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.