DANCE FILM - IN ONE BIG BLOG

At the beginning of this project, I had no clue as to what I wanted to do. After hearing what everyone else's initial ideas were, I felt that I could not bring anything useful if I were to join them, as nothing had really interested me fully. I thought long and hard of what I like. I came to realise that I enjoy creating dark and emotional work. I came up with two main concepts; The first expressing the emotions you face when you lose a loved one and the second, an expression of the physical and emotional abuse in a toxic relationship. 

My first tutorial with Rachel went well; Rachel showed me a few examples of dance pieces that could work, (non of which I enjoyed as they were the complete opposite of my style). I demonstrated some moves that I had in my head to Rachel, as I could somewhat see a clear vision of how I wanted my dance films to look. Rachel had a slight concern when I mentioned some songs I'd like to use, as this project focuses on the dance itself and not the music. Although I had already figured out most of the choreography with my dancer before having had chosen the music, Rosie wanted to remind me not to focus too much on the music.

The first time I had met up with my dancer, I had given her a list of emotions that I wanted her to express with movements. Rachel had suggested that I look at the "7 stages of grief". This helped when giving my dancer emotions to focus on. After my dancer, Yasmeen had performed to these words, I noticed how there were a mixture of both soft, delicate movements to then harsh, sharp movements. I showed Yasmeen roughly what I wanted the choreograph to look like. I gave her a week to come up with as much as she could for my first dance film, as I wanted her to focus on one choreography so that it was perfect, before moving on to the other one. Within this week, I had listened to a large number of songs that I could use for both of my films. Once I had finally picked the two songs that I wanted to use, I contacted many music agencies, publishers and those involved with obtaining the rights to use copyrighted music - this was a long process. My main issue with obtaining these rights were that it would have cost me quite a bit of money for the songs to be used in my films that would have been published via the UCA DFSA YouTube page. I am currently still in contact with the publishers, but feel positive that they will allow me to use both songs, that can be published in Film Festivals, but not YouTube. Due to this, I had decided to make another version (of both films) with copyright free music. I will submit both versions but only the versions with copyright free music can be graded and posted on the UCA YouTube page.

Initial Research with Rachel

Video Research

The image below shows a visual moodboard of screenshots from some of the videos listed above. The three images on the left best suit my first dance film idea (the loss of a loved one) and the others work for both my dance film ideas. I really liked the image in the bottom right; the mans hands are gripped around the woman's wrists. You can not see the man, only faintly when the woman moves her head, but in this dance piece the man was controlling the woman - almost as if they were moving as one. This could work well with my second idea of toxicity in a relationship.

Visual Moodboard

FILM 1 - Loss Love

How do you deal with the loss of a loved one? How can you learn to accept that loss? Showing the stages we face and emotions experienced when dealing with the loss of a loved one through dance. Set in a forest, dead bouquet in hand as a young women makes her way through the bushes to a clearing, where she begins to dance her sadness away. Soft, gentle movements turn into sharp lashes of anger and hate. Her makeup begins to run and clothes covered in mud as she collapses to the floor. Subtle shots of a man’s hands appear, as they brush softly over the woman’s skin. She turns to see who, but no one is standing there. Eventually, the man will appear, almost transparent – as if he were a ghost. One final dance for the young couple before the woman accepts what has been done, as she smiles and walks on. Here, the man will smile back, as he fades off into the beautiful long trees.

FILM 2 - Poison

Toxic relationship – after having researched a lot of dance based around this theme, there is a lot of: push and pull, soft movements, abrupt movements that represent anger. I want this entire piece to be reversed in post because a lot of people say they wish the could “go back in time”, “I would do things differently”. The reversed dance connotates these phrases. The use of a fog machine will represent our “cloudy minds” and how we can’t always see things for what they really are until it’s too late. The choreography works from a high, to low. Reversing this means that the piece will start from a low, to high. I want the dancer to break free from this toxic relationship, as throughout the dance she’ll realize her naivety and how wrong she was. I want it to end positively. A projection will be played over the dance; The projection is a video showing clips of the couple in love, but eventually turns to dark as you see the toxicity. 

After having finalised both my concepts and almost completing the choreography with Yasmeen, I drew my focus into finding the best location. I decided to film my second film, "Poison" at my place of work, David Lloyd gym. This was easy as not only did they have the space and lighting needed, both Was and I worked there - so travel would have been easy. In addition, my mum is studio manager at that gym and also an instructor, so obtaining permission to use one of the studios at the gym was easy. It was also a great space for Yas and I to rehearse. As for the location for my first dance film, "Loss Love" I had the perfect place in mind. The route I'd take driving from my home to university had a long road, surrounded by forests with never-ending trees. It was a beautiful place that I had always wanted to film in. After having done some research, I found out that the location was used to film some of the 'Harry Potter' films, especially 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1'. I got in contact with Windsor Parks who redirected me to one of the Rangers on the grounds. This was a quick and easy precess and within a week, I had permission to film on the 2nd and 3rd of April from 10:00 a.m. - 17:00 p.m. However, due to the global pandemic, I've had to postpone until further notice as although this project has been cancelled, I would still love to film and see my vision come to life.

Finding a crew was a little difficult. I had planned to work alone, as I hadn't yet done so in any of the previous projects, but Rosie said that it would be wise to have at least another person involved. This was a really good point as I wasn't yet fully confident with using cameras or After Effects and as well working on two dance films, I had agreed to produce for Izzy's dance film and work on sound recording on Karolina's Fields of Frames work. So my task was to find someone confident with using cameras and VFX. Straight, I knew Ben would be the perfect fit; He had a lot of his own cameras, (this would reduce time on having to wait to book out a camera from equipment hire) he was also quite confident with using After Effects. Ben had also agreed to be my cinematographer. I had a lot of confidence that he would be able to produce exactly what I wanted. The images below are screenshots of my production pack (incomplete) for the "Loss Love" dance film. I yet complete the production pack for "Poison" and have to include my shot list/storyboard however, this was something that I was meant to work on with Ben. (But again, due to the lockdown, we've not been able to sit together to work on this) 

Taking on many roles for my dance films: Producer, Director, Editor, Sound Design is quite a lot, considering I’m making 2 dance films, and producing Izzy’s dance film and sound recording for Karolina’s film. However, I am quite organised and time efficient when producing masses of work - as proven in previous projects. In addition, I love to help people and hate disappointing anyone, therefore I work a lot harder when being apart of someone else's project.

I have made a few short films in the past (before coming to this university) where I have taken on all these roles. These films however, were made with friends (non professional actors). I enjoyed the Director’s workshop we had done during first term and spoke with the man leading this workshop. He asked if I wanted to be a director and added that I should be as I not only am I good at explaining what it is I want, I also have good people skills. 

Having done AVID and ProTools as my specialisms, I can use the skills I have learnt to produce a successful dance film. I would like to use AVID Baselight to colour correct my films, and ProTools to create my own sound/music, (as I may not be able to obtain the licence for the songs I’d like to use).

Producer (for Izzy’s film): I am quite organised, (as shown in previous projects). Although I am working on many other projects, I’ve always wanted to try out the role of producer as I feel that it would help me prepare for the future – where I may be given a lot of work all at once and would have to time manage efficiently to get everything done on time.

Sound (for Karoina’s film): Having done ProTools as one of my specialisms, I feel fairly confident when it comes to sound design and recording. I’ve recorded sound for my ProTools project and worked on sound for my previous Maps&Networks project. Sound Design isn’t what I want to do long-term in the future, but it is something I enjoy and would like to gain more knowledge in as I would like to work in the sector for part of my career.

As I am working on multiple projects and have taken on many roles, time management was very key. Before agreeing to help both Izzy and Karolina, I made sure that I had completed as much as I could of my own films, so that I could focus more on theirs. I completed Izzy's production pack within a few hours and had obtained the permission to film at her chosen location within a couple of days. Karolina's project didn't need much preparation on my behalf, I just needed to turn up on the day of filming. However, to prepare for this, I practiced using the sound equipment I would need.

I scheduled weekly meetings with Izzy to keep her updated and signed up for most of the tutorial so that Rosie and Rachel were aware of my progress and could offer some guidance where needed. I also planned out a schedule for the whole month of March, stating what I would need to complete for each day, for example, I spent one day contacting music agencies (for my songs) and emailing for locations.

The videos below are rehearsals for the dance film "Loss Love". The first clip is the first rehearsal and the other three are other rehearsals where we linked each bit of choreography together so that it flowed into one. I edited the song over each video. The song is "I Found" by Amber Run. This is the song I had chosen for the first/main dance film. Using Adobe Audition, I shortened the song and slowed it down. I felt that a slowed down version worked better as the process / "7 stages of grief" are a long process. The slowed song emphasises this.

Using Adobe Audition to edit the song

Overall, I am proud of the amount of work that I had achieved. As soon as I had my concepts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted my dance films to look like. I began working on my choreography straight away and once I found my dance, she touched up on my work and improved it by adding in a lot of her won ideas that all worked so well together. I am also proud of how much research and individuals I had to contact to obtain permission to use a particular location and song, for not only my films but Izzy's also. I was nervous at first, as I had never worked on my own project before during this academic year, but I had proven that not only could I work on two films, but produce another and having completed the work efficiently and up to high standards. I have definitely learnt a lot of skills; I have learnt the skills needed when producing, improved my communication skills and time management skills. I have also improved my Directing skills; taking charge. I had a lot of fun working on this project and it's a shame we were unable to complete it, (due to the global pandemic). I will definitely like to complete these and film my dance films once the lockdown has ended and/or once we are back at uni in September.