Marina Myself

In drama class, we did 2 speeches. The 1st one about our passion and we had to speak for 1 – 2 minutes. The 2nd one was about a given topic and we had a choice from: My Neighbourhood, The Best Day of My Life, Fashion, Holidays or Celebrities. We had to speak for 2 – 3 minutes for this speech.

This is my 1st speech about my passion:

In my 1st speech about Manga, I was able to  introduce the topic without saying “today, I am going to talk about……” and in a interesting way. First, I talked about the basic facts about Manga such as what it basically is. Then, I briefly talked about the history and the beginning of Manga. Finally, I ended my speech by saying my personal opinions about it and why I it is my passion. I think my speech went well because I spoke with good pacing and pauses. But because I was very nervous, I didn’t have facial expressions and I never did hand gestures during the speech (I was most nervous in all speeches I did in my life).

This is my 2nd speech about Holidays:

7B Drama: Given Topic Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

In my 2nd speech about Holidays, I was able to start the speech with a rhetorical question and get the audience listen to my speech. I have decided to talk about 3 holidays in the USA, Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving. I had structured my speech by time and talked from New Years, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think my 2nd speech about a given topic (holidays) went better than my 1st speech. In this speech, we were allowed to use palm cards, so I felt more confident. I think I had good volume and projection for the whole time. I spoke clearly with good pacing and pauses. In addition, I stood up straight during the whole speech and didn’t stare at my palm cards for most of the time. But I still didn’t have much facial expressions and I looked down at my palm cards many times.

I think my best speech was my 2nd speech about holidays. I had more confidence and I didn’t feel as nervous as my 1st speech. I had better projection and spoke with good pacing and pauses. In addition, I think I had better information about holidays than the speech about Manga because I gave some good examples about how people celebrate it and what the history was. I think I should improve on facial expressions and gestures because if I had more feelings in the speech, the audience would be interested in my speech and listen to it for the whole time. In addition, I could at least have more tone in my voice, especially when I introduce another holiday and when there is a interesting fact. In fact, I should practice more times so I know much more about my speech so I don’t have to look down at my palm cards a lot of times. Basically, it is like saying I have to practice a lot before speeches so I could feel more confident about my speech (Therefore, I am not very good with speeches.).

7B Drama: Given Topic Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

This is my friend, Julia’s speech about holidays. Although we spoke about the same topic, there were many differences between my speech and her speech. In her speech, she had facial expressions and tone in her voice. Also, she had good structure in her speech and had good facts about how Germany and Japan celebrate the same holiday. She didn’t look at her palm cards much (as much as I did) and looked at the camera for almost the whole time.

In drama class, we did a 1 – 2 minute speech about a topic we had chosen. I chose Manga as my topic and made a short speech about it. Here is the video:

7B Drama: 1 Min Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

REFLECTION (what did I do well, what can I improve on??)

I think I did a good job on my pauses and pace during the whole speech because I didn’t speak very fast and I think I paused equally while I was speaking. Still, I was nervous and my voice was a little bit shaking. I think I could improve on my projection because that can show I am very confident about my speech and I know what I am going to say. In addition, I could improve on emphasis and I think I could keep the audience’s attention for the whole speech.

Today in Drama we watched a Silent movie by Charlie Chaplin.

How are the actors showing emotion? What emotions are being shown?- The actors are showing emotions by their facial expressions and  body language. Some of the emotions they showed in the movie were sad, happy, confident and surprised. For example, the girl showed her sadness when she suddenly broke down in tears on the rock. A sigh she took when she was trying to tie a knot on the knot even shows her sadness. I noticed that the man was surprised that the girl was crying, and he was trying to make her calm and telling her good things so she’s feeling better.

Analyse the body language of both characters, commenting on posture, gesture and facial expression.- I think their expressions and actions were well and understandable. The man looked at the girl with a clear surprised expression on his face. I saw the girl was staring at the camera for a while. That made me think that she was very sad that she didn’t want to look at the man’s face. But after that the girl looked at the man, which made me think that she was confident and happy.

In Drama class right now, we are learning about miming. Here are some things I thought about to start with.

What did I explore?  We did a lot of activities with partners and as a class. For example, we did the mirror image game with a partner and did the present passing game as a class.

What did I learn? I learned that miming can also be about posture since I though miming was about moving and activng without wourd and objects. Also, if you are showing an object by miming, it is important to show the shape, weight and size.

What did I know before this unit? I knew that miming was about moving and acting without noise, speaking and objects Also I knew that we can mime by making the shape by ourselves, with our body.

What do I want to learn? I want to know how I can express more with facial expressions since I usually have the same expressions when I mime. Also, I want to learn how I can mime so that the audience can clearly understand what it is.

We did “Door Miming” where you had to open a locked door in some method. I paired up with Helen, and here is our video.

7B Drama: Mime Door from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Did you get our method? What storyline (scenario) did I create for opening the mimed door?: we picked the door open with a hairpin, but the door wouldn’t open. So we pulled and pulled. But you actually had to push the door open. (highlight to see the method!!)

In Drama, we made a dance like Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain in a group of 2-4. I did it with Maya, Keina and Mimi. We used the song Hello by YUI.

In our dance, we used good props, spaces and teamwork. For our props, we used 6 ribbons in total and 2 cloths. Our song matched the rhythm an tempo of our whole dance. (Don’t you think?) Also, we changed groups from Keina and I and Mimi and Maya, to Mimi and I and Keina and Maya since it would be boring if we stuck with the same groups. For spacing, we moved around many times and used our space wisely.

In Drama, we watched Singing in the Rain and looked at how Gene Kelly used props, rhythm, expression and moving through space in his dance.

Gene Kelly’s dance was good and very entertaining to me. He used lots of space in the street like the pole, the stairs, and the edge of the sidewalks. He JUMPED on the pole and SANG out loud! Also, he used props such as his umbrella because he was shaking it around, spinning it and throwing it. He threw the umbrella sideways and caught it by going sideways. He used rhythm with puddles since he jumped into it and splashing the water with two feet. Also, he was wearing tap shoes and started to do tap dance.His expressions were happy and glorious\(*U*)/ like in the lyrics, and seemed like he is having fun singing in the rain. He was very happy and did not care about getting wet!!

In Drama, we got into groups of 4 and made a rhythm using parts of your body. We also needed to use different parts of and add movement in the rhythm. I was with Maya, Taro and Jem.

Here is a video of my group. (I made a mistake at the end)

6C Rhythm Dance Gp 3 from YIS Arts on Vimeo.

Today, we did a speech about a person we know really well not your favorite person who’s on TV, but someone like a friend, a family member, or siblings. I talked about my best friend Lina who used to be in YIS. She was (is) my best, best, more than best friend while she was in YIS.

6C Marina Talk 2 from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

After I watched this video I chose these 5 words that I think I did well on and need to improve on-Volume, Pace, Pause, Eye contact, and Gesture.

I think I spoke in a good pace, didn’t keep speaking until I ran out of breath, and in a big voice, big enough for the audience around the back to hear because when I was watching my video, I didn’t have trouble listening to what I was saying.

I had notecards because I didn’t really practice my speech but I didn’t keep staring at my notecards and looked at it only when I needed to, and looked at the audience.

I used gestures for the first time because I felt like it and it went good!! I think gestures can express what you are talking about and how you feel about it.

I think I did a good job but I need to work on Clarity because I didn’t practice and got lost what I was going to say next and I kept repeating the first word of a sentence.

On our last Drama class (Dec.1st Thu), we did a speech about our hobby, and I chose origami.

6C Marina Talk 1 from Leanne Gerrish on Vimeo.

My strengths were Volume, Pace, Pause, Eye Contact, Clarity.

I spoke in a big and clear voice, the pace was easy to understand, and have all the main points I was talking about on my speech covered.

I didn’t have notecards so I had to look straight or maybe look in my brain to see what I was supposed to talk when I’m not sure what to talk about next, and also didn’t talk too fast and not too slow.

I think I need to work on facial expressions because I didn’t look like I really enjoyed doing it. I also need to maybe do gestures because it seemed like I was just standing and talking about my hobby.

I think I did a good job even though it was only a practice. I also liked talking about my hobby in front of my classmates and the camera.

We did a Sports event in Drama where we do games and our Group name is called “The Pink Ballerinas”. We did 3 games which were One-word-at-a-time-story,Sound environment, and Space Jump.(the movies are in order)

6C Pink Ballerinas 1 from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

6C Pink Ballerinas 2 from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Reflection

I think I was really good and I had fun. I think our group was the best (no offense)!! The game choices were really good because we got to vote for 3 games.
I did well at acting in Sound Environment because it really hurt when I was fainting, but I didn’t make my voice come out.
My weaknesses were thinking of the next word at One-word-at-a-time-story especially when I have to say the 2nd word because it didn’t make sense and there was quite a pause.
Acting was easy in this Sports Event because there is no right or wrong, but talking was hard in One-word-at-a-time-story and Sound Environment.

How was the videos? How did I do?