justkillingtime wrote:
I sometimes pick up on emotional cues and sometimes not. Maybe the ones I pick up on are less subtle. I learn a lot about communication watching television. Movies that are character studies and documentaries may be helpful to study. I think actors exaggerate to a small amount and when there are close-ups of the person's face as they realize something in character studies can be helpful. I notice people's faces in documentaries sometimes turn a little red when they are emotional and if it is a negative emotion (anger or they border on crying) their face seems to almost swell with fluids. I guess I'm saying it might help if studied.
I learned how to do facial expressions from TV, movies and deaf people (every body posture and facial expression is exaggerated when they sign). But in my early 20s my acting teacher pointed out that I was facially overexpressive compared to normal, which for stage was okay, but for TV needed to be toned down a lot. It was then that I also realised I missed a lot of subtlety

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But yeah, it's certainly easier to observe non-verbal expression on the tele, no question - they're not looking back at you and you can stare at them all you want!