Solo Radio

                               

                                         Solo Radio

Going on a bear hunt  

I picked going on a bear as my children’s story because it was one of my favourites growing up. Although it doesn’t have character voices it does have different sounds affects like when they go through the grass and it goes “Swishy Swashy!” and have things I can show a different tone between like “It’s a beautiful day!” and “We’re not scared.” I'm telling this story in an energised and exciting way as if I was reading it in front of children that’s how I’d need to say it in order to keep the children interested. With children you need to help their imagination by doing voices for characters and putting on a hyped voice to make it sound really good and interesting. I need to try not to speak with a fast pace because when I talk with an excited tone I pick up pace. If it was really young kids, I would maybe use a baby voice because that really attracts them to what you’re saying.

ADR – Fallout 4 and Halo

Doing these games was a great contrast to the children’s book and monologue as I used an accent and it was fiery, especially in Halo. My character in Halo had quite a weak voice compared to my one in fallout. She definitely had an accent which I think was Mexican which I couldn’t quite grasp. She paused a lot and had a calm but direct tone about her, even though she was in a battle she didn’t sound worried or anything which showed her status as well which was probably commander. With this voice I wanted to match hers as much as possible so I kept my voice on quite a low tone and at the end when she’s asking for help I projected a little as you would when there is a battle happening around you.  When watching Fallout 4 I realised my character had an accents and when replying a few times. I enjoyed talking as she did with a bit of an American accent. My character saying “I have a question, the only question that matters. Would you risk your life for your fellow man? Even if that man was a Synth.” I felt as if this was a serious matter in the way she was saying it which was slow, soft with a good few pauses. I think the technique of using a soft tone and slow pace creates a deep meaning which is why it worked well with this.

 Sasha monologue

I felt as if this monologue was a great contrast as it’s more gentle and I feel like I can relate to it.  I wanted to read this in a softer and slower tone to enable the true meaning to come across. I think that it’s a create technique when it comes to talking about love and deep subjects like that. When it talks about what love means to us women, I’m going to speak about it in an express tone and a bit hyped because us women enjoy talking about the things we love. The monologue is deep but happy at the same time because she takes prides in everything she does for her partner and it’s beautiful to listen to. I need to sound in love so like emotional and happy because it’s clear this character is. Everything she is saying is very important to her so using a soft and loving tone will help show that.

https://www.voices.com/directory/radio

I’ve listened to a load of adverts and radio plays and until now I never realised how a simple slower pace or slower tone can make such a difference in what you’re saying and how it is delivered. I think it’s important to think about that because it defiantly helps with the message of the speech for the audience. When someone is saying something serious I think a slow and soft tone with a few pauses to. If you were to talk about something deep and personal I think maybe the same pace and tone but depending on what you’re talking about you can sound hurt or happy. If it’s something personal and your angry maybe do a bit of grinding the teeth and project but still make it sound personal.  With children’s story’s it’s important to keep it fun, exciting and interesting so that the kids are. When watching adverts, even ones on telly your always drawn in by how the actor sounds. Like with festivals they always make it sound so good and exciting that you actually look it up and consider going.  Most adverts now also have songs that draw you in or different effects on the voices like making it high pitch or deep, robotic and many others.

Atching Tan

                                                  Atching Tan

I think this radio play is really good because the emotions jump so much and it’s going to be a challenge to show that with just our voices along with showing the changes between different scenes. It’s going to be hard to show the emotion between characters because although voice is a key part in acting, I’m used to showing it by the way I use facial expressions. There’s also a lot of stage directions that we’ve got to show is happening through our voices like when Nelius tries to kiss Lovvie or later on when he grabs her harshly. That all needs to be shown by the way I say things like when it says he’s trying to kiss her and my line is “Your hands are dirty” I will need to say it in a playful kind of way and not like a “Ew your hands her dirty” kind of way. There are a few parts like this that I will need to make sure my tone of voice shows it.

I've done some research on the radio play and found the one that was on BBC Radio 4. I thought this would help with the accent but they didn't use accents, they just spoke a bit chavy. After discussing with Sally and then with my group we decided this would be the way we would speak.

Meaning of Romani words

Atching – stop or stay
Tan – place or tent
Hotchi witchi – sex
Ladging – embarrassing or shameful 
Rakli – girl
Dordie – my god

When rehearsing the play in voice for the first time so Karen could give us some feedback she said we need to bounce off each other and that I need to say my words with one syllable to make it flow more. Karen also said to pronounce the T’s to show her being a bit spiteful. When hearing myself back I also think I need to show a change in scene by using a different tone depending on who I’m with and the environment. More emotion in the voice and react with lines from the stage directions. To help me more with this I did go through my script and write lots of notes to help me when rehearsing and performing.

When rehearsing in class with Sally she helped to make sure I had the right emotion during scenes as there is a lot of different emotions in this play that jump around a lot. My character acts so differently around each character in the play. I felt as if she acted herself around her younger sister Norah but as she started to keep secrets from her she distanced herself from her and everyone else close to her. Around Nelius she’s happy but at times uncomfortable because I think she found it hard to know her true feelings for him as she didn’t want the life he could only give her. She wanted more, she knew there was more to life than just living in a caravan and that was the life she really wanted. When she met John, at first she felt unsure of him and then as they kept meeting up their relationship grew and there was something there between them. He had shown her a life she actually wanted, opened up doors to acting and made her feel “Worth something”. She wants the life he has shown her as she’s found something she’s good at but her family would never allow it. When with her parent’s she’s very on edge, I think it’s because they’re all about their way of living and won’t do anything that’s “Georgiarified” like water coming through the pipes.

When it came to thinking about Lovvie’s character and how she is and the way she acts. I thought of her as strong but shy at times, she just wants more and there’s nothing wrong with that. She’s very emotional as she has to make a big decision which is whether she is going to do something is good at and have the life she wants or go back to the life she was born to have and live in a caravan. It’s all very hard for her because she ruins everything with her family by doing something they disapprove of and hiding it from them. Lovvie goes through a lot during the play so it’s important for me to show that and due to the different scene changes I have to change my voice tone depending on who the scene is with. She’s challenging but as I go through the script over and over I begin to understand her more. She’s a confused girl who wants more to her life but doesn’t want to upset her family so realises it’s best to just with them.

I definitely found this play challenging as it has a lot of emotion in it which I myself don’t show or let anyone know what I’m going through. It was more hard that I had to show it through my voice as I’ve never found my voice a strong instrument of mine even though it is very important when acting. I also found it heard because when you can’t see who you’re talking to it’s hard to show a connection there and show the emotion in my tone of voice.

During rehearsals I got a lot of feedback to help me for when it came to the actually recording session. The feedback I got was to feel what I was saying so then I went back over the script and thought about every scene and what was happening and what she was going through. I then wrote on the script how it makes her feel and what tone to use when saying certain lines so when I go through it with everyone I know and can say it in the right way. I was also told not to perform so I went back to what Karen told us, which was pretend the microphone is who you’re speaking to so you don’t need to project so much or act out, just treat it like you’re talking to someone and not performing. A big one was emphasis on words so I did go back and underline words to emphasis when reading out. Another big was to use the ‘…’ because it just sounded like I was ending the sentence when that means you’re searching for something to say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135389

There are so many techniques used in radio to create sound effects and to show someone walking away or walking towards someone. In radio it’s hard to get the right sound like the sound of people driving in a car as or a bird. When that don’t work you try something that might sound like it. In the archers for example they open and close and iron board to make the sound of a metal gate opening and closing. For a bird flying past they use a feathered pillow and for a baby lamb being born it only takes a wet towel, old audio and bowl of yogurt to create that sound affect.

We have a few sounds affects in our play like the sound of a shower, people walking in the forest which needs to be added in. We’re not actually making these sound affects ourselves but if we were I’d use a sand shaker for the shower and just break some twigs for the forest. Things like walking towards someone or walking away we can do by just simply walking to and from the microphone.