Solo Audio Performance

Solo Audio Performance:

‘The Gruffalo’ & ‘Kiss Me Like You Mean It’

The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson

Why have I chosen this piece? – ‘The Gruffalo’ is one of my favourite picture books; at the age of five I remember reading it constantly.  My father would read it to me every night before bed, and this was, to me, one of my early works in acting.  I memorised each line, word for word, and I would tell it to my Grandparents, without the book at hand.  To this day I still remain fond of the characters, the writing pattern, and the story.  I chose this story for my solo performance because I want to express my love for this book and bring it to life for future generations to enjoy.

Performance Style – I believe the most appropriate performance style to pay homage to when performing ‘The Gruffalo’ has to be: ‘Commedia Dell ‘Arte’.  I choose this performance style because it has a unique quantity of characters, all with unique qualities that I wish to transcend into my performance as the characters in ‘The Gruffalo’.  To give an example of what I mean to bring:

     The Gruffalo himself is very reminiscent of ‘Il Capitano’ in the sense that the character on the outside seems broad and powerful, but on the inside he is nothing but a complete wimp.  We see this in the Gruffalo as he falls for the lies that the mouse is “the scariest creature in this wood”.  Much like ‘Il Capitano’ who claims to have won many duels and battles, yet always jumps at the sight of (ironically) a mouse.

     Alternatively the Mouse in the book seems to have a select few similarities to both ‘Zanni’ and ‘Colombina’.  I choose these characters because the Mouse has a sense of innocence on the outside, but on the inside there is a trick or two up the sleeves.  Similarly to ‘Zanni’ and ‘Colombina’ whom both have an innocent appearance but a reputation for causing trouble.

     These are the similarities that I noticed between the characters, but how can these notes and performance styles support my performance?  Vocally there is a variety of differences in ‘Commedia Dell ’Arte’, but with these selected characters in particular I have the ability to reflect the broad, strong, and deep tone of ‘Il Capitano’ into the Gruffalo, making him seem scary and dangerous, but give a sense of coward in the end.  While ‘Zanni’ and ‘Colombina’ have an innocent and lower tone voice, I aim to heighten the pitch to bring the Mouse to life, to show their innocence but ability to attract trouble.  I would them be bringing the characters to life with good intention and exceptional reflection to another artists work.

Character Vocal Techniques – Looking at all the characters in ‘The Gruffalo’ I have taken them apart and looked to how I can perform as these characters.  Specifically looking at pitch, tone, pacing, and any unique qualities I wish to add:

The Mouse – high pitch and tone and a well-paced speech pattern all to give a hinted reflection of the animal with its small innocence and fairly quick movements.

The Fox – medium pitch and tone but with a quick pacing pattern, in a way to show the quick and erratic behaviour of the woodland animal.

The Owl – medium pitch, weary tone, and slow pacing to make reference to other elderly owl characters in literature.

The Snake – medium pitch, raspy tone, medium pacing, with emphasis on all “S” sounds, to reflect the sneaky and creepy snake like characters from other mediums.

The Gruffalo – low pitch and tone with a lowered speech pacing pattern, and perhaps the input of a Northern accent, to inflect the strong and broad physicality of the character.

     A key inspiration mine would be the BBC’s television adaptation of the book.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZuiCDOlms  I found the voice cast of this adaptation truly enhanced the images of these characters and gave an exceptional amount of homage toward showing that they are creatures of the woods.  Plus the narration and vocal variations are extremely suitable for a younger generation to listen to and enjoy. 

Sound Effects – To enhance the images of the woods, perhaps sound effects would be extremely useful to bringing this book to life.  With ensemble cast of characters ranging from woodland creatures, maybe the sound effects of these animal’s calls and their paws/claws/tails slivering or patting the ground could help visualise the environment.  Even background noises like woodpeckers hammering trees, robin’s whistling, wind blowing, and water streams flowing will give a select amount of peaceful sounds for younger children to enjoy listening to and help them visualise this one of a kind forest.

Music – I personally don’t see the need for music in this audio piece.  Vocal narrations and characters, alongside a range of sound effects, ought to be enough to bring the story to life for children’s ears.  Perhaps music could be used to introduce and conclude the story and establish the light and welcoming tone of the book, but for this recording’s purpose I don’t feel the need for music.

Inspiration & Response – As mentioned previously this book in particular I am very fond of and had with me since the age of five.  I particularly remember reading this exact book to my younger cousins and their response brought back memories of me loving this book and loving hearing my father read it to me.  This is something I wish to do again, read this book to future generations.  That is my main response to this book and reasoning behind why I chose it.  Therefore in the recording session I will project to the upmost of my ability and bring these characters to life, with the intention to bring them to life for future youngsters.

Kiss Me Like You Mean It – Chris Chibnall

Why have I chosen this piece? – I found this monologue for audition pieces and upon first reading I became instantly fond of it.  The monologue takes place on a warm summer night, Tony is out celebrating when he meets Ruth, the two of them engage in deep and long conversations.  Soon after they meet they come across an elderly couple who are celebrating as well, they four of them interact, and later Tony reveals he has testicular cancer, and has plucked up his courage to tell Ruth how he truly feels about her.  I found the character to have an exceptional back story, the monologue transcends such passion and love for the characters polar opposite, and it makes me want to see more.

Performance Style – With this monologues written style and contemporary setting I found that the best performance style suited for this piece in particular would be naturalism.  Only through this style would I be able to convey the layers of emotions behind each and every line.  Plus the main theme I can deduct from this monologue would be passion, and I aim to project that passion through quick and sudden pacing, all the while keeping to my natural vocal state to ensure realism and power within the piece.

Character Vocal Techniques – One example of this piece in performance that inspired me was this actor’s interpretation of the performance via stage performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLg-64fnAc.  While the vocal technique used in this interpretation has a Northern accent twang to it, I did admire his fluency with the piece and how naturally he suited the role.  This is something I want to achieve, excluding the accent, I wanted to show fluency, passion, desire, and love vocally.  All the while upholding decent articulation, to show the character is really thinking about what to say, infliction, to show the range of emotions cast into one speech, and respiration, so I may find relaxation during the recording and project the emotions listed above.

Sound Effects – In my research for this piece I learnt that this is a night of celebration for the characters.  While the play is set on a hot summer’s night, it depicts several fireworks igniting in the distance followed by cheers and applauds by their neighbours.  Therefore I think this is the best sound effect to use for this monologue.  I would keep the effect to a low volume and in the background so it wouldn’t be too distracting from the main monologue.  But all effects would have the purpose to enhance the listener’s vision of the environment and support the storytelling, as if to suggest that this could continue after the monologue piece into a full radio play.

Music – Similarly to ‘The Gruffalo’ audio performance to come, I don’t see any purpose for music in this piece.  Background sound effects and vocal work alone would be enough to carry the entire audio performance.  Plus the music may distract audiences from the main performance at hand.

Inspiration & Response – Initially I was very fond of this monologue, and I continue to be today, it is a piece that I am eager to perform for my solo audio performance piece as it offers a contemporary setting piece and shows my naturalistic abilities vocally.  It is an inspirational speech that shows confidence and passion in one man’s love for a woman, and I hope to bring it to life with the upmost of my abilities and show the power of one man’s voice.

ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement)

Why have I chosen these pieces? – For our ADR recordings we will be dubbing over video game footage (gameplay, cutscenes, and trailers) to test our vocal characterisation and adaptability performance styles.  For my performance, I chose to dub over two video game clips: ‘Star Wars: Battlefront Reveal Trailer’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwWLns7-xN8) and gameplay footage from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’.   

Performance Style – Observing these three clips I notice significant differences within the visual aspect.  Both ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Call of Duty’ share the theme of war and constant conflict within their gameplay mediums.  But both had a completely different environment setting and character species.  For example, ‘Star Wars’ is extremely fantasy based and characters range from various alien species, therefore my initial thought was that nearly all vocal performances would be exaggerated and outlandish to establish an unworldly vibe and identity.  In contrast, ‘Call of Duty’ offers a more mature and gruesome look at warfare, therefore I pictured vocal performances would be in a more naturalistic state to enhance the mature and violent perspective of another kind of fantasy war.  To give an example of what footage we will be using to dub over for ‘Call of Duty’, here is a different scene from the same game to show environment and character vocal states: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YvL770-ojA.

Character Vocal Techniques – My casting for these two video game clips lead me to landing several roles, all with unique vocal characteristic traits.  Here is the list of characters and I intend on bringing them to life vocally:

Various Rebel Soldiers (from ‘Star Wars Reveal Trailer’) – As many can hear in this trailer there are various characters, within the battlefield, giving war cries left and right on opposing sides.  Plus there is no focus on one character; therefore I was cast as a select few lines from various Rebel soldiers.  These lines consist of: “Safeties off, come on, move up!”, “Take cover!”, and “That’s it, take cover!”  All of these lines have a very strong and commanding delivery that I became rather fond of.  At first I thought nothing of them.  They seemed to be background yells to enhance the image of war.  Although, once I noticed the pattern of a commander’s yell, I began to think this would be a prime opportunity to test my chest resonated projection.  I register this kind of delivery to be from the chest captivity, because alternatively a higher pitched yell could show signs of fear and panic, which is not what I hear.  Chest resonated deliver shows the character trait of strong will and power, and that is what I hope to project in the main recording session.

Soldier (from ‘Call of Duty Gameplay Footage’) – In contrast to the previous two clips this character is more monotone, and in the background.  The clip follows a small team of soldiers as the infiltrate a sinking ship.  They have two members on board the ship and one on radio coms informing them of their mission and their surroundings.  My character is the secondary soldier, his lines read from: “Hendricks you hit?” and “What the hell!  Who’s shooting?”  I personally pictured this character as the underdog.  This is the soldier that doesn’t know what he’s got himself into.  This is what I wish to project.  Alternatively, in the main footage used there is a sense of cockiness and over confidence in the character, but to make the character more relatable to my natural vocal state I want to inflict a different take on the character.  The vocal style I will use for this performance would be at a higher pitch and tone, to reflect the panic and worries of the character.  Plus I would also imply the characteristic state of crackly and shaky to further imply the panic state of the character.

Sound Effects – Fortunately the sound effects will be used straight from the original videos.  These effects consist of environment settings noises (an affectively example would be the woodland alien creatures [Ewoks] from the ‘Star Wars Reveal Trailer’), collapsing objects/structures, explosions, and of course gunfire (laser blast fire in the case of the ‘Star Wars’ trailers).  All of these sound effects enhance the visual aspect given in the videos games/trailers footage.

Music – There is a lack of music in the ‘Call of Duty’ footage, which I think comes to great effect, as it keeps the focus on the characters and what catastrophes await them as they progress in the game.  On the other hand, the ‘Star Wars’ trailer offer various tracks from the famous franchises theme, composed and conducted by John Williams, this offers both nostalgia for ‘Star Wars’ fans and shows on the dreaded impact of war as well as the fun excitement of the ‘Star Wars’ universe.

Inspiration & Response – In summary for my plans as a solo performance in ADR recordings, I feel confident to bring these characters to life vocally.  Using my listed vocal techniques I think I may just achieve a decent performance to enhance the visual image of the video game characters, environments, and unique premises.