Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to Drama.

This is Practising physical and vocal skills Lesson Five out of five, Combining skills.

My name's Mr. Wood, I'm the teacher for today's lesson.

If you're ready, let's get started.

For today's lesson, you're going to need plenty of space.

So, make sure there's nothing in your area that's going to hinder you, nothing that's going to be dangerous.

Clear the space and then we'll continue.

So, you've started today's lesson with an intro quiz.

Well done, if you've completed that.

If you haven't had chance, you can go back and do that now.

We'll start the lesson with a quick recap of what we did in our last lesson, Lesson Four and then we'll move on and spend the majority of our lesson, combining our previously learned skills in physical and vocal into new scenarios then we'll finish off with an exit quiz.

Your keywords for today's lesson are, emphasis and that's this the stress given to a word to indicate particular importance.

So, if I was to stress the word because it has significant importance, okay? Then there's a bit of an example of that.

Tone, and that is a voice that expresses a particular mood or feeling.

And then body language is the movement or posture used to show meaning, okay.

Those three words we are familiar with so far.

So, let's recap what we did last lesson.

We started off the lesson by exploring still images and we did that through our physical skills.

We looked at facial expressions, we looked at body language, we looked at gestures.

And then we developed our knowledge of those skills by exploring them through mime and slow emotion.

We then worked on creating a sense of tension from those skills and seeing how they would merge together, seeing how we let the tension rise and then how we identify the peak of tension, the climactic moment and then also the moment where that tension is let go.

We developed our emotions through all of what I've just said.

So, emotions come through in what we're trying to show and that's through the body predominantly.

So, let's start by separating some of these physical and vocal skills.

Have a little look, see which ones are just physical.

Any ideas? Body language, gesture, facial expressions, mime.

What about just vocal? Emphasis, tone, volume.

However, there are two that meet both categories in essence.

Pace can be the pace at which you speak, of course but it can also be the pace at which you move.

And then slow motion you can generally use that in your physical qualities when we are enacting mime, but it can also be slowing down how you speak, okay? So, two very similar words there.

If we could pull them apart, we'd look at pace being more vocal and slow motion being more physical but just be aware that they could be used as both.

Let's get ready with our warmup.

So, we'll begin with the vocal and we'll move into the physical afterwards.

Can you repeat after me.

The P sound being pushed out through the breath up through the middle and out through the mouth so it's /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/.

Your turn.

Lovely, we'll do that one again.

So five P's, up and out through the breath, ready? /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/.

Your turn.

Now we'll move on to the letter /m/.

Okay, it's again through the mouth this time but the breath is aiding it.

So, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/.

Your turn.

Lovely, and again, up through the body out through the mouth.

/m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/.

Your turn.

Okay now, /w/.

Okay, this one, we want to get those cheeks filling with air and then spelling it out.

So five again, in with the breath and out through the mouth.

/w/, /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/.

Your turn.

And again, /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/.

Off you go.

Lovely, and last one, /l/, okay.

This is to get our tongue moving as in quickly.

We'll do five /l/s and then we'll move on, repeat and then we move on to the next bit.

So, /l/, /l/, /l/, /l/, /l/.

Your turn.

And again, /l/, /l/, /l/, /l/, /l/.

Off you go.

Super.

Now, Sandra has made an appearance yet again.

So, Sandra sells seashells by the sea's shore.

Say that for me.

And again, Sandra sells seashells by the sea's shore.

A bit quicker.

Okay, quick is time, ready? Sandra sells seashells by the sea's shore.

Super.

Okay.

Now, let's think about how we are saying different words using a different tone of our voice.

And then again, this is very important for the work we've got ahead today.

The word is hello, and the tone is of course happy.

Hello? What if we made it sad? Hello? Angry, Hello! Confused, Hello? What if the phrase was, come back? You're ready, make it happy.

Come back! Sad, come back.

Angry, come back! Confused, come back.

And what if it was, how are you? Happy, how are you? Sad, how are you? Angry, how are you? And confused, how are you? Lastly, who are you? Happy, who are you? Sad, who are you? Angry, who are you? And confused, who are you? Well done, and lastly Gunta grew great hearty greens.

A bit quicker.

Gunta grew great hearty greens.

Even quicker, Gunta grew great hearty greens.

Lovely, okay.

The mouth should start to be warmed up.

Imagine you're chewing a piece of gum.

Try and get that chewing gum that's putting their teeth together, apart, or a sticky toffee.

Okay, snapping it back in.

Just protect the teeth.

Make sure you're not clamping down on the teeth.

And just get the jaws really moving around, we're chewing it lovely.

Head to the side and the other side and again, back over.

Okay, shoulders going back, big circles with the shoulders, make them as round as you possibly can, get wide and forwards.

If they are clicking, that's a good thing.

Just be careful with any injuries that you've got already.

So I push them.

If you know that there's something that you can't do just yet.

Arms up to the side and back, big circles, a little too big.

And then just be careful of your surroundings 'cause I know I've got a lot about me going forward that I don't want to knock.

And then we're bringing those circles back round to something a little bit smaller.

Super.

Arms up, arms out and down.

Shake your hands.

And that's our warm-up done.

So if you'd like to repeat any of that please feel free to go back in time to have a look again, if not, let's get started.

So let's continue by combining skills in a new scenario.

This is the text, "It was last Monday, I think.

"People were walking up and down the busy high street.

"I see this child looking upset." Okay, first thoughts, what are you thinking about this text? What does it tell us? There's a child, they're upset this person, on few days ago perhaps was walking up and down the street.

There were many people there.

Okay, so they were walking.

Many people were there in high street and they see a child that's upset.

So now I would like you to create a still image for me which uses your physical skills.

And this image must show the life of the distressed child.

So what they're going through at that moment in time, in their life.

So consider your facial expressions, your body language and your gestures, to be able to communicate this idea of the child based on what we know so far.

All we know is that they're quite upset, there in the high street.

So pause the video, give it your best go, and click Resume when you're ready to move on.

So what might the child be thinking? Now that you've got your still image, it might make a bit more sense to start unpacking this idea.

Option one where is my mum? Option two I'm scared! Option three how do I get home? Option four I don't know what to do! What do you think? Which one of those options would be most appropriate to your still image of the child? Have a go now, adding this thought to your still image.

So it's a developed still image with a thought-track.

Using your vocal skills, add in an idea, something that the child will be thinking of at that moment in time, which will help communicate the character's intentions, okay.

So perhaps give context as to why they are upset.

For this, you need to consider your use of tone, emphasis, volume, and pace.

Pause the video to be able to complete this and click Resume when you're ready to continue.

Now a thought-track can add context to a still image.

Do we think that's true, or do you think it's false? Three seconds.

Of course the answer is true.

We cannot absolutely add context through a thought-track.

It lets us dip into the character's mind and hear their thoughts as if it's our own.

It's very, very effective when developing a still image.

So who might the speaker be talking to? Option one the child? Option two the mum? Option three the interviewer? Or option four a friend? From what we've heard so far, what opinion do you have based on this? "It was last Monday, I think.

"People were walking up and down the busy high street.

"I see this child looking upset "so I go over and ask what is the matter.

"They say they cannot find their mum." Now I would like you to have a go at role playing the full text, as if to a friend.

Think about the vocal and physical skills that you need to use.

So the full text is, "It was last Monday, I think.

"People were walking up and down the busy high street.

"I see this child, looking upset "so I go over and ask what is the matter.

"They say they cannot find their mum.

"I said to them, It's ok we can find her, "if I lift you up, onto this table "look into the crowd, and let me know when you see her." Okay, so that's all you've got to say but I do need you to think about how you're going to say it and what physical skills you're going to use to help you when you deliver these lines.

Pause the video to be able to complete this task.

You might need to say this three or four different ways to be able to get a feel for how this character is coming through, okay, and who they are.

Click Resume when you're ready to continue.

Now that you've done that hopefully it's starting to build a picture in your mind of who the speaker is, and the scenario itself.

How much of that text do you think we could show without talking? A couple of words? A sentence? What about the entire thing? 'Cause that's what we're going to have to go with next.

Non verbal communication can say more than verbal can.

There's almost a whole new language which is just to do with the body.

That's the whole point of body language, it's a way of expressing yourself.

It's very creative and it should be very plain.

What parts of the story do you think you could gesture and mime? Okay, now that you've seen that, let's think about how we might be able to try and mime this ourselves.

Think about using those mime and gesture skills from start to finish.

"It was last Monday, I think.

"People were walking up and down the busy high street.

"I see this child looking upset "so I go over and ask what's the matter.

"They say they cannot find their mum.

"I said to them, It's ok we can find her, "if I lift you up, onto this table, look into the crowd "and let me know when you see her." Okay, so with those key words, let's say you're going to use them to guide you through.

So think we've got to identify a time period adjusted back in time.

There are other ideas we could explore there.

I think that's a moment to reflect.

People walking up and down the busy high street.

Think about how you could show those people.

Do you enact them walking past and then turn to become somebody else and then turn and then you're back into a position again? I see this child looking upset.

We need to reference that child.

We created a still image right at the start.

So why don't you rewind, utilise that and then dip out of that character to come back to the speaker, or mimer in this scenario? Okay, and so on and so forth you can do that with the rest of this text.

Pause the video to be able to do this and really consider your gestures your facial expressions, and your body language, okay.

They are all so important to contribute to the effectiveness of the mind, okay? You don't need to talk for this one, this is purely physical.

Click Resume once you've done this and you're happy, that what you've created is clear and communicates the key parts of this story.

"It was last Monday, I think.

"People were walking down the busy high street." You know, the dodgy one.

I was only passing through.

"I see this child looking upset "so I go over and ask what's the matter.

"They say, they" lost their mum.

Typical.

One wrong turn, and I've basically set up a daycare centre and it was my day off.

"I said to them, It's ok we can find her "if I lift you up, on this table, look into the crowd "and let me know when you see her." I have no time to waste, places to be and things to do.

I wasn't about to let no child get in the way of that.

Do you know how busy I am? I'm not letting a child get in the way of that.

Now of course, I would like you to develop adding asides into this text.

Think about speaking to this person the person that you imagine you speak to, to one side and then fix a certain point where you imagine your audience will be, and look at them directly address them when you do your aside.

Now, it doesn't matter a great deal, what your asides are but try and link them try and keep them addressing the same idea.

For example, if you've got someone who's being quite compassionate and quite caring in their emotive range to the speaker and then juxtapose by being quite brutal and being quite selfish to the audience, okay? So juxtaposing those ideas works brilliantly.

You could also show a more caring side or flip on his head.

So you don't seem like you care but to the audience you actually do, okay.

So just experiment, have some fun with it really and see how you get on with regards to having an aside and sharing that connection with your audience because that's the whole point.

Pause the video to complete this part of the task.

And then you may need to try it for a few times and click Resume once you're ready to continue.

Okay, how did you get on? I hope you've found a way to be quite creative with that with the way you put your asides.

That brings me to this statement.

An aside can go anywhere in the text.

Do you think that's true or false? The answer is of course true.

They can go anywhere at all, start, middle and it doesn't really matter.

The more you add the more context we understand as audience.

So what emotions might the speaker be experiencing as they say this text? Are there elements of fear in there for the child in question? Is that a sense of confusion? Do they understand what's going on? Is there more to understand here? Would that be more texts that we haven't yet heard? Is there concern, concern for the welfare of the child? Concern about the meetings they have or the appointments they've got booked? Think of how the speaker when address their audience in a different way to how they would address their friend.

And we've looked at how they've addressed their friend.

So now we want to contrast that, okay.

We want to look at a new perspective and we want to consider new elements of this speaker's character.

So now change your tone of voice between friend and audience.

The text is copied in below but now really consider who you are speaking to.

Before, we had the idea of an interviewer I think that would change the mood, wouldn't it? It would definitely bring in a sense of tension.

Maybe we could explore that one step further.

To do this, you need to pause the video, have a go try it out a few different ways see what different tones work better for what you want and your portrayal of the character, and then click Resume once you are ready to continue.

Another statement for you to consider.

Emphasis doesn't add character.

Do you think that's true, or do you think that's false? Three, two, one, of course it's false.

It can absolutely add a whole range of character.

It shows us more about what they're thinking than anything else.

It shows us what their real thoughts are, their inner beliefs, because if they stress a particular word in a certain way then it might tell us what they really think of that particular word.

Say for example, it is child.

You can say child in a soft way but you can also say child, which makes it sound negative.

So it really does give us the character's opinion.

Now, I would like you to experiment by adding in emphasis to certain words of this piece of text.

You can choose to do this with your asides or a bit of both, if you'd like the challenge.

So, we've identified the key parts of this story.

We have added mime to a fair few moments.

It helps us in our portrayal of the story itself.

But now you can look at emphasising key parts.

To do this, you need to obviously pause the video try it out multiple ways, just like the last task see what fits, you can be as creative as you like.

Just click Resume when you are ready to continue.

Okay, now you've added some emphasis to various sections of what you're trying to say.

I hope that gives you a sense of character and I hope it builds up the idea of what's really going on here? How does this person interact with different people in the space especially when they're dealing with someone like a child? So, have you emphasised words that give off a particular opinion about that character? If so, brilliant, mission success.

Now, we've reached the end of this lesson.

We've got to the point where we need to wrap up and consolidate what we've done in this unit of work.

So, today specifically, we have combined and continue to explore our vocal and physical skills in a new scenario.

We have explored still images and thought-tracks.

We have continued using asides to add context to a scene.

The text has given us an appropriate platform to not only explore each individual skill but also allow each one to build off of the other so well done.

And the entire units of work has been a mirror extension of today's lesson.

Today is just a way of combining and consolidating the skills used in one-off sections, so well done.

I've enjoyed delivering key aspects of this work and I hope you've enjoyed some of the activities related to it as well.

As always, if you have created a piece of work that you are particularly proud of if there has been a task set that you have particularly enjoyed and you would like to share it with us Oak National we would love to hear about it.

So, make sure, if you would like to do this that you ask your parent or carer for permission first whether you can share your work with us on Twitter and they can tag us using @OakNational, and #LearnwithOak.

Until next time, I look forward to seeing you on a future unit, take care and goodbye.