{"id":4654,"date":"2016-02-18T17:09:48","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T17:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/?page_id=4654"},"modified":"2021-03-09T04:19:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T04:19:12","slug":"designing-a-voice-for-a-character","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/?page_id=4654","title":{"rendered":"Designing a voice for a character"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>LESSON 3\u2014Designing a voice for a character<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Educational Objective: <\/strong>Students will choose a character from a fairy tale and design a vocal pattern for them using the various qualities of voice and animal imagery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Supplies:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clip of any appropriate interview with Ralph Fiennes<\/li>\n<li>Clip of Lord Voldemort in the graveyard in <em>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire<\/em> (starts with \u201cWelcome my friends.\u00a0 Thirteen years it\u2019s been\u2026\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>Picture of the Dragon from BBC\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>Picture of a wrinkled old man\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Lesson-3.Pictures.docx\">Lesson 3.Pictures<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hook: <\/strong><em>Today<\/em> we are going to do an energy circle.\u00a0 This is where everyone stands in a circle and once person starts by doing some kind of action and a vocal thing (this could be saying a line or making a funny sound).\u00a0 The person on their left then does the same thing and it carries down through the circle.\u00a0 It is like doing the wave.\u00a0 Once the action and sound come back to the person who first did it, the person on their left starts a new one and it then travels like the wave through the circle.\u00a0 This continues until everyone has had a turn coming up with something for the circle to do.\u00a0 However, this time their vocal action must be animal based.\u00a0 Moo, bark, etc.\u00a0 It is ok if there are repeats, but try to help them come up with a variation on it instead of doing the exact same thing<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Before you start ask them to look for the qualities of each sound (pitch and rate).<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step: <\/strong>Did\u00a0 you hear some interesting sounds?\u00a0 Which?\u00a0 What were they like?\u00a0 What do you think that animal would sound like if they were speaking English?\u00a0 What qualities would their voice have?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong> Explain that in order to create an interesting voice, we must know who our character is first.\u00a0 Sometimes actors will take one personality trait from their characters and build their voice around it.\u00a0 This often happens in fairy tales or when the character is an animal or has animalistic traits.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong> Review tone, pitch, and rate with them.\u00a0 Since last class period have they heard any unusual or interesting voices?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong> Tell them that they are going to hear examples of how changes in these qualities can create a vocal pattern for a specific character. \u00a0\u00a0Ask them: \u201cIf you were playing a character who was described as a snake, what changes would you make to your voice to get it to sound snake-like?\u201d\u00a0 Have them discuss their ideas with a neighbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Play a clip from an interview with Ralph Fiennes so they can hear his <em>normal speaking voice<\/em> (only let them hear the audio so they will focus on the voice).\u00a0 Tell them that the next sound clip is the same person, but he has made changes to his voice to create his character who is described as a snake.\u00a0 Play a clip from <em>Harry Potter<\/em> where he is playing Lord Voldemort, who is snake-like, clip (only audio).\u00a0 What were the changes they heard?\u00a0 How does it sound more snake-like than before?\u00a0 Make sure to point out that he may have created a voice that was different than what they would have done.\u00a0 If he did, it is ok.\u00a0 Actors and designers often make different choices for similar ideas)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong> Show a picture of the dragon from <em>Merlin. NOTE: Don\u2019t tell them it\u2019s from that show, it might taint their design ideas.\u00a0 <\/em>Ask them: What characteristics would an old dragon have? Have the students list on the board ideas that they have about his characteristics ( the dragon is old, wise, big!) Have a student act as scribe and write what they all come up with on the board.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ask them: Given the characteristics you listed, what do you think his voice would sound like? (let them refer to their scales from lesson one) Would they sound angry or dangerous? Soft? Gruff? High? Low? Fast?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Introduce the clip of the dragon by explaining again, that the following is just <em>one interpretation<\/em> of what a dragon\u2019s voice could sound like. Play the clip (audio and visual, any <em>Merlin <\/em>scene will do wherein Merlin speaks with the dragon) for them to see and hear the qualities of the voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong> We can also work the other way round. Show a picture of an old man.\u00a0 Ask them: what personality traits or characteristics might this<em> person<\/em> have?\u00a0 What <em>animal <\/em>do those traits remind you of?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong>\u00a0 Explain that they will now get to practice changing their voices for a specific character by picking a person or animal from a fairy tale and designing a voice for them.\u00a0 Divide them into groups and assign the groups a fairy tale.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step:<\/strong>\u00a0 Have them decide on a character and let them refer to the scales they used in Lesson One to help them decide what qualities they will give their voice.\u00a0 (They should be looking at rate, pitch, tone, and diction.)\u00a0 They need to be prepared to introduce themselves to someone while using their new voice.\u00a0 Give them about 10 minutes to work on this (check on their progress about half way through and allow them to brainstorm in their groups).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step: <\/strong>Have the students circle up together.\u00a0 Have them go around the circle and use their new voices to introduce themselves and their characters to the group.\u00a0 Explain that they must use the form of the slate to do it: \u201cMy name is The Big Bad Wolf and I\u2019m being played by Emily Feveryear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LESSON 3\u2014Designing a voice for a character \u00a0 Educational Objective: Students will choose a character from a fairy tale and design a vocal pattern for them using the various qualities of voice and animal imagery. &nbsp; Supplies: Clip of any appropriate interview with Ralph Fiennes Clip of Lord Voldemort in the graveyard in Harry Potter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6156,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4654\/revisions\/6156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}