Dance Video: Minutes from our Meeting - Part II

Minutes for Meeting on 24^th of January 2014

·      Concept – are we happy with it?

o   Interrelationship between man and the elements. It’s relevant to us because:

§  POWER/CONTROL: It deals with themes of power struggle. Man vs. Mother Nature. It shows how we’re a part of our environment. As well as the human tendency of wanting to master things that could be out of our control.

§  ADAPTATION: How man deals with their surroundings.

§  MOVEMENT: Movement of elemental particles shown through the dance.

§  EXPRESSION: Personifying the elements.

o   Dedicate a set or phase for each element: air, earth, fire and water. Approximately 2 minutes each.

o   Sound – still undecided. Perhaps create our own sound? Otherwise use something without lyrics, like Gill Chang’s “Black and White.”

·      Production schedule – February, March and April. As of now: We have TEN WEEKS LEFT.

o   Pre-Production: Whatever permissible. Likely to be three weeks.

o   Audition: 1 week.

o   Dance Practice and Choreography: 1 week.

o   Building the Set: 3 days.

§  Whilst we choreograph, 

o   Shooting: 1 week.

o   Editing & Sound Phase: 3 weeks.

o   Back Up Shoot or Edit Time: 1 week.

·      Order of the script and concept:

o   Sand should be first, then water, wind, & fire.

·      Current to do list:

o   TAMARA – Producer and Choreographer (Help with Camera later)

§  Email Gill Chang for copyright.

§  Draw up production schedule – the outline.

§  Email Rosie to make the Risk Assessment available on myUCA.

§  Start a casting call pro account to audition dancers.

§  Talk to Julie about booking available studios.

§  Talk to Chris Pinnock about our limitations and restrictions on the studios.

§  Consider more of the conceptual theory we can explore. Talk to Annabelle Frearson or Kathleen about what we can research.

o   AL – Director and VFX

§  Make a treatment. Check PPT for the checklist of a good treatment.

§  Al should read “Making Video Dance” and write up a list of interesting quotes or points. These notes are for the rest of the group to read.

§  Start the screenplay for each element. Extreme detail on what you expect to see.

o   JACOB  - Camera, Equipment and VFX

§  Talk to Simon about being inducted to the C300. Book a potential date with him, to be inducted.

·      Test lenses?

§  Think about film’s technical needs. Draw up equipment list. List what is available in equipment hire, or contacts on finding what’s not in the University (like the smoke machine or what not).

o   CALLAM - Editing and Production Design

§  Start looking up plans on how to build our sets.

§  Read books, or read up techniques on building.

§  Make Sketches on how we might build our sets. Include rought measurements.

§  Research what shops offer cheap materials – look at Robert Dyas?? Quote prices for us just so we can get an idea of materials.

DEADLINE FOR ALL OF THIS IS FRIDAY JANUARY 31^st

Dance Video: Notes on "Pina" by Wim Wenders

These are the following notes I made whilst watching "Pina" by Wim Wenders.

• Dedicated to Pina, a choreographer. 
• Spoken in German, English and French. Probably produced and created in Germany. 
• Takes after Berkeley's idea of synchronised movement of an entire group. 
• Fresh soil is poured onto the stage. 
• Plays with the idea of perspective in the second dance (on the soil). Especially because one dancer is closer to the camera on the ground, whilst the other dancers are far away in the background. This is interesting.  
• The dancers seem to be very aware of the shapes they are creating on the soil with their footprints, seen through the cross shape they started off with me. Maybe not, as that the rest of their dance becomes chaotic. 
• Love their use of panning down from the dancers to the red cloth. Perspectives make the viewers feel really distant. 
• Shows the backstage choreography sessions with Pina. Very interesting to see a break in the time frame. 
• It shows cuts back to the choreographer, which shows this film to be more a Dance Film than a musical or theatrical film. 
• It has close up shots to show interaction between certain dancers. It breaks up the monotony of seeing a group of dancers. Variation is good. 
• Breathing becomes a movement that is emphasised by lighting. 
• The lover's garden duet is filmed in one continuous camera shot. 
• Interesting cut between a replica of a stage and the actual dance scene - using miniature dancers in editing. 
• Spotlight lighting in the chair towers piece is very crucial. It gives the dance a sense of seriousness, or a dramatic undertone for a very slow dance. 
• Lots of panning or moving shots. Very seldom does Wenders use a still shot (when it's not a close up). This probably contributes towards the idea of a dance is movement. This time it's not only the dancers, but perhaps the cameras as well. 
• Wenders shows movement of transport as well, as shown by the train. Very peculiar. Later furthered by a robotic dance. A movement within movement. It's like Shakespeare's "a play within a play" from MacBeth. 
• Frozen frame in the middle of a flash from a polaroid photo. Feels so surreal, but such a natural part of photography! Wenders uses it as a moment to explain a story, whilst the frame is frozen. 
• In the Japanese woman's dance, the end of her routine/spin is slowed down for visual significance. Probably to make the piece feel more complete, rather than just an awkward ending. Could consider this when I'm stuck with choreography. 
• White background would be amazing for a dark subject matter and sparse lighting. Gives off a sense of eeriness. Gives amazing opportunity to work with silhouettes as well. 
• For the duet with a yellow dress in an indoor space, the camera follows the dancer's falling movements by swaying side to side. It involves the viewer in the dancer's movements, which is quite engaging. 
• There's a final shot by the camera where they pan quickly towards the dancers, then around them. It gives the shot a sense of closure despite being a still gesture. 
• There's an artificial rain dance that eventually grows into an ocean. Another way of considering water as a prop. 

Rough Test: Hands

As a part of our creative brainstorm process, Al and I decided that we should experiment with one of my ideas for the dance video. We felt that if we didn't experiment with certain ideas, we would be too excited and opinionated about what to do as a group.

So I brought along some blue acrylic paint and started painting my hands. Al then took this footage home to key the blue paint and inverted the selection, so that only the blue would show up. For the background he put a video of the corridor where we filmed.

This certain idea was inspired by Maroon 5's "Love Somebody" music video.

I find the idea of the hands especially interesting. The idea of painting oneself into creation could synchronise into some interesting rhythmic patterns as a dance. This fascination was partially inspired by John Burrough's "Hands" and Philippe Decoufle's "Le p'tit bal perdu."

As interesting as this idea was, the group decided that the idea of painting hands was best left as a fun experiment. Especially when the idea of being painted into existence was already accomplished by Maroon 5. 

Dance Video: Choreography Workshop

Having the dance choreography workshop with Rachel Palmer was very exciting. It was also creatively refreshing as I am only used to the street variations of dance. Rachel's techniques in learning to isolate and combine certain parts of the body made dance simpler and more interesting for me. It taught me that I don't have to be a dancer myself to achieve what I want to see in a performance. 

As the choreographer for this group I will do my best to retain some of the vocabulary that Rachel taught us, such as "gesture" and "travel." See the following photos and videos as documentation of the workshop: 

Dance Video: Minutes from our Meeting - Part I

15^th January 2014 – Full Group Meeting

Themes we would like to explore:

·      Jacob: Relations with the elements. “The fundamental beliefs.. Phases of matter. Earth is solid. Water is liquid. Air is gas. Fire is plasma.”

o   Tamara: Each of us could choreograph an element to keep the personality unique.

·      Tamara: We could do just one element if it all gets complicated.

Technicalities:

·      Cameras – something that can handle at least 50fps.

o   SONY EX3

o   Tamara has a Canon EOS 7D.

o   Callam can get a hold of a Canon EOS 7D.

Right Now Experiments:

·      Time Freeze

·      Particles.

·      Water.

·      Paint

How to Prepare to Friday

·      Tamara brings rice.

·      We each choreograph/list the tasks for the dancers.

The Group Study Task

1.     Decide on your film type: Music Video, Dance Film, Promo Film, Viral Advert.

2.     Establish your theme or content: what are you trying to say? What is your artistic voice?

3.     Why are you using movement, what do you want it to say? What style of movement will you use and why? What does the body in space represent? Is it narrative or abstract? How will you generate material with your dancers? How does the movement relate to the content?

4.     Chose a scene from your film to create with 2-3 dancers. Direct your dancer using improvisation or choreographed movement.

5.     Prepare tasks for your dancers to generate movement. Set up an improvisation to create a structure, introduce an emotion to communicate a quality. Set a creative task for the dancer to build a dance phrase which is relevant to your theme/content. ACTIONS – Jump, Turn, Travel, Gesture, Stillness, Falling – manipulate with CHOREOGRAPHIC DEVICES. Plan a variety of camera shots: close ups, body parts, full shots. Spacing: where is the action in the frame?

Dance Video: Looking at Sounds

Please see below a link to my soundcloud playlist of songs that I have shortlisted as "potential" to work with. I have decided to search on soundcloud because this is where I can search for musicians who have listed their soundtracks as "available for commercial use."

https://soundcloud.com/tamara-jane-lenz/sets/potential-project

Dance Video: My Favourite Choreography

As previously mentioned, contemporary dance is the most fascinating form of dance for me. Below is an except of TV Show, "So You Think You Can Dance (Season 8 Episode 10)." 

In my opinion, there has never been a better contemporary performance than Melanie and Marko. Their performance made the "story" of the dance a beautiful act. 

Dance Video: Stay the Night by Daniel Campos

Though it is a music video in nature, I find myself quite inspired by Campos' video for Zedd. 

What probably fascinates me the most are three things:

the use of colours, post processing and contemporary dance. 

When it comes down to colours, I find that a really minimalistic concept can be brought forth with a simple colour scheme in the Production Design. It's probably the most minimalistic way to imply a sense of conflict or duality. In Chinese philosophy the idea of balance isn't complete without the duality of opposing forces. Within this music video the blue and red colours are evident to show the masculine and feminine counterparts of the relationship. 

The post processing effects they use in this music video matches the rhythm and tempo of the song, which becomes especially useful for transitions between the cuts. What is slightly odd about their post processing is the use of distorted lighting to imply that there is a boundary between the two dancers. The distorted lighting almost feels as though I am looking through a magnifying glass that's moving. At times it almost seems like lens flare and bokeh lighting. With excessive use it becomes quite chaotic, so perhaps it might be useful for my project to avoid abusing some of our transitions. 

Lastly, the use of contemporary dance is my favourite element of this music video. Contemporary dance enables the set to stay very simple and minimalistic, whilst the focus is drawn to how the dancers express themselves (01:00-01:16). The viewer will be especially engaged with how the differing shapes and movements are made by the dancers, which is a good thing concerning when considering expression of the human form.