Module Overview
Due: Mon Feb 7
Learning objective: Consider the elements of engaging storytelling.
Instructions
Watch the videos below, and then post responses to the following prompts:
Describe 1 detail from each story. This should be a specific word choice used for describing an emotion, a person, a moment, a texture, a smell, etc.
Describe 1 moment from each story where the speaker does something specific with their body and/or voice.
Kazmi:
A detail that resonated with me was when she gave a vivid description of the brown crayon that her 1st grade teacher gave to her to redo her self portrait. She described as an unwrapped crayon nub and gross which was a complete contrast of how she felt about her original self-portrait. She also uses subtle pauses while she is speaking which helped the audience understand how confused she must have felt as a young girl.
Yang:
A detail that resonated with me when he was describe the moment he was trying to gain the confidence to knock on the door to the private room. He described his heart was racing and that his body was shaking. I noticed how he was shaking his left arm and hand gestures to illustrate his mental dilemma and trying to get himself to knock the door to meet his idol.
Gorman:
A detail that resonated with me is when she described the moment her mother was defending her. I noticed how she played around with her voice and persona to give the audience a look into how the personalities of her mother, sister, and the other moms. The moment when she was stuttering while she recited the lyrics to the song really showed how nervous she was when it was her moment to impress. I also like how it tied back to her describing how to had a speech impediment.
kazami: A detail from the story is “identity crisis”. She’s explains how she’s confused with the situation she’s going through and not knowing how to identify herself. A moment is when the speaker is explaining the story of traumatic moment with her teacher, the speaker does with their body language or voice is when she closes her eyes as if she’s trying to remember or think about what she’s going to say next out of nerves.
Yang: a detail from the story is “accepted”. Yang explains how all young kids want to be accepted and i think that’s an emotion or moment that everyone has felt at least once in life. A moment is throughout the story the speaker moves his hands a lot so emphasize certain things.
Gorman: a detail from the story is “desperation” as the speaker describes the smell of air as people gather around to tryout for broadway. a moment that the speaker does with her voice is she is clear, firm, and loud so everyone can listen to every word.
Kazmi: When she describes the teacher handing her the crayon, her cadence picks up, and her body tightens in a manner that conveys the confusion she experienced as a child.
Yang: Being stuck at the door is very relatable. Everyone has points where they can’t bring it over the finish line alone. Also as an aside, Jackie Chan was/is a pretty notorious cad. One wonders what goes on behind closed doors.
Gorman: I liked how she set up her sister and mother as characters to contrast against herself, and the other people at the audition.
Aleeza Kazmi: She explains how when she was young, she was handed a crayon that her teacher handed to her, saying, “This is your color.” She said she stood there confused as to why the teacher was telling her this, and she said she was in her thoughts asking herself how does a color belong to people.
Yang : One part that i liked was the fact that he said he believed that crying would help him get to Jackie chan, which worked and was able to get his auto graph and picture, and another part i liked was that he mentions that theres 3 people who helped him in his life ” the people who loves you, your idols, and very nice people”. which is true those kind of people would truly do anything to help and can give motivation.
Gorman: There were certain points where she showed the audience how her mom was yelling and trying to protect her daughter, so the audience could understand the way the mom was projecting, and it also showed us how she was feeling because she also mentioned that she was trying to act like that wasn’t her mother in a way. It also showed us how it all feels when you’re about to give an audition for a role and how a family acts toward you.
Aleeza Kazmi – She tells the story of the time she was told to do a self-portrait of herself using colors. and when she tried using a peach color like all the girls in her classroom the teacher came up to her and handed her a brown crayon, telling her that’s her color! The detail of this story is she wasn’t sure of what her “identity “ was when she was young and didn’t know Brown wasn’t a race.
Kwong Yu Yang- He was telling a story about the moment he noticed Jackie Chan was in his hometown and wanted to show and prove to everyone he had met Jackie chan. He tried to do everything in order for him to get his autograph. The detail to the story he is trying to tell is he wanted to feel “accepted” and wanted to show everyone that he met Jackie chan.
Amanda Gorman- She is telling the story of when she wanted to be in a Broadway show “ The Lion King” and her mother motivated to audition but when being there she was told by another parent it wasn’t an audition for armatures! But the mother never gave up on her and continued to motivate her in the way she could. The details of the story she was telling are more of the “desire “of becoming a Broadway actor and going to New York City.
Q1. In video one Aleeza embraced how surprised she was about the teacher calling her about how that color wasn’t “her color”.
In video two you can feel how depressed Yang was about not being able to knock on the door because he was too afraid.
In the last video Amanda describes her moms confidents with the same tone of voice her mom used when her she snapped at the other girls who tried to embarrass her daughter.
Q2. In the first video the speaker shows that she is confused and surprised by opening her hands wide and her eyes as well.
In the second video Yang shows how nervous he was by shaking his hands when he was telling us how how he reacted while attempting to knock on the door Jackie was in.
In the last video you can hear how nervous Amanda was when she was repeating the Audition lines for The Lion Kings
Video 1: This first video was personally my favorite, because of how she told the audience the story with such emotion. She told every detail of how she felt in that moment and made us feel what she was feeling with her. She described how crayons looked and felt. She told the story with many hand movements and eye contact that kept us entertained and focused on the story.
Video 2: In the second video he tells the story with very detail to his emotions. He describes how he felt as time went by while he waited for Jackie Chan to come out and talk to him. He also uses his body language to demonstrate how he felt and also eye contact to keep the audience entertained. He describes what the food looked like, and how he was eating slowly so he would have time to meet the actor.
Video 3: In the third video she uses more body language and the tone in her voice than the other speakers. She does a hand-stand to demonstrate what she actually did when she knew she wouldn’t be on Broadway. She describes her mother and how her mother made her feel before the audition and after. She kept the audience entertained by the emotion in her voice and how bad she wanted to get that role, she made it so interesting that everyone wanted to know by the end if she got her role or not.
Video 1: She was very descriptive when describing how she felt when her teacher took the brown crayon out of the box. She gave us an image, motioning her hands as if she were the one taking the crayon out of the box. You were able to feel the emotion she felt as she spoke with her eyes on the audience.
Video 2: He was able to grasp us in with every little detail using his body. He explained how he cried in fear of not being cool, even using his body to show us how nervous he was to knock on the door.
Video 3: the used the most body language of all 3 videos. Her voice was grand and grabbed my attention quickly. When speaking about her mother and sister, she would mimic their voices for us to get an idea of them. Even showing us how she walked on her hands when leaving the audition to make a statement.
1) In the first video of Aleeza Kazmi, one specific thing that she talks about in the video was how she found out that she was brown when she was in the 1st grade. How she didn’t know what to say when somebody asked her race,
In the second video of Kwong Yue Yang, one specific thing that he talked about was acceptance. He talks about how at the age of 9 being an Asian kid at his school, he tried so hard to fit in by making himself cool and he thought that by meeting Jackie Chan, he would look cool in from of the kids at school they’ll accept him.
In the third video of Amanda Gorman, one specific thing she talks about was race. She talks about how being the black girl in society, she wanted to achieve all of her goals like being in the spotlight. Her mom wanted her to be out there and give her best,
2) In the First video, Aleeza Kazmi did a lot of hand gestures.
In the Second video, Kwong Yue Yang did eye contact.
In the Third video. Amanda Gorman stood on her hands and so many facial expressions