We began today with our Avid editing task. This was to take all the footage we captured from the Studio shoot in our previous project and edit this individually into our own piece. I was very excited to do this as I have been waiting to see all the footage from our groups Studio shoot.
I began this day by logging into the Nexis and creating my own project area for my edit within Avid. I then opened up the footage from our studio shoots which consisted of Day 1 Rushes, Day 2 Rushes, Day 1 Zoom Audio, Day 2 Zoom Audio and Tascam Audio. I duplicated all of this into my own Bins in my project space in Avid from the Nexis:
I then decided that before I could start editing this I would need to review it to figure out which takes and shots were which and also which ones were worth using. To do this I decided to create 3 more bins. One labelled Best Shots, one called Possible Shots and one called Bad Shots. This is so I could watch all the clips and the duplicate them and choose which Bin to put them in depending on which I would defiantly use, which ones I might use and which ones I defiantly won't use. It also gave me a chance while reviewing to mark an In and Out point on the clip of the segments with in it that I thought would be most useful to me or that I liked the most:
This took me a very long time to arrange as we had captured so much footage. I spent the day doing this but eventually got it finished. Then to help me stay slightly more organised ready for the next editing session I went through my shot list from the shoot days and wrote next to each one which clip was the best from each shot and what I liked that happened in that clip. Here is my messy but useful notes I took (the ones in the blue pen):
I would have liked to start editing today but I had run out of time due to the large quantity of files and footage I had to go through. However by doing this I am now in a really good position to start making an effective rough edit next week and then perfect it the week after before the deadline.
This was our final practical dance workshop to help us gain skills helpful to creating a dance video.
Improvisational Task
We began by getting into our groups before the Dancers arrived and just running through our idea again developing it further and making sure everyone was clear. We also had to finalise what we would set as a improvisational task for the dancers today to help us start developing and being a piece.
Firstly we ran through some more phobias that we had found out about and spoken about how we may get the dancers to represent them:
Nyctophobia (Fear of the Dark) - Smalled bodied dancer, balled up in fear. Exploring the space in low level timid manor as if it was pitch black. Not a lot of travelling. The dark could be resembled by a square bodied dancer very strongly travelling around the space.
Pediaphobia (Fear of Dolls and Puppets) - Dancer could act like a doll or even puppet in a very possessed manor wobbly with movement. The fear could be show in a childish manor having lots of frantic spinning and travelling around the space.
Homophobia (Fear of Blood) - Fear shown by someone very slowly and deeply observing their body in a timid manor, abstract body movements represent that they might be bleeding. They can resemble the blood by flowing around the space slowly expanding out with all their limbs into a wider space as if bleeding is getting more intense. Possible use of red cloths as prop to move with.
Now that we had finishing looking into Phobias that interested all of us we set decided on our improvised task for the dancers. Firstly we would take just a few of the phobias we wanted to try out and firstly ask the 2 dancers to embody that phobia in a way that may come across as scary. Then we wanted to get them both to try and be the reaction/fear to that phobia using the direction given based on our notes about the phobias. We then wanted to see what they would dance like one we picked out our favourite bits and got them to dance together one as the Phobia and one as the reaction. The Phobias we want to try our Arachnophobia, Nyctophobia and Claustrophobia as we feel like we have a stronger image of how we could experiment with them.
Working with the Dancers
We went round all the ideas in the class watching as everyone got to work with the dancers on their developed improvisational task. We all helped each other by giving feedback on everyones ideas and this also helped me to gain useful information as well as practice working with Dancers. Here are the notes and ideas I wrote down during everyones different tasks:
Here is a video documenting all the exercises myself and the group tried with the dancers when it was our turn: Referring to the Video:
- In task one we directed them to act as the phobia of araachnophbia so basically like a spider, however we didn't want it too literal but we just wanted elements of spider like qualities through lots of travelling, low levels, crawling etc based on moving them limbs especially legs a lot. That results we got for this first task were good however the lacked an element of fear as in they weren't impacting the audience enough.
- We fed back and decided there needing to be some faster pace through out especially with the scuttling back and forth. We tried again and it was improved a lot more by the feedback from ourselves and the class.
- We then had the idea of using the dancers hands as spiders suggested to us. At first I was sceptical but I thought it would be good to at least try it and experiment. I really actually liked the results as it provoked a much better emotion which was a cross between being a spider but also the fear and anxiety that they can create. combing these two successful improvisations together has helped us start building what we want the dance to look like for this phobia.
- We then began looking in Nyctophobia which is fear of the dark. We were going to instruct the dancers to improvise a fearful dance as if they could see (like if they were in the dark) however after talking it through and taking suggestions we realised it would be more effective to first do some exercises were we actually have the dancers close their eyes and try and complete a task to be able to examine how the body actually moves when you can't see. We got them to stand in the circle (the circle was a safety precaution) and move around with their eyes closed as one is trying to find the other and the other doesn't want to be found. This was fun but really useful as it helped me begin to observe the nature of the body when in such a vulnerable position and gives me a clearer idea of how that could be represented through dance now.
- Lastly we looked at the Claustrophobia and instead of getting them to just improvise we again came up with a task to help them get into the mindset. We stood in a circle and they began dancing but as they danced we stepped in and slowly closed the circle smaller and smaller. This was to show them what that tight space would actually be like. It was helpful to try this however we didn't get the fearful aspect we were hoping for so we took a different approach.
- We then had one of the dancers being the claustrophobia by trapping the other in a small space by pulling them back into themselves constantly. I actually really liked how this turned out as it had a serious element of fear yet wasn't too literal and flowed really well. It has again helped me envisage how this dance piece would look.
Overall today has been really helpful in developing our ideas further and I have enjoyed working with he dancers to do this.
This was another workshop to help us further develop our ideas and skills for this project.
Be Aware
We began by talking about what to be aware of when working with Dancers, Here is what we came up with:
- Fatigue, dancers will need regular breaks at least every 1 and half hours.
- Dancers need at least 1 hour warmup and the space they do this in should be warn to avoid injury.
- Keep the filming space warm during the day to again avoid injury.
- Provide water and food for them (Expenses) especially if you are not paying them.
- Respect the Dancers, Don't move them around, don't ask personal questions, don't talk down to them etc and just keep it a nice environment for them.
- Be positive, find positive language to direct them and never just say 'NO'.
- Video your rehearsals with he dancers to help yourself and the dancers recall what you have done.
- Have a First Aid kit present at rehearsals and on shoot. This should have cold packs for injuries in it along with all the usual first aid supplies.
- Floor must be swept and checked its clear to avoid dancers injuring themselves on anything left on it. Also if it is a very hard floor like concrete you should either allow the dancer to wear the appropriate footwear they need like trainers or get a temporary sprung floor if possible to avoid them injuring themselves.
Creating a Phrase/motif
We looked more into the actual process of composing a dance and useful ways to create short pieces of moments know as a Phrase or Motif:
- Firstly explain the idea and themes of the piece using language we developed in the last workshop to the dancer.
-Set up a task which will help them improvise a piece which will be along the lines of the movement and style you want. Remember to use effective language and as the improvise you can stop them or talk to them as they do so to point out specific movements you like.
- Then you the these moments you like and get the dancers to add them together and develop more to them with your direction and input.
- Once you have experimented and developed these moves and they are set how you want them you have a Phrase to work with.
Principles
Here are the 5 main principles/movements which can be used in dance:
1. Jumping: Lifting off the ground. This could be used in dance to represent freedom, joy, excitement, power etc or used to gain height, avoid and support a lift etc.
2. Turning: Spinning vertically or horizontally, rolling. This could represent confusion, stress, lack of control etc and can be used to change direction.
3. Travelling: moving in the space. This could represent a change, distraction, fear or intention etc or could be used to get to a destination.
4. Stillness: standing, siting or lying in one place. This could represent sadness, fear, control, isolation or reflection etc.
5. Gesture: using hands to signal. This could represent religion, power, status, emotion etc or be used to communicate or signal.
Developing Our Idea
In order to be able to pitch an idea at Dancers in a successful way and begin improv we first had to have a developed idea. My idea was very undeveloped and simply was just the idea of basing a dance on Phobias. However I worked with a group to make it more than that. This is where our idea got to:
We want to make a Dance Video based on a exploration of Phobias through contemporary dance, Accordance and elements of Contortion.
We want the Phobias to be embodied and expressed by the Dancers. We want the dance to not only present the Phobia but to also show the fear and tension created from these.
Phobias we have so far looked in to and would like to possibly include are... Claustrophobia (Fear of small places), Arachnophobia (Fear of spiders), Acrophobia (Fear of heights), Aqua-phobia (Fear of water), Nyctophobia (Fear of the Dark), Hemophobia (Fear of Blood), Pediophobia (Fear of dolls and puppets).
Movements we want our piece to consist of are - Dragging and crawling, Contortion, Possession, Demonisation, Speed constantly changing, Repetition and Reversing.
We then as we had time began to brainstorm what kind of moments we would use for each phobia to create the right kind of feelings:
Claustrophobia - lots of stillness, very limited space, turning in one spot, heavy breathing, levels move from high to low as fear increases.
Arachnophobia - a lot of fast travelling, low levels and crawling, Begin with the Dancer resembling the Spider through contortion stayed movement then develop on to show the fear so thats its a transformation from being the fear to then being the reaction.
Acrophobia - (2 Dancers) One person lifted up by the other but struggling trying to get down, finally dropped, low levels as if they pass out, possible miming as if on tight rope incorporated into dance.
Aqua-phobia - Gasping for air, struggling as if they are under water, lots of use of levels, sinking, drawing at the end.
Now that we had a much better idea of what we wanted to create and what ti was going to look like etc we got to meet a Professional Dancer to try out a improvisation task to test out our ideas after explaining them to everyone and the Dancer.
Our Improvisation task was:
- Firstly we asked her to do a short improvisation task of representing water but we asked her to represent it in a way which people could be scared of it so basically demonising it. She did this by first thinking through why water could be scary and we then gave her words like flowing and smooth to help her know the physical ways to move. She struggled with this task at first especially at making it scary as she personally doesn't have a fear of water but she began physically representing the water effectively even if it wasn't scary.
-We then asked her to be the person who was scared of water. We put some tense music on to help her with this. We explained that the fear of water comes from fear of drowning for a lot of people and asked her to maybe include elements of this. This task went a lot better as she built it up to become very emotional with lots of heavy gasping and frantic speeds and changes of levels. She said in her mind she imagined she was in a well and the water was rising and she had no way out. This work very well and I have learnt a lot about how to talk to the Dancers and how this idea could physically take shape now.
I also know now that giving examples of scenarios will help them get into the thoughts and feelings they need for the piece.
In preparation of making a Dance Video I attended a workshop with a Choreographer to learn about what Dance Videos can be and how to compose them. I am very interested in learning how to producing a Dance Video and actually make one because I have always wanted to work in Music Videos and short films like this so it is very helpful to me.
History
Firstly we began with looking into the History of Dance. Here is the timeline of videos we looked at in the workshop however I have resisted them and this is what I thought of them and if I found them inspiring:
1894 - 'The Little Lost Child', Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern
The composer of this song (Marks & Stern) came up with he idea of making slides which would accompany their song while it played. It to me doesn't seem like a dance video because there is no movement going on with in it but the more I thought about it I realised this still teaches us a valuable lesson. It shows the importance of having good imagery with a song in order to create something exciting. The same applies with Dance Videos because they is no point having dance out of context with the story you are trying to tell, instead it should enhance the story. I think though this video and song are very sweet and I enjoyed it.
1897 - 'Dance Serpentine', Auguste & Louis Lumiere
I really love this video and the way the technical process works so well to enhance this beautiful dance. I think its very graceful anyway but I like the way they have painted each individual frame of film so that her dress changes colour with her movements. This makes it seem very magical and adds a very interesting element to it. This kind of dancing interest me as does the process of painting film used to make it which has always been something I have wanted to try. I feel like this could be developed into a much more exciting story with the technology available now to manipulate digital film through editing colours etc and it is something I will bear in mind.
1902 - 'Pas De Deux', Peter Elfelt
I found this piece a very simplistic and short one however still interesting to watch. Due to the nature of their film cameras at this time you can see why they would have to take this very static approach where they film the dancers from a front on view like how it has been filmed here. However I like the way this dance has been composed keeping that in mind because they have an interesting use of symmetry between the dancers which you would not have seen if you had filmed this from another angle. Is is basic yet effective because you can see both dancers and how they are mirroring each other at times but not at others. I like it for this reason however I don't find too much inspiration from the dance and film style to bring to my own video.
1903 - 'Alice in Wonderland', Lewis Carroll
I found this video very interesting because it was less of a dance and more of a film telling a story. However due to their being no sound of films in those times they used there body very expressively to tell the story which means there are gestural dance elements in here. It again uses basic camera angles but this again make the body the key way of telling the story and I like the simplicity of this. It gives you more time time to absorb the story through their body language and makes it very sweet and quaint in this way. I enjoyed this video and it has made me think into how pedestrian dance can be used very effectively through gestures to tell a story.
We discussed how when sound was introduced it meant that the need for this kind of story telling dance wasn't there anymore and this is when films moved in a different direction towards where films are now and how dance is much more of a performance art instead.
Commercial Dance VS Experimental Dance:
We then looked historically back at when Experimental Dance began to emerge compared to very commercialised dance and how they differed.
1931 - 'Dance until the Dawn', Busby Berkeley
This dance is a commercial dance used on this show to tell a story. I like here the use of the space and how they are creating patterns with all their bodies. It goes back to the symmetry I liked which I was talking about earlier in a dance video. I think this is a visually effective way of using lots of dancers to tell a story but with a lot more of a dance element to it. I feel like this has inspired me to find ways in which the body can be used other than to just basically dance.
1952 - 'Million Dollar Mermaid', Esther Williams
This is another commercial dance video and you can tell this just by the high budget that must have been used to make it. I actually really like how fun this video was with its cheesiness. I also found the use of water a very interesting aspect to look into. I would like to look into this and see if it is possible to use it in some way for making our dance videos as I think it could be used in dance in a variety of ways that aren't all as cheesy as this!
This is an experimental dance video which you can instantly tell by its use of abstract shapes and forms. I actually found it a lot more engaging and exciting to watch then commercial dance videos of this time because it had such a fast pace to it. I feel this fast pace kept me a lot more intrigued and focused on what was happening. I am thinking I may want to make my dance video fast paced when it comes to editing and use lots of material to try and engage my audience in a similar way.
These two sides of dance very much still exist today amongst many other styles!
Exploring Modern Videos and their use of Dance:
We moved forward in history to explore more modern Videos which incorporate dance in them to see how effective the dance is with in it and why. Four questions we asked ourselves whilst watching each of these were...
1. What is the product?
2. Why is the movement there?
3. How is the body being used?
4. Is the body being used effectively?
Here are the videos we watched and my personal answers to these questions:
'1234' Fiest
1. Music Video
2. The movement is here to emphasise the feelings of the song and make it visually exciting to watch.
3. They dance as a group keeping it fun with a childish nostalgia to it which is very effective in this song.
4. Yes, It really emphasises and embodies the song to me and makes it flow really well.
'Matched' LXD
1. Musical Theatre/Narrative movement piece
2. The movement told us a story of a couple in a very fun and exciting way.
3. The bodies developed character and personality to keep the story fun flowing.
4. Yes, it told a simple story in a really effective way through the dance however I felt I wanted to see more of the dancing element to it because it was broken up a lot by acting moments.
'Thought of you' Ryan Woodward
1. Music Video/Animation
2. The movement adds a lot more emotion to the song and works with it to create a story to watch.
3. Abstract bodies as they aren't real people but still used artistically to flow with the music and story.
4. Yes, very interesting and unique technique to add a lot of emotion to a song through animation.
'Glow' Chunky Move
1. Dance Video (was a live show once)
2. This movement is a very experimental way of expressing themes and feelings with combined techniques of not only dance but light mapping.
3. It is contemporary but experimental with the use of abstract shapes and light mapping based on conceptual meanings.
4. Yes, I really like the combination of the dance and light mapping however I did feel like it was very slow at first to build up.
'Ghost catching' Bill T Jones
1. Experimental Animated Dance Video
2. I feel like the movement was expressing peoples inner emotions and feelings, telling their stories in unique ways.
3. Comedic due to childishness but expressive use of bodies.
4. Yes, Really unique style and effective insight into someones mind.
'Human' Carpark North
1. Music Video
2. They are again telling the story of the song but are expressing the feelings of the song in a very distorted way.
3. Very abstract due to the fragmented and distorted nature of it using children. Use of children amy be to express emotional childhood issues people have.
4. Yes, It held my interest because of its strange story and the dance added a lot more to the song.
'Guns and Horses' - Ellie Goulding
1. Music Video.
2. They are trying to add a story to the song with the movement however I am not sure I understand the story as I don't think it fits well enough.
3. Commercial modern group dancing which really lacks emotion.
4. No, I am not sure why the dancers/characters were used as they didn't fit the song and this made it hard to watch.
This exercise has helped me realise how dance can be used effectively with in a piece and what works and what doesn't work.
Dance
We then got to try some dancing ourselves to see what is effective when trying to compose dances.
Firstly we were set the task in groups of making a dance that expressed anger. Most groups just acted out how an angry person looks and it wasn't very effective. We instead try the sam exercise but this time picked a specific word to do with anger that expressed movement. Our group used 'shaking' as in shaking with anger which actually helped us produce a much more effective piece. We tried this on a few more emotions and it was really helpful to see what kind of language worked a lot better at getting a desired effect rather than just simply saying be angry etc.
We then tried another dance task of looking at certain parts of the body through a camera while someone was dancing only with the body part. These parts were: Head, torso, arms and hands, hips and feet. This really help us learn what worked effectively through a camera as every body part is unique and interesting. It showed that all bodies aren't always necessary for good dance visuals.
Composing Movement
We then spoke about different ways to compose movement. You can either use Improvised dance in a structured way to develop a routine based on feelings and themes you give to the dancer then picking out what you liked that they did and building this up. This way appeals to me a lot as I like to watch other people interpretations first then build a piece rather than my interpretation only.
We then spoke about Choreographing movement however I don't think I will pick this option because like I said I don't want just my interpretation on the themes and I am not that great of a dancer!
We finished off by looking at some creativity rules from the writer Eric Maisel. Here is my interpretation of them:
1. Dont replicate
2. Don't just rest on skill
3. Risk taking is important
4. Always complete the work
5. Personal interests can be involved
6. Articulate your ideas
7. Renew how you create to avoid getting stuck in a loop
8. Revisit your earliest passions
9. Don't be too quick to judge yourself or your work
10. Integrate creative threads together
This has been a very helpful workshop in opening up my mind to the possibilities when creating a Dance Video and also in informing me of the best ways I can do this.
