The Future and beyond...

After having a think about where my work will be heading after this degree is finished I decided that this old blogger just isn’t cutting it anymore. I will be adding examples of my work to my online portfolio and needed a better system to document my thoughts. The new portfolio is a tad ‘minimal’ at the moment but it will be full of information and examples very soon. My new blog can be found at semai.wordpress.com.

Enjoy!

It's been too long...

A lot has happened in the month since I last blogged; filming for Project Y and Under the Same Sky, both for YDance, designing the website for the masters show, finishing Anne Whitaker's website, fine tuning the details for As the sparks fly upwards... and getting back to work on itch.

Project Y

I was approached by YDance, the national youth dance agency for Scotland for whom I have worked as a freelance dance tutor for many years, to produce documentation and a short introductory documentary to promote their performance project, Project Y. I spent a few afternoons filming rehearsals and getting short interviews with the choreographers and some of the dancers, which I chose to conduct as group interviews rather than one on one to ensure a more relaxed feel to the footage. I then got a team of 2 camera operators and a boom mic operator together for the multi-camera performance shoot. So far, looking through the footage as it's captured, it's looking good. I may need to crop in on the wide angle camera slightly but I had a feeling that would happen as it was difficult to set up in advance due to different lighting states in the theatre.

Under the Same Sky

Also for YDance, this is a short promotional video aimed at young people and those who work with them to promoto YDance's new project, Free to Dance. Free to Dance targets young girls who may be school refusers, exercise refusers or excluded from regular activities for some other reason. For this reason, it was important to YDance to film girls dancing who have not had years of experience and to chat to them about their developments so far. Again I chose to shoot the interview with both girls at the same time to relax them get better material.

Masters Show Website

I decided to use a similar format to my own website for FireBox as it makes use of an iframe thus minimising the amount of parts which need to load for each page, keeping the design a simple grey on white allows the work to speak for itself. The main problem has been getting all the information I needed from people in a short amount of time. It seems that deadlines often fall on deaf ears, even when they are reasonable and take dissertation deadlines into account. Eventually I got it altogether but am now waiting on the server details so I can upload it. Typical.


Anne Whitaker

www.anne-whitaker.com is now up and running. The website was fairly simple to put together as Anne was keen to use a blog template that she could add to gradually. We decided that the best way forward would be for me to meet with her on a weekly(ish) basis and teach her the basics of blogging. She started with almost no knowledge but proved to be a quick learner and within 10 sessions is now happy to go it alone.

As the sparks fly upwards...

The film clips have been finalised and I'm constantly adding to a music playlist so that the room is filled with a full range of tracks that will be shuffled and on a loop. I'm still in the process of making the hanging screen but part of this needs to be done at the installation so that the size is perfect for the projection. I'm keen to get the screen as accurately sized as possible to give the piece a feel of things floating in space visually.


itch

It's been a long slog for itch, one that seems to go on the back burner as soon as another project raises its head so I'm determined to get this finished within the next week. I think the problem is that I'm so clear on what I want the finished project to look like I've convinced myself it'll be a five minute job that can be done at any point. In reality I know it'll take a little longer than that.

As the sparks fly upwards...

As the sparks fly upwards... is really on it's way now. The piece, which uses Isadora to bring live dancers and film clips together, had it's first showing last Friday with very positive results.

Lights are attached to dancers' bodies which are then tracked in the space by a camera and used by Isadora to trigger specific pre-recorded film clips. The movement is the same for the live and filmed dancers but the order is completely different. Sometimes in unison, sometimes in canon, sometimes completely out of sync.

Initial feedback includes comparisons to photographic dark rooms watching images develop, appraisals of the dynamic, fluid movement and claims of 'this is the future of screendance'.

View the Isadora output...


Or mobile phone footage from the performance...

Interact with Us

FireBox will be spending next week at the UK Theatre School courtesy of the Dance House working on new material for an interactive dance performance. The exciting part is...

that as well as being able to watch the FireBox dancers performing, you will also be able to get involved and get interacting with the piece. Don't worry you don't need to dance if you don't want to, you just have to be willing to hold a light and move around the room. Easy.

Come along on Friday 20th June at 6pm for your chance to watch it, try it out or both!

UK Theatre School - opposite the old Odeon cinema
4 West Regent Street,
Glasgow
G2 1RW

The Practice Room, The Poles and The Paper

It's been a busy time for FireBox recently with a few breakthroughs in terms of my degree project, the first draft of my masters due in and working on a dance film with some contemporary/pole dancers.

Isadora is starting to behave herself in the Practice Room at The Arches just in time for my Dance House creative lab at the UK theatre school next week. I've got nice LED lights to use as a trigger and the dancers have been working on some great sequences that will be used as the basis for their improvisations. I'd asked them to choreograph their own combos as I'd wanted something different from my usual style and they ended up creating 4 different combos that are very much my style - perhaps we've all been working together too long!

I still need to get all my extra dancers together one weekend to film the movie clips for the piece and, as always, I'm expecting that to be a logistical nightmare.

Two of my dancers, Gill Smith and Suzi Kelly, have been going to pole dancing classes recently and were keen to combine it with contemporary dance so we got together and made a film with them showing off their new skills. The first edit is done and as soon as they've signed off on it I'll be punting it around different events and getting it shown.



Finally, the dreaded paper. The first draft is in and I'm waiting on some feedback before I get stuck in to completing it. There are some things I already know need to be expanded upon and clarified but the basis is there so I just need to get my head down and get on with it.

"The universe picks the right time for things to happen"

My second session with Annie today led to this blog's title. After a few problems trying to purchase a domain name for the site and with Annie keen to record the exact dates and times of each important point along the way it was decided that "The universe picks the right time for things to happen".

Other than that things are progressing nicely. We went through the pages and gave each one a little teaser to keep people interested until articles are uploaded, agreed on a site design and decided on the way forward for the next session.

I've left Annie organising her articles so she can learn to upload them next time we meet and I've got the task of pointing the domain name to the site, something I've done before but not for a while so I'll need to get my thinking cap on and concentrate on it.

Generally things are going well.

What Goes Up...

FireBox dancers and friends, Gillian and Suzi, have been going to pole dancing classes recently and have really got into the whole thing. As well as being the source of endless anecdotes about clammy palms and upside down spins they have also decided that pole dancing, combined with contemporary, would be a good subject for a dance film.

The idea came to them a while ago and they asked me to get involved in the filming/editing part of it which is scheduled for Monday (26th May). I plan to work with high end and low end cameras to create an interesting quality to the film which will reflect the perceived differences in the dance forms.

What you need is a Toggle!

After a tutorial with Dan and a brainstorming session with Gair on Thursday then hours locked in a room in The Arches I've had a breakthrough with Isadora.

It makes sense.

I get it.

I can't quite convey how happy that makes me and how much of a relief it is (I'm sure it's just as much of a relief to my tutors as well who must have been worried I'd change my mind again) to realise that I'll be able to pull off my ideas.

Anne Whitaker's website

I met up with Annie today to discuss her website requirements. Rather than a traditional website we have agreed that she'd be better off with an online blog which she can update with her articles rather than her sending them to me for the rest of her life.

I'm now looking into the capabilities of different blogs to see which is the most suitable for her needs. She's looking for a multi-page blog so she can write to different sections with different subjects.

So far it's looking like wordpress is a winner but I'm still looking.

Isadora Is Trouble.

It was a bit of a disappointing day at the Arches today. I had 3 of the dancers I'll be using at my disposal and just felt like I was wasting their time as I couldn't figure out what I was doing with Isadora.

I want to be able to divide the space into a grid and activate video clips when someone enters a certain square of the grid. I can get the video to start but stopping it and switching to something else isn't happening at the moment.

We ended up doing class and going home early. I can't use the space next Friday so I have 2 weeks to figure out what I'm doing before I see the dancers again.

Project Y

YDance has asked to produce a DVD of their performance project, Project Y, this summer. The DVD is to include an intro section featuring interviews with dancers and clips from rehearsals and classes as well as documentation of the live performance itself.

It's a relief to get some work for the summer as well as the opportunity to make contact with the choreographers working on Project Y and, of course, all that young talent.

Mini Makeover

The FireBox website has had a mini makeover this weekend with slicker page views and online videos. I'm trying to monitor how quickly the videos are streaming on different browsers and connections so please let me know what you think of the waiting time. The videos will open up in a new page so feel free to browse through the rest of the site while you're waiting.

FireBox website

Hey GI!

I've been working on Glasgow International festival's viral video team this week going to exhibition launches and parties to capture the atmosphere in short video clips. They specifically asked us to use basic equipment and make our clips quite candid, guerilla style.

It's been a good way to get around the festival and has meant that I've seen a lot of exhibitions that wouldn't have necessarily interested me otherwise - some of them still don't!

The high profile works, Jim Lambie, Catherine Yass, Wilhelm Sasnal, etc, were the ones which have grabbed all the press attention but I really wasn't convinced by Sasnal's piece. The idea was good and very provocative but it just didn't really seem like an interesting final piece.

Ceryth Wym Evans piece at The Local, however, really got me going. It's a film projected onto 3 mirror balls positioned so that every now and then there's an 'eclipse' and people are suddenly aware of the darkness which then draws them into the piece more. The Local isn't set up like a gallery space, it's a bar with art. The art isn't obvious so when Evans piece draws you in you then start to notice the other works around it and to me that's much more interesting.

No One by Preshur

I finished a first version of the piece last Thursday and in my excitement I burnt off 6 copies and posted it to Right Track without first checking with Rowan that she was happy with it. Of course, there were a few little things that she asked me to alter so I'd wasted 6 DVDs but luckily she was understanding and laughed off my eagerness.

It's a lesson learned for next time though. With the exception of DOG, all my previous work has been for myself so I haven't had to check it with anyone else before finalising the project. I'm glad I made the mistake with Rowan as I've known her for years and not someone else who would maybe see it in a different way.

The Preshur's On

I realise that I didn't explain the title of the last blog... Preshur is the name the girls have given their band and they've recorded the Alicia Keyes track, No One.

When I arrived at the studio this afternoon I have to be honest and sdmit that I was pleased to see that they were all young and attractive so I didn't have to worry too much about them being shy in front of the camera. There was a bit of that but after a few shots they soon relaxed.

I decided to shoot some of the material against the red stage curtain with the girls around an old-fashioned mike and the rest of the material using the black curtain as background. The stage area was really shabby so I was limited in terms of direction and angles but I'm pretty sure I got the best out of it by using the front curtain and reversing the stage rather than the back which I couldn't have disguised.

After one long take of all the movement, which wasn't great, Rowan led the girls through short sections while I moved around to get the best shots.

I've had a quick look through the footage and while some of it looks a bit naff, lots of fidgeting and looking around, there are some real gems in amongst it all.

No Preshur

I was approached by Right Track this week to produce a dance film/music video for some young people they've been working with. The four girls are all school refusers so have been offered this project as an incentive to improve their behaviour. They've recorded a track for it, choreographed a routine with Rowan's help and agreed on costumes and location. All I have to worry about is getting the best out of them on the day.

I only have 2 hours to film them and have to be quite careful about how I approach them as they seem quite unpredictable. They've booked out the theatre space at St Andrew's high which I've worked in before and although it's a bit shabby it's a decent size so should be alright.

re:surface

The launch of the Dance House's new screendance event went really well as far as I could tell. I was working until 9pm the night it was on and raced to get there for 9.15pm just in time for both of my films and Rosie's film. Lots of good feedback and encouragement with some people loving Dark Matter and some people preferring the laid-back vibe of These Things Happen.

A few people had suggested re-shooting it in a clearer space with the dancers in costume but I think the essence of the piece would be lost if I tried to recreate it. I'm going to concentrate on the itch re-shoot and make that into something that really works.

Lights, Camera, Action!

After a successful day in The Arches playing with torches and taking photographs I knew it could turn into something really exciting but didn't really know what. I had thought After Effects would be the answer but after missing the workshop due to the Scottish Dance Theatre work I was back to square one.

Enter Isadora.

It's perfect for working with torches. I can have dancers moving with lights in the space and create the trails of light which I have been obsessed with for a while now at the same time. I can turn these trails of light into different things according to different triggers and I'm really excited about the whole thing.

These Things Happen

These Things Happen when three dancers and one dancer/film maker follow instructions given by choreographer, Angus Balbernie at a Dance House research lab. Spontaneous, textured and very low-tech.



Following another failed attempt to hire any equipment I ended up using my own Mini DV and mobile to film improvisations at Angus' research lab. Angus had agreed to let me use the footage anyway I decided but I wasn't sure how to put it all together with it being on different formats and still make it look like one cohesive piece. After a lightbulb moment last weekend I decided to embrace the low-tech aspect and only use the footage from my mobile. The only editing I chose to use was to rotate some of the sections which had been captured in portrait to give the feeling of the camera rotating but the dancers remain standing.

I'm quite pleased with the results and am now thinking of ways this can be combined with my final project.

It's a DOG's Life!

After the excitement of the multi-camera filming of Scottish Dance Theatre's performance and Interactive it was down to the serious business of editing it all. We decided that I would do DOG and Rosie would do the Interactive with Vilte doing Tenderhook although she seems to have been asking for DOG footage all this week so I'm not entirely sure what she's doing.

The deadline for DOG is tomorrow and the multi-cam editing workshop was last Thursday which left me eight days to learn it, do it and burn it all to a quality that SDT can show at an event in Athens. Although it wasn't really eight days, it was three because of other commitments then two because of bad weather. All this was made worse by the fact that I've been feeling ill all week and struggling through a urine infection. On top of all that when it actually came down to editing I was pretty much left to my own devices which was fine until I needed help and I ended up relying on Derricks Linton and Blackie for assistance.

Particular learning curves have been...
double check that the edit suite is actually booked for the time it's required
if you start in Edit 1-5 you can't move to Edit 6-10 to continue your work
if someone looks at your work in Edit 1-5 you then can't use the multi-camera viewing function in Edit 6-10 even if they haven't changed anything
burning takes longer than editing especially when you've never been shown the software and you're struggling to make the film small enough to put onto DVD.

It's all done now but it hasn't been an easy week and to top it all off I was really interested in doing the After Effects workshop at the start of the week but obviously couldn't because of this work. Thankfully I can get back to my own stuff next week and am looking forward to the Interactive workshop with Jaygo.

Result!

Spent the whole day in the practice room in the deepest, darkest depths of The Arches today with Agoria and the rumble of the trains overhead for comfort working on material for my degree show. My initial idea of attaching cameras to dancers bodies doesn't look like it's going to work out - they were starting to make me feel sick never mind anyone else!

BUT I did spend more time working with torches and experimenting with different ways of filming and photographing the work. I love the initial results. It isn't a piece yet, but it will be. I just need to figure out a way of bringing it all together and making it "Screendance" in a way that'll keep everyone happy.

I don't really want to just photograph dancers with torches and slap it up onto a big screen so I need to figure out what I'm going to do with these images, how to manipulate them and make them into something more. Unfortunately I have a feeling that the one workshop that will help me figure all this out is After Effects, Monday-Wednesday next week and I'm busy editing Scottish Dance Theatre stuff for the Friday deadline.

Typical.

Photos here.

These Things Happen

A few weeks ago I worked with choreographer, Angus Balbernie, as a dancer/film maker on his current research. As a dancer, I was involved in improvisational tasks set by Angus to look into how different instructions affect movement quality. As a film maker, I filmed these improvisations whilst being involved in them. I finished the week with around about an hour of footage on my Mini DV and my mobile not really knowing what I was going to do with them. This morning, after looking at all the footage again, I remembered a piece of music that seems to tie all the footage together and make it something complete. I am now busily and happily editing away and reckon I'll be finished quite soon.

After weeks of being 'stuck' and having no ideas I've impressed myself this weekend with a few good ones. Long may it continue.

Lightbulb Moment

I decided a while ago that I was going to re-shoot 'itch', the film I made following a task as part of the Masterclass at The Space last term. I felt it had enough potential to do again and wanted to make the whole thing again with the dancers in costumes. I spent a while finding costumes I was happy with but was still considering ways I could develop the sound and lighting to improve them.

Last night I had it; the lightbulb moment.

Rather than using the strip lighting which is in place or proper studio lighting I've decided to use torches to light the space and the dancers. Each dancer will have 2 torches which they will shine into dark spots and onto each other. This way, as well as the film being a development of itself, it's also linking in with my other explorations into using light and photographing it. I now have clear images in my mind as to how the finished product will look which is the way I normally work so I'm pleased at the moment and ready to get going.

Dark Matter at Montage

I've just found out that Dark Matter will be screened at Montage Video Dance Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa this weekend. I applied to the festival a few weeks ago and had actually forgotten it was this weekend so it was quite a surprise to receive the email. The event, curated by Jeanette Ginslov and Gerard Bester of Walking Gusto Productions, was named a 'world beater' by Adrienne Sichel last year and will include a line up of dance videos that are exciting, innovative and astounding. I'm especially pleased to have Dark Matter selected as Katrina McPherson's Moment was shown last year as was Nascent by Gina Czarnecki.

You can view an excerpt from Dark Matter here and let me know what you think or if you have to be in Johannesburg this weekend pop in to the Wits Downstairs Theatre.

Dance-Tech.net

I discovered this networking site a few days ago although I had already been receiving emails from them via another site which I can't remember right now. It's similar to bebo, MySpace or Facebook in that people create profiles, add photos, videos, blogs then chat with friends on the site. The main difference being that everyone on the site has an interest in dance technology whether it's screendance, installations or new media work. I'm already slightly addicted to the site and am frantically adding friends... join up and add me now.

La, La, La Human Steps

Amazing dancers, interesting visuals and talented live musicians yet I still felt myself dozing off. Almost 2 hours of arm flapping and unnecessary repetition really made me question the ticket price and the hype. It's been ages since I last saw a dance piece I really enjoyed and I find it really frustrating that artists and companies who are regularly receiving huge amounts of funding don't seem to be developing their ideas fully. It seems like the same old story of people who make really interesting, engaging artworks on a non-existent budget but lose their touch when given financial support. It would still be nice to test that theory for myself though!

Richard Layzell Performance Workshop

I was looking forward to this workshop as I'm feeling a bit frustrated by the lack of dance on this Screendance course. I know that's not the aim of the Masters but I do miss moving and feeling physical so I was glad when this workshop came up. The workshop covered a lot of things I've done before and I didn't really feel like I learned anything new to be completely honest but it was interesting doing these exercises with people from a different discipline, people not so comfortable or used to being physical and performing. This also meant that the group had different ideas and a different dynamic to anything I had experienced before which was interesting to work with.

We pulled together a number of short pieces today to produce 25-30 minutes worth of a performance which we performed in front of around 20 people from different courses and year groups. The performance seemed to go fairly well but without any audience feedback it was difficult to tell.

Running Order

Meet & Greet - will the audience receive a warm welcome, nasty or neutral?
Herding & Circling - the audience become the herd and are physically moved into a darkened room before witnessing 2 performers circling a table lamp.
Humming - the light is turned off and the performers begin humming which leads into Spanish song.
Set of Rules - see below and try it for yourself.
Sleigh - various performers are pulled around the space on a blue wicker sled.
Thrilling, Willing and Unstable (or as I renamed it, Thrilling, Unwilling and Stable) - Jonny lies on the floor under a board, I tap dance directly above his head.
Exit - the audience are lead to the bus stop.

Dog Walker Cafe

I was approached by James at Jarprocess a few weeks ago to film a short dance piece for a dream sequence in his latest film, Dog Walker Cafe. Bitterly cold and wearing far too few layers we all met up in a car park in Clydebank to dance around by car headlight on Tuesday evening. Me plus 5 other FireBox dancers were involved in the shoot using material I choreographed specifically for this. The plan was to involve some still images of us working with lights but James felt it wasn't necessary and that he had enough without it. The benefit of this is that I can develop this more and work on it properly for a new piece.

FireBox Rehearsal

I had the dancers in the studio for a few hours today working on some new material for a film we've been asked to be involved in (more on that next time) but I took the opportunity to try out working with lights and slow shutter speed techniques. Considering the dancers were improvising and we were only using mobile phones for lights I think the results are quite promising...



The top 2 images were taken with an 8 second shutter and the bottom 2 were taken with 4 second shutters. Even just being in the studio catching glimpses of the movement and the dancers with the naked eye was interesting so I'm looking forward to developing this idea further and think, with choreographed movement and photography, the effects could be very interesting.

The Corrie Fee Fugues

I was invited to participate in Angus Balbernie's Dance House Creative Lab this week focusing on the meaning of movement in performance. My role was to split my time between being a dancer and filmer so I could experience and compare both. I spent a lot of time during the week filming while dancing on both my Mini DV and mobile phone. The footage below is unedited and was taken on my mobile on the last day. I intend to edit the rest of the footage of the improvisations into a short dance film piece.

Online and On Time

After designing, re-designing and re-re-designing the new FireBox Dance Theatre website with my new found Dreamweaver skills it finally online today just making my self-imposed deadline of 'the end of January'. I work best when I have deadlines.

The design was inspired by the photo shoot we had at The Arches with Derrick (Linton) at the start of December as well as the new logo, which incidentally inspired the coloured stripes across our faces in the 'naked warpaint' shots, but I was having problems finding a colour for text that would work well on both the red and the grey part of the brick background. The solution was to add a plain panel that would contain all the text, with a few exceptions just for variation, but this seemed very sterile and precise against the background. So I searched around and found a black panel with a grunge border that gave the impression that the black strip had been painted onto the wall. With this in place, everything else seemed to work together and, personally, I feel the website is a real indication of the style of the company and our dancers.

Here it is, let me know what you think.

Light Graffiti

I stumbled upon some light graffiti artists recently and it occurred to me that it'd be a really interesting way of capturing movement in a still image. There are a lot of people doing this at the moment, some of the best I've found are Lichtfaktor and this film clip (scroll to the bottom).

I happen to have some glow sticks handy and a few bike lights to experiment with this weekend so hopefully I'll have something to show next week.

Painting by Keywords

I was pointed in the direction of net.art generator by Dan and spent ages on it last night creating images from keywords. The idea is that you stipulate keywords, net.art generator searches google images for matches and collages those images into a new image.

I restricted myself to 'firebox', 'dance' and 'theatre' and was quite pleased that the majority of images included were my own (my meta tagging must be pretty accurate). Some of them are really interesting and some are awful but that's part of the fun. It seemed to me like painting by numbers but with even less skill involved but I'm sure it won't be long before someone convinces a gallery to exhibit this as their work.

First Week Back

Tutorial with Katrina

We discussed my practical work and agreed that if I am to produce a successful, accurate account of my performance for the assessment panel I must stage it in advance to give myself enough time to document it fully. I'd like to create a single screen work out of the performance piece as opposed to just a documentation of the work so will need to consider how to do this and what it will entail.

She also suggested I look at some Cunningham work to reference my theme of 'no fixed front'. It seems it's time to dig out the old books from my BA.

SDT

4-5 min promo for the Interactive programme plus documentation of their latest piece. We need extra bodies to help with filming and boom mike operating but people seem reluctant to get involved, hopefully the 4th years will be more proactive. We need to consider how to mike up Janet and how to ensure we cover all the material for maximum editing options.

DVD Pro Authoring

Fairly straightforward and probably best to try with a project in mind.

Feedback from Gair and Course Meeting

Everything seems to be on track for the year ahead. I have lots of projects planned and just want to get started. My feedback was pretty positive from both Gair and Katrina but I am conscious of not resting on my laurels and keeping the momentum going. I really want to get more practice editing and would like a proper intro to Final Cut as I missed the first one. We have the option of requesting workshops and there is money for library books so we'll need to make the most of it.