Not long after The Unusual Suspects was released, I worked on an M&M commercial with one of the actors, Stephen Baldwin. The commercial itself is below:
Later, Stephen became a Christian. He wrote a book after his conversion perfectly titled: The Unusual Suspect. I didn’t see that coming.
In the digital era, actors and actresses have to act with characters that don’t exist. During the shoot I was working on with Stephen, he had to act out a scene with an animated M&M character named Blue. Stephen was sitting on the couch. Supposedly, Blue was sitting on the couch next to Stephen, but Blue wouldn’t show up until after post-production.
There are a number of things to do in order to sell that Blue is in the same scene talking to an actor. Among them are: getting the camera lens setting, camera angles, and lighting to all match up with Stephen’s original shot.
That way, Blue can be animated and rendered in a way that makes it look like he’s actually in the room with Stephen.
Another important task is to ensure that the live action actor’s eye-line matches up with where the digital character’s eyes will be. This makes it appear that the actor is really talking to the character, in this case, Blue. But that requires the actor to visualize someone that does not exist. Otherwise it’s really hard to sell the effect. To make it easier for the actors, I packed mocked up M&M character stand-ins. They were 2-3 foot models, approximately the same size as the digital M&M’s appear on TV. I flew to California with them. They stayed with me in the hotel room. They had eyes, and bendable legs and arms that I attached with an Allen wrench to the M&M’s body.
During the shoot, Stephen was on the couch. The scene set. Right before filming begins, I bring in the M&M stand in, and position him on the couch next to Stephen. Placing him in the exact location where the digital M&M will appear. Stephen can then visualize the position of Blue’s eyes, the stand-in is removed, and then we could begin filming the scene. As I began to lower the Blue stand-in into position, Blue’s left arm rotated. It went from pointing forward towards the camera to pointing downward away from Blue’s body. Apparently I didn’t tighten the bolt enough to hold the arm in position. As a result, as I lowered Blue into position, his left hand hit Stephen in the crotch! Stephen laughed, I apologized, he adjusted his eye-line perfectly, and the shot was captured.
Here is the commercial (unfortunately, the scene with Stephen on the couch was cut out)
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Returning again to John Medina’s brain rules, he states: “If you think the brain has to devote to vision a lot of its precious thinking resources, you are right on the money. It takes up about half of everything you do in fact.”2 That is really impressive. A few pages later in Brain Rules John states: “If information is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested 72 hours after exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a picture.”3 An increase of 6.5 times. Wow! Guess visuals are a key to acing pop quizzes!
Visual aids are critical! Likely the best, single learning aid we have available to us. Actors and actresses use them in filming.
Jesus used them a lot as well! For example He:
- Wrote on the ground during the event of the woman caught in adultery
- Told the disciple Thomas to look at His wounds
- Used a child as an illustration
- He washed the disciple’s feet as an object lesson
- Used a coin to illustrate a discussion on paying taxes to Caesar
The crucifixion itself is a very powerful reminder of the Day of Atonement.
Effective teaching requires a visual component.
God has given us a very powerful faculty for learning, and it must be taken advantage of. If you try to imagine a scene from Scripture, and roughly sketch it out on paper, it comes alive. Like Stephen Baldwin visualizing the M&M, you are visualizing Jesus, the disciples, and other Biblical elements.
Even if you’re only using stick figures the exercise will help immerse you into the scene. Believe me, it works! In Bible studies I lead, I use curriculum that has people draw while they read Scripture. Members of my study group tell me that what they draw stays with them throughout the day. More importantly: the Scripture connected with their drawings stays with them as well.
Sources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUCJ9nzgPa8
- Medina, John J. 2008, Brain rules, 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Page 231. Seattle, Washington: Pear Press.
- Medina, John J. 2008, Brain rules, 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Page 234. Seattle, Washington: Pear Press.