Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to Drama.

This is called exploring character.

And our first lesson of four is called "How do you see character?" My name is Mr. Wood.

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

For this lesson, can you make sure that you've got plenty of space? You're taking part inside, your shoes and socks are off the floor isn't slippery and you're wearing comfy clothes ready to continue.

You can pause the video now, if you need to make those things happen.

We'll start today's lesson with a warm up to get our bodies ready to move.

Then we'll start with what is character before we continue with where we can see character.

And then we will finish with experimenting with some of these characters.

Your keywords for today's lesson are, character and that is a person with qualities distinctive to them.

So it's just about them, it's what makes them who they are.

Energy, and that's the strength required for physical activity and we'll need energy for today's lesson.

Acting is the art of performing fictional roles.

So acting to become a different character and building.

Building is the creation of something over time, so building something up.

So let's start with our warmup.

Make sure you got all the space that I asked for before okay? So now let's get started, can we walk on the spot? Can you put your arms out to your side? Can you bring them in as we're still walking? Out, in, out, in, out.

And now we're going to bring them in, plus we're still walking, then turn them up.

And they're going to go up and down, up and down, up and down.

We're going to go back out, in, out, in.

Okay, now let's see if we can mix this up.

We're going to put one arm up like this and we're going to go up and out, and in, up and out, and in, up and out, and in.

Now let's swap, okay? Up and out, in, up and out, in, up and out, in.

Okay, lovely.

Now we're going to take our hand turn to a point and we're going to draw a big semicircle.

Okay, a bit like a smile.

So we go down and up the other side, down and up the other side.

We're going to swap hands, and down, and up, down and up, down and up, okay.

Shake your hands for me.

Out to the side ,into the middle and down by your sides.

Okay, if you would like to go over that again please pause the video and rewind.

If not, let's continue with the lesson.

So what is a character? So a character is someone who has traits or qualities distinctive to them.

It tells them apart from other people, imagination belief and trust are important when making a character.

You've really got to imagine who that character is deep down.

So you've got to decide those things believe in the power of the character, so that is having faith in what they do in their actions and where their power comes from and trust.

Trust the actions and thoughts of the character.

So knowing that you can imagine what they would do believe in them but then trust that this is what that character would do.

Now, we're going to start by visualising a character, they can be very useful to us in storytelling.

To become a character, we need to pretend to be somebody else, okay? So think of a character that you know well.

This could be someone from a film, or from a book from a TV series that you know well, okay.

But it has to be someone that you know a lot about.

What do they look like? And if it helps to close your eyes here then do.

What do they look like? What kind of hair do they have? Picture their face, what features do they have on their face? Do they have a cut or a scar? Do they have long hair do they have a pointy nose? Do they have small lips? Do they have blue eyes? What do they sound like? Do they have an accent? Is that voice soft or is it harsh? Describe them in one word.

So think about one word that would summarise that character really well.

What would that word be? Now you've got to remember to treat your character with respect.

What we're doing now, this is what we would call serious pretend.

And a character won't seem real if you aren't working in role seriously.

Okay? So you've got to believe, like we said before in your character, believe that for that moment, when you say I'm putting my characters hats on you are that character.

Believe in them and the audience will believe you, okay? What are you doing in here? Get out! Get out now! Go, get out! You don't belong in here.

Put that down, put that back.

Put that back and get out, now! Okay now it's your turn to have a go at exploring character.

So using the character you chose for the last activity, decide and practise how they stand, how they walk and how they speak.

You've got to believe in your character like I said before, this is serious pretend, okay.

Let those words guide you as you explore how they stand, walk, and speak.

This activity will take you a few minutes, so don't rush.

You just need to pause the video and click resume when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? I hope you found the activity fun.

Did you manage to make your character believable? Did you stay in role? Where can we see character? This is what we're going to focus on next.

Characters are absolutely everywhere.

They make up all of the world around us and without characters we would only have places and things.

So the characters help make a story interesting, they help add detail to a story, and they help us understand where it might be going.

Characters come from an emotion and they build and evolve from there to something that's quite let's say expanded or something that is much bigger, okay? So an emotion is almost the root of a character and that in itself can evolve too.

Every character that you hear in a play, in a story of some kind, they are all important, okay? So there is not one character who is lesser than another.

Every character has their own function or their own purpose.

I'd like to know if you can see character in this image.

So have a look at the image there.

This person has an emotion and this person has a name.

See if you can figure out what that might be when you explore how they stand, how they walk and how they speak.

Believe in your character.

This is the same structure to the last activity.

Okay? So as you go away and pause the video, you're going to explore how this character walks speaks and stands, okay? Click resume once you're ready to continue.

Now, we're going to be experimenting with some characters.

So this is Frankie Forgetful.

Use your imagination to decide their background.

Now this can be anything at all, okay? And this will feed our next activity.

You're going to imagine the character, Frankie Forgetful.

I'd like you to make some assumptions make some guesses and make up your own mind as to what that background information is.

For example, how old are they? Where do they come from? What do they do for fun? These are just three questions that you can start thinking about when you make up their background information.

As an extra challenge, you can think about all of the other information such as family members such as what their favourite food is, okay? So get creative and use your imagination.

To complete this task, click pause, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

Characters can come from anywhere.

"But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it! "Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me! What feelings or thoughts are presented in this line? Are there more than just one? What are all the possible thoughts and feelings? Do you think that we could perform this in many different ways? If so, how many do you think there are? Should we have a look? "But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it! "Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me! " But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it on it.

"Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me." "But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it! "Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me!" "But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it.

"Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me." "But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it! "Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

It couldn't have been me! Okay.

So you're going to have a go at experimenting with three different ways of saying this line.

Now you saw defensive, upset, not bothered, angry and confused.

So you can use any one of those five but you do need to think about keeping the line the same and considering the emotions in your character's voice.

Okay? So as you think about this line think about who your character is this saying it, and at the heart of it is that emotion.

So if you're stuck, consider upset, angry and confused.

Okay.

The line is, "But it wasn't me.

"I didn't do it! "Honest, I was sat here the entire time.

"It couldn't have been me! Okay? Pause the video to have a go with this it may take you a fair few minutes and a couple of rehearsals to get this to a point where you're happy with it and then click resume, when you're ready to move on.

Imagination is important when making a character do you think that's true or do you think that's false? Of course the answer's true.

Imagination used well helps us to make a believable character.

Now let's see if we can recognise some characters.

Between image one, two and three, one of them is happy, which one do you think that is? It's number three.

But how do you know this? What is it about their body language and their facial expressions that tells us they're happy? If you said that they are fairly open and they're waving with a massive smile, then that is exactly right, well done.

Oh hello? How are you? Very good, thank you.

Hello? How are you? Oh hello? And how are you? Yes, yes.

All right then, Well, I'm going to go to that.

Yes, yes.

Alright then, goodbye.

Bye.

Bye.

Generally a happy character has the same features, so it's always in the facial expressions with a smile.

The posture is generally relaxed and is quite soft.

And then we've also got gestures that are warm and welcoming.

For example, it can be a wave, it could be a warm hug, it could be a soft sigh as they look at someone, okay? Think of being happy as similar to being outside on a summer's day.

And there's a warm breeze that warm breeze is like happiness, okay? So think of the character as floating around in happiness, try not to incorporate too much tension.

So the body should be quite relaxed, Shouldn't be scrunched up, we shouldn't be holding on to any anxiety or any issues or pressure.

We should be able to let it go, okay? So a happy space is a free space free of negative thoughts.

Generally we can see a character like this instantly it's is something that's easily recognisable to an audience when we've got the same clear, obvious features.

And for this character of a happy person it's in the facial expressions with that smile it's in the relaxed posture and the warm and embracing gestures.

Imagine this character being on a bus or in a train station and maybe I have to tell them apart from other people like that , okay? Because of the obvious body language and the facial expressions, we can clearly see the difference between them and somebody else.

So this means we've come to the end of the lesson.

Today, we have looked at a lot of different parts of the character.

Firstly, what a character is, where a character comes from.

We've began to experiment with some characters specifically getting character from the line and getting character from an image.

And next lesson, we will start combining those skills as we look at specific characters and a hint has been in some of them today.

So well done for your hard work and well done for your energy and enthusiasm.

I hope you've enjoyed the lesson.

I've enjoyed it.

So I hope you've enjoyed it just as much.

Now, if you've taken part in some of these activities and created content that you would like to share then you can.

You need to ask your parent or carer for permission first, and they will be able to share your lovely work with us on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's all for now.

So well done again, and I will look forward to seeing you in lesson two where we begin to play with some of these characters in a much more elaborate way.

Until then take care and goodbye.