Dance Film - Twirling Evaluation

We are all really pleased with the outcome of this film, and are really happy with how it came together in the edit. Our communication skills and organization as a group means we would definitely work together in the future. Good time management allowed us to complete our work for the deadline, even with the push backs we had on shooting due to the weather.

Working with a dancer was a new experience but due to the workshops we attended we were able to structure the shoot really well. It was really refreshing to work with Paige's sister, Demi, as she was so familiar with twirling since she's competed internationally. This meant that we didn't have to worry about choreography as she came with routines she was already confident doing. 

With Demi being so disciplined and confident with her routines, our shoot went really smoothly as I outlined in a previous blog post about the shoot day.

I was camera operator on the day of the shoot, which was really fun for me as it's one of my favourite roles. I was confident as I was using my own camera, and working closely with Paige as the director was refreshing as she gave me an indication of what shots and framing she wanted.

When it came to the edit, Paige had already suggested that we slow a lot of the footage down so that you can see the complexity of the routine itself. There is also a lot of repetition in the clips because within the routine a lot of the skills are repeated as when the assessors are writing they might miss some of the skills. This therefore made the editing slightly harder for Alice, as we wanted to try and have a variety of the skills shown within the film.

Alice was in charge of the edit and she did a really amazing job, she also found some royalty free music which fitted the edit well, and cut to the music which makes the film flow really nicely.  

We feel like we have really achieved our aims with the film, showing the intricacy and real art of twirling. Obviously we came together as a group quite late, due to a lot of personal issues going on in mine and Alice's lives. Therefore if I could do it all again I would have liked to be on board much sooner so we would have had more time to shoot more and plan better so we could make an even more impressive film. However, giving the time we had I am really pleased with what we created.

The final edit: BOBBY DAZZLER - A Twirling Dance Film

Dance Film - Twirling Shoot Day

The shoot for this film was slightly delayed due to the weather, and since we were shooting outside we weren't able to film in the pouring rain! However, once the clouds had cleared up we went to our location and set out to film.
Luckily it was a fairly warm day which benefitted our dancer as she was in traditional costume which is a leotard, so she wasn't in the warmest of outfits. We chose a costume that she has competed in before, which is also a costume that Paige has hand made.

We set up the tripod and the camera in amongst some trees as it made a really pretty background for the shoot, but also captured a lot of light.

I worked as the camera operator on the shoot, so worked closely with Paige as she was the director and she told me what sort of shots she wanted. It was really good working with Demi as she was really confident with her routines and just kept going and repeating it so we could capture loads of footage and switch angles throughout.

The camera was really good at capturing the movement and is high quality so our footage looked really good. We were blessed that it was a bright day and not too cloudy so we only had to use natural light and didn't need any other light sources.

Luckily the location was pretty quiet so we didn't have any interruption from the general public and we weren't in anyones way. We wouldn't be using the sound from the footage so it didn't matter if there was a lot of background noise. 

The shoot went really smoothly and we managed to get all of our footage before it started raining again.

Dance Film - Twirling

Research and Planning

Paige’s history with twirling - has been competing most of her life and won many titles for her twirling routines whilst competing internationally, she now also teaches it. Therefore we have been looking at the history of twirling, how it originated, what it was for before it was seen as a competitive sport in its own right.

The sport progressed into the armies of some countries which twirled with rifles during marches. When the army was parading, they added a rifle twirler to the front of the marchers. Obviously, the sport has progressed a long way and nowadays it’s much different. It turned into a balanced baton with usually white rubber ends which are used for safety. Rather than being something that is solely linked to the military, it is now a sport in which teams compete and show their routines in front of an audience, for entertainment purposes.

The research for this film has consisted of looking at different routines and sound tracks. We wanted to grasp an idea of the complexity of routines and the traditional marching music.

We have made the decision to have one dancer, as using a group may not appear as aesthetically pleasing as they may not be in sync and it might look complicated on screen.

We have also made the decision to shoot outside as twirling can be a dangerous sport if it is not done in a safe environment, by choosing an outside location we don’t put our dancer or anyone else under any risks

For research we looked at different videos of routines that twirlers have done before, comparing groups twirling against individuals, which confirmed that we only wanted to use one dancer as when you watch a group twirling it can become a bit confusing to watch and you aren't able to focus on one dancer to capture all of their routine and skills.

Our dancer shall be Paige's sister, Demi. She has also competed internationally in twirling competitions and has many different routines that she can perform from memory. This would mean that our shoot will hopefully be rather smooth as she is confident dancing for the camera and in her routines, so there won't need to be any choreography to learn.

Technical Skills

The production will be outside, using natural lighting so no external lights will be needed. Having our film shot outside eliminates any dangers for the dancer or the crew as twirling needs quite a lot of space to be effective

The camera we will use will be a Panasonic Lumix G85, this will make the shoot simpler as the camera is lightweight so will be easy to use both handheld and on a tripod. Also, as it is my own camera we will have unlimited access to using it.

Dance Film - Joe and George's production

George and Joe, two of my peers on the course, approached me and asked if I would like to work on their film with them, doing some dance choreography and helping out on set. Of course I was really pleased with this opportunity and said yes instantly.

I knew I would be part of the dance sequence, so George sent over some references for what they wanted, and a video explaining what I would be required to do. It seemed really interesting and fun so I was totally on board. I don't really have a dance background or much experience but the choreography seemed fairly easy and I was up for the challenge.

This was the video reference they sent me, focusing on the hand choreography, as they wanted to achieve something similar.

We had two days in the studio to shoot the film. I got there early so I could help bring equipment to the studio, as I had my car. We managed to get all the props for the set to the studio in two trips, which was a relief! Ciara was the set designer, so she told me where she wanted things to go and I helped to the best of my ability, leaving her to refine the set. 

When I wasn't working on the choreography with George and Joe, I used this opportunity on set to get more familiar with different roles, shadowing Alice whilst she was the gaffer, and she allowed me to work closely with her so I could develop my knowledge of lighting. I also watched Rufaro as the camera operator, understanding her ideas and how she would frame the scene.

At one point I even became a part of the tripod, as the one we had was faulty so I had to sit under it and hold the legs to stop it from slipping during filming.

We shot in four different colours; red, orange, blue and normal lighting. This was achieved through the use of gels, and having colour changing bulbs in all the lamps on set. 

As the set consisted of many mirrors, Rufaro had to be careful when filming to make sure that nothing could be seen in the mirrors such as the camera or the lights, so this made the shoot a little more difficult. However I think we all worked really well together as a crew and managed to achieve a really good shoot over the two working days. 

Overall, I really enjoyed working on this film as it gave me an opportunity to shadow other roles and gain a better understanding on how to work in these roles in the future. I also surprisingly really enjoyed working as part of the dance choreography, as it was something different and challenging, but Joe and George made me feel really confident in my role.

Dance Film - Update

Sadly, due to illness and other issues, Alice and I were unable to get together our dance film, with ample time to shoot and edit. This was pretty disheartening to us as we were really keen to create our dance film, life just got in the way.

After lots of panic about what we would be able to achieve, we spoke to some of our peers and decided that we would work on their films, fulfilling different roles and helping them achieve their vision.

We were then approached by our friend Paige, who is also on the course, and she asked if we would like to team up with her and work on her dance film which is about twirling. Of course we were super happy to get this opportunity and therefore we grouped up with her and are now in the process of creating a film together.

Dance Film - Learning Agreement

Setting - Dance Film

Alice came up with a really interesting idea of building a mini set of paper mountains for our dancers to immerse themselves in. We feel that having this set will really enhance the piece and push our creative skills into crafting this for the dance film.
If we were to make this out of paper it wouldn't be harmful for the environment and we could recycle it after use.
I also suggested using larger bits of cardboard to make sure that it stands freely by itself, but also use depth of the set to have enough room for the dancers to move around it, but if it faces the camera head on then it will still look fine.

I thought as well if we made the backs of the pieces flat, and then the front three dimensional we could create stands on the back, making sure they would stand by themselves in the space. As our piece is about relationships and their struggles both good and bad, the paper mountains would be interesting in the set as the physicality of a mountain and their rough and jagged sides could denote the rough parts of a relationship, it being unstable and uncertain, but it could also denote that when you reach the top of the mountain peak, a euphoric and accomplished feeling as you got through the hard times together.

This will be a challenge, however I feel excited to challenge myself and create something different to anything I've tried before. As I shall be working with Alice, I feel that between us we will be able to achieve this. She is also really skilled with lighting so I know we will be able to make our set look fabulous on screen.

Inspiration - Dance Film

When thinking about color in the dance film, I instantly thought of Wes Andersen, one of my favourite directors. His work has always been inspiring to me as I love his use of color and the overall compositions of his scenes. He always uses really bold colors and his work is very symmetrical throughout his films. This is something I would like to challenge myself to achieve. I also want to use really bold colors and maybe experiment with gel lighting, which is something I haven't really done before.

I have added some images to give an example of his style.

With regards to music videos and color, I looked at the video for Hotline Bling, by Drake. The lighting in this video is very soft and he uses very soft pastel colors to take over the video, as they are the main aspect of the scene.
The video itself is very simplistic, only featuring a handful of dancers, however it's still really effective and a really interesting video to watch.

These examples are each very influential in how I want to make the dance piece, with a good use of color and a simplistic style, yet effective.

Dance Film - Idea develops slightly

• spotlight lighting on dancer to accentuate movement and the body
• darkness all around apart from spotlight on dancer
• choice of music important to influence the movement of the dancer and the flow of the piece
• think about shadows
• a 'journey' of the body
• smooth movements with fluidity within the movement
• think about covering all aspects of the body

NEON PAINT IDEA
A variation of our idea could be to use only neon paint on the dancer and dark lighting, with a black background. Having a spotlight on the dancer and focusing on certain elements of the body. The neon paint would make everything stand out more and make our piece more original.
Neon paint would stand out on the walls and the body, glowing in the background.

LOTS OF PAINT

We would start by introducing slow and small contact with the paper / wall, introducing the paint into the piece and the contact with the body. The music would build up and increase the movements of the dancer. 
Improvised contact with the paper / wall to begin spreading the paint, not needed to be a highly choreographed piece.

Appreciation of the body - sensual but not sexual movement, we don't want to sexualize the dancer.

Dancing to get more dramatic with the tempo but not in a comedic way - all about control.

Dance Film - Initial Ideas

Alice and I love to collaborate, therefore we have come up for an idea together for our dance film. Our idea is only very rough as we haven't completed much research surrounding it at the moment, but none the less this is our starting point.

Our idea consists of having one single dancer spreading paint across the body and dancing and painting together through the movements. This is a very rough idea of what we want to achieve, and have had some discussions with Rachel Deadman about how this could be achieved.

Rachel suggested;
     - thinking about the levels of movement, spreading paint across the body in a concentrated manner and capturing it at different levels of the body.
     - attending to the body, manipulating the movements to indicate something or an emotion, playing with the speed of the movement
     - 360 vision so no part of the body is missed, not a 'face on' experience

We want our film to be a whole body experience, showing a connection of the upper and lower body through movement.

Some things we need to think about to aid our further planning:
     - does the vision follow the camera or does the vision follow the dancer?
     - what does the camera mean / represent?
     - do we take control of the gaze? 

Dance Film - Workshops with Rachel Deadman

Choreography and Dance with Rachel Deadman

Rachel was kind enough to come in and run and three day workshop with us, regarding our new brief on making a dance film. I found her workshop really useful as she covered so many different things, from understanding choreography, learning how to frame the body for camera, relationships through movement and how to direct dancers for your film.

The workshop was very interactive but also really helped me to understand how to work with dancers and how to plan your film in order to work with them in the best way possible.

On the third day of the workshop she brought in some professional dancers and they were kind enough to work with us and demonstrate some ways in which they can interpret our ideas. It was also useful to hear them explain what terminology you should use when instructing dancers, things to say that are easier to interpret and get the best result.

We also learnt how to work well with the space when operating a camera around dancers, and how to frame certain shots in order to get the best out of their movement.

The dancers also created some totally spontaneous routines just based on emotions or words that we had given them, demonstrating how words and feelings can influence movement. This was useful to get us thinking about what direction we can give to dancers to get a better result, and what works best when directing dancers.