For this session, we did not do some of our warm up exercises and instead drove straight into our story telling session after our “Groover-licious” game.
We all sat in a circle and then went one round making stories with one sentence each. Throughout the first round, the story got disconnected quite a few times and it was actually hard for people at the end to keep track of the story flow. Thankfully, Sherwin managed to save the day, and concluded the story with a cliff hanger – “to know what exactly happened, stay tune for next week episode” which I thought was really creative of him.
Claire then had us go a second round, but this time we had to repeat the line of the previous person before adding on to ours. This proved to be a much more effective method given that we were able to keep in mind the storyline better. The story did flow a little better, though it got lost halfway through.
The story was best remembered in the final round, where we had an action accompanying our sentence, compared to the first two rounds of just sentences. Repeating the line and doing the action of the previous person, made it easier to connect from one person to another. Pretty sure the actions that symbolizes the sentence itself made remembering everything so much easier. Sherwin even managed to reenact every action and line at the end, making it quite a comical story! (Sneak peak: Claire going to Zouk to party)
After which, we broke off into groups, mine consisted of Cass, Shafiq and Jian En. We were tasked to act out a story with just sound only. After listening to the story of others and performing our own, I realized that by just solely acting a story based on sound – this allowed everyone to interpret it based on their own imagination. Furthermore, the clarity in the sound differs from individuals and this can result in a little ambiguity, causing everyone to think different.
The next activity we embarked on was now, using only certain words (galaxy, refrigerator, mee goring, hungry, burger, hot cakes, gang fight), we were to make up a story. It was a little hard to come up with a story line only using these seven words given that there were no adjectives or verbs. With that, many groups made used of sounds to make the connection between words, reflecting how significant the use of sound can be to portray a story across.
After all the drama and story telling, we talked about the more technical stuffs since our class group presentations were starting the next lesson. Similar to the research I did two weeks ago, here are some of the things I have learnt on vocal variety from Claire, that I feel can be applied to my future presentations.
Pitch:
• Look at the word itself can help determine what pitch needed (the word ‘high’: naturally read it with a higher pitch than ‘low’)
• Look for clues in the text that suggest a change in pitch
Pace:
• In terms of theatrics, pacing helps add elements and colors to our speech (fast to describe a panicking individual, or slow to build up suspense)
• It helps engage the audience by changing the dynamic of the speech – this can potentially help bring back the attention of the audience
At this point, Claire mentioned a very important point – we must always focus on the AUDIENCE. We deliver our speech TO them all the time, not for ourselves. Hence, we will make use of every aspect to grab and capture the attention of the audience.
Pronunciation:
• It is important to be clear. People will then be able to understand it at one go. If it is unclear, people will start to questioning or wondering what the word was – causing the presenter to lose their attention.
Pause VERY IMPORTANT:
• This determines a good/bad presentation
• A pause can help tell the audience when there is a change in thought.
• Pause for IMPACT: this allows the audience to better understand what you are saying as well
• As a presenter, you can take this time to breathe, and let your audience process everything you just said
Quote Claire:
“Many a times, we do not pause enough, because we fear silence and hence we rush to fill the silence”.
And this is sadly, not the right way to do.
Intonation:
• Stressing on the word – emphasizing different words can portray different feelings (I love you, i LOVE you, i love YOU)
• Important to find the words that can “tell the story”.
Tone:
• This is very important too since it portrays the presenter feelings at that point of time
• Tone is critical when it comes to persuading others
