21st September- Narration

On the 21st of September at Brigshaw Highschool, we where in the music block with Mr Trustcott. Here we looked at some pictures, these were very artistic pictures,and we had to describe them to the class, this exercise was useful because when we go to Leeds Art Gallery on Tuesday on the 28th of September we need to know about the different arts.
then we walked to Mr Romers room to make a spider diagram about the questions we are going to ask Amanda the education officer at Leeds Art Gallery. We thought of many ideas:
-We had 5 topics we were going to ask about, the first was Organizing exhibitions:

• Do you use them because of there theme?
• How do you contact different artists and galleries?
• How do you decide what space to use?
• How do you choose exhibitions?
• How do you promote merchandise?
• How do you profit?

-The next topic was Up and Coming talent.

• How do you find new creativity?
• Do you visit schools?
• How do you connect to the community?

-The next topic was Workshops?

• Do you hold workshops for young and old people?
• Do you hold workshops starring famous artists?
• Will the participants be charged?

- The next topic was Audience:

• What types of audience do you get?
• Do you have a recognizable audience?
• Do you hold data on your audiences?

-The last topic was Changes?

• How has new technology influenced your work?
• Do you do on-line bookings?

This was really great to get good ideas for our actual questions.
We then walked over to Mrs Woffindens Class room and we discussed narration :
Purpose of Narration

• The narrator should set the scene of whatever is going on within the show/production or play.
• The narrator introduces the characters within the show/production or play.
• The narrator helps the audience what is happening.
• The narrator gives information on what is happening.
• The narrator creates atmosphere to make the performance more exciting.
• The narrator engages the audience and creates tension.

Examples of Narrators

• Sir David Fredrick Attenborough- he works a lot with the BBC doing documentaries such as "Natural World"
• Pete versus Life- this is a channel 4 show where a man is being commentated on his life.
• Dr Zeus
• Films- such as stardust.
• Come dine with me- this is a channel 4 show who is presented by David Lamb.

We then looked at a clip of David Attenborough in action.
Lyre Bird - David Attenborough - BBC Wildlife

• He used rhetorical questions to describe the world and draw the audience in.- "What bird has the most a liberate, the most complex song in the world, the most beautiful?"
• He uses comparisons to tell the audience what the lyre bird is all about.
• Present tense
• Metaphors- to bring the audience in.
• He uses a relaxed voice because he has to be quiet other wise he will scare the bird.
• Builds tension in his voice to... make it tense.

David Attenborough is such a great narrator because he uses his voice so well, he is relaxed and his voice is soothing giving that safe, calm atmosphere.

We also watched a completely different clip to the documentary, Come dine with me. this was so much different because Dave Lamb makes it comical and kind of sarcastic so it is aimed at the younger generation.

We then had three different audiences who we had to aim our drama performance at, the three audiences where teens, Parents and teachers.Ours went really well as the narrators tone of voice changed every time to create the perfect scenario.
Mrs Woffinden then gave us a sheet full of different narrative form, she then asked us to choose the narrative forms which could go into our Leeds films:

• Story teller could be used in my film with an introduce what we did to create the film- for example,        " Once upon a time there were a group of students.....".
• We could use a commentator to describe what someone is doing- for example, " Here you can see Hip-Hop artist Andy brooks use his skills to show the students about the history of Hip-Hop"
• We could use the Voice over-Here and now to explain the scene if there is no video- For example, " As we walked into the Art gallery we were welcomed by Amanda the Educational Officer.....".