Lorraine Williams
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LORRAINE WILLIAMS Facial expression and emotion: An exploration through movement, space and person: Is Facial Expression an accurate display of emotions? How is emotion reflected in film and animation? By LORRAINE WILLIAMS Advisors: Kim Noce A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Animation University of the Arts London London College of Communication London, 2016 1 Table of Content Page 2 Abstract 7 Introduction 8 The face is an element of great importance to the human structure. 8 Facial expression can be exaggerated with the eyes, mouth combination with other meaningful movements 8 Chapter 1 14 14 Why is Facial Expression an accurate display of Emotions? Chapter 2 21 Emotion how is it reflected in film and animation 21 Conclusion 28 Bibliography 2 30 List of images 4 7 1 Anger chart 2Contempt, laughter, sad disgust chart 7 3 Greek drama Mask 10 10 4 Commedia Dell’arte drama mask 10 5 Japanese Noh mask 6 Jacques Tai 7 MR. Bean 12 8 Mr. Bean 14 9 Sam Taylor-Johnson Hysteria 14 10 Emotional abstraction anger14 3 12 Emotional Fear 15 13 emotional crying 14 Mr. Bean Fear 15 15 15 Mr. Bean Disgust 15 16 Mr. Bean reading his book 17 Mr. Bean frowning 16 18 Mr. Bean sticking his fingers in ears 16 19 Mr. Bean looking through window 16 20 Mr. Bean looking through window 16 21 Mr. Bean animation 18 22 Mr. Bean Live action 23 Mr. bean with his landlady 18 24 image of Ryan Larkin healthy 19 4 25 disfigured Larkin 19 26 Christ Landreth 20 27 disfigured Larkin 20 28 Larkin looking a drawing 22 29 Francis Bacon 22 30 Larkin Damage 23 31 Felicity 23 5 Abstract: This thesis seeks to explore why facial expression is an accurate display of emotions. It asks how emotion is reflected in film and animation. It reviews evidence relevant to Rowan Atkinson’s character Mr. Bean, whose feelings are conveyed through exaggerated facial expressions and bodily movement. The thesis further addresses the work of Paul Ekman, Joseph LeDoux, Daniel Neill, Alan Fridlund and Gary Faigin. A further case study includes an analysis of Chris Landreth’s documentary animation work Ryan. I conclude by undertaking a comparative analysis of Mr. Bean and Landreth’s work. This demonstrates that in Mr. Bean and Ryan, the characters’ expressive facial movements relate emotional situations in both film and animation. In contrast to Mr. Bean, which essentially is about a child trapped in a man’s body, Landreth’s work explores the inner emotions of a more complex adult person. This thesis can be seen as complementary to my final major project Emotional Abstraction, which narrates the journey of a woman experiencing a highly charged emotional experience and whose inner emotions are played out in animation, in a similar mode to that characterized by Ryan Larkin. 6 Introduction: This thesis was inspired by a journey I made on a London Underground train. Watching a group of people laughing and joking, I noticed how their spontaneous facial expressions differed from the more permanent features on their faces. The speed with which there faces changed amazed me, the transformation reminding me of a Mexican wave: one moment static, whereas in the next moment the faces seemed energized and illuminated. However, one member of the group did not show any emotions and her expressions remained the same throughout and although she seemed to be laughing like the rest, her overall facial expression did not change. Her friends did not seem to notice her lack of self- expression; maybe she was upset about something or even sad. I was drawn instantly to the way the faces of the others lit up, how their facial expressions and their moods suddenly changed. This opened my eyes to the amazing power of the face, and how it is magical, in a responsive way, and reveals our true inner feelings. It is clear that emotions are very hard to hide, because they are displayed on our faces to some degree or other. The purpose of this thesis is to explore facial expression and emotions, so that the face can be seen as a unique structure to study and placed within that framework, to see how faces grip powerfully on our emotions. I begin with a theoretical overview of facial expression. I then look at ways in which emotion features in contemporary culture. I review Rowan Atkinson’s strange comical creation Mr. Bean and Chris Landreth’s animation documentary Ryan and make comparisons between the two. From there I explore the muscular aspect of facial expression and investigate how emotions are reflected and work in different contexts. The final section will consider the way in which faces act as vehicles to bind together Mr. Bean’s external expressions and Ryan’s internal emotions. I intend that my research will shed light on how emotion plays out in practice and, in particularly, how it is used to communicate in vastly different ways. 7 The face is an element of great importance to the human structure. This chapter argues that the face is an element of great importance to the human appearance. According to (Mc Neill, 1998) “the living face is the most important and mysterious surface we deal with. It is the center of our flesh. We eat, breathe, and talk with it and it house four of the five classic senses. “You come into the world knowing what a face looks like” (Vicki Bruce 1998). I agree with both Mc Neil’s argument that the face is important, mysterious and it’s the center of our flesh, we are all tuned into the face it’s the first thing that is seen when we are born. Research of facial expression has highlighted how the physical and psychological elements of facial expression used to convey emotion allow people to express different types of meaning in various contexts. Precise facial expressive movements perceived by observers reflect complex emotional feelings and conflicting or hidden emotions, depending on the social and cultural environment. Signals created to communicate can change their meaning through the perception of the emotions from a cognitive perspective. Facial expressions and the emotions they provoke are a very powerful form of visual communication and facial expression is fundamental in film, acting as a way of expressing emotions. The range of contexts in which human facial expressions respond to events or the environment are applied by animators to give their character’s personality and to help form the story in the animation. The face is our main feature and is unique to everyone, it signifies our identity, and distinguishes a person’s age, race and gender. As living beings, we are all attracted towards a particular type of face. Faces are interesting to “new born babies who prefer to look at faces rather than other complex stimuli, and thus may be programmed to focus on information in faces”. (Fantz, 1961. Kagan & Lewis, 1965). According to Darwin, (1904) opinion on facial expressions is characteristically related to emotions and facial expression seems to be part of our biological make up. George Mandler’s 8 (1998) concept bears some similarity to that of Darwin: in his view facial expressions are remnants of a system of nonverbal communication among early humans. (Mandler, 1997.) Gary Faigin, (1990, p.126) suggested that most psychologists concluded that there are certain universally recognized emotions, expressed through facial expressions, such as happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, fear and disgust, which are seen in the same way by most people. As humans we are able to identify facial expressions to interact, and as a signal to convey meanings. image (1) anger image number 2 contempt, sadness, disgust. Happiness, anger, fear, surprise. The face is constantly reshaping in response to different moods and impulses, as we communicate emotion constantly throughout our daily lives. For example, in conversation people’s faces respond as they listen and speak. This facial expression is communicated and made expressive because of a complex group of muscles, running beneath the surface of the face, 9 which are as thin as a spider’s web. Movement of these muscles significantly alters the way the face appears. (Faigin, 1990. p.54). As the face is the main focal point used in the media for visual communication and “in mediating forms of inner and outer expression, the face evolved to be looked at, to be seen by others, we tend to build up ideas of ourselves and others that are primarily visual in nature” (Cole, 998, p.14). Hence, the importance of research in helping to understand how facial expression acts to express emotions. Facial expression can be exaggerated with the eyes and mouth in combination with other meaningful movements. This chapter reviews the work of Daniel Mc Neill which highlights how facial expression can be exaggerated with eyes and mouth combination linked with other meaningful movements. A study carried out by Mc Neill (1998. p195), indicated that the eyes convey thoughts. Film actors who know their art understand that expression lies mainly in the eyes which show the course of their minds. The eyes are the center of expression for cartoonists, who depict mood in their work by adjusting the position of the eyes on the face, especially in relation to the eyebrows, “the eyes have one language everywhere” (poet George Herbert 1593-1633). This seems to suggest that the eyes have a language of their own. It is widely believed that eye contact is a very important tool and many cultures have different rules associated with eye contact.