Dance Video Scripts/Choreography

Here are the basic scripts I made for each section of Dance/Choreography. This is so that everyone on set will be able to tell which section of dance we are working on as it will correspond with the Shot list and schedule. It is also so that I can break it down into chunks of dance now so that on the shoot I can direct the actor to exactly what section of the dance we need her to perform for each shot. I know this isn't the ideal way of working but I feel like it is very beneficial and will help me direct and also make things more understandable for everyone:

Arachnophobia

Claustrophobia

Astraphobia

Dance Video Group Meeting 5

On Friday 24th March we had a meeting as a group to discuss a few final issues which needed resolving before we got to our shoot week. Me and Sugini spoke to Katherine via phone as she had unfortunately been too unwell to attend this week. Here are the main points which we discussed:

Firstly We had some Equipment issues which needed sorting out. We had the wrong Samurai Blade for the camera so found out we needed to swap this for a Sony Ninja. We also realised we needed to book a clapper board so we could label each shot and take properly. We also needed a to add a riser plate to our equipment list as this was missing meaning e would not be able to use the slider or steady cam properly. We wrote this all down so that we could visit the Equipment store straight after and change this all so it was correct.

We then discussed crew and roles. The roles we had originally assigned to people had changed as we found some were better at other things in pre-light and some of them didn't feel comfortable in certain roles. We had also brought new crew member on as we found from pre-light we needed people with certain skills to help us so we could have a more effective shoot. Here is a run down of who we now have as crew, their roles and their availability:
Ollie - Gaffa (Tuesday 9 till 12)
Nicole - Gaffa (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Chloe - Runner/Clapper/Camera Assistant if needed (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Maisie - Camera Assistant (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Ethan - Camera Operator (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Rufaro  - Runner/Camera Assistant if needed (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Savina - Runner/Backstage Photographer (Find Out Schedule)

This then led us onto our next issues which was that we were meant to film across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday however most our crew were not able to make Thursday as they all had a scheduled lesson this day or work of their own to do. Originally when they agreed they did not realise this however it was still an issue. We have decided we will have to film across two longer days now instead rather than 3 shorter days. This will be more intense but its our only option and if we take regular breaks and stay motivated I think it will work fine. As a back up we will review footage on Wednesday at the end of shooting and if we feel we need an extra day then we have decided we will film Thursday with a much smaller crew and just call the Dancer in for a shorter amount of time just to film some extra shots we need.

We then moved on to discuss Makeup and costume as it has been strongly advised that we use both in our piece to enhance the themes. We have a makeup artist coming in to do her makeup so this is a photo of the kind of thing we have decided we like and want own our dancer:

We then began brainstorming ideas for costumes. We had a lot of contemporary ideas like using materials such as mesh and netting etc but we needed to refine each costume idea so that it said something about the themes of the piece. We eventually settled on the colour grey as a base because black is too dark and white messes with the exposure on the camera. We want grey leggings and a grey vest top of t-shirt which we can then style and add to for each costume. For Archnophbia we have settled on the idea of a hair piece/fascinator made of netting/mesh which will slightly cover her face. These you can buy which will be easy to get hold of. We also are thinking of adding black lines onto the grey fabric with fabric pens to represent spiders legs. For Claustrophobia we are keeping the same grey basis but this time we are tying black ribbon around her body and limbs in certain places that won't actually effect her but will add to this idea of entrapment. We then for Astraphobia want the grey base but something brighter to represent the bright bold lightning. We are thinking to get some bright yellow ribbons and clip them into her hair and around her waist so they flow behind her as she moves making it more visually exciting. Here are some really basic and rubbish sketches I made while we spoke about it:

Katherine has agreed that she will go and source all these items this weekend for the costumes so that we can get them ready for Tuesday.

Lastly we just worked out a plan of action leading up to our shoot. This weekend I am going to as Director translate all the choreography into a Dance script so the Sugini as DOP can use this to inform her of certain sections of dance for each shot she has on her shot list. Then once the shortlist is finalised by Sugini with the Dance descriptions in place I can use these two teams to help me direct effectively on set. Then before the shoot we are going to have one final group meeting in which we will just double check and go over everything to make sure we are all happy and then put together a shoot schedule between all of us which we can then distribute before shooting so people know the timings etc of the day and we can keep ourselves on track.

Dance Video Rehearsal 3

We had one more rehearsal scheduled on Tuesday 21st March from 5 till 7 in the evening again. This was the final rehearsal before we were due to film next week so it was very important we used the time wisely to improve upon the choreography which had already been put together we just wanted to refine it. Katherine was able to attend a Tutorial with Rachel (Choreography Teacher) the day before hand which unfortunately me and Sugini couldn't make as we were filming for another project. Katherine (Producer) showed Rachel the basic choreography and we got some feedback to work on which is what we used to influence us in the changes we made.

We were all happy with Arachnophobia so we left this section as it was. We marked it through though just to check there wasn't any problems. Once we had done this we moved on to look at Claustrophobia. We realised the strongest parts of this section were when she was showing the entrapment of being in a small space. We lost this slightly once she had stood up and began dancing on higher levels. We revisited this standing section and changed it to add more arm movements which could again indicate entrapment. We also added in more lower levels into this section so it was much more varied to keep it exciting. We then worked on making a stronger ending as we felt that the turning was a bit too messy and out of context. Instead we again used this side of entrapment and especially in a push and pull style. We had her act trapped but in a more dramatic way standing up to build tensions to then end. We still left in a few spins as we wanted to indicate the dizziness and stress that this entrapment can cause. We have made minor changes like a flexed foot though so that it seems more awkward on purpose. We got a lot more involved with arms in this sections and now I feel a lot more confident that the theme stays through out.

Lastly we went over the Astraphobia section as we felt this was our weakest section as it was new. We ran over it and focused more on the idea of Lightning as before we choreographed more with a storm in mind which from feedback we have now realised this could be confusing as she dances too fluidly. We made all her movements a lot jerkier and sudden so that it was more like a flash of lightning. We kept some of the flowing movements in though as we felt this help to show a build but we made sure to keep going back to this fast jolting movement idea. We added in again a lot more arms and hands in a pop and lock style because we wanted it to look like electricity was flowing through her body. It took us a while to work out the best way to do this but once the dancer got to grips with this pop and lock style it worked much better. We also again try to add in more variations of high and low levels as we wanted to keep it exciting and interesting for the audience. We kept the diagonal basis of this dance though as we felt her moving in this back and forth diagonal line of the space was a good way to represent lightning even further. We just found some better ways for her to travel from corner to corner. We are a lot more confident in this end section now.

I felt like this rehearsal was very valuable as Me and the Dancer were able to polish the dance off and make it much more appropriate for each section thinking through the feedback. We also got to show the dance to a few of our new crew members who hadn't seen it before so this was helpful for them. I am very excited to get on and film now!

Evaluation of 360 'Wings' Film

I felt like our Wings video was successful as it did what we wanted it to do which was to be an observational piece of interactive film where by you can view butterflies flying around the camera. I knew that we could have made it more poetic however editing on this kolor software took a very long time and was very slow so it was hard to tell at time what the final outcome would be like. It was a case of tail and error and we kept coming back to it and trying to improve it through the Kolor software. I really feel like we pushed ourselves with this technology though because we experimented with it and got a good outcome.

The filming process was very fun even though I was worried about it. We had no problems with the camera or the Rig and managed to get it all set up to film relatively quickly and easily. I feel this is due to the practice we have had with it during workshops and also the time we had to prepare the equipment over the weekend before our shoot day. We had a lot of fun when there because we got to explore the whole park and scout out the best locations. Once we had decided where to put the rig we got it in place and took about 7 shots in the butterfly house. We knew for certain that we had captured a lot of butterfly movement in the last three shots we did in there which was good. We left feeling very happy and confident and when we got to review the footage it was such a relief to see how nice the butterflies movements actually looked on camera in this 360 way.

Editing was the hardest part of this process and we faced many problems at first trying to work out where all the tools were and how to use them but after some time playing and experimenting we began to get to grips with it. We followed the suggested work flow making a few tweaks of our own and once we had worked out how to d everything on this first shot it became a lot quicker and easier to repeat this process/workflow with the other shots. This editing process relied very heavily on a good workflow and even though at first it took a while to get into the stride of this once we worked it out it went more successfully.

The main problem we encountered was that in a lot of our clips the butterflies did at time come up very close to the cameras which was exciting to see however it caused problems with the stitch lines. We tried to improve these as best as we could but found most the time we could only make improvements but never fully fix it because the butterfly was just simply too close. We made a decision though to keep thesis shots in anyway as we though the few sticking issues was worth it to at least give the audience some more excitement.

Overall I wished I could have produced something maybe longer and more poetic however I know for the time frame we are working in it was not possible. I am just very happy that I got to experience this new technology first hand and make something different. I feel these skills I have learnt could very very interesting to apply in the future.

Stitching and Editing 360 Video

Once our footage was captured from the Butterfly Park we then moved onto stitching and editing it. This in total took us 3 days/afternoons as opposed to two which we originally planned however we felt this was because the technology is so new that it does take some time to work out the best ways of going through everything. Here is an overview of the main things we picked up and did during the editing process:

Firstly we knew when using the Omni Importer we would need somewhere to save all the folders and the basic stitched files so we created a folder on the computer N drive so we could stay organised and keep everything on here:

Next we took all the micro SD cards out of the Omni Rig and plugged them into the 6 USB card readers. Then all these card readers got plugged into 7 port USB Hub so that we could access all the footage at the same time. Once this was all plugged in and ready to go we opened up the Omni Importer and gave it access to the SD Cards where it began automatically piecing together the videos and synching them etc. This then allowed us to preview our files as a very basic quick stitch. We named all the files so we also had a very clear idea of what shot was what. We also had to change the settings of each video to be correct (Stabilisation = None, Blending = Sharp, Flip = Standard, Colour Harmonisation = None, Render = 4k H.264) :

We the went through and previewed each video/ quick stitched so we could make a judgment on which ones we would actually use in the video and which videos weren't needed. This meant we then didn't have to process them all and instead would only process the ones we liked and were going to use:

Another useful thing we could do at this basic stage while still on the Omni Importer was to as you watched each shot mark an In and Out point for each shot. This means you can cut out any beginning and end footage that you don't actually want. For us we cut out the beginning and end of each clip because we were in shot still. This then means again it will only process the section of the video that you liked and marked rather than spending more time on stuff you won't need or want:

After this we decided we wanted to process 3 of the best butterfly shots which were the most active shots and also 2 shots of the garden just as back up incase we needed more footage.We had to wait about 2 hours for these 5 shots to process and save onto the folder so that we could then begin editing them:

Once processed we were then able to access the MP4 Equi Rectangular view on Quicktime or if we put it into the GO Pro VR Player we could watch our basic stitch as a 360 video. It also had produced Kava files for us which are what we needed to take into the Kolor AutoPano Video Software to edit from.

The next thing we did was to then make a rough cut on Adobe Premiere with all the Equi Rectangular MP4 files from the shots we had processed. Here is the basic rough cut I made:

I picked all the most interesting parts from each shot and then split them into small chunks to hopefully hold the viewers attention. Me and Sugini then took all the time codes from the In and Out points of each shot on the rough cut and used this to dictate which exact sections we needed to edit on Kolor AutoPano Video.

We then began pulling each Kava shot file into Kolor and marking the In and Out points with the blue workspace bar and the red render bar so that we would only be effecting the section we wanted to use in our cut:

We knew we didn't have to Synchronise because the Omni Rig has done this for us. We didn't need to stitch either as we had already done this on the Omni Importer. We also knew we didn't need to stabilise the footage as we had taken all static shots. The first thing we knew we did need to do was colour. We clicked on the colour tab and set it to adjust the exposure and colour for us and harmonise it every 5 seconds meaning it will look a lot more fluid and blended across all cameras. Here are the settings:

Next we moved on to look at the blend mode and we made sure it was set to sharp as this is much better for static shots and also then gives us more control on masking and control points etc. Here are the settings we applied:

We didn't want to do anything in the stereo settings as we weren't going to use the sound from all the clips and cameras because we didn't pick much up. We instead moved on to focus on control points and masking which to do so we had to click the edit button under the preview to bring us into Kolor Giga which was more advanced. Here is what it looked like when we got it into Giga:

We started by adding the vertical lines meaning that it will straighten the image and the stitch for us. It was very effective, Here is what we did:

We began by looking at the RMS value and assessing how we could improve this. We began by trying to make the stitch better with the control points to bring down the RMS value. We clicked onto the control points option which shows us the RMS and link values before we edited it:

We then clicked on each specific link that was weak and began assessing which control points were needed. We deleted control points from the worst links and we deleted the worst RMS valued control points like so:

This then meant we needed to gain more control points so we then after getting rid of all bad RMS values clicked on the Optimise control points setting which then made the software figure out newer and better control points and we ended up with a much better RMS value than before:

We were much happier with this so we saved these changes. We then went back into Kolor to preview these changes. We then watched the Preview of the section we were working with through out so that we could begin to pick up on particular stitching issues when the butterflies were moving around the camera. We used the splice tool to cut the timeline up into section depending on where we wanted to fix:

We then while seated on the relevant spliced section went back into Giga through the edit button. Once back in Giga we went onto the masking tool/option and began placing markers around to try and move the stitch lines away from the action. We found it was a case of trial and error a lot of the time to find the best way it worked. Here are the markers we put down for this stitching problem:

We then saved and previewed this back in kolor so we could work out how effective it was. The main problem we were having is that when the butterflies came very close to the camera it was really hard to mask the stitch lines completely out the way. We had to just do our best to improve it and leave it at that. We didn't want to completely cut out the section of our video when the butterflies did come close despite the stitching errors because we really liked the images it gave us and the excitement it would give the audience. 

Once we had spent a lot of time fixing and masking stitch lines on this video as best as we could using this process we then previewed it all the way through to make sure we were happy with it. Once we were we could render and export this shot. Here is the render settings we used:

We then moved on to repeat this same process for all 4 shots we wanted to use on our final cut. Here are some more screen shots of that process but we essentially just followed the same work flow we used for this first shot each time:

Fixing/improving control points

Fixing/improving control points 

 Masking stitch lines

Masking stitch lines

Masking stitch lines

Each clip took us at least an hour or two to edit as it is a precise and at time tedious process. However we eventually got through all the clips with this workflow and got all the new files exported/rendered and saved.

We then took these new MP4 Files we have created and imported them back into Premiere Pro so that we can make our final cut now. Here is the timeline of our final cut:

As you can see we have added sound and effects to our piece too. We firstly put traditions between each of our clips so that they cross fade from one to another for smoother watching experience. We then decided we didn't like the sound from our Go Pro files because it was too noisy and had a lot of messy background sounds so we went online and found royalty free sound effects. We used a Royalty free sound scape of a forest for the beginnings an then eased this into a Royalty free sound track we found on Youtube which we really liked and felt matched our piece as well and enhanced the viewing experience. I feel like the best change made was to the colour saturation because we wanted our piece to be vibrant to make the butterflies and out. Here is how it looked before:

and here is how it looked afterwards:

Overall I was really happy with our piece especially after the amount of time we had put into it learning all this new equipment and software. We then exported our final cut as a 4k H.264 file. We wanted to upload it onto youtube so I injected the MetaData needed for it to be viewed as 360 like so:

I then uploaded it and here is the final video:

I am proud of what we have achieved here and in such a quick turn around.

Dance Video Pre-Light

On Friday 17th March we had our Dance Video Pre-Light from 1:30pm till 7pm. Here is how we ran it:

I began by letting Grace (Dancer) warm up when she first arrived while me and the rest of the crew spent time setting up the studio space and clearing up as there was a lot of mess everywhere. We pulled the black curtains round the entire space which was a whole half of the studio (B32) and marked out the centre circle where the dance was choreographed to take place. We moved all the overhead photography lighting to the edges of the space as we weren't using them and this is where we knew they wouldn't be in shot. we made sure the flooring was clear and safe for our dancer and moved all furniture to the other half of the studio that we weren't using. While this was happening our  extra crew members slowly began arriving. Once they were all present I spoke to them all and did some introductions. I briefed them on what the project was and also told them what kind of roles they would be taking as crew checking they were all happy with this. I then went back to Grace (Dancer) while I left Sugini to talk to the crew about the visual side of things such as camera and lighting.

While Sugini briefed the Crew I went into the empty half the studio we weren't using and cleared a safe space for me and grace to begin running over the choreography. We ran over Arachnophobia and Claustrophobia as these were the two sections we had already choreographed. We just made sure we were happy with them and tried to neaten them out as much as possible.

Once me and Grace had done this I went back into the other half of the Studio to check how things were progressing with the Set up. I spoke to Sugini and she had called in help from other students and technician David to show her how to use the parts of the equipment that she wasn't sure about and also how to safely attach the lighting we decided we wanted it from above after seeking advice. The unfortunate thing about this was that our Crew weren't paying as much attention as I wished they had so now Sugini would have to relay the information she was learning back to all of them. I asked them to start helping Sugini which some of them did however a few of them had prior commitments and therefore left or were planning on leaving soon. Chloe was camera operator and assistant and she stayed for the entire Pre-Light however Nicole who was meant to be Gaffa came at 3pm then left at 5pm. Savina who was also meant to be a runner/gaffa came at 1pm but left at 2pm. Rufaro who was meant to be Camera Assistant and Runner was unable to attend at all due to illness. This was all very unfortunate as it meant we didn't have enough help. I suggested to Sugini that once she had gathered all the help/information she needed from the relevant people that she needed to start working on getting the lighting and camera set up ASAP. She couldn't confirm to me how long this would take her so I left her to sort this out with the Crew and I went back to Dancer Grace to use this time wisely and choreograph the final section of the dance.

Me and Grace began thinking into how to choreograph Astraphobia and we spoke about the idea of creating builds and then explosions through high level travelling, jumping and leaps. Then we also spoke about the idea of being electrocuted and began trying some things out again keeping our first hand survey research in mind. We started putting what we had come up with together into a sequence and then kept adding to it. We had a lot of diagonal travelling across the space but we really liked this as we felt it represented thunder and lighting well. We kept finding ways to build up to more and more dramatic leaps, spins and jumps. We finally got the rough choreography put together into a sequence which we made sure worked with the music and fitted with the timings. After this I then let Grace take a break while I checked on Sugini and the Crew.

Now that Sugini had gather all the information and help she needed she had begun to set up the lighting and was in the middle of testing it out when I went over. Me and Sugini discussed the lighting and because we had the lighting above it worked well however we had the two lights two far apart so they were lighting across the space from above either side. It was not bold enough and didn't give us the rite spotlighting effect that we wanted. I then suggested to move them closer in and instead of having them facing one another above have them on a slight diagonal so one lights the back of the space and one lights the front of the space. We then worked on moving all of this however this took a lot longer than we thought because we were having issues with the equipment. The Led Lights were attached via clamps to the ceiling which is how David the Technician told us to do it however we felt like they weren't tight enough and very wobbly. We did not feel safe getting Grace to Dance under these if there was a risk of them falling. We all tried to tighten them up but this still wasn't safe so we had to take them down and put safety first.  This again was a massive set up because we had only been able to try out a few lighting setups and now we weren't able to try anymore due to health and safety risks. There were no technicians left to help us with this so we then decided to leave the lighting and come back to this of another evening.

While the lighting was being taken down me and Grace went back into the empty side of the studio and worked on marking out the dance with grace talking over what each move was while I filmed it. This was so that I could then go away and write out the choreography almost like a script which Grace would then understand because it would be in her wording. This would also then give Sugini something easy to work from when she refines the shot list before shoot as she can write down which piece of dance is for what shot. Once we had done this together we went back over into the filming area.

We moved on to start testing all the camera equipment out and seeing how well Chloe was able to use the glide cam equipment etc. Again this was not too successful as chloe was too small for the steady cam and glide cam and therefore was unable to operate it successfully. The rest of the crew had left at this point but as they were all of small size we knew they would struggle as well anyway. We then had to make the decision to source ourselves a bigger and stronger camera operator for the crew or if not we would need to find another way to complete these shots.

Things began getting very stressful because of the amount of set backs we had with the equipment and how this had effected our Pre-Light. I decided as Director to make a decision and try and motivate people to start doing other work. I got Sugini and Chloe to set up the Slider instead to test this out and I helped them do so. While they did this I got Grace to warm up again as she had been sitting down for quite some time at this point. Then once the Slider was set up and Grace was warmed up we ran through the entire Dance section by section so that everyone could see what me and Grace had managed to make and this would help the camera team in terms of thinking about shots. Then the camera team started experimenting with the camera and slider for the last half hour while I got Grace to perform specific parts of the dance for them. When we reached 7pm Grace left and we all began packing down which as there was only 4 of us and lots of equipment ended up taking us a whole hour so we didn't leave till 8pm.

We had a lot of technical challenges and issues during this Pre-Light almost to the point were it wasn't a Pre-Light however I feel like it was better that we have established all these problems and thought of ways to fix it now before the actual shoot happens. Otherwise we would be having all these problems on our actual shoot which would work well. The most successful thing that did happen today though was that we got all the choreography marked out so next time we meet for rehearsals we can just go through and improve this even further.

Dance Video - Rehearsal 1 + 2

On Tuesday 14th March we had our first Dance Video Rehearsal to begin forming and putting together choreography. This ran from 5 till 7 and we aimed to roughly choreograph and outline the Arachnophobia section in this rehearsal.

We began by letting Dancer Grace warm up while we prepared ourselves. Then when she was ready I quickly ran over the storyboard and choreography scores I made to give her a rough idea of the type of style and some of the dance moves we would like incorporated. I then played her the 6 minute music track we had made for the piece so she could hear it and hopefully feel inspired.

We began by having a brainstorm together about the style we want Arachnophobia. I explained about the low levels with lots of fast travelling and also about how her hand to begin by being the spider (as we had discussed and practiced in a previous workshops). We began using this idea to start laying out some moves. We began then piecing all our ideas together. To make it progress even further we started thinking using first hand research and our own knowledge as to why spiders are specifically scary. We spoke about the speed and the surprise and also about the amount of legs they have. We took all of this into account to develop dance moves where she is embodied by the spider. Me and Grace then began to piece all of these together as well and continued to work on more movements consciously trying to keep it low levelled and themed in this particular style. It was very helpful that Grace was so keen to get involved as she was really good at working with me to suggest ideas for the choreography and together we worked out the Arachnophobia routine which even though it is only roughly laid out at this time I am very happy with.

(Rehearsal Videos/Footage coming soon!)

The following day on Wednesday 15th March we had another rehearsal with Grace from 5 till 7 to again work on the Choreography.

Today we were focusing on how to finish Arachnophobia successfully to then lead on to Claustrophobia and hopefully lay out basic choreography for this Claustrophobia section. We went with finishing Arachnophobia in a similar way to how we started it so that it went somewhere and also so we could bring the pace back down ready to go into Claustrophobia. We then started brainstorming ways to represent claustrophobia. Again we referred to words and feedback given in our surveys and also own experiences and knowledge to help us. We also then went on to try a task we developed in the Dance workshops where by Grace was trying to move out of an imaginary box which we then had Katherine trying to trap her in by pulling her back overtime. This was helpful to see how her body moved in this situation as she was restricted. We then started working with this idea of entrapment and restriction within imaginary limitations. This helped make some successful floor work which represented it nicely. We then moved to try add some higher levels into this as well as we felt it was getting too dull all on one level. We found it harder tow rock on standing movements so again thought back to the task we tried where Katherine pulled Grace around and we began to think into this and had Grace begin pulling herself round the space. We then adapted this to add it into the dance. we eventually managed to develop and mark out a set piece of Choreography for Claustrophobia using these various techniques and by working together on this.

(Rehearsal Videos/Footage coming soon!)

I was very happy with how these two rehearsals went because in 4 hours we managed to mark out 4 minutes of Choreography using techniques learnt in previous workshops. We now need to focus on the next rehearsal which will take place during the Pre-Light on Friday 17th.

Dance Video - Meeting with the Dancer

On Monday 13th of March we arranged a meeting with the Dancer to meet her in person before we actually began rehearsing and working on the piece. We thought this would be a good chance to get to know a bit more about her and let her know a bit more about us and discuss the project and what we were hoping to create. Me and Sugini went to meet her in the early evening at a Coffee Shop. Katherine was unable to join us due to prior commitments. Here is what we talked about in terms of work (as there was a lot of other friendly chatter):

- We began by asking her a bit about the type of dance she does and how trained she is (dance background etc). This was good for us to work out how comfortable she would be in the piece and she seemed a perfect fit. She loved contemporary dance and was highly trained in it which was great as this was the style of dance we wanted to use!

- We then started to talk to her about the project and gave her plenty of opportunity to ask us any questions she wanted to know about the project. We ran through the synopsis of the piece and gave her a paper copy she could keep for reference. She seemed very excited by the concept and was even making suggestions which was very exciting and promising.

- We then went over the influence for our piece and ended up in lengthily discussion about phobias and our own personal experiences. We then showed her the first hand research we had completed with the surveys to try and inspire her in the same way we have been. We also gave her a printed copy of these so she could refer back to these at any time she wanted.

- Next we started discussing the roles we all play with in the crew/team so that our Dancer could get a better idea on who she was working with and how she would be working with each of us. I explained that she will be working most closely with me in the choreography of the dance. We were both very excited for this!

- Lastly we began discussing more details of the shoot days such as the dates and times of all rehearsals and shoot days. We also discussed minor details like what she would like for lunch, eating requirements and expenses that we will pay back for travel etc.

In all this meeting was very successful as our Dancer Grace is lovely and very keen to be involved in the project!

Dance Video Finished Pre-Production Work - Signed Off!

In order to get signed off for our Dance Shoot we had to put together a Production Pack. Katherine as Producer did a lot of this and Sugini did a lot of the Visual parts of it however I did more of the creative parts to it as Director of the Group. Here is all the finished paperwork which I completed:

Dance Video Synopsis

Our Piece will be a Contemporary Dance Video exploring Phobias and will represent and show the true fear behind them. We will go on a journey through three phobias which are Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia and Astraphobia. The piece will flow in this order from most common being Arachnophobia to least common yet more severe being Astraphobia. We will build up the fear and tension as the piece progresses and this will hopefully make the viewers feel vulnerable and therefore more understanding of these phobias. The Dancer will embody the phobias to portray the particularly scary elements of them therefore making it relatable to the audience. However the Dancer will also be showing elements of fear when people react to their phobias. As this is a very conceptual piece this will all take place in a blank black space which we will create in a studio using spotlighting in the empty dark space. The piece is going to be experimental in the way we are incorporating the camera into the dance to try and make the audience feel more immersed and therefore more vulnerable. We have taken inspiration from modern contemporary dance videos but also from techniques used within horror films such as camera movements. The soundtrack will also develop as we move from phobia to phobia to also help represent the themes and elements of each phobia and to help build the piece. Overall we want a very intense and immersive contemporary dance video which experimentally represents certain phobias to the audience making them feel vulnerable and therefore more understanding to the sufferers of these.

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A Proposal and Treatment For ‘Phobia Dance Video’ (Working Title) Group: Sugini Nageswaran, Katherine Whetton and Billie Williams 07/03/17 Copyright © 2017

Treatment Programme title: (Untitled Currently) Phobia Dance Video Duration: 6:00 minutes Genre: Experimental Contemporary Dance Video Production Staff: Katherine Whetton (Producer) Billie Williams (Director) Sugini Nageswaran (DOP & Gaffer Planner) Production Date: Rehearsals: Tuesday 14th March & Wednesday 15th March (5pm – 8pm) Prelight: Friday 17th March (1pm – 8pm) Filming: Tuesday 28th March (9am – 4:30pm), Wednesday 29th March (9am – 8pm) and Thursday 30th March (9am – 4:30pm). Editing Monday 3rd April – Wednesday 5th April 2017 Monday 24th April – Friday 28th April 2017 (only if needed) Final submission & Final Outcome Presentation: Thursday 4th & Friday 5th May 2017.

Outline Production: We want to make a Contemporary Dance Video, which is based on Phobias. We will show people how it feels to experience these Phobias and the fear behind them. The three phobias are; Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia and Astraphobia. We chose these three because they are common, yet exploring these types of phobias will be interesting and visually pleasing. The piece will flow in the order from most common being Arachnophobia to least common yet more severe being Astraphobia. We want to present these phobias to the audience in a way which makes them vulnerable and therefore showing them the true fear felt by people suffering from them. The Dancers will also embody the phobias to portray the particularly scary elements of them, but making it relatable to the audience as well. We are going to work in a contemporary style with an original sound track which is being made for us. We plan to shoot within the studio using spotlighting to create a conceptual headspace as this idea is abstract and conceptual. We hope to have an edgy final outcome which makes the viewer feel vulnerable but also then allows them to understand these phobias and think into the effect they have on people. Target Audience: This piece will probably appeal and be aimed more towards a younger demographic because of the modern experimental angle we are taking on Dance Videos. However this is not exclusive, as it could be viewed and interpreted in a number of ways. Phobias can affect anyone, so we would like it to be relatable to these people. Visual Elements: Lighting-  We have agreed the set should be dark and lit with one or two strong lights, this is to create a dramatic lighting effects. We have booked out 2K Tungsten lights (x2), our Gaffer planner (Sugini) will bring 800W Red Heads lights (x3) as back up. These strong lights will be used to create strong one and 2 point lighting on our dancer. We consider using different ways of using light as well, such as back light for silhouette effects and, low key light to emphasize dancer’s emotions/ status. We also would like to try moving one point light around the subject. For Astraphobia,(fear of thunder and lightning), we aim to create the lighting effect by manually controlling the light to flicker on and off to a decent extent. The black out moments caused by the lighting effect will create a moment of suspense for the audience, we would like to create such techniques to get the audience engaged.  Camera Movement- As this is a movement piece we would like the dance to be filmed with movement. We are using the camera as an important element of the dance video. The camera will not only be used to film the subject from a side, it will also be used to interact with the dancer. We would like the camera to become a character its self and be involved in the choreography. Our shot list consists of many meaningful shots which are suited for the content to tell the story. Shots such as birds eye views, high and low angles, close ups/ extreme close ups and tilted angle shots will be used. For movement we will do tracking/ panning, handheld and orbiting shots. Throughout the dance video our shots will vary between still and moving shots.  Editing- During the postproduction process, I am to highlight the themes from filming. By keeping entwined with the edgy, conceptual feel, I shall cut in the narrative, linear fashion. However, I shall cut in-between angles to create the true aspects of the phobias. Depending on the quality of footage taken, I may add effects via Avid, to adapt the footage, to create the correct atmosphere.  Setting- Due to our piece being conceptual and abstract we are filming the Dance in a blank blacked out studio to represent the headspace. It will have the lighting set up how we have described meaning it will look like she is dancing in an massive empty space making it fit the Phobia theme and fear well. Dancer- We are using a female contemporary trained dancer who has submitted a show reel to us. We are confident in her ability and she also really likes the theme of our video meaning she will happily be involved. We want her to interpretively embody the phobias but also show the fear felt by suffers of these. We have some basic choreography set out but we want to develop this further with her. Costume- Again due to this being a Conceptual piece we want to keep the costume plain but versatile to allow the dancer full movement and to give the audience full attention on the actual movements with no distraction. We will discuss this further with the dancer to see what she feels comfortable wearing as well so we can fulfill her needs. Audio Elements: Music- We are having a music tracked made for this piece by a musician in London. We have written him a brief, which states that we need 6 minuets worth of music and we want 2 minuets dedicated to each phobia in the order of Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia and then Astraphobia. We want each phobia to be styled slightly differently and build up the tension as the pieces moves along. We are confident that he will be able to achieve this for us. Requirements and Resources: GH4 Camera Kit, Extra Camera Battery, Shoulder Rig, Slider, 2 Tripods, Jib, Steadicam, Lenses (Wide angle, Standard, telephoto), 2 Tungsten 2K lights, 3 Redhead 800W lights, 2 Extension Cables, Diffuser Sheets, Colour Gel Filters, Pegs, Gaffer Tape, Gaffer Gloves. Constraints and Contingency: We have a budget to stick to which we will need to spend on the Dancers expenses. We also have a time schedule to stick to as we need the dance fully choreographed before the shoot dates. We also need to work around the Dancers schedule leading up to the shoot to meet with them and have rehearsals when they are available. We will probably only be able to fit in two or three evenings for rehearsals so we need to make sure we are prepared for these to get the best out of them. We also need to make sure that during this process we keep the dance focused upon the original concept of Phobias however we know that people may interpret the finished piece in there own way.

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This along with all the other paperwork completed by the group got our project signed off and we are now ready to begin rehearsals and then filming!