For this piece of vocal work, I made the vocal choices of using quite a fast pace. This is because my character was slightly younger than the other character, so I felt I could show a contrast between them. In addition, I researched into my character and found that he speaks in a fast pace, so I decided to try and portray this vocal choice. However, at certain points I felt it was effective to uses pauses such as, at the start of the script and lines such as, “Tch”. This was also good because my normal vocals are very fast paced and I don’t use much pauses because I cover them up with filling words / mannerisms such as “Urmm” so it was different to use pauses in my speech and therefore, shows a contrast between my normal vocals and my vocal choices for my character Ed, this is also something I said I wanted to work on in my vocal presentation so I feel playing a role this way has developed my own vocals. Furthermore, I used emphasis on certain lines in the script such as, “No that’s running sweet as a nut” to create a sense of urgency because my character has been up the night before helping a cow give birth so therefore, he would be slightly tired and didn’t want to upset mike because he hadn’t done the jobs that need to be done. As the scene goes on, I used emphasis on certain words such as “different” this is because when I researched into my character by listening to other scenes my character was a part of to get an idea of how he spoke. Throughout the scene I varied in tone. I wanted to give my character a more natural tone, so I decided I would vary my tone and not stick to a specific one. So, for example, when Mike said” I’m serious. I had a long chat with Vick about it last night.” I changed my tone to quite concerned and low for “yeah?” but then on my next line, “It’s hard not to.” I felt my character was trying to be supportive, so I said it in a more positive, happier, lighter tone. This variation is tone is very natural and is almost like my own vocals however, I felt this vocal choice worked because it showed that Ed was trying to cheer Mike up and it also fitted with the personality of my character – a reformed bad boy.
On the other hand, I struggled with my use of volume. I tend to struggle with speaking too quickly and not being loud enough in my normal vocals, so I tried to be louder in the recording. Although most my lines are clear, a couple are a bit quiet. So next time I do a vocal work I want to ensure that I speak even louder than my usual vocal this would mean I would be a lot clearer when speaking and It would most likely mean I would articulate more. This was one thing I said in my vocal presentation that I wanted to work on more. Although, I felt it was a good choice to make to do a faster pace, but I feel like that may have affected the volume of my speech and I went a bit too fast on the longer lines. I think this is because I speak at quite a fast pace anyway and I just added to much, so the listener could get slightly confused. So, if I did this vocal work again I would ensure I didn’t overdo how fast my pace is. Another thing I struggled at was the accent. The character I got didn’t have a strong accent however, he did have an accent and I had it at the start of the script but lost it in the middle and the end which meant I went back sounding more like my own vocals. This also happened with my pitch of my voice, I aimed to lower my pitch, so I would sound more like Ed who has quite a low voice compared to me however, when I lost my accent I lost my pitch too. Finally, I struggled with the pronunciation of certain words such as, “Heifer” which meant that I didn’t articulate on those words. I also need to ensure that when I do my next piece of vocal work I make sure I articulate on every word especially for a radio broadcast because I struggled to understand few words.
Blank final vocal evaluation of the unit:
Backward Looking:
When I first started this unit, I was sort of aware of my vocal habits however, being trained more as a dancer than an actor I didn’t really focus much on my vocals, so I had never really gone into to depth about my vocals in the past apart from being a part of shows. However, from my past singing and acting experience I did know the terms we used that make the voice such as, Tone, Clarity and pitch etc. Once doing my vocals presentation I soon realised how I wanted to change my vocals which are; talking in too fast of a pace, not articulating enough and not using pauses which all effected how my speech was delivered and could sometimes confuse listeners. After, the presentation I also realised my vocal habits which were; using slang words such as, “Lol” “Lit’ and “Init” and using words to fill gaps instead of pausing such as, “Urmmm”. Furthermore, I do feel like I have improved since the start of this unit after Blank. I feel like through the unit my articulation, my control of my pace and the use of pauses has got a lot better since Blank. I think the main challenged I faced when trying to improve my vocal approach was improving where I had already improved. After doing my scene called “Seven” a few times and realising that I started to use a lot of emphasis on “Say I love you again” I started to not try as hard as rehearsals went on thinking it would just naturally come but I soon realised that because I wasn’t working on that the whole idea of the scene was falling apart and so was my vocal but once I had regained my confidence in the emphasis I used on that line it all came together. Another thing I struggled on was the contrast between my controlling and manipulative side to my character and my scared and vulnerable other side. Both sides were shown in the same scene and therefore, I had to make a big contrast, so the audience would see how high the stakes are in the scene for my character. I did this by changing my tone, volume and pacing between each side of my character, for example, the controlling side of my character had quite a stern, negative tone whereas my vulnerable side to my character shown near the end of the script had a more nervous, sad and unloved tone. This work does tell a story, but the audience have to look closely to see it.
Inward – Looking:
I am very proud of our performance of “Blank”, I feel like the idea of the script is great and the freedom it gave us was even better. What we did could have been something completely different, but I think we pulled it off and the way we did it was very clever and interesting. Overall, the ending product was a great production. I feel like the most enjoyable part of this work was working as a full cast in the ensemble scenes. Both of them were very fun to do especially, the singing scene. I also really enjoyed my scene because it had such an interesting story and the way it was written was very clever. My scene is a telephone conversation between a child and their parent and the script is split into two so we decided to put one at the start and one at the end so the whole piece would tie together, and my scene would finally be explained. The only thing I did find frustrating was because my scene was so repetitive I always got confused on where certain lines went and I did get my lines mixed on the night, but I feel I covered it very well. I didn’t really dislike anything about this piece. I think my standards were very high before we performed, and I have to say we completely smashed my standards because it was so much better. My vocal goals for this performance were; to not stumble on my words, articulate, to show a contrast in my scene vocally and use efficient pauses. My goals didn’t really change but personally, I do feel like I did achieve these goals because in my scene I had to use pauses so that my scene was more naturalistic and like a telephone call. I also didn’t stumble on my words at all apart from when I need to in the singing scene and I had very good clarity for most of my scene. In addition, I also feel like I showed a clear contrast between when my character was being manipulative and when he felt vulnerable through my vocals. As a learner I feel like this has shown me there are different ways of learning lines for example, I got one of my cast members to read me Charlotte’s lines (played my mum) through my phone and I answered back which I found was very effective because it also meant I could react to what she was saying but also learn my lines. Although this would only work for scenes involving phone calls I feel like u can adapt it to fit other scenes by getting cast members to text you your cue lines or just get someone to say them, so you can rehearse with your lines as well as your cue lines because I think it’s very effective. When we first started the piece, we looked into documentaries about children who have “bad lives” or who get arrested or in trouble and we all realised that they all have something missing from their lives whether it was love, money or a father figure it didn’t matter because they all lived roughly the same lives because of it. And it just made me think and the whole cast how lucky we are to have love or a father figure but then we looked further into it and we realised that they are happy even with something missing and its just amazing how people can do that. We also spoke about what we were missing, and we discussed as a cast and realised I was missing people opposite to me because I’m so shielded by these so called “troublemakers” or “gangster’s” I’ve never mixed with them and I think that is why I have a worrying opinion when I walk past them. However, now I have realised they are only human and they are like me and I shouldn’t stereotype them which is a great lesson to learn I think.
Outward – Looking:
If I was a teacher I would say that my performance was good, but I need to focus on my pace a bit more on longer lines and that I showed a clear contrast in my first scene but also a clear contrast in my character from my scene and my character from the singing scene. I might also say that I could have put a little bit more emphasis in my scene with certain words to make the dialogue a bit more entertaining because it was so repetitive, but I feel also would say don’t let the energy drop in the middle. I feel the most engaging moment in my vocal performance was probably when I showed the contrast completely from the line “ Say I love you again” which was when my character becomes completely vulnerable in my scene and I feel like the audience would have seen this controlling, nasty child and then when that line was said and I showed my character was vulnerable they almost started to understand why my character is the way he is because all he wants is love. I feel like when people and my fellow cast member look at my work they most likely heard the contrast and the emotion I put into the ending of the scene by changing my tone and the way used emphasis on certain words. In my scene I showed that I am able to use different vocal techniques to change my voice to fit certain characters and I feel it also showed how I can show a contrast in my vocals through vocal techniques.
Forward – Looking:
I think I would like to improve on vocally still is the pace I speak because I still speak to quickly and tend to stumble on my words which causes me to confuse people I’m talking to and also want to get out the habit of saying slang words which is annoying because I have used them so much I can’t stop using them. In addition, I would like to work on my volume when speaking because sometimes when I’m nervous or am unsure about something I go quiet and people can’t understand me or sometimes I’m too loud and I generate confusion that way because I’m being too loud. If I could re do the performance I would make sure I get my lines in the right order and I would keep my energy in my tone up and not let it drop half way through the scene. I would also make sure that my ending line “MUM” had more emphasis because when I performed it I didn’t use enough, and it didn’t sound right because I built up all this tension and most likely generated anxiety with the audience because they didn’t know who I was talking to and then when I said it, it wasn’t as effective as I wanted it to be. I would maybe like to use more of a variation in melody if I did repeat it. One goal I would like to set myself is making sure that whenever I have a speaking role I speak with good clarity because I’ve proven I can do it in this performance and therefore, I hope I can keep it up for other performances and to use pauses too. I would like to work on pace more in future projects so that I can figure out what pace I should be speaking and on emphasis because I feel I lacked both of them in this performance and I also feel like these are things I want to work on and have more help with.
In conclusion, I feel overall, we put on a great production and I have learnt a lot in this unit such as, I am good at varying my tone and my clarity is okay, I have improved in how I use pauses and slightly in how I use volume and I know that I need to work on my pacing, emphasis and volume even more.
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