WEBVTT

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Hi my name is Tony
and this is Every Frame a Painting.

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If you grew up like I did, you
probably watched a lot of Looney Tunes.

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And if you paid attention to the credits

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then you recognize this name.

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-"My full name is
Charles Martin Jones."

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-"This is not where I really belong."

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-"I belong behind the camera."

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Chuck Jones is one of the
all-time masters of visual comedy.

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Between 1938 and 1962
he directed

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more than 200 cartoons
for Warner Bros.

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Ten films a year,
six minutes per film.

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What's astonishing is that they hold up
more than 50 years later.

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And among them are some of the
greatest short films ever made.

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But none of this happened overnight.
It was a long process.

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So today, let’s take a look...

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at how a good artist became a great one.

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-"All right.
Let’s get this picture started!"

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-"No! No!"

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The most famous aspect
of any Chuck Jones cartoon

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(and the parts you probably remember)
are the jokes

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written by
Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce.

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Nearly every gag here follows
a classic two-part structure.

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The first part…

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leads you to make an assumption.
The second part...

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proves it wrong.

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That’s it. Assumption:

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Reality.

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And in the early cartoons,
the jokes are fantastic

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and they happen one after the other.

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But here’s the truth:
the gags are only the surface level.

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What really sets these films apart

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is the amount of work
that was put into character.

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And that process took a long time.

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-"All characters are
a process of learning."

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-"It’s hard for people to
understand who watch actors...

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-"...to realize that, actors come with
an ability. They’ve played other parts."

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-"Hello."

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-"When you bring in a drawing,
all you have is a drawing."

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-"And you have to put in the character."

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Consider the case of Daffy Duck.

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When he first started out…

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Daffy was more or less insane.

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-"Gosh what a screwy duck."

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But over the course of 15 years,
he changed

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from being the one who laughs
to being the butt of the joke.

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This Daffy is less crazy but
it’s easier to understand what he wants.

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He wants money.

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He wants to be a star.

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In short, he wants glory.

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-"This looks like a job for...

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-"...The Masked Avenger!"

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In fact, all of Chuck Jones' characters
have very clearly defined wants.

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This one wants a home.

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This one wants to daydream.

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And this one just wants
somebody to love.

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-"Ah my little darling.
It is love at first sight, is it not?"

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Notice that every desire here
is very simple.

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And the simpler the desire,
the more vivid the character.

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Once you know
what the character wants

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you can figure out
the next question:

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How does this
particular individual move?

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-"Every action is dictated
by what goes on inside of you."

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-"You have to be able to think
the way the character thinks."

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-"If you can’t tell what’s happening
by the way the character moves..."

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-"...you’re not animating."

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-"I am a snake and
you have charmed me, no?"

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-"It helps to have the dialogue..."

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-"...but the dialogue is not
the thing that makes it work."

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-"The story should tell itself
by the way it moves."

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So let’s say you know
what the character wants

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and you know how they move to get it.

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What about the jokes?

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What happens to the assumption…

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and the reality?

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Well, now the assumption includes
the personality of the character.

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For instance, we know that
Daffy will always pick a fight

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because it’s part of
his desire for glory.

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-"Take over."

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Likewise, we know
the Coyote’s device will fail

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so Jones can play this gag offscreen

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which ends up making it funnier.

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But there is a danger to this approach.

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If you just focus on great jokes
with the same well-defined characters

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you can easily get trapped in a formula.

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-"Sometimes I feel
very sorry for the Coyote."

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-"Sometimes I wish he’d catch him."

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-"If he caught him
there wouldn’t be any more Road Runner."

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-"You wouldn’t like that, would you?"

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So to avoid this problem,
Jones did something.

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This is one of the
defining aspects of his work.

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It’s a word that he uses and
that other people use about him.

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-"Beep Beep!"

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-"It also stands out as an example
of the kind of discipline..."

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-"...Chuck Jones liked
to set for himself."

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-"This is the vital factor in
all comedy or all drama."

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-"What are your disciplines?"

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Discipline. The challenges and
restrictions you set for yourself.

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Like designing a character
with no mouth.

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Or no face.

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Or using no dialogue except for this.

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-"Hello my baby, hello my honey,
hello my ragtime gal."

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Because animation lets you do anything

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you have to think about
what you won't do.

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And in Jones’ case,
there were lots of rules

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about the world, the characters
and their behavior.

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For instance, Bugs Bunny
never picked a fight.

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Somebody had to do this…

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-"Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!
Kill the wabbit!"

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...and only then would he fight back.

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-"Kill the wabbit?"

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-"Bugs Bunny is not just
an insane rabbit."

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-"Somebody’s always trying to get him.
And he’s retaliating."

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-"He has to be provoked.
And we learned that."

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-"It was very important
that he be provoked."

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-"Because otherwise,
he’d be a bully."

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-"Of course you realize
this means war."

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A similar restriction happened to
how the characters expressed themselves.

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Early on, they tended to go through
a quick barrage of facial expressions.

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But over time, these grew less and less.

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-"Particularly in the later films
Chuck became very fond..."

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-"...of using the smallest
possible gestures..."

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-"...facial gestures to get laughs."

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-"Chuck’s facial expressions
were the best in the business..."

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-"...Because he was a minimalist."

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-"All humor grows from two things."

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-"All humor, I believe, comes from
human behavior and logic."

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-"If it’s not logical
it’s not gonna be funny...

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-"...And if it doesn’t come from
human behavior..."

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-"...how the hell
do you know it’s funny?"

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Think of it this way:
this is human behavior.

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-"Ha ha! Now!"

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That was logic.

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And the logic is something
you improve at over time.

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But what about human behavior?

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How do you improve at
understanding that?

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The truth is, there’s only one way.

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And it’s not by watching films.

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-"When you talk to Chuck,
he is always encouraging you..."

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-...to go to the source:
to study real life, to study art..."

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-"...and apply that to your animation.
It’s not just drawing funny faces."

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Jones believed it wasn’t enough
to just watch movies.

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You had to have interests
outside of film.

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You had to study real life.

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Most of all, he encouraged this:

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-"Reading. Read Everything."

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-"It doesn’t do you
much good to draw..."

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-"...unless you have
something to draw..."

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-"...and the only place
you can get anything to draw..."

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-"...is from out of that head."

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-"And the only way that
you can exercise the mind..."

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-"...is by bringing new ideas to it..."

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-"...So it’ll be surprised."

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-"And say 'God I didn’t know that.'"

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-"That’s the greatest thing
in the world..."

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-"...that 'Gee I didn’t know that.'
And there you are, you know?"

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There you are.
It’s not just about gags.

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Not just about characters.

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Not just about discipline.

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It’s about studying the real world
and learning something new.

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Then putting that back into the work.

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In other words, inspiration.

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And the great thing about
this kind of inspiration?

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-"You can find it anyplace.
You can find it anyplace."