Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to drama.

This is exploring character and today is lesson two of four, playing with character.

My name is Mr. Wood, and I'm your teacher for this lesson.

We're going to explore a few more characters today and develop what we know about character from last lesson.

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

For this lesson, make sure that you've got plenty of space, you're doing this lesson inside, your shoes and socks are off, the floor isn't slippery, and you're wearing comfy clothes, ready for the lesson.

So today, we'll start with a recap of last lesson.

We'll then move into a warmup, so we're ready.

We'll then move on through understanding character traits before we begin exploring character traits.

So your key words for today's lesson are: Trait, and that is a distinguishing quality of a person.

Energy.

That is the strength required for physical activity.

Acting is the art of performing fictional roles.

And facial expressions, that is what you do with your face to show emotion or thought.

So let's recap what we did last lesson, We explored what a character is and hopefully you remember that a character has distinguishing qualities similar to trait that are specific to that person.

So it tells different people apart.

For example, if I was playing the character of a happy person, that would be different to a character of an angry person.

Okay, there are two different characters.

We also explored what makes a good character.

Can you remember? I'll give you the first one, imagination, and then belief.

And lastly, begins with a T, trust.

Okay, imagining your character, believing in your character, and then trusting what your character knows.

We understood where the character comes from.

Okay, so the root of all character is emotion.

And then we looked at some imagined characters as well.

So now gathered the space that I asked for earlier and let's do our up, so we're ready for the lesson.

We'll start the warm up with some light walking on the spot.

So.

And your hands are just going to become a little bit more exaggerated.

Think about as you're walking down an aisle of a supermarket and you see things on the shelf that you would like.

Okay, so we're going to take that one.

We're going to take that one.

We're going to take that one and that one.

And now we're going to do it for the entire aisle.

Are you ready? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

We've got lots of things.

We've been very greedy.

Now we're going to take everything in.

So imagine that we've got a small basket now with all of our things in.

Our shoulders have come in.

Our knees have come in slightly.

And although we're moving at the same pace, we're protecting our items. We're not looking elsewhere.

We're looking down.

We're looking up, looking down.

We're looking up.

We're looking down.

Okay.

Keep walking, but put your hands by your side because now you're going to turn around to face the back, and you're going to keep them walking.

And you're going to turn around this way.

Then you're going to face the front again and keep walking, because you think you've forgotten something.

Oh, There it goes again, stop.

And then come back.

You've forgotten something, but you can't remember what it is.

Oh, is it that? No, better keep walking then.

Now this time, you're seeing someone walk past you and you're interested to know what's going on.

There's another one coming up.

Look again.

But we need to exaggerate it.

So we're going to step out as we do it.

Okay, so we step out and look, watch them go past, and comeback in, walking.

And there's another person on the left.

We're going to be really nosy, and look and see what's in their basket.

Hmm, interesting.

Okay, I'm walking nice and freely.

This time someone's taken the last item off the shelf in the supermarket that you really want.

So we're going to stop and we're going to look to them as if we're really angry we're going to take it.

It's gone.

And we're back to walking.

And then the same thing's going to happen over there.

Are you ready? And it's gone.

Last time, over to the left, or your right I think.

And it's gone.

Okay, now we're walking.

This time, we're going to play a practical joke.

We're in the shopping market, supermarket, and we're shopping, and we see someone's trolley over there.

It's got all the things in that we really want, that we don't have in our own.

So we're going to go up, we're going to take it, and we're going to go this way.

Okay, we'll try that again.

Going to go there, going to take it, and we're going to go.

Last time, are you ready? We're going to go over, going to take it, and we're going to go.

Okay, well done.

Now if you feel like you are warm enough ready to continue, then we will start the lesson.

If you would like to go over those activities again, just click pause and rewind, and then we'll continue with the rest of the lesson now.

Now we're going to start by understanding some character traits now, and here is a list of a few.

Generous, loyal, loving adventurous, patient, rude, greedy, evil.

Traits can help us to recognise and understand a character instantly.

Traits like these help tell other characters apart.

Every character will have their own traits, and some characters may have the same trait, but they may have others that keep them different, keep them apart.

Okay, so for example, you can have two characters that are both loyal, but one of them may be generous and the other one may also be rude.

Think of a character in your favourite book, film, or TV show.

If you're struggling for ideas, then you can use the one from last lesson.

However, I would like you to come away from that and pick a new one.

Okay, I'm sure there are many people that you know well enough to depict one of their character traits.

Now that you have them, what traits do they have? Are they generous? Are they loyal? Have they got loving tendencies? Are they quite adventurous? Are they patient? Do they seem rude? Are they greedy? Or are they evil? Do you think that there are any traits that aren't on this list that they potentially have? If so, what are they? Are there more than one? Could you make a list perhaps in your head of all of the traits you think they have? For example, would my character be funny? Yes, my character is funny or comical.

Are they brave? Yes, they're brave.

They're also quite intellectual or smart too.

They are independent.

They are moral.

So they often make good moral decisions, meaning that they are a good character, essentially.

I wonder if any of your traits are the same as my traits for our two characters.

Now, a good character is relatable.

Audiences love to form a connection with characters that they can relate to.

And it doesn't mean that they have to be characters that have done exactly the same things as them.

It doesn't mean to say that they can only connect to characters that they understand.

Because generally speaking, characters that are flawed or characters that have made a bad decision are often more relatable, because we make mistakes all the time.

I make mistakes on a daily basis.

I'm sure you do too, but that's okay.

And audiences will connect to characters that make wrong decisions and learn from it.

So what character traits would you say you have as a person? Are you independent because you're learning a lesson on your own? I think so.

Are you driven? I think so.

Are you brave? Are you loyal? Are you adventurous? Are you creative? Have a think in your head about what character traits you think you have.

Now that you have that, we're going to start exploring character traits.

Now I've got a statement for you to think about first.

Frankie Fun is the name of this character.

Is that true or is that false? Three, two, one.

False.

The name is Frankie Forgetful from last lesson.

Now I would launch you to join in with me for this bit because we are going to start exploring Frankie Forgetful.

The first thing to remember about Frankie forgetful is their confused facial expressions.

Okay, they are always confused about what it is they've forgotten.

They can't remember what it was.

They can't remember where it was and they can't remember what time they've got to be somewhere.

Very confusing, very upsetting.

So we've always got to have a pained facial expression, thinking, "Uh, I know I'm supposed to be somewhere.

I know I'm supposed to do something, but I can't remember what it was." They've also got hand gestures, and these hand gestures, as we can see from the image there, are all over the place.

Okay, so the hand gestures are thinking, "Wait, there was something over there.

Actually, I'm not quite sure what I was doing there.

I think there was something.

I don't know." Okay, so there's always a sense of being here, there, and everywhere with the hands.

And lastly, they think about stillness.

Okay, so Frankie Forgetful is always considering in the moments of stillness, what it was they forgot.

And when we apply that all together, and we can do this now in your space, confused facial expression, thinking what was it they had to do.

And then notice the stillness as we add gestures in as well.

Okay, so I'm going to.

You have to play around with this.

You can pause the video, so that you can still see the actions on the screen.

Okay, and you can give this a go in your own space.

Click resume when you're ready to see the next character.

What sort of character do you think this might be? Can we give them a name? They look very happy, very content.

This character is Gru Greedy.

Now the interesting thing about Gru is they are very slow and very fast, and they flip back and forth between those two stance.

So sometimes they may be thinking, "I'm just thinking about what I want," but then they might move quickly to get what they want.

Okay, so you got to think about how Gru, Gru Greedy, move slowly and quickly when they have to.

They lead with the hands as well, because they're always thinking about what they can have.

So they're thinking about, "Oh, I can have that, then, oh, I can have that." Okay, so they move around the space, they might lead with the hands.

Okay.

As they're coming forward, "Yes, I'm going to take that." Okay.

Now the eyes, the eyes are very important for Gru because the eyes are always looking for something to have, and it doesn't matter what that thing is.

It could be pens out of a pot.

It could be coins from a purse.

It could be number of T-shirts.

Okay, it could be anything at all.

They are greedy and they want them all, and they're going to get them all, or at least they'll try to do their best.

So the eyes are scanning the room.

They're looking around, and the hands are there too now.

Okay, so the hands are thinking about what they are going to get, and then they move.

Okay, so they're thinking, what can they have next.

They are going for it with the hands, and they'll move quickly to get it, okay.

You can now have a go with this by pausing the video and experimenting with what you think Gru Greedy might move like.

Okay, click resume when you're ready to continue, and we'll move on to the next character.

What sorts of character do we think this might be? They look very different to our other characters.

This character is called Shaina Shy.

Now Shaina leads with the eyes.

Okay, the eyes look around the room first, because the eyes are navigating a way through.

They're thinking about how they are going to get out of this room safely, and they don't like looking at other people.

They don't like talking to other people.

They like to do their own thing and continue.

Okay.

So the eyes are always the first thing to look around.

They are on the look out for threats and dangers.

They see people as a danger or a threat.

Okay.

And the shoulders, the shoulders are very different than the other two characters we've looked at so far.

They are inwards, and it provides a sense of structure or safety, like a cage.

Now if we were to think about Shaina moving backwards.

Shaina is going to look at her shoulders the shoulders yet again give us security and protection from the things around us.

Now the hands might come in as well.

Hands might be kept safe around the structure of the cage, okay.

Now we can see the image that Shaina's face is down towards the ground.

That's a great position to think about being in.

Because although we're not hiding our facial expressions by looking all the way down at the floor, we are using our eyes to lead down towards the floor, and then they come up every so often in the space.

Okay.

So now is a good time to play around with this character, because they are different to the other one's we've explored so far.

Click pause to have a go at this.

And then once you've given it a go, click resume so we can continue with the next part of the lesson.

We've got another different character now.

This one seems to be different to the last one that we just explored, and I wonder if you can figure out in which ways.

Notice what they're doing in the image, the features of the face, the way in which they stand and the gestures in the image as well.

It seems to be very specific.

What sorts of character do you think this might be? This is Nat Naughty.

And this character is very mischievous.

They like to get other people into trouble.

They lead with the hands, but not in the same way as Gru Greedy.

Not, "Aha, I'm going to grab that." It's instead "Haha, what can I do to push you and take that?" Okay, so they're quite let's say coercive.

So they float around like oil.

Okay.

The next point, which is slightly different to the oil concept is that they're quite bouncy.

So even though that they're quiet oily with how they move with the hands, they're quite sparky and they can jump back and forth in the scenario.

So let's say we've got someone over there with a shopping trolley, and they've got something in that we want.

We're here, we're thinking, "Oh yes, I'm going to take, I'm going to take what they've got in that trolley." And they might go pounce, go in there to grab it with the hand, and then run away.

Okay, so you need to think about how you are going in with the hands, but also bouncing and giving that hand gesture some energy.

Okay, so it's coming from the floor, up into the body, and take it.

All right.

And then lastly, they're quite loud.

Nat Naughty doesn't stay quiet.

They like to be the centre of attention and they like to know that their victim, whoever it is that they're taking off or pushed over, or made a fool out of, that they're aware.

Okay, they like to giggle and laugh after it's happened.

Think about having all of your energy coming from the floor, up into the body, and then thinking about, "Ooh, push you and I'm going to take that, and then I'm going to run away." Okay.

Audiences connect better to characters they don't relate to.

Do you think that's true or false? Three seconds.

Of course the answer is false.

Audiences can relate better to characters that they have similar interest with or people that they start to understand.

Audiences can relate better to characters that are similar to themselves.

Now it's your turn to improvise character from an image.

So take this image of Nat Naughty who you will act out.

You must improvise how they look around the room you're in.

Think about how they see different objects that will change the way you look at them.

So, for example, I've got post-it notes and I've got a glass of water.

Which do we think Nat Naughty is most likely to go towards? The water, because they can probably be a bit more mischievous with that water.

You don't need to physically pick up any of those objects.

It's just an example for you to consider what Nat Naughty might do in that particular environment.

You need to use energy to make your facial expressions clear.

Pause this video to complete the task, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

Well done.

This marks the end of the lesson.

And today you've worked brilliantly to get through basic character traits.

We then started to explore some very basic characters and some of the emotions connected to them, as well as started to develop a sense of character towards the end of this lesson two.

I hope you've enjoyed the activities today.

I look forward to our next lesson where we're going to start putting some of these characters and some new ones into specific scenarios.

As always, if you would like to share your work, that will be brilliant.

Just make sure that you ask your parents or carer for permission first, and they can tag us on Twitter using @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

But until next time, take care, and I will see you in lesson three.

Buh-bye.