We began in second year with a choice for this unit between creating an experimental film for Fields and Frames or making a Dance Video. I began by exploring both these options and working on both, this is something I strongly encourage; you pay for the course so you might as well get the most out of it as you can! However Dance Video did start to steal my attention, especially after the original dance workshops with visiting teacher and professional Choreographer Rachel Deadman. She taught us the basics of dance (which definitely came more naturally to some than others!) and we then moved on to look into choreography techniques and how to start building dances together based on themes. These workshops were really helpful at inspiring us with ways to really dive into this project. This along with a lot of personal research into the medium and genre helped us to begin forming ideas.
I quickly formed the idea of phobias as this was something which had interested me at the time because of the obscurity and unknown nature of why people sometimes have certain phobias. During the workshops I formed a group/crew with other people in the class who were interested in this idea and passionate about making a dance video. The original crew consisted of 3 including myself (Billie Williams) as Director & Choreographer alongside a Producer & Editor (Katherine Whetton) and a DOP/Cinematographer (Sugini Nageswaran). These were the main bases covered and the three of us set out to work; tediously researching and fleshing out the idea and compiling and creating the needed documents and paperwork for the production. We had to take our prior filmmaking knowledge on all of this and transfer and adapt that to work for a dance video.
Production Photo from Avoidance
It took a lot of time and work from all three of us to make sure we have a fully realised and refined concept which could be demonstrated through choreography and visuals, in particular through the camera as the film techniques and camera work to us was just as important as the dance itself. With dance video it is best to realise this earlier on because the camera techniques are so key to really making a piece of choreography stand out in a video format. Thankfully I had a really talented DOP working with me who was eager to learn more about dance video techniques. She also utilised her knowledge on other areas too employing horror film camera techniques and shots she knew about as this worked with out theme well particularly to create fear surrounding the chosen phobias. In essence our final realised idea was to take three phobias which were chosen based on first and second hand research; Arachnophobia (Fear of Spiders), Claustrophobia (Fear of small spaces) and Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning). Then create contemporary choreography with a dancer that would embody and represent each of these phobias but also then demonstrate the fear behind these phobias and the way suffers feel to and about them. Overall we wanted to create an 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.
Production Photo from Avoidance
One of the main triumphs for our group was managing to get such a talented dancer involved in this project. Through our Producers eager advertising round dance schools, collages, social media and in the area we had a fair amount of dancers apply and send us audition videos. We were fortunate enough that we had an amazingly talented young female dancer who was local to the area apply, she had done many dance competitions in America and round the world and she was very excited to give working with video a go! This was amazing and of course we followed all procedures like having an official meeting in person, signing paperwork and seeing her dance skills first hand but we knew she was the right dancer for the piece. She danced in a contemporary style, had a good understanding of dance and building choreography and was also skilled in gymnastics and flexible which was particularly helpful for some of the dance ideas I had in mind, again relating back to the horror and fear aspect of the piece. Myself and Grace (Dancer Colebrook) worked together to build the choreography using techniques learnt in the workshop and building off of the ideas we had already come up with as a group. With limited rehearsals we managed to get the three sections of our piece choreographed and we then went and refined this further after tutorials with Rachel (dance tutor). It was so fun and exciting to work with dance as it is so different to other film making processes in the fact that its a lot more hands on and I had the privilege of working with different types of practitioners in a more energetic and fast paced environment.
Production Photo from Avoidance
We also found through out the process of all this going on that out crew began to grow as we got more people interested in the piece and we also found we needed specialists in certain areas for things such as lighting. We gained a Gaffer, multiple runners, a clapper and camera operators. This meant we could really make sure that things were being planned and produced to their full potential but it also meant that things then flowed a lot better on set especially since we only had two shoot days to film this 6 minute dance video in. We also got a original sound track made for us to specs we set by the band 'False Idols' and this fitted again exactly with the piece the way we had wanted it to. All these elements came together in the end and so did we all as a crew/team and we managed to produce a 6 minute dance video which in our eyes was successful and turned out how we had hoped and envisioned.
Production Photo from Avoidance
We were so proud of what we had managed to produce in a few months, especially working in an area of film which was new for each and every one of us. We pushed ourselves to do something different and something bold (also something long) and we pulled it off. I am proud of all our efforts but also proud of all the skills we each managed to learn and develop over the course of this project. We overcame many challenges as well and managed to keep true to what we wanted to make. It also opened up a whole medium and genre to me that I can now confidently and comfortably work in (and have since) which has added skills to me as a creative practitioner and allowed me to expand into an area of film I really enjoy.
On Set Crew for Avoidance
Since making it we decided to enter a film festival the summer of the year it was finished (2017), however we found ourselves unsuccessful, yet we still got a lovely response from the festival. However undeterred by this, this summer I applied with the film to more film festivals. This time though I applied in particular for U.Dance film festival as it had been suggested to us by Rosie (course leader) and it seemed more fitting for our piece because it focused much more precisely on making choreography and dance for the camera/screen. This time our talents were recognised and we found ourselves winning alongside 7 other amazing dance films. The 8 films now proudly stand on the U.Dance Website and on their youtube. They were also displayed at live dance events in front of audiences this summer and we are featured in the events official brochure too. It's amazing publicity for us and has made me even happier than I was that I got to branch off into the exciting and extravagant world of dance video. And I haven't stopped their, I am now trying to spread the film out further now by entering some European film and dance film festivals! Fingers Crossed for those!
Dance Video 'Avoidance' :
Written By Billie Williams
Photos By Ethan Salley
No comments:
Post a Comment