The next 3 lectures after this one will refer to the examples below:

1. fainting
2. getting punched
3. poisoned

There's a video and a summary of the story we're telling. You may want to open this page in a separate window so that you can easily go back to the videos without losing your place in the lesson.

Fainting

Matt's character is so offended that he faints!

Mechanically, the story is that the character loses consciousness. As this happens, the body loses muscular engagement and the gaze loses focus. In this particular example, Matt’s character’s gaze shifts sideways as he loses consciousness, but you might chose to have your character maintain a forward eyeline or other.

Punched

Matt's character gets punched, which knocks him sideways and momentarily stuns him (but doesn’t knock him out). Matt’s character tries to regain his balance but can’t recover, so he falls. Once he hits the ground (and the momentum of the strike has dissipated) he nurses his wound, and looks to his adversary to determine what might come next.

Poisoned

My character is aware that her body has been compromised. She’s trying to get to the antidote as she’s losing control of her body and of the ability to take actions. When she hits the floor she has just a little bit of effort left and tries to get up again, but she succumbs.

In this example, the character is not in pain, but you could make choices (including vocalisations) which would add that element.

Note: during the next 3 lectures, you might find it helpful to refer to the example videos by opening them in another window or application.

Now, proceed to the next lecture. It breakds down how we're going to examine acting falls for performance. ➡️