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.

VFX Opening Screen

VFX Edit - Stage 4

This is when I totally refined my edit. I am happy with the way the lines turned out with the pen tool, and my use of text. Now I wanted to add some more visual effects to really bring the whole thing together.

When looking at the lines I thought they looked rather bland, like something was missing. So after trying out a load of different effects from the effects panel, I found one which was rather interesting. 
I found an effect called 'fog lights', which created a different texture to the lines. I added it to all the lines I had drawn and just edited the colours in which it would appear, to match the gold but with some white highlights. This really brought all the lines to life, and made them more interesting when they draw onto the screen.

I also made sure all my key frames were set accurately so everything would appear at different times and all compliment each other. Also, in order to add the desired fog lights effect to all the lines, I had to put them into a pre-composition so they were all grouped together, and I could easily apply the effect to them as one.

The video below shows the title opening now with the fog light effect added onto the drawing lines.

VFX Edit - Stage 3

Stage Three for my edit of The Great Gatsby was to add text to the edit. I downloaded a few fonts that I thought looked similar to the font already used, as I didn't want to give up too easily and use the exact font.

I tried out each of these fonts on my composition but after a lot of fiddling around I decided that I wasn't happy with any of them, as they just didn't create the desired effect I was looking for. 

I then decided to create a mask layer over the image I had used to help me draw the lines, so I could use the actual font but just add some of my own edits to it.

Then I knew I wanted the text to fade in, so I used the effects panel to find a text effect that would blur the text to give it a bit more mystery as it faded in.

I key framed this effect and the opacity to create the desired look I wanted.

VFX Edit - Stage 1 & 2

After a few VFX tutorial lessons where we learnt the basics of After Effects, I decided what I wanted to create for my piece.
We have to create an opening sequence or title sequence for a film or tv show of our choice. I decided I wanted to create an opening to The Great Gatsby, as I know the general aesthetic of The Great Gatsby is somewhat complex. 

This is what I wanted to animate and recreate in After Effects

I began this process by creating a new After Effects project and importing the image so that I could use the pen tool to draw around the lines, to create the general image. This was pretty intricate work so it took a few days to finish drawing around the entire thing, since a lot of the lines are small and intricate. I had to zoom in quite a lot to be able to draw the rather complex ones.

The screenshot below shows what I had created once I hid the photo layer. I used my skills with the pen tool to accurately draw all the shapes myself.

Once I had drawn it entirely I changed the colour of the lines to a yellow / gold to match the Gatsby aesthetic.

After this I added Trim Paths to all the lines I had drawn and key framed them all at different times, to give the look that they are drawing themselves. I wanted a variation in timings which is why I varied the keyframes so it would gradually appear at different times.