Rehearsals

Today was our scheduled rehearsal with our chosen dancer. Jacob and I were at the University at around 9:15 to pick up our Sony EX3, Manfrotto and studio keys. By 9:30 we were in B32. As we entered the room we found it at quite a messy state so we spent 9:30-10:00 cleaning up the room which was rather frustrating.

Our dancer arrived at 10:15 and spent until 11:00 warming up. Once she was ready, we showed her the "choreography task sheet" which had the following details for her to improvise with:

Earth:

• ·       Starts lying down under the sand.
• ·       Fetal position opening.
• ·       Emerge from the sand. Kneeling or crouching.
• ·       Breathe. Gesture.
• ·       No quick movement. No height. No fluidity.
• ·       Travel through the space, low grounded.
• ·       Improvise: 2 mins will be low and ground based

Earth to Water:

• ·       Hit the sand. Imagine it turns into water.

Water:

• ·       Hit splash, continue from the transition.
• ·       Constantly fluid movements. Body curves and fluid joints.
• ·       No standing straight. Medium low height.
• ·       Standing and kicking water.
• ·       Improvise: 2 mins
• 
  

Water to Air:

• ·       Travel. Gesture and breathe. Whip the silk.

Air:

• ·       Whip the silk again.
• ·       Jumps. Work with heights.
• ·       Standing allowed.
• ·       Lots of weightlessness. Elegance.
• ·       Exaggerate movements.
• ·       Pretend like the air is pushing around.
• ·       When still, keep the silk moving.  
• ·       Twirl. Imagine cyclone.
• ·       Improvise: 2 mins

Air to Fire:

• ·       Travel, throw the scarf away.
• ·       Gradually slow travel to the middle.
• ·       Crouch. Finger flames. (Smoke rolls in)

Fire:

• ·       Rise from the smoke.
• ·       Candle flame. Eventually escalates to forest fire.
• ·       Whip like, lashing movements. Rapid.
• ·       Excessive arm movements.
• ·       Lots of retracing steps. Unpredictable.
• ·       Improvisation: 2 mins.

Ending:

• ·       Massive gesture.
• ·       Disappear into the smoke.

Our dancer took these suggestions onboard quite well and we progressed rather quickly with her. Jacob would film the session whilst our dancer and I would try structuring the improvisations. At times when we were stuck we referred to some of Jacob's suggestions, which brought forth some interesting variety. At the end of the day we concluded with some of the following notes:

• Earth should have staggered movements. 
• Earth has a lot of contact with the sand. The dancer has been very involved with the ground so we beckoned her to be careful with sand getting into her eyes! She says that she "seems to forget that it will actually be there," but we'll have an eye bath on set in case something does happen. 
• Water should stay closer to the same 1m x 1m spot or else it becomes too easily confused for air. That way our dancer can focus on her arm movement. 
• Air should be free to roam the space in a circular pattern. 
• Fire should start as a still movement, until it breaks out into a very excited and high-energy piece. We made this decision as variation is a good thing for a dance piece. 

We were able to create at least 16 sets of 8 beats, at 60 beats per minute. This meant each Element has approximately two minutes' worth of improvisation, which can be cut down in post-production to 1 minute and 15 seconds. As a group we feel it is better to have shot more rather than to not have shot enough. Especially when there is a slim chance to reshoot with the KN Singh studios being extremely busy.

When Al arrived at 2:00PM (as scheduled, as it wasn't necessary for there to be too many people at the improvisation session) we showed him what we had created in the morning session. He had the following notes:

• If variation is good then more standing up needs to be introduced in the Earth segment, just occasionally. As the piece currently is, it is entirely ground-based. 
• When traveling through the Air segment, traveling diagonally (but in circular movements) will help differentiate Air from Fire. 
• Fire could become more intense if our dancer used her hips to accompany her shoulder movement. 
• Stare directly into the camera for the transition between Water and Air. Al wants to "break the third wall." 

Our dancer then requested that, if possible, we send her the edited footage and notes as a reference for her to practice the night before our shoot. We now aim to compile the footage on Thursday so that we can have it sent out to her by Saturday. 

Lighting

This afternoon I sought after the advice of a peer on the Film Production course. This particular peer specialises in Cinematography, so his last few weeks have been very familiar with the KN Singh Studio lights. During our conversation I sought after his opinion by asking "what would you do if you wanted to depict fire through your lighting?" This information is rather crucial as our fire scene is rather dependant on the lighting and smoke effects.

He suggested a three point lighting system with the following ideas for one of the lights:

This fist suggestion made was to use red gels - which was something we already had in mind. He questioned whether or not we wanted to use sodium gels, because it would give off more vivid red lights. This is something that I will have to enquire and discuss with Chris Pinnock. He recommended cutting out a long sheet of gel, and having it constantly moved and waived around so that it creates a rippling effect. This would be effective in our concept because fire is not a steady source of light. 

The next suggestion that my friend made was to use a golden reflector along with the moving red gel screen. "The more layers of light, the better.  It's all about creating layers after you've established your basic fills and highlights." The golden reflector would provide a layer of warmer, yellower highlights to accompany the red highlights. 

Lastly, it was recommended that I asked Chris Pinnock for a "cookie cutter," which is apparently something that can direct light into shapes. According to my friend, if we moved this around we could get quite interesting effects, especially with moving light. This would be relevant as fire is not a steady source of light. It would be accompanied by our fill lights from the three-point lighting system. 

One Cut Films

"Family Portrait" by Tamara Lenz 

Following Nicky Hamlyn's alternative film workshop we were assigned to create a film that involved one cut. The cut could not be a fade to black or a dissolve - just a clean cut.

As a result I decided to create a film based on the themes of family, homesickness, self portraiture and wordplay. "Family Portrait" is a self portrait with the only family I have in the UK - my cameras. I decided to use my Fuji Instax Polaroid camera because the process of a developing polaroid picture is a rather nostalgic process for the world of photography. This was appropriate for the theme of the project because at the time I was extremely nostalgic and homesick.

The developing polaroid was what made this one cut piece interesting. It is a part of the novelty behind polaroid photography as well. I filmed this process with my Canon EOS 7D, which is featured in the polaroid photo as I try to personify it as family. I then edited this on Final Cut Pro 7 which is where I sped up the footage, blended the sounds and colour corrected. 

When reviewed by Nicky Hamlyn he mentioned that I had several layers of meaning and metaphors within this film. The concept is pretty short and simple, which is okay. He did mention that I should have left the development process alone and not sped it up. It is the process of development that makes polaroid photography interesting so the viewer should endure the 3 minutes it takes to develop on screen. I will bear this in mind if I ever reshoot this idea. 

Audition Schedule

In order to recruit dancers for our auditions, I sent out postings to five different agencies or schools. Some of which included:

- Dancer Pro

- Ideas Tap

- London Dance 

- Guildford School of Acting 

- Rachel Palmer's Dance Company

In total our production got approximately 500 views, followed by 12 applications, only three of which could confirm an audition with us. As a result I created the following audition schedule (names removed for privacy): 

Dancer 1 - arrive 12:30, audition at 1:00PM

Dancer 2 - arrive at 1:30PM audition at 2:00PM 

Dancer 3 - arrive at 2:30PM audition at 3:00PM

I booked out W612 as the warm up and waiting room for the dancers. The auditions took place in G27, with Al, Jacob and Callam in the room. We provided water and bananas as complementary refreshments. At the end of the day only two of the dancers showed up. Dancer 2 never returned any of my calls to either cancel or reschedule her audition. We decided to move on.

At the end of the day, the team and Director decided that Dancer 1 was best suited to work with us (see Abdualziz Lamlum's blog for details reasons). I think she was a great choice because not only was she experienced, but she was very friendly and easy to work with compared to Dancer 2. As someone who teaches choreography I feel like she can teach us quite a number of things. 

Butoh

Butoh was a Japanese dance movement created after WWII to depict the "grotesque" and the disturbing. It was most likely derived from the post-war emotions that Japan was undergoing at the time. Its signature look includes very disturbing movements and imagery, done in slow motion or with great control whilst covered in white paint.

The message behind the dance of Butoh is not exactly what the group is aiming towards. Instead, what I got from Butoh was the appreciation for gestures. I find that because Butoh had such a strong sense of control over their movement, almost any given frame makes an interesting photograph involving the human body.

Maya Derren

Choreography enables me to be slightly more creative outside of my role as a Producer. I am no dancer but my four years of experience with it means I can assist in the communication between the group and dancer. I decided to look at dance in context with film because my group is definitely in control of how our dancer can interact with the camera. This is why I chose to look at Maya Derren's "A Study in Choreography for Camera."

What I found most interesting about Derren's work is her ability to match cuts with the movement of the dance despite the fact that her locations differ. The movement through dance allows the two separate locations to be unified, as the viewers generally accept that they are the same subject matter and timeframe. This might help us develop our dance in a way that keeps the four elements exclusive to each other, but unified through match cuts.

If I remember correctly, Maya Derren does this again in her "Meshes of the Afternoon" piece through the act of walking.

Through Maya Derren's "A Study in Choreography for Camera" I also learnt that variation is a good thing in dance. Variation in height, gesture or travel brings forth an interesting aesthetic in dance. I shall try to bear this in mind when improvising and choreographing our dancer.

Alternative Film with Nicky Hamlyn

Special thanks to Abdulaziz Lamlum for recording the projections. 

After having a workshop with Nicky Hamlyn about the processes of creating your own film, the entire class had a go. I managed to create a 15 second animation piece with markers, scratching tools and 16mm film. 

What I find most interesting about this process is how painting on both sides of the film would impact on the focus of the projection. Originally I had painted on two different sides so that the ink wouldn't merge. Turns out that only either one of those sides would remain in focus once projected. It surprised me because I didn't think of the film as that thick.

I also tried chewing the 16mm film. I found it to be a redundant experiment as not a lot happened visually. To create a loop long enough to fit the projector I would have had to chew through a lot of film, which I found to be rather tiring.

Despite learning and working with 16mm film for the first time, I felt that working with individual frames required a lot of patience. This process resembled that of animation which isn't my primary interest. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to have a go at creating my own projections. It has given me insight and a newfound respect for those who work with the individual frames.