“Animation is movement! Movement is
animation! What a person in the audience sees creates a stronger impression
than what he hears”
(Hooks, 2011)
In this case study, I will be exploring the
films of Joseph Frank ‘Buster’ Keaton, well known for his silent films in the
1920s. He is regarded as one of the most influential people of the time, alongside
Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd who were the most popular and significant comic
actors of the silent film era, helping it to flourish and be so successful
during this period. In particular, I want to focus on several of Keaton’s ‘shorts’.
I believe there is a lot to learn from Keaton’s works and looking at his theory
and practice will help to further my knowledge as a filmmaker, storyteller and
character animator.
Keaton’s early life influenced his career
and comic portrayals and therefore, I will now briefly describe his early life
and path to film. He began at the age of three as a Vaudeville performer
alongside his parents (A & E Networks, 2012). ‘The Three Keatons’ was his
first performance on stage and the show was billed as ‘The Roughest Act That
Was Ever in the History of the Stage’. Keaton was referred to as ‘The Little
Boy Who Can’t Be Damaged’. It was here that Keaton would develop his craft as
an acrobatic comedian (Deming, 2012) by learning his signature trade, the
deadpan look, which he took into his films. The following was written about
Keaton, “Buster
. . . is thrown about the stage by a merciless father in a careless fashion and
his treatment and comedy are the things that bring the laughs” (Unknown, 1909).
In 1917, at the age of 21, Keaton made his
debut (just two years after Chaplin) in ‘The Butcher Boy’ starring Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle. This was a small role for Keaton; it was however, extremely
slapstick with Keaton being subject to a range of abuses (A & E Networks,
2012). In the 1920s, Keaton
made arguably his best work, ‘One week’ (1920), ‘The High Sign’ (1921), and ‘Cops’
(1922). With ‘The High Sign’, like Chaplin, Keaton was not only an on screen
presence but also worked behind the camera; his credits included director,
writer, and producer (A & E Networks, 2012). Together, these roles I feel added to
his performance as he was in full control of creating his films.
In
‘The High Sign’, Keaton delivers a masterful performance of comedy and
athleticism, both being entertaining and thrilling. Keaton makes the most of
every opportunity to captivate the audience. In one scene in ‘The High Sign’,
Keaton’s character is seen trying to go through a newspaper. This, by most
people’s imagination, would be a simple and dull task to perform and
consequently watch; but not with Keaton. His character injects personality into
this as a visual performance. As he unfolds the paper, its size grows with
every turn. Keaton plays with this strange occurrence he is finally overwhelmed
by its volume and falls over.
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| Figure 1: Buster Keaton and Crew on set filming the 'The High Sign' (1921) |
Keaton’s
use of props in his features were extraordinary, never running short of ideas
and ways to use what was around him in new and comic ways. Guy Crucianelli (2011)
noted that Keaton’s props were often used for utility objects stating, “Keaton is an
on-the-spot inventor of primitive machines—contraptions, more accurately—and
also replacement objects verging on a kind of rudimentary psychology, but more
utilitarian”.
I
noted the following examples of these in ‘The High Sign’; a cigar as a nail and
Keaton painting a floating anchor. These actions are more fitting of a cartoon character
than used for a reality performance but it could be argued, they worked well
for Keaton.
 |
| Figure 2: Keaton with props in 'The High Sign' (1921) |
In
a scene in ‘The High Sign’, Keaton’s character demonstrates exaggeration and
anticipation, both key principles in character animation. Keaton sets the
scene, walking in to the shooting gallery; he sees no-one at the counter so he
briefly looks around. As he becomes more impatient, he starts to knock on the
counter. This is where we see anticipation, knowing that something must happen.
A man from behind the counter springs out, scaring the life out of Keaton. There
are no close-ups of Keaton’s face to express his shock or fright; instead we
are shown this reaction through his body language and performance. “A character’s body language is going to
transmit a more powerful message visually than his dialogue” (Hall, 1966).
Keaton
exaggerates somersaults onto the floor, but is quickly back on his feet. This
seemingly works as a believable action I feel, due to Keaton’s secondary action,
which is of him looking over the counter to see where the man came from. These
small but significant actions add a lot to a performance and its believability.
The staged shot is also very important. As it is a long shot, we can see Keaton
fully fall to the floor.
Keaton
was always doing something with his posture and body language to communicate to
the audience a mood or something he was thinking; he was rarely very still for
long. Unlike Chaplin, whose facial
expressions were very important in his films, Keaton’s were not. There were
close-ups however, often of the antagonist showing a very sinister and vulgar
face. Keaton's expressionless face on close- up shots earns him the nickname “The
Great Stone Face”. Keaton’s face was not used to express views, feelings or emotions;
instead it was used as a comic gag (TV Tropes, 2012).
 |
| Figure 3: Keaton’s Trademark “deadpan” in 'The High Sign' (1921, with Joe Roberts and Bartine Burkett) |
For
a character performance actor, your face is very important in expressing how
you are feeling and what you are thinking to the audience. In Hook’s (2011) book ‘Acting for Animators’, he notes
that audiences only empathise with emotions, saying of Keaton, “Buster was marvelous with physical
comedy…but he never quite understood the empathy thing the way Chaplin did”.
The reason I feel he says this is because of Keaton’s lack of facial
expressions in his films, whereas Chaplain’s face was use to tremendous effect
to convey emotion to the audience e.g. his betrayal as Little Tramp. This view is however, in contrast to James Agee,
(1949) who said of Keaton:
He was by his whole style and nature so much the most deeply 'silent' of
the silent comedians that even a smile was as deafeningly out of key as a
yell...No other comedian could do as much with the dead-pan. He used this
great, sad, motionless face to suggest various related things; a one track mind
near the track’s end of pure insanity; mulish imperturbability under the
wildest of circumstances; how dead a human being can get and still be alive; an
awe-inspiring sort of patience and power to endure, proper to granite but
uncanny in flesh and blood.
I
feel that there is much truth in Agee’s analysis of Keaton’s deadpan look and
the emotions it can convey to one viewer and others to a different viewer. It has
conveyed much emotion to me as a viewer and I empathise with the character
being portrayed.
To
conclude, I have found that studying Keaton’s work has been very enriching to
my growth as a character animator. Keaton’s character performance in films such
as ‘One Week’, ‘Cops’, ‘The High Sign’, ‘The Goat’, ‘Steamboat Bill Jr’ and
‘The General’ have inspired me to improve my performance. I feel I have learnt
from how Keaton acts or reacts using props, gestures and exaggeration and body
language. Hopefully, I will be able to add some of these traits to my character
performances.
"No man
can be a genius in slapshoes and a flat hat” (Keaton, unknown).
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Here are some of Buster Keaton feature films, among the first I watched, and thought they where brilliant. They managed to keep me engaged considering they are silent. Simple and fun stories, slapstick humor, extraordinary stunts in 'cops' Equal some excellent films and are all worth a watch! -->
The High Sign (1921)
Cops (1922)
One week (1920)
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