I originally got a Dancer Grace who I had successfully worked with before to agreed to be my body double for the dance section of Separation. However due to personal circumstances she is no longer available to attend the filming days. I considered changing these dates so I could keep her in the piece but due to her availability being limited this seemed like it could happen again so instead I moved forward and reached out to a few local actors and dancers I knew and had worked with previously so was confident in to see if any of them would be interested in taking part.
I had interest from a few people however I have chosen to go with Molly as she was available for my main filming date and was very keen to be a part of the piece. I have worked with her prior and she is reliable and skilled, working hard on set, so I was more than happy to have her now involved.
Due to a few issues with her university timetable since she agreed I am working on getting the Pre-light for Monday the 5th to happen later in the day/evening so she can attend the full time and we are also looking into possibly having a rehearsal before the shoot to experiment even further at what she is able to do with her body. We will then be filming the entirety of her section on Thursday 22nd across one long day rather than partly on Friday too. This is due to her not being available Friday but this works as the shot list will be refined before shoot and therefore all her shots will fit into one day and the Friday is just a back up day to film macro shots of my body features etc if needed.
I am very happy I now have this problem sorted, and I know what I need to do before shooting to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Separation Development
After receiving feedback and talking about my piece to various tutors and colleges I have made a few developments with my piece which are:
In terms of the symbolic imagery I was experimenting with last time I have decided that the Sunflower and the wedding dress imagery are two of the strongest visuals I have. I want to play with these visuals a lot more and develop some new shots with my DOP based on these. I will then try these during pre-light.
I am uncertain about the ink in the water shots as I don't want them to seem cliche however I realise they are. These are meant to show the water slowly getting cloudier symbolising a number of things but mainly my emotions spreading and the situation taking over. In order to make it less cliche I want to still fulfil this shot but in a different approach, the black ink works the best for this as its the boldest so I want to only use black and I want to play with the idea of pouring it into the water and showing this happen in a more emotive and even aggressive way as this reflect the concept a lot more. Having it done with different colours ad with syringes did look rally nice and effective but potentially too nice and therefore too cliche and not reflective on my true feelings. I will be experimenting with this new approach in pre-light to see how it works in comparison and then making a decision.
I am still debating removing the apples and the feathers as these again these have any other connotation linked to them that may be misleading. I am still going to shoot these in the most effective manor but if doing my editing stage I find the accurate connotations and concepts still aren't linking to them then I will remove them as this may be best for the piece.
The ring is a very strong visual however it is vey obvious. Despite this I want to keep it within my piece because it gives the anchorage I think is needed.
The balloon is probably my weakest visual as it seems too childish and again has many different connotations linked to it. Also I don't feel like is had enough visual impact. After discussion I have thought about maybe adapting this visual to add more stress by possibly finding an object other than a ballon to use. I am thinking into stress balls as a possibly or even a much thicker balloon which won't burst as easily so I can contort it more to show stress before it pops. Again this will be tested during pre-light.
Thinking into the facial water shots I have planned to do but not tested yet, I want to try these and develop these further. I wanted my face submerged in water abstracted by the air bubbles however this is rather simplistic and so I will test this in pre-light to see how much strength this visual has to it however I have a few other ideas for similar shots I want to develop and try with my DOP. I want to try putting my face upwards in the water so the camera focuses on the back of my head and hopefully my hair will create more powerful visuals while also still connecting it to me and showing the sense of drowning but also cleansing. I also want to try these fail shots in the fish tank to see if I can get some interesting shots side on. This will be discussed in my meeting with my DOP.
The dance movements, which again I haven't yet tested, are strong in my mind of what I want them to look like with many close ups and just certain muscles and parts of the body contorting to show stress, however I want to refine this shot list to give more meaning and impact. I have thought about what different parts of the body express and have decided limbs like arms and legs won't look visual strong or have much meaning however the torso does as this is where your main organs are and this also is where intimate areas are. I want to focus just on torso visuals particularly the back. When thinking about the movements I want to have these symbolise things, for example I want the shoulder blades to move together and apart to mimic separation and I want to show the spine in detail bent over so we can see how delicate the body can be. I also want the stomach to be moving in a stressful contorted want to show stress internally. I have also thought about getting hands involved by having hands move across certain body parts in symbolic ways. I could also keep the water theme through out this dance section as well by having the dancer move in ways which seem like she is also under water or make it tactile by involving some object from the water sequences in with the body. This will be discussed in my DOP meeting and then tested out in pre-light.
I have a meeting tomorrow with my DOP to discuss all of this and prepare to experiment in pre-light next week with all of this so that it can be refined to its full potential before shoot week.
In terms of the symbolic imagery I was experimenting with last time I have decided that the Sunflower and the wedding dress imagery are two of the strongest visuals I have. I want to play with these visuals a lot more and develop some new shots with my DOP based on these. I will then try these during pre-light.
I am uncertain about the ink in the water shots as I don't want them to seem cliche however I realise they are. These are meant to show the water slowly getting cloudier symbolising a number of things but mainly my emotions spreading and the situation taking over. In order to make it less cliche I want to still fulfil this shot but in a different approach, the black ink works the best for this as its the boldest so I want to only use black and I want to play with the idea of pouring it into the water and showing this happen in a more emotive and even aggressive way as this reflect the concept a lot more. Having it done with different colours ad with syringes did look rally nice and effective but potentially too nice and therefore too cliche and not reflective on my true feelings. I will be experimenting with this new approach in pre-light to see how it works in comparison and then making a decision.
I am still debating removing the apples and the feathers as these again these have any other connotation linked to them that may be misleading. I am still going to shoot these in the most effective manor but if doing my editing stage I find the accurate connotations and concepts still aren't linking to them then I will remove them as this may be best for the piece.
The ring is a very strong visual however it is vey obvious. Despite this I want to keep it within my piece because it gives the anchorage I think is needed.
The balloon is probably my weakest visual as it seems too childish and again has many different connotations linked to it. Also I don't feel like is had enough visual impact. After discussion I have thought about maybe adapting this visual to add more stress by possibly finding an object other than a ballon to use. I am thinking into stress balls as a possibly or even a much thicker balloon which won't burst as easily so I can contort it more to show stress before it pops. Again this will be tested during pre-light.
Thinking into the facial water shots I have planned to do but not tested yet, I want to try these and develop these further. I wanted my face submerged in water abstracted by the air bubbles however this is rather simplistic and so I will test this in pre-light to see how much strength this visual has to it however I have a few other ideas for similar shots I want to develop and try with my DOP. I want to try putting my face upwards in the water so the camera focuses on the back of my head and hopefully my hair will create more powerful visuals while also still connecting it to me and showing the sense of drowning but also cleansing. I also want to try these fail shots in the fish tank to see if I can get some interesting shots side on. This will be discussed in my meeting with my DOP.
The dance movements, which again I haven't yet tested, are strong in my mind of what I want them to look like with many close ups and just certain muscles and parts of the body contorting to show stress, however I want to refine this shot list to give more meaning and impact. I have thought about what different parts of the body express and have decided limbs like arms and legs won't look visual strong or have much meaning however the torso does as this is where your main organs are and this also is where intimate areas are. I want to focus just on torso visuals particularly the back. When thinking about the movements I want to have these symbolise things, for example I want the shoulder blades to move together and apart to mimic separation and I want to show the spine in detail bent over so we can see how delicate the body can be. I also want the stomach to be moving in a stressful contorted want to show stress internally. I have also thought about getting hands involved by having hands move across certain body parts in symbolic ways. I could also keep the water theme through out this dance section as well by having the dancer move in ways which seem like she is also under water or make it tactile by involving some object from the water sequences in with the body. This will be discussed in my DOP meeting and then tested out in pre-light.
I have a meeting tomorrow with my DOP to discuss all of this and prepare to experiment in pre-light next week with all of this so that it can be refined to its full potential before shoot week.
Gunpowder Mill Film Shoot
Over the 29th and 30th January 2018 I was part of the crew for Katherine's Gunpowder Mill dance piece. My role was Assistant Director and Choreographer. Refer to previous posts to see my preparation ad pre-production work. Originally we were due to shoot across three days however due to weather restriction we were limited to just two days on location to shoot. Here is how each day ran:
Monday 29th -
I was picked up at 8am ready to get to location with the Director for the call time of 9am. We met the rest of the crew here but due to delays with traffic etc we all arrived 30 minutes late. We set up as quickly as we could - We had a gazebo to shelter us from the weather, tables to put equipment on and chairs to have a chance to sit down on breaks. Our first dancer was due to arrive at 10am however train delays caused him arrive an hour late. However once he was in costume we gave him time to warm up and we were ready to start filming ASAP. We were concentrating on all his shots before the other Dancer arrived at 12. We had more time to do this then planned as the other dancer also had issues with transport and again arrived late to set. We got him into costume ASAP and moved on from personal shots to partner shots of both the dancers. We didn't work very quickly today as it was very sporadic due to complications with the Dancers. This meant that Katherine our Director and Producer was away from set a lot trying to sort these various issue out having to call people about equipment and drive the dancers around. She left myself as AD to Direct while she was away but due to not having a official schedule to follow I had to think on my feet and myself and Sugini (DOP) had to choose the shots we thought were bets to film at the time and also make decision on her behalf on what we felt she wanted. This worked out okay but did leave us running behind as there wasn't enough crew to available on set to be able to work any quicker. Despite all these complications I feel we all still pulled together to move forward and we got as much done as was possible to us.
Tuesday 30th -
Katherine had a word with the Dancers about timings and also spoke to us as crew in preparation for today. She made sure that we would avoid all issue and complications that we learnt from because of yesterday and this would allow the function as a crew on set to flow a lot better. The call time was an hour earlier today and we were all on set for 8am. We set up and prepared ourselves for 9:30am and as soon as the Dancer arrived again we allowed him time to warm up an then we got straight on. Today we had a clear schedule to follow and we were all able to focus on our specific role as we had full crew here. Katherine was Directing the Dancers and the Camera Crew to fulfil the shots that the DOP had planned. The DOP was getting the camera team to capture these shot exactly as desired. I was explaining the Choreography of each shot to the dancers and the crew so everyone knew what was happening in each shot. I also kept an eye on the choreography to make sure the dancers were doing there best, giving them feedback after each take and also keeping an eye on the continuity of this. Also as AD I was focusing on timings as this is what Kat had asked me to do. I was calling out how long they had left for each take depending on schedule etc and making notes on the script and the schedule for her. We then had runners here playing the music track for the dancers, watching the equipment and just generally helping in any way. Today ran so smoothly that we managed to get ahead of time allowing us to fulfil more shots at the end of the day that weren't on the schedule. This is good as Katherine had cut out a lot of shots the DOP planned due to the weather preventing us having our third day shoot, so we could add some of these back in and also capture any shots that people thought of on the day. Our main goal towards the end of today as we were loosing light was to make sure we had captured every part of the dance in the shots, which I had been marking on the script so that we knew what we were missing. We did manage to get all it filmed in the end and we were happy with this. It is a shame that not all planned shots could be captured but this location was outside and this along with the dancers availability seemed to be the biggest restrictions we had that caused this to be the case. However today we pulled together again and got a lot completed.
I feel like I fulfilled my role on set for this piece and tried to help as much as possible. It was a new experience for me to be part of filming a dance outside in a unique location like this but I did enjoy myself and learn a lot.
Monday 29th -
I was picked up at 8am ready to get to location with the Director for the call time of 9am. We met the rest of the crew here but due to delays with traffic etc we all arrived 30 minutes late. We set up as quickly as we could - We had a gazebo to shelter us from the weather, tables to put equipment on and chairs to have a chance to sit down on breaks. Our first dancer was due to arrive at 10am however train delays caused him arrive an hour late. However once he was in costume we gave him time to warm up and we were ready to start filming ASAP. We were concentrating on all his shots before the other Dancer arrived at 12. We had more time to do this then planned as the other dancer also had issues with transport and again arrived late to set. We got him into costume ASAP and moved on from personal shots to partner shots of both the dancers. We didn't work very quickly today as it was very sporadic due to complications with the Dancers. This meant that Katherine our Director and Producer was away from set a lot trying to sort these various issue out having to call people about equipment and drive the dancers around. She left myself as AD to Direct while she was away but due to not having a official schedule to follow I had to think on my feet and myself and Sugini (DOP) had to choose the shots we thought were bets to film at the time and also make decision on her behalf on what we felt she wanted. This worked out okay but did leave us running behind as there wasn't enough crew to available on set to be able to work any quicker. Despite all these complications I feel we all still pulled together to move forward and we got as much done as was possible to us.
Tuesday 30th -
Katherine had a word with the Dancers about timings and also spoke to us as crew in preparation for today. She made sure that we would avoid all issue and complications that we learnt from because of yesterday and this would allow the function as a crew on set to flow a lot better. The call time was an hour earlier today and we were all on set for 8am. We set up and prepared ourselves for 9:30am and as soon as the Dancer arrived again we allowed him time to warm up an then we got straight on. Today we had a clear schedule to follow and we were all able to focus on our specific role as we had full crew here. Katherine was Directing the Dancers and the Camera Crew to fulfil the shots that the DOP had planned. The DOP was getting the camera team to capture these shot exactly as desired. I was explaining the Choreography of each shot to the dancers and the crew so everyone knew what was happening in each shot. I also kept an eye on the choreography to make sure the dancers were doing there best, giving them feedback after each take and also keeping an eye on the continuity of this. Also as AD I was focusing on timings as this is what Kat had asked me to do. I was calling out how long they had left for each take depending on schedule etc and making notes on the script and the schedule for her. We then had runners here playing the music track for the dancers, watching the equipment and just generally helping in any way. Today ran so smoothly that we managed to get ahead of time allowing us to fulfil more shots at the end of the day that weren't on the schedule. This is good as Katherine had cut out a lot of shots the DOP planned due to the weather preventing us having our third day shoot, so we could add some of these back in and also capture any shots that people thought of on the day. Our main goal towards the end of today as we were loosing light was to make sure we had captured every part of the dance in the shots, which I had been marking on the script so that we knew what we were missing. We did manage to get all it filmed in the end and we were happy with this. It is a shame that not all planned shots could be captured but this location was outside and this along with the dancers availability seemed to be the biggest restrictions we had that caused this to be the case. However today we pulled together again and got a lot completed.
I feel like I fulfilled my role on set for this piece and tried to help as much as possible. It was a new experience for me to be part of filming a dance outside in a unique location like this but I did enjoy myself and learn a lot.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
Payanam Film - Meeting - 22.01.18
I had a meeting with Sugini as her Assistant Director and Assistant Editor to catch up with her and talk about how to make her piece progress. Here are the main points we discussed:
Sugini told me she had been having trouble deciding what to do for sound in terms of music so we discussed the many options available and formulated a 3 stage plan of the top 3 options available in order of most ideal to least...
1) Get a Tamal Musician to compose a piece of music for the piece. This ideally would be made to the visuals once created so that it follows the emotion journey with the visuals however this isn't always possible as musicians and composer don't always like to do this. She is going to send an email to musician she has discovered on Youtube who advertises himself as a composer for films like hers.
2) There is a composer in our class who would be a back up incase a Tamal musician isn't able to do it for her. She is going to go talk to him and explains his and see if he is open to making this style of music for her. This way would allow her to be part of this composer side of the music too.
3) The final option is to find a royalty free piece of music that works and if needs be edit it slightly herself in sound software. This is the last resort though.
These options allow her to start getting her music organised and hopefully get a track made.
We then discussed script writing and she explained the kind of script she wants to write for her piece as a voice over. I offered to put her in touch with my housemate who is a script writer on another course and was more than willing to help.
Lastly we then talked about visuals and she explained the kind of shots she was aiming to do and the equipment she was testing out for these. I offered up suggestion for these and I then helped her complete a risk assessment for her test shoot so she could take this equipment out.
As I am aware Sugini is filming her piece abroad and I am unable to be there so I am trying to help her as much as possible in this planning and pre-production stage and I will then be involved in post-production a lot too.
Sugini told me she had been having trouble deciding what to do for sound in terms of music so we discussed the many options available and formulated a 3 stage plan of the top 3 options available in order of most ideal to least...
1) Get a Tamal Musician to compose a piece of music for the piece. This ideally would be made to the visuals once created so that it follows the emotion journey with the visuals however this isn't always possible as musicians and composer don't always like to do this. She is going to send an email to musician she has discovered on Youtube who advertises himself as a composer for films like hers.
2) There is a composer in our class who would be a back up incase a Tamal musician isn't able to do it for her. She is going to go talk to him and explains his and see if he is open to making this style of music for her. This way would allow her to be part of this composer side of the music too.
3) The final option is to find a royalty free piece of music that works and if needs be edit it slightly herself in sound software. This is the last resort though.
These options allow her to start getting her music organised and hopefully get a track made.
We then discussed script writing and she explained the kind of script she wants to write for her piece as a voice over. I offered to put her in touch with my housemate who is a script writer on another course and was more than willing to help.
Lastly we then talked about visuals and she explained the kind of shots she was aiming to do and the equipment she was testing out for these. I offered up suggestion for these and I then helped her complete a risk assessment for her test shoot so she could take this equipment out.
As I am aware Sugini is filming her piece abroad and I am unable to be there so I am trying to help her as much as possible in this planning and pre-production stage and I will then be involved in post-production a lot too.
Gunpowder Mill Dance Script
In order to help with the visuals and provide everyone with a document which allows us to all understand the dance in sections and therefore plan the days a lot better, I made a dance script. I made it as detailed as possible and used it as a tool for myself to better understand and remember the movement and also as a way for everyone else to understand it and work from it in terminology we can all understand. This was also help myself and Katherine better direct everyone on set as well because we will all be able to refer to this as well as the dancers and know which shot we are filming and which piece of dance goes with this shot. Here is the finalised script:
Rehearsal 4 - 26.01.18
Today I was rehearsing and finishing the choreography with both dancers - Abdel (Soldier) and John (Worker). Katherine was here to offer opinion and Sugini was here as DOP to see the choreography so she can work on the visual ideas.
We began todays rehearsals by allowing both dancers a chance to meet each other and chat while they warmed up as this was a good way to get them comfortable with one another.
We then started by focusing on each partner sections we already had choreographed which in total was two. However we hadn't ever had both dancers together to perform these with one another. We allowed them time to mark it out with one another and we even found ways to make these sections flow a lot better changing and adding things as needed.
Once we were all happy with these first two partner sections we then needed to choreograph a final partner section which is the final confrontation of this entire piece before it ends. We ran through some ideas together and I found some videos online which were really influential for the kind of military inspired movement we wanted in this section. Here is one of the main videos that me and the dancers really liked which helped inspire this:
We worked from this to start choreography. I let the dancers lead a lot of the movements here as they were working so well together and bouncing ideas off one another really constructively that I didn't want to break their flow. I allowed them this time and then every so often I would ask to see what they had and they suggest changes and refine it with them each time to try and make it as good as we could. We spent a lot of time on this section but it is really important that we have the final section build up the way we want and successfully.
We then moved on to put the entire dance together from start to finish as if within the space with both dancers. It took a fair few run throughs till everyone was happy but this worked well to again try and make it flow as best as possible and be as emotional intense as we wanted.
Finally we filmed this entire run through with myself talking over it to explain the movement. This allowed the camera crew to work on the visuals from the dance and for the entire crew who aren't here to see it and understand it before the shoot.
We all left very happy today as we feel like we are ready to get into the location and see how this choreography looks there.
We began todays rehearsals by allowing both dancers a chance to meet each other and chat while they warmed up as this was a good way to get them comfortable with one another.
We then started by focusing on each partner sections we already had choreographed which in total was two. However we hadn't ever had both dancers together to perform these with one another. We allowed them time to mark it out with one another and we even found ways to make these sections flow a lot better changing and adding things as needed.
Once we were all happy with these first two partner sections we then needed to choreograph a final partner section which is the final confrontation of this entire piece before it ends. We ran through some ideas together and I found some videos online which were really influential for the kind of military inspired movement we wanted in this section. Here is one of the main videos that me and the dancers really liked which helped inspire this:
We worked from this to start choreography. I let the dancers lead a lot of the movements here as they were working so well together and bouncing ideas off one another really constructively that I didn't want to break their flow. I allowed them this time and then every so often I would ask to see what they had and they suggest changes and refine it with them each time to try and make it as good as we could. We spent a lot of time on this section but it is really important that we have the final section build up the way we want and successfully.
We then moved on to put the entire dance together from start to finish as if within the space with both dancers. It took a fair few run throughs till everyone was happy but this worked well to again try and make it flow as best as possible and be as emotional intense as we wanted.
Finally we filmed this entire run through with myself talking over it to explain the movement. This allowed the camera crew to work on the visuals from the dance and for the entire crew who aren't here to see it and understand it before the shoot.
We all left very happy today as we feel like we are ready to get into the location and see how this choreography looks there.
Rehearsal 3 - 24.01.18
On Monday 24th January we proceeded with our 3rd scheduled rehearsal. This was booked as a full day from 9:30 till 4:30 in a large studio. Due to multiple issues with dancers being unreliable I have Katherine had to find another replacement to be our Worker as the dancer we worked with on pre-light cancelled due to not being able to be there on the film days. This meant today we were working with a new dancer from scratch again.
We began by myself and Katherine running through all the material we had prepared previously for rehearsals to inspire the John - our new dancer. We then went through our aims for the dance etc and showed him lots of videos we had found of movement we really liked. We then showed him videos we had filmed with the crew and in prior rehearsals. This was to show him the kind of choreograph we had made with the previous dancer and to also show him what the other dancer - Abdel that he will dance with is like movement wise and the kind of dance he is doing.
John is also an actor so we found a good way to work with him was emotional stimuli. We showed him videos of PTSD suffers and then set him task based on this trying to get him to move around the space the way we wanted. We then worked from here using our original choreography but obviously allowing him to put his own test on this which worked really well as it meant we could work through this in good time but also could build upon it constantly trying to improve from the choreography we had before.
I really enjoyed today as myself and John were able to work closely together on marking out, setting and improving the choreography for the entire piece, besides one final partner element which we are saving for when we have the joint rehearsal with both dancers later in the week.
We began by myself and Katherine running through all the material we had prepared previously for rehearsals to inspire the John - our new dancer. We then went through our aims for the dance etc and showed him lots of videos we had found of movement we really liked. We then showed him videos we had filmed with the crew and in prior rehearsals. This was to show him the kind of choreograph we had made with the previous dancer and to also show him what the other dancer - Abdel that he will dance with is like movement wise and the kind of dance he is doing.
John is also an actor so we found a good way to work with him was emotional stimuli. We showed him videos of PTSD suffers and then set him task based on this trying to get him to move around the space the way we wanted. We then worked from here using our original choreography but obviously allowing him to put his own test on this which worked really well as it meant we could work through this in good time but also could build upon it constantly trying to improve from the choreography we had before.
I really enjoyed today as myself and John were able to work closely together on marking out, setting and improving the choreography for the entire piece, besides one final partner element which we are saving for when we have the joint rehearsal with both dancers later in the week.
Thursday, 18 January 2018
Gunpowder Mill Pre-Light and on Location Rehearsal - 15.01.18
On Monday 15th January we had planned to do a pre-light on location at the gunpowder mill which would allow the camera crew to test out shots helping them amend and finalise the shot list and it would allow myself and the dancers to work through the dance on location to start planning specifically what movements would work where.
We began the shoot at 9am and had to be on location at 8am to give us an hour to set up equipment and the gazebo and amenities. However we had complication in the morning due to rain making it difficult to load up equipment in the car and then causing bad traffic making us late. This delayed us by an hour in total especially since the rain had made the location slippy and muddy and we didn't want to rush in setting up as this would cause a safety hazard. We took our time and prepared ourselves as best as we could giving the wet and cold circumstances.
We however received some news during the mornings events that Kat had managed to get a second dancer on board to be the gunpowder mill worker however the first dancer who we had rehearsed with the previous week had phoned and told us he was unable to attend today as he was very unwell suddenly. This was a major set back as this was our one chance to rehearse within location. However due to the fact that we had already completed a rehearsal with him working on some of his Army character motifs and characteristics we knew already roughly what we wanted from him. We carried on without him with myself and Katherine filling in the new Dancer Kay on what we had rehearsed and how we wanted it to work within the space.
We split into two groups during the morning and had myself, Katherine and the Dancer choreographing and rehearsing his motifs and sections of the dance while the camera crew were walking around the space working out how they would film specific sections and making notes on equipment and lenses etc. Meanwhile Colin was looking after and keeping the equipment organised under the Gazebo. Once the rain had eased off and we had completed a fair amount of choreography we then all worked together with the camera crew so they could actually try working out how they would film certain shots, particularly the trickier more challenging shots. We then had them film certain shots so we could review things and see how they looked. It was good that we all worked together because it allowed everyone to understand the dance as I explained it to them with the Dancer marking it out and then the camera team were able to work out how best to film it with everyone offering up suggestions for shots they could try and movement we could add and adjust. I felt like there were a lot of times were I led the team to try and keep things flowing as best s possible. Katherine was very busy trying to check everyone was alright, the dancer was happy and that equipment was safe etc so I try to keep things movement by opening up communication between the dancer and the crew and directing them to begin shooting and trying out certain shots while also listening to the Dancers concerns and suggestions about the dance using as much emotive language I could to get the dance to be as intense as possible.
Once we had tried out everything with this Dancer that we could I then marked out the other absent dancers parts of choreography for the camera team so that could then practice filming this and understand this in the same way they had understood the dance we had worked on today. This was a lot briefer as we didn't have the dancer here but we were still able to get a lot of experimentation an dance completed.
Katherine called it a day at 2pm as we were all very tired and cold after a long day of shooting and we had managed to achieve a lot in this time considering the weather. I felt this was a very productive day as it really helped us develop the piece and envisage what we want it to be much more.
We began the shoot at 9am and had to be on location at 8am to give us an hour to set up equipment and the gazebo and amenities. However we had complication in the morning due to rain making it difficult to load up equipment in the car and then causing bad traffic making us late. This delayed us by an hour in total especially since the rain had made the location slippy and muddy and we didn't want to rush in setting up as this would cause a safety hazard. We took our time and prepared ourselves as best as we could giving the wet and cold circumstances.
We however received some news during the mornings events that Kat had managed to get a second dancer on board to be the gunpowder mill worker however the first dancer who we had rehearsed with the previous week had phoned and told us he was unable to attend today as he was very unwell suddenly. This was a major set back as this was our one chance to rehearse within location. However due to the fact that we had already completed a rehearsal with him working on some of his Army character motifs and characteristics we knew already roughly what we wanted from him. We carried on without him with myself and Katherine filling in the new Dancer Kay on what we had rehearsed and how we wanted it to work within the space.
We split into two groups during the morning and had myself, Katherine and the Dancer choreographing and rehearsing his motifs and sections of the dance while the camera crew were walking around the space working out how they would film specific sections and making notes on equipment and lenses etc. Meanwhile Colin was looking after and keeping the equipment organised under the Gazebo. Once the rain had eased off and we had completed a fair amount of choreography we then all worked together with the camera crew so they could actually try working out how they would film certain shots, particularly the trickier more challenging shots. We then had them film certain shots so we could review things and see how they looked. It was good that we all worked together because it allowed everyone to understand the dance as I explained it to them with the Dancer marking it out and then the camera team were able to work out how best to film it with everyone offering up suggestions for shots they could try and movement we could add and adjust. I felt like there were a lot of times were I led the team to try and keep things flowing as best s possible. Katherine was very busy trying to check everyone was alright, the dancer was happy and that equipment was safe etc so I try to keep things movement by opening up communication between the dancer and the crew and directing them to begin shooting and trying out certain shots while also listening to the Dancers concerns and suggestions about the dance using as much emotive language I could to get the dance to be as intense as possible.
Once we had tried out everything with this Dancer that we could I then marked out the other absent dancers parts of choreography for the camera team so that could then practice filming this and understand this in the same way they had understood the dance we had worked on today. This was a lot briefer as we didn't have the dancer here but we were still able to get a lot of experimentation an dance completed.
Katherine called it a day at 2pm as we were all very tired and cold after a long day of shooting and we had managed to achieve a lot in this time considering the weather. I felt this was a very productive day as it really helped us develop the piece and envisage what we want it to be much more.
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Gunpowder Mill Dance Rehearsal Preparation and Rehearsal 1
After auditioning and selecting our dancers we then arranged to begin releasing with the two dancers in January after the christmas break as all the Dancers were returning home to other countries over christmas. Unfortunately when we got back and were arranging rehearsals Kat received news that one of the dancers had to pull out due to personal issues. This left us with only one dancer so Kat has spent a lot of time trying to source another dancer to work with however the short notice of the project is making this difficult. While she was trying to source another dancer I prepared for rehearsals none the less as we decided if we still didn't have a dancer by the rehearsal scheduled for Friday 12th January then we would have to start choreography with just one dancer to work with till we found another dancer.
To prepare I went over my research I had completed prior on the themes and looked at more Pina Bausch 's dance style through videos. I then decided to start mipmapping features, assesses and styles of each character in the dance using emotive and stimulating language that the dancer could interpret well:
I highlighted in orange the words which associated to the character at the beginning ad then the starred words as those that appear as the piece/character builds.
I then began thinking into motifs as this seemed like a good way of working so that we can then take these motifs and adapt them once in the location. Here are my ideas:
I then started to think about the structure of the piece/dance and how best to make it move along and develop while approaching the themes well. Here is a rough and basic story outline/structure I wrote out:
I used all these materials to help me organise the dance and help in the rehearsal allowing the dancers to look at these while I talked them through it.
We ended up completing our rehearsal on Friday with only one dancer as Kat still hadn't found another yet. The one dancer we had was Abdel and we had chosen him to play the army/PTSD presence as he was very strong and fitted this role well. We were booked in to rehearse with him for 3 hours however because he had issues with transport so we ended up only having 2. This is how the rehearsal flowed...
We began with Kat showing him some material she really liked on the internet and having a discussion with him about his role with in the piece and the effects of PTSD. Once he was clear with all this I then talked him through the paperwork I had prepared trying to stimulate him as his character with emotive language.
Kat then began by setting a task where she asked him to try and intimidate her (as if she was the other dancer) through his army figure without touching. We got him to do this several times pushing him and his character further each time. We got him to be slower and more controlled and deliberate like an army presence using control and force to intimidate rather than speed. We also got him to add more jarring sharp moments to again link to his army presence. We then developed this onwards further by asking him to get more animalistic as the task progressed. Eventually we got him to be acting exactly how we wanted the character to be in our piece.
I then began by looking into the beginning and how we can introduce this character successfully. I set the task of having him begin in a corner very small and fragile as if not sure who he is and where he is. I then asked him to start exploring the space coming out of the corner building from low levels to slightly higher. As the task progressed I directed him to try and get him to build from this nothing into his army character. We repeated this developing it onwards getting hit o express through all his body and adding little army elements like marching at first then into more forceful movements.
We then liked this marching element so much that we started to build a motif solely on this. We asked him to walk back and forward but each time he changed direction we got him to increase his strength and begin marching more and more forcefully. We then got him to approach this same task but tried to get him to think of it as a sudden glitch where he remembers he needs to march suddenly but this then glitches back out again. This approach looked a lot more effective as it made it sharper and more jarring which is what we wanted.
We then began to think about how we can approach some of the interaction between the two dancers. As we only had Abdel here we had Kat stand in the place of the other dancer playing the worker. I came up with the idea that when they first acknowledged one another physically that they should start by doing the same movement parallel to each other almost like a mirror. This would help to link them as characters and also let us see how differently they both complete the movement one being fragile and one being strong. The moment I chose to use was a salute as I felt this was a very good staring indication of the themes of the piece as well as visually interesting. We then used this salute movement to begin some push and pull moments which we choreographed all together which would begin the confrontation but also the emotional journey the two characters take. We completed this short section of interaction and all really liked it.
This was all we managed to complete in the rehearsal however we are very happy as we feel we already have a lot to work with now once we get onto location and pre-light gives us and the dancers time to test all this and create more choreography. Here is a video of the basic marked out moments we created towards the end of rehearsal:
Overall I am very excited to get to pre-light now and begin setting this dance into the location.
To prepare I went over my research I had completed prior on the themes and looked at more Pina Bausch 's dance style through videos. I then decided to start mipmapping features, assesses and styles of each character in the dance using emotive and stimulating language that the dancer could interpret well:
I highlighted in orange the words which associated to the character at the beginning ad then the starred words as those that appear as the piece/character builds.
I then began thinking into motifs as this seemed like a good way of working so that we can then take these motifs and adapt them once in the location. Here are my ideas:
I then started to think about the structure of the piece/dance and how best to make it move along and develop while approaching the themes well. Here is a rough and basic story outline/structure I wrote out:
I used all these materials to help me organise the dance and help in the rehearsal allowing the dancers to look at these while I talked them through it.
We ended up completing our rehearsal on Friday with only one dancer as Kat still hadn't found another yet. The one dancer we had was Abdel and we had chosen him to play the army/PTSD presence as he was very strong and fitted this role well. We were booked in to rehearse with him for 3 hours however because he had issues with transport so we ended up only having 2. This is how the rehearsal flowed...
We began with Kat showing him some material she really liked on the internet and having a discussion with him about his role with in the piece and the effects of PTSD. Once he was clear with all this I then talked him through the paperwork I had prepared trying to stimulate him as his character with emotive language.
Kat then began by setting a task where she asked him to try and intimidate her (as if she was the other dancer) through his army figure without touching. We got him to do this several times pushing him and his character further each time. We got him to be slower and more controlled and deliberate like an army presence using control and force to intimidate rather than speed. We also got him to add more jarring sharp moments to again link to his army presence. We then developed this onwards further by asking him to get more animalistic as the task progressed. Eventually we got him to be acting exactly how we wanted the character to be in our piece.
I then began by looking into the beginning and how we can introduce this character successfully. I set the task of having him begin in a corner very small and fragile as if not sure who he is and where he is. I then asked him to start exploring the space coming out of the corner building from low levels to slightly higher. As the task progressed I directed him to try and get him to build from this nothing into his army character. We repeated this developing it onwards getting hit o express through all his body and adding little army elements like marching at first then into more forceful movements.
We then liked this marching element so much that we started to build a motif solely on this. We asked him to walk back and forward but each time he changed direction we got him to increase his strength and begin marching more and more forcefully. We then got him to approach this same task but tried to get him to think of it as a sudden glitch where he remembers he needs to march suddenly but this then glitches back out again. This approach looked a lot more effective as it made it sharper and more jarring which is what we wanted.
We then began to think about how we can approach some of the interaction between the two dancers. As we only had Abdel here we had Kat stand in the place of the other dancer playing the worker. I came up with the idea that when they first acknowledged one another physically that they should start by doing the same movement parallel to each other almost like a mirror. This would help to link them as characters and also let us see how differently they both complete the movement one being fragile and one being strong. The moment I chose to use was a salute as I felt this was a very good staring indication of the themes of the piece as well as visually interesting. We then used this salute movement to begin some push and pull moments which we choreographed all together which would begin the confrontation but also the emotional journey the two characters take. We completed this short section of interaction and all really liked it.
This was all we managed to complete in the rehearsal however we are very happy as we feel we already have a lot to work with now once we get onto location and pre-light gives us and the dancers time to test all this and create more choreography. Here is a video of the basic marked out moments we created towards the end of rehearsal:
Overall I am very excited to get to pre-light now and begin setting this dance into the location.
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Gunpowder Mill Auditions - 08/12/17
Katherine arranged for auditions to be held in Soho Theatre London on the Friday 8th December 12 - 4pm. We also had some dancers who were unable to attend apply for the roles via a showreel/video audition. We were looking for two male dancers of a contemporary style. One to play the army figure and one to play the gunpowder mill worker within the dance. Katherine sent everyone who inquired a synopsis of the piece along with the soundtrack Colin has made for it and the inspirations we like such a Pina Bausch.
I was told before hand by Katherine that she would like me to lead the auditions so she could focus solely on looking at their skill and making notes on this. I was also making notes while leading the audition and Sugini the DOP was there filming each audition. We had Colin as a meet and greeter downstairs in the theatre for those auditioning. We planned it out and Katherine briefed us so we all knew what to do on the day to keep the auditions running smoothly and getting the most out of them.
On the day we had 3 dancers turn up to audition. Each audition was structured the same. We had Colin greet them and take their photo along with their main information like name and age etc. He passed this onto us to fill in on our audition form. We then called the dancer in and gave them time to warm up while we prepared ourselves. I would introduce myself and the team and then once ready ask them to look into the camera and state their name, age and information about their dance background and interests. This helped us gain more insight into who they were as dancers and their skill level. I then got them to explain weather they were dancing to our piece of music or their own and if it was their own dance. We set the music up for them, 2 auditions used our music and 1 used his own. We would watch the dance taking notes on what we felt their strengths and weaknesses were. Afterwards I then asked them how they interpreted the piece and what their audition dance was trying to show/express. I also asked which role they felt they would fit out of the two. We then allowed it to go into much more casual conversation with them about the piece involving all of us just to bond with them as a person and then we allowed them to leave letting them know that within a week we would be in touch.
A decisions was made on the day after auditions finished that their were 2 dancers that auditioned that were perfectly matched for one another and were the strongest dancers that auditioned especially within the style we wanted. We all agreed that these would be the two we should use for the piece.
Auditioning in London was a new experience for me, especially leading the auditions which I have only done on a more local scale before. I felt this experience was valuable as it allowed me to gain skills and be professional when talking to these experienced dancers and it went so well that we have ended up with two really skilled and well suited dancers for the piece.
I was told before hand by Katherine that she would like me to lead the auditions so she could focus solely on looking at their skill and making notes on this. I was also making notes while leading the audition and Sugini the DOP was there filming each audition. We had Colin as a meet and greeter downstairs in the theatre for those auditioning. We planned it out and Katherine briefed us so we all knew what to do on the day to keep the auditions running smoothly and getting the most out of them.
On the day we had 3 dancers turn up to audition. Each audition was structured the same. We had Colin greet them and take their photo along with their main information like name and age etc. He passed this onto us to fill in on our audition form. We then called the dancer in and gave them time to warm up while we prepared ourselves. I would introduce myself and the team and then once ready ask them to look into the camera and state their name, age and information about their dance background and interests. This helped us gain more insight into who they were as dancers and their skill level. I then got them to explain weather they were dancing to our piece of music or their own and if it was their own dance. We set the music up for them, 2 auditions used our music and 1 used his own. We would watch the dance taking notes on what we felt their strengths and weaknesses were. Afterwards I then asked them how they interpreted the piece and what their audition dance was trying to show/express. I also asked which role they felt they would fit out of the two. We then allowed it to go into much more casual conversation with them about the piece involving all of us just to bond with them as a person and then we allowed them to leave letting them know that within a week we would be in touch.
A decisions was made on the day after auditions finished that their were 2 dancers that auditioned that were perfectly matched for one another and were the strongest dancers that auditioned especially within the style we wanted. We all agreed that these would be the two we should use for the piece.
Auditioning in London was a new experience for me, especially leading the auditions which I have only done on a more local scale before. I felt this experience was valuable as it allowed me to gain skills and be professional when talking to these experienced dancers and it went so well that we have ended up with two really skilled and well suited dancers for the piece.
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