Lesson video

Hello everybody and welcome to drama.

I'm Mr. Bateson and I'm going to be your teacher for this topic an introduction to drama conventions.

And when we say drama conventions we mean skills or techniques and today we're going to be learning two drama conventions, still image and transitions.

You'll be using those skills and your imagination to create a piece of drama by the end of the lesson.

So if you're ready to get started let's see what you'll need.

So you're going to need a pen or a pencil and you're going to need some paper to write on.

You'll need some space to work in and a chair to do our acting on.

Because this is a practical lesson and you'll be moving around, we need to keep safe so this lesson should take place inside.

Make sure there is enough space for you to work, including above, so look out for any light fittings.

You might want to take your shoes and socks off and act in bare feet, either way make sure the floor is not slippy.

Wear some comfortable clothing so you can move around.

You can pause the video now if you need to get anything for this lesson.

In this lesson the first thing we'll do is explore a picture stimulus which I'll show you in a moment, then using your pencil and your paper you'll create a mind map in response that will give you some ideas for our drama.

Next I'll talk you through the key terminology: still image and transition.

Then you'll be able to develop your own still images and transitions to create a piece of drama which you'll perform at the end.

There's also an exit quiz where you can check what you've learnt.

The key words for this lesson: still image.

And a still image is like a photograph or a statue.

An actor is frozen in position that shows the audience who they are or how they're feeling or maybe what they're doing.

To make a still image we use our body, we use our gestures and our actions and we use our facial expressions.

So those are the things that I will be looking for in today's lesson.

We'll also learn about transition, which is moving from one still image to the next and that can be done in different ways for different effect.

You'll be able to experiment.

And finally stimulus, that will be our starting point for the piece of drama, something to give us ideas and today that's going to be a picture.

I'm going to show you the picture right now.

So get your thinking caps on.

This is our picture stimulus and I wonder what comes to your mind when you look at it.

Take a really close look, study it, what can you see in the picture and then think what's going on? Are they waiting for something? Maybe they are.

You might be wondering who is that person? You might be wondering, what might they be feeling? What could have happened here? What might happen next? I want you to write down all the words and phrases that come to your mind from looking at this picture.

I want you to aim for at least 10 ideas but you can write more if you like.

Here's some of my examples.

I thought the person looked a little bit anxious.

You know, maybe they were worried about something or maybe they're waiting for something good.

Maybe they're waiting for something bad.

Are they on the inside looking out? Or are they on the outside looking in? I want to hear your ideas.

Pause the video now and using your pen and paper write down as many things that come to your mind as you can from looking at this picture.

When you've finished, you can resume.

How did you get on? How many ideas did you come up with? So many ideas from just one picture, brilliant work.

Here's some of the things that I came up with and I could've probably done more.

I had so many ideas.

I thought that this person might be a little bit lonely because they're by themselves.

But then I thought, no, maybe they're in love and maybe they're waiting for somebody to arrive, maybe they were feeling a bit down and they were asking themselves the question, why me? Maybe they pulled themselves together and they thought have some courage.

Maybe they're a dreamer.

Maybe they're just looking out the window thinking, maybe they're hope and maybe actually their mind's racing with so many things.

I hope you've got lots of words and phrases like this.

If you feel like you want to add to your mind map press the pause button now and you can add some more words, some longer sentences or some more descriptions.

If you're ready, let's move on to the next bit.

How are we going to show all those things and those feelings in our drama? We're going to use a still image.

Do you remember still image from our key words? Let's see if you can remember what a still image is.

True or false, a still image is like a photograph or a statue, an actor frozen still in a position? Point at which you think is the correct answer, true or false? The answer is true.

We're going to make some of our own still images now and we want our still images to be good.

So let's see if you can remember what makes a good still image.

True or false, to make a still image we're going to use our body language, our gestures or our actions and facial expressions? Point to the answer which you think is correct, true or false? It's true and I'm going to show you some examples to help you in a moment.

A good still image includes being still, includes your facial expressions, your actions, or your gestures, your body language and I'm going to ask you to use some imaginative ideas as well.

Okay to start with we're going to focus on our facial expressions and we can really show how characters feel using our facial expressions.

So we're going to choose some words from our mind map and we're going to try to bring them to life.

One of the words that I had on my mind map was lonely so I'm going to see if I can show someone being lonely just using my facial expression.

I'm going to do it after three.

One, two, three.

And then I held that for five seconds.

That's a good length of time to hold our still images.

What other words did I have on my mind map? I had the word hopeful.

So I'm going to again, use my facial expressions to see if I can show that I am hopeful.

I might even bringing in some actions, and some gestures as well.

One, two, three.

I tried to keep as still as I could and I tried to change the different parts of my face.

Maybe do something different with my eyes or my mouth and you could see that I did actually bring in some of my actions in my gestures as well.

Let's give it a try.

Now is your chance to practise your facial expressions.

We're going to create facial expressions for these three words.

First, we're going to look at the word anxious, which means worried.

Can you show that you're worried just using only your face? I'll count to three and then you show me your facial expression for five seconds and hold it still as you can.

Ready? One, two, three.

Excellent work.

Here was my go at anxious and you can see that I've used my mouth and my eyes are quite open wide to show that I am anxious.

I wonder how you did? Let's see how you do with a different word.

Excited.

You ready? One, two, three.

Buzzing, let's have a look at my version of excited and see and compare it to yours.

You can see I have my mouth in a different position here and I've got my head kind of tilted back as well.

So there's all sorts of different ways that you can change your facial expression.

Here's a harder one to finish with then.

The question why me, that person at the window.

If they were thinking, why me? What would their face look like? You can show me after three.

One, two, three.

Good work.

How did you do? For why me I kind of did the sad corners of my mouth there and you can see that I've narrowed my eyes as well.

Like we said, you could also add in some actions or gestures.

If I was excited, I might kind of put my hands up as well.

If I was worried, I might have my hand to my face like this.

If you want to pause the video now you can practise more facial expressions using other words from your mind map.

You might want to do them in front of a mirror or maybe get somebody to take a photograph of them.

You can add some actions and some gestures too.

If you feel like you've had enough practise let's move on to the next section of the lesson.

In this part of the lesson we're going to create a still image not just using our face, but using our actions and our gestures and our whole body as well.

So you're going to need to stand up in an area where you've got a little bit of space.

I will demonstrate four still images.

I'm going to be using a chair.

You might want to use a chair too, and then you'll have a chance to make some of your own drama.

Remember a good still image includes being still.

We've been holding our still images for five seconds.

Using your facial expressions, we've had plenty of practise at that, clear actions and gestures.

We started to add in those a little bit.

Now we're going to use our body language too and see if you can spot how imaginative I've been in my demonstration.

So we've been thinking about that person by the window and how they might be feeling and we've been showing those emotions using our facial expressions.

To create a full still image we use our facial expressions, our actions and our gestures and our body language and we can show what that person was doing in the room as well.

The first image we saw was them standing by the window and if I was to create that still image it would look something like this.

That's a little bit boring and you can't see my face.

So I wonder what else that person might have been doing in that room.

Maybe before we saw them stood at the window maybe they were sat on their chair thinking, maybe they were getting really frustrated, maybe they were getting so frustrated they picked their chair in the air.

Maybe they were relaxing.

Maybe they were praying.

Maybe they were writing in their diary.

Maybe they were leaning on the chair, smiling, because they were waiting for something exciting to happen.

Now I've just created a still image to show the person by the window doing lots and lots of different things and I bet you've got some ideas of your own too.

I think this is my favourite still image.

I'm going to use my facial expressions to show that I'm concentrating because I'm looking in my diary or reading my diary.

I'm going to use my attitudes and my gestures to make it really clear that I've got something in my hands.

I'm going to be imaginative and I'm going to put my feet up on the chair like this.

I'm going to hold it for five seconds.

Now you can have a go at making some still images of your own.

So what did you think? Did you see me being still for at least five seconds? Did you notice that my facial expression was quite focused? I imagined the person at the window was reading a book or writing in their diary so my eyes were really focused on my hands and my hands were really clear in a gesture to show that I was reading the book or looking at my diary.

I've tried to use my body in an interesting way, I kind of sat sideways on the chair and put my feet up.

I also thought that was quite imaginative because you can do all sorts of different things.

You could stand next to the chair, in front of the chair.

You could sit on the chair, behind the chair.

I'd like to see what you come up with.

Pause the video now and play around with making some still images of your own as the person at the window.

What do you think they might be doing? Try out lots of different ideas.

Take your time.

When you're ready to move on, we can resume.

So how did you get on? Did you find it easy being still for five seconds? Did you use clear actions and some gestures to show what you were doing? Did you use your face to show your emotions? We've been working on our body language so I hope you experimented with the way you were standing or sitting, or maybe you were leaning on the chair and I'm sure you had lots of imaginative ideas to show what that person in the room was doing.

So now we're going to move on to something new.

We're going to make a series of still images and we're going to use transitions to put them all together.

Can you remember transitions from our key words? Let's see, is this true or false? A transition is when you talk to the audience to tell them that you're moving on to something new.

Point at the answer that you think is correct now.

It's false.

A transition is moving from one image to the next and it can do that in different ways.

That's what we're going to experiment with now.

So when you move from one image to another image you're going to move carefully and with good timing, you don't need to rush and that involves planning well.

So we're going to have time to practise moving from one still image to another still image to another still image and again, we can be imaginative.

So we've been experimenting creating different still images to show what the person by the window was doing in their room.

I wonder what ideas you came up with.

Now we're going to take five still images and we're going to link them together to create a sequence.

To start with I'll call out the numbers of the images.

Eventually once we've practised you'll be able to move between the images without any words.

So to start with we need to choose five still images.

Here's what I've been thinking of.

My first image I'm going to start with the image where I was looking in the diary from before.

So this will be image number one.

This will be image two.

Image number three, image number four, and image number five.

Do be careful if you lift up any chairs at home, look out for any lights.

So if I put all those images together in a sequence it will look a little bit like this.

Number one.

And you can see, I finished with my first image again to create a sequence.

I wonder if you can have a go at creating your own sequence of five still images with transitions in between.

Now you've watched the demonstration have a go at creating your own sequence of five still images with transitions.

You should practise carefully so you can move smoothly between each image.

You can experiment with the way you move between each image.

You could go fast or you could go slow.

You could include smooth movements or something a little more jerky, have a go and see what you come up with.

Pause the video now and practise your task.

When you're ready to start again click resume and we'll share our work.

How did you get on? I hope you've been practising your images carefully.

Let's share together.

I'll talk you through the transitions to start with.

So first of all, I'd like to see image number one.

Get yourself ready in that position and keep still for five seconds.

Image number one.

Great, okay now let's see image number two.

Image number three, number four, image number five, and go back to image number one, great stuff.

We've started to tell the story of that person in that room.

This time I'm just going to click my fingers instead of calling out the numbers and see if you can move smoothly and carefully through your still images.

How did you do? Think back over your still images.

Did you include the key features? Were they still? Did you use your facial expressions to show your emotions? Did you use your actions and your gestures to show us what you were doing? And your body language did you use that in an interesting way? Did you have imaginative ideas? Did you practise moving smoothly and carefully between your images? Now that you've got your still images and your transitions you can experiment by performing them to different music.

Does it change the way that the drama feels? Maybe if you choose music that's fast and energetic it might give the drama a different feel.

Maybe if you chose some slow music maybe the scene might feel more sad.

This is my example.

Thank you so much for taking part in this drama lesson today, you've worked really hard learning about still images and transitions.

I've been really impressed with all the ideas that we came up with just from that one picture of that person looking through the window.

We've learned about what makes a good still image and we've practise transitions between still images to make a really smooth sequence.

Now you've got your still images and your transitions you can experiment with putting music to them.

If you're really proud of the work that you've done today in this lesson, then with a parent or a carer you can share the work with us on Twitter.

I'd really love to see some of the videos of your still images and your transitions.

If not I'll see you soon, hopefully in another drama lesson.