Solo Audio Performance: Children's Story, Monologue, and ADR

'We're Going on a Bear Hunt!' by Michael Rosen (Children's Story)

I had chosen to perform this children's story for my solo audio performance because it was one of my childhood favorites, and I also hadn't heard it for quite some time so it brought back some memories. Another reason I had chosen to perform it is because it could offer some voice variation, for example, for each section where the script mentions "Uh Oh, a 'something'", I could perform as a different character for each time I get to those bits in the story, whilst the rest would portray a narrative voice, being my normal voice.

To expand upon the voice variation in my performance, I will list all of the characters I'm going to add to my, let's say, interpretation of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt':

1. Narrative Voice (My Voice)
2. Little Boy Voice (Slightly high pitched, elongated pronunciation of words, speaks slowly)
3. The Mother Voice (very high pitched, with areas being slightly deeper, speaks very fast)
4. The Dad Voice (very low pitched, speaks at a medium tempo)
5. Black Diva Voice (here is an example from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZivBdavi_M)
6. Little Girl Voice (Very high pitched, along the level of the mother, but the tempo is slowed down slightly)
7. Gay Man Voice (here is another example from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHC1h1Jcws)
8. Bear Growl (low pitched growl, trying to imitate a bear growl, done twice during the chase scene)

My targeted audience for this piece is the ages of 4-8, mainly because of it being a children's story, but also because the voices I do would probably most likely make children laugh. I think this children's story was a good choice for me to perform as there is the possibly of voice variation, the main performance which I'd researched, which features the writers voice as the narrator, didn't perform any vocal variation. So in the end, it makes my performance of his book stand out, and also being unique.

The only problem I had with this piece was actually finding the physical copy of the book. I'd searched countless library's not even finding a single one, which is a bit odd. I did, however, find a copy of it on the internet, which is what I ended up using for the entirety of the assignment. Using it on my phone could also benefit towards my performance, as I wouldn't spend any unnecessary time flipping the pages of the book, which will come up on the microphone.

'Life is Hard' by Unknown (Monologue)

I had chosen to perform this monologue for my solo audio performance because it links to my past experiences in a way, and it is also a much different tone when compared to my children's story, with that being quite happy/excited, to it now being quite sad. I guess another reason as to why I wanted to perform it is because I thought my voice suited the piece in a way, and I also liked how it was kind of a mix of a monologue and a poem, especially towards the end of the piece when I say this line: "Everybody wants to be happy. Nobody wants to be in pain. But you can't have a rainbow without any rain."

When performing this piece, I will not be offering any voice variation. The only thing I will be doing with my voice is possibly some areas of emphasis, and also changing the tone of my voice at times so it all doesn't stay monotone.

My target audience for this piece would be the ages of 18+, mainly because, when you reach the age of 18, you should have some sort of maturity to the way you act, and you should also be able to take things in with the appropriate manner and not joke about it. This goes the same for anyone over the age of 18, so I think this target audience is best suited for this piece in particular.

The only problem I had with this monologue is that, when I found it, there was near to no punctuation throughout the whole thing, so I had to add it all in for it to make any sort of sense. With me doing this, I felt that I was able to give a nice pace to the monologue, as I wasn't at all rushing when I had read it through with punctuation opposed to without.

'Star Wars Battlefront' and 'Fallout 4' (ADR)

For the audio dubbed recording sessions, I was given the opportunity to choose my own roles from a range of video game trailers which we were tasked to perform our voices in. The two video game trailers that I had picked were 'Star Wars Battlefront', and 'Fallout 4', and the voices that I was cast as were The Emperor and the Male protagonist.

For this part of the assignment, I tried as much as I could to get the timings right, but to also sound like the original voice actors in the trailers, and I think I did a good job at gaining that level. I could already do a pretty good imitation of the Emperor's voice, and I only used my normal voice, with perhaps a slightly heightened tone, for the 'Fallout 4' trailer.

I picked these two pieces specifically because both of the characters voices are much different when compared, and I'd like to have my teacher witness how far I can take my voice in terms of characterisation.

The only problems that I've had with this, when rehearsing, is the timings for the lines that are said in the 'Fallout 4' trailer. I was going slightly ahead by a few seconds when compared to the original performance, and I didn't have as much pauses within the lines. This may not matter for the final performance, as it can be edited, but it does catch me off guard as I know it's not correct to the original, which could also inevitably hinder my overall performance of the lines said.