Bugs bunny

 

bugs bunny

Between 1938 and 1962

he directed

more than 200 cartoons

for Warner Bros.

Ten films a year,

six minutes per film.

What's astonishing is that they hold up

more than 50 years later.

And among them are some of the

greatest short films ever made.

But none of this happened overnight.

It was a long process.So today, let's take a look..

at how a good artist became a great one.

-"All right.

Let's get this picture started!"

"No! No!"

The most famous aspect

of any Chuck Jones cartoon

(and the parts you probably remember)

are the jokes

written by

Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce.

Nearly every gag here follows

a classic two-part structure.The first part..

leads you to make an assumption.

The second part..

proves it wrong.

That's it. Assumption:

Reality.

bugs bunny

And in the early cartoons,

the jokes are fantastic

and they happen one after the other.

But here's the truth:

the gags are only the surface level.What really sets these films apart

is the amount of work

that was put into character.

And that process took a long time.

"All characters are

a process of learning."

"It's hard for people to

understand who watch actors...

"..to realize that, actors come with

an ability. They've played other parts."

-"Hello."

-"When you bring in a drawing,

all you have is a drawing."-"And you have to put in the character."

Consider the case of Daffy Duck.

When he first started out...

Daffy was more or less insane.

-"Gosh what a screwy duck."

But over the course of 15 years,

he changed

from being the one who laughs

to being the butt of the joke.

This Daffy is less crazy but

it's easier to understand what he wants.

He wants money.He wants to be a star.

In short, he wants glory.

"This looks like a job for...

"The Masked Avenger!"

In fact, all of Chuck Jones' characters

have very clearly defined wants.

This one wants a home.

This one wants to daydream.

And this one just wants

somebody to love.

-"Ah my little darling.

It is love at first sight, is it not?"Notice that every desire here

is very simple.

And the simpler the desire,

the more vivid the character.

Once you know

what the character wants

you can figure out

the next question:

How does this

particular individual move?

"Every action is dictated

by what goes on inside of you."

"You have to be able to think

the way the character thinks."-"If you can't tell what's happening

by the way the character moves...

"...you're not animating."

-"l am a snake and

you have charmed me, no?"

-"It helps to have the dialogue.."

"..but the dialogue is not

the thing that makes it work."

"The story should tell itself

by the way it moves!

So let's say you know

what the character wants

and you know how they move to get it.What about the jokes?

What happens to the assumption..

and the reality?

Well, now the assumption includes

the personality of the character.

For instance, we know that

Daffy will always pick a fight

because it's part of

his desire for glory.

"Take over."

Likewise, we knowW

the Coyote's device will failSo Jones can play this gag offscreen

which ends up making it funnier.

But there is a danger to this approach.

If you just focus on great jokes

with the same well-defined characters

you can easily get trapped in a formula.

-"Sometimes I feel

bugs bunny

very sorry for the Coyote."

-"Sometimes I wish hed catch him."

"If he caught him

there wouldn't be any more Road Runner."

."You wouldn't like that, would you?"Discipline. The challenges and

restrictions you set for yourself.

Like designing a character

with no mouth.

Or no face.

Or using no dialogue except for this.

-"Hello my baby, hello my honey,

hello my ragtime gal.!"

Because animation lets you do anything

you have to think about

what you won't do.

And in Jones' case,

there were lots of rulesabout the world, the characters

and their behavior.

For instance, Bugs Bunny

never picked a fight.

Somebody had to do this..

"Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!

Kill the wabbit!"

...and only then would he fight back.

-"Kill the wabbit?"

"Bugs Bunny is not just

an insane rabbit."

-"Somebody's always trying to get him.

And he's retaliating""He has to be provoked.

And we learned that."

-"It was very important

that he be provoked"

-"Because otherwise,

he'd be a bully."

"Of course you realize

this means war."

A similar restriction happened to

how the characters expressed

themselves.

bugs bunny

Early on, they tended to go through

a quick barrage of facial expressions.

But over time, these grew less and less.So to avoid this problem,

Jones did something.

This is one of the

defining aspects of his work.

It's a word that he uses and

that other people use about him.

-"Beep Beep!"

-"It also stands out as an example

of the kind of discipline..."

".Chuck Jones liked

to set for himself"

"This is the vital factor in

all comedy or all drama."

-"What are your disciplines?""Particularly in the later films

Chuck became very fond..."

".of using the smallest

possible gestures..."

"..facial gestures to get laughs."

"Chuck's facial expressions

were the best in the business.."

"..Because he was a minimalist."

-"All humor grows from two things."

"All humor, I believe, comes from

human behavior and logic."

-"If it's not logical

it's not gonna be funny..."..And if it doesn't come from

human behavior.."

"..how the hell

do you know it's funny?"

Think of it this way:

this is human behavior.

bugs bunny

-"Ha ha! Now!"

That was logic.

And the logic is something

you improve at over time.

But what about human behavior?

How do you improve at

understanding that?The truth is, there's only one way.

And it's not by watching films.

-"When you talk to Chuck,

he is always encouraging you.."

-...to go to the source:

to study real life, to study art."