Em's Blog

Impromptu Speech:

The blog post about this speech is here.

Persuasive Speech:

8B Drama: Persuasive Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

So my persuasive speech was about Coca-Cola vs Pepsi. I think that this speech was different from others because it wasn’t really convincing people to choose one side, but instead I stated the facts of both sides, and let the audience choose which one they would rather like.

I think that I did alright on this speech. I was able to go over 3 minutes, and I projected my voice and spoke clearly. I used lots of hand gestures, and perhaps may have over done it. Also, I fidgeted a lot, especially with my hair, and I looked down on my cue cards lots of times. I think that the structure of my speech was good, but I’m not too sure if the history of both drinks were relevant. But the structure was well done, with a good introduction that wasn’t “Hello I’m going to talk about Coca-Cola and Pepsi.” and I ended with a good conclusion  about my opinion, and just an overall summary.

I think that my best speech was the persuasive one, because I spoke clearly, and it was easier for me to do. Also there weren’t any awkward pauses, because I knew what I was going to say, unlike the impromptu speech where it was entirely improv, and I had a huge pause in the middle. I think I can improve on not over doing my hand gestures, which I always seem to do. When ever I talk, I will use hand gestures, and fidget a little. Another speech that was captivating was Daniel’s (here) because he spoke clearly and had very good eye contact with everyone. He spoke loudly and slowly, and unlike me, he didn’t use lots and lots of hand gestures.

So in drama, we had to do an improv speech, where you pick a topic out of a hat, and then you’re given 30 seconds to think about it. From there, you have to give a speech about it for one minute.

8B Drama: Impromptu Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

My topic was truck.

I think that I did alright on this speech. I was able to project my voice, and I think that I had good pronunciation  and people were able to hear and understand what I said. Though I think that I problem that I had was I spoke fast (as I usually do when I get nervous) and because I didn’t have any palm cards, my hand gestures were over-done.  Though I think the structure of my speech was well done, I did have a huge pause in the middle of it, but I think that it was alright though. I don’t think there was a lot of emphasis, because I didn’t have to put emphasis on really anything. Except for the part where I was explaining what I didn’t like about trucks, and there I don’t think I used a lot of emphasis. Though overall, this wasn’t a bad speech, as I was able to complete over that one minute, and I spoke clearly, and projected.

8B Drama: Character Formative from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

What is the skill that I used?

The skills I used was just of course, acting. But for my character, I tried to react like how the character would in reality.

How did I approach creating the character?

I wanted to show the audience that the character really though about her family, but also the people around her. In a normal situation she might look like an average stranger, but when the situation gets worse she looks for help.

Was it successful-if so how?

I think this was kind of successful  because when watching the video you can see that in the beginning that my character was just standing on the train with a mutual expression, whereas when the earthquake happened, she was really worried about her daughter, and the passenger next to her helped her.

What needed improvement? 

I think just needed better acting skills, because when the earthquake started happening, I wouldn’t have reacted like that in reality. Also there were moments when Marii and I were talking at the same time, and that could’ve been confusing for the audience.

How can I use these skills in performance?

I think that to show the difference in character in different situations always helps in performance, because there will be moments where characters change.

8B Drama: Status from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Describe the progress have you made so far. (You may need to review the skills and knowledge area for the unit, either on your cover sheet or at the top of this wiki).  Describe the story elements and techniques that you used and how successful it was.

In the beginning of this unit I wasn’t sure how to use body percussion or chanting in a skit or play.  Also I learnt how we can use narration, not only as one person but you can change the people. The techniques I used was narration, which I think worked pretty well. Also my group used body percussion, and I think that was alright, it exaggerated the scene a bit, so that’s alright. We also used echoing, but it didn’t really work well, it seemed a bit forced, and not natural.

What are the strengths and weaknesses in your scene as a whole and as an individual?

As a whole group it wasn’t that well. We kept to our story and all, but we had a lot to work on. The emotions didn’t really show through, and transitions from one scene to another was poor. Many of my group laughed through some scenes and we weren’t always at an angle. What was good I think was trading roles with Yong Won with narration and object. As an individual, I think I spoke loud, and clearly, but I wasn’t always in an angle, and sometimes I blocked people.

Is your scene successful? Why or why not? 

My scene is slightly successful, but not entirely. Like in the above, I wasn’t always at and angle, or was blocking people. But I tried to show emotion and speak loudly and clearly. As an object, I was good at the timing, and not moving, and not showing emotion. But I sometimes looked at the people to see if they were getting on with their scenes.

What could you do to further improve your artistic process? 

Keep on practicing. If I really want to work on my artistic process and use it I could join drama clubs for the school play and such after school. But knowing me I’m probably not going to need these skills that much in my life, except for mostly narration, because narration is a lot like speeches, and presenting presentations.

For my final speech I talked about the best day of my life, seeing Taylor Swift in concert. I think I did a lot better than I did on my first speech.

Compared to my first speech, I talked really fast. This was probably because I knew I had a time limit and my speech seemed a lot longer than everyone else’s. (Limit was 3 minutes, I got 3:08) When I was speaking I was telling myself to look people in the eye, not just look at the camera. One thing that I always seemed to notice is that I always looked at the same people, but maybe that was just me. I think my speech structure was better this time because I had more time to write it, compared to last time which was just around 15 minutes. I think I used tone in my speech, to over exaggerate points. My hand gestures were the same as before, but kind of different because I had the palm cards in my hand.

I think the strengths in my speech was eye contact, hand gestures, and sometimes different use of tones. I looked people in the eye when I spoke, and I didn’t look up, or just into the camera. I used tones this time, like when I said huge, or my mind was blown, and such. My weakness was speaking fast. I think I spoke fast because knowing the time limit, and just being nervous. Also, I messed up my words, or stumbled over them. For the second time, during an assessment I switched my words the wrong way around. The first time I did it was in my English oral, where I said skin of colour, not colour of skin. Now I said singer or band of your favorite instead of your favorite singer or band.

I think my speech was successful because I met all the content/skills that we were supposed to by the end of this unit,

Practice, practice, practice. That’s usually what works. Most people would think that in school we wouldn’t say speeches, but for me I want to get better at speeches, because to get into student council, you have to make, and say a speech. Hopefully if I practice enough, I’ll be able to get into student council again.

Hey guys, so on Friday we had to make a that was above 1 minute but under 2. I was first, thanks to eeny, meeny, miny, moe x3 I was first. Natually, just my luck.

Here’s the vid:

So here’s my reflection:

I think that I was good at speaking loudly and know what I was going to talk about. I actually realized halfway through that the speech I wrote wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided to improvise, and it actually turned out good.  What was bad was that I always put my hands in my hand, I said amazing feeling waaaay too many times, and in the beginning I messed up one word, and it makes me look really dumb.

The first unit we did in drama is mime. For the final project we got separated into different groups. I was with Ken and Rishi. Watch the video first perhaps, mine starts from 10:08. Hope you enjoy it

Now for the questions…

Describe the progress have you made so far. (You may need to review the skills and knowledge area for the unit, either on your cover sheet or at the top of this wiki)

I think my mime overall got better. Specifically I think maybe addressing the audience, as well as perhaps staying in character.

What are the strengths and weaknesses in your summative piece of work?

I would say staying in character and addressing the audience was good.  I could work on expression on my face, and making sure everyone can see what’s going on.

Is your scene successful? Why or why not?

I think out group’s scene was successful, because it did have some problems (falling food, falling luggage, cork hitting passenger in head, etc) and we all did try our best. Well I did at least. And we made it without making any mistakes or laughing, mostly at least.

What could you do to further improve your artistic process?   (Please provide details or examples for this)

I should show more emotion in my face and in my actions, and make sure that the audience can always see what I am doing, even though it’s sometimes hard when you’re talking to someone side by side. Over exaggerating is hard as well, and making things look worse than it is, because it’s hard to act without the problem actually being there.

Think about how Gene Kelly used props, rhythm, expression and moving through space.

Gene Kelly used an umbrella as a prop. He used it freely, but he didn’t go wild with it. He kept it in the rythum, and it matched his dance. It also showed his feeling, and it matched the music. When the music was really bright and happy Gene Kelly used the umbrella by spinning around and looking happy. But he didn’t only use the umbrella, he used the rain as well.

Gene Kelly’s rhythm was brilliant. He went with the rhythm, and when he tapped dance he matched it with the rhythm. When he jumped in the water it matched with the rhythm. Also the things you would do normally-bowing, waving good bye and taking his hat off was with the rhythm. It didn’t seem awkward it seemed perfectly fine.

Gene Kelly’s expression was happy. You could see it in his dance, and in his rhythm.  He did a pretty good job showing what his expression was. There was a spring in his step and his prop showed it as well.

Gene Kelly really moved through space. Near the end, he was splashing around and spinning around in the middle of the road, taking lots of space. Also moving from where he started and jumping on the pole was smooth not really out of place. Gene Kelly used different was to move through space-one was of course just walking but even then he had rhythm in his step. But he also tapped around the place, and jumped up and down.

My opinion of this dance is that it is really amusing. When I watched it over and over it always put a smile on my face. It makes me laugh with joy because nobody would sing and dance in the rain. Also I love the bit when he just jumps and spins around the middle of the road, it’s something you would see a kid do not an adult.

In drama class, we have been practicing our LAMDA Speech. I think I did well with the audibility, clarity and tone, but I kept on shifting my body around though.  I also made some mistakes with what I said, and I stopped a few times.

Here it is:

6C Emily-LAMDA from YIS Academics on Vimeo.