A tip o’ the hat…
Unless there’s something hidden under the hats, avoid hats on characters. All you’ll get is a lot of hat-acting.
Hat acting is when actors touch, stroke, or otherwise fondle their hats on screen. This serves two purposes.
First, it calls attention to them. That’s not good if they are supposed to be background noise.
Second, it makes editing a bitch because there’s an attention-grabbing action you can’t cut around. You wanna see an example of hat acting? Watch James Arness in Them.
(thanks for the tip, Ryan!)
