With the trend towards HD TV and ever bigger displays, I’m beginning to garner a new pet peeve: During tight head shots–particularly in commercials–it’s distracting to see the actor’s eyes pan back and forth as they read their script.
Outside of everyone memorizing their lines, I’d like to see someone come up with some post processing software that stabilizes the actor’s eyes. It shouldn’t be all that difficult to even make a tool like this auto- or semi- automatic.
You need to locate the eyes–something relatively easy to do in tight shots like this–and then determine the eye panning and then dampen the eye movement.
This may sound trivial, but I remember some movie actor awhile ago talking about a trick of authenticity that he was taught: That if you keep your eyes fixed (such as looking at only one of their eyes versus looking from one eye to the next) when talking with another actor that you will look more earnest. Now, of course, not looking trustworthy or comfortable might be what the actor is going for, but if not–such as is the case with many ads with tight head shots–then eye stabilization software would seem to be a good idea.
Maybe there’s already something like this?