)

In conclusion animation can be aided through the role of acting without props, by the emotional amplification of the body movement in order to enhance action in communicating a series of expressions.

References:
Taylor, J. The Craft of Acting, the Art of Acting and their Relationship to the World of the Work. 1997.

Vanessa van Rensburg. The History of Mime. 2003.