Shawn Kelly:
Leading with the eyes of head (Reference:
CGChar)
"As a general rule of thumb, leading with the eyes
first is what humans do 90% of the time, so it's usually a safe bet.
If you want to lead with the head first, make sure it's for a reason.
Leading with the head first has a very dramatic feeling associated with it.
Film yourself looking around normally, or turning towards a sound you hear -
you will lead with your eyes every time. If you try leading with the head
first, you will have a whole different feeling associated with the
performance - especially if the head turn is fairly slow. It will feel very
scary or dramatic.
So, if we're talking about rules or "formulas", lead with the eyes. But
remember rules are made to be broken, but make sure you are breaking the
rules for a *reason.*
And as a side-note, rules and formulas exist for a reason. People have been
using them successfully for decades and they will serve you well. It's a
great idea to learn the "rules" first and *then* learn where/when to break
them, what that means to your scene, and most importantly, WHY you want to
break that rule. In this case, it could be to add some dramatic tension -
say your character just heard that the woman to his left is his long-lost
mother that he has been searching for - maybe the person telling him that
she is his mom is standing in front of him, and you'd like to lead with the
head slowly towards Mom while the eyes stay locked and wide on the person in
front of the character before darting over to Mom.
Does that make sense? Like always, the best way to experiment with this
stuff is to observe those around you and/or film yourself and see how it
feels and why you move your eyes in certain ways. For obvious reasons, your
eyes are one of the few things that you can't study in a mirror, so bust out
that video camera and look around until you aren't thinking about what
you're doing anymore, and see how your eyes naturally move and how they
relate to your head/torso/shoulder movements..."