Contiguous Sequences in Time

So I read In the Blink of an Eye by Murch, On Directing Film by David Mamet, and I'm in the middle of Story, by McKee. So that should cover my 'M' authors. I'm laying out the final third of my Angry Yoga 'thesis'. My production experience in TV, storyboarding, and game Cinematics finds me with a most satisfying semester. That and training handed to me by the best animation professionals in the world.
There are 5 characters in The Angry Yoga animation which is pretty freakin intimidating. However, and these may be my last words, I have a plan. All of the characters are doing the exact same thing, so I could transfer animation from one character to another. Additionally, only one character will be moving at a time.
I hope the rigs are similar enough for me to do this. Otherwise this will suck. I'm already working crazy hours on this thing. The poses are pretty simple, but it would be nice to be able to transfer a set of polished animations rather than having to spend all that time on each one. On the flip side, since each character in the yoga class is in the same position, I'll be 'working the poses' smoothing movements that by their design will only occupy contigous time sequences. The order of each subsequent movement will guide the eye of the audience. Specifically in the final pose. This seemingly ambient movement is carried across a cut AND it will be the first singular movement preceding the other ambient movements. Perhaps I can take the same approach with head turns. During animation 'resting' times the characters could qickly steal glances towards the yogi(and always in the same sequence, like Rook, Ace, Bishop, Otto, guiding the eye in a clockwise circle around the sceen and alwys ending on yogi for his response and authority. This way, when the aniation gets to the punchline, the audience will be looking for the visual cues they inadvertatly learned in the first 19 shots.
That is tomorrow. I have til Sunday to pose 5 characters in 2 shots and 2 characters in 2. That's 12.
If I had a great story with just one character I would have rather done that. Thats right! But I guess the Story is King. I ain't gonna learn nuthin being an animation wuss anyway. The story needed a full class for the joke to work.