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.

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.

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.

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.

Creative Lab Comments and Isadora

Creative Lab

Well, as expected most people liked the idea of the screen showing the reverse viewpoint but found the positioning of the screen too awkward to watch all the time. I can see this idea working in a performance though so I'm going to stick with it and think about different ways to film material and different ways to screen it.

Multiple screens?
Having the dancer hold the camera as they move?
Using a range of qualities to film?
Using a range of screens?

The other main comment was that the screen gave the space more depth, like putting a large mirror in a small room, it would be interesting to see how this works in a small space, will it still have that effect when the space itself is a lot smaller?

Isadora

I downloaded the demo version of Isadora about a week ago and decided to spend the Reading week from Uni working on it and getting to grips with it. The only problem is, no matter what I do, my mac doesn't recognise the format the tutorials are in. I've tried downloading them in different ways, opening them with different software, including Isadora itself, and still haven't managed. I then tried to just muddle my way through it but with no reference points and a completely new language to learn I feel I may be on to a losing battle. Rosalind had mentioned a friend of hers who works with Isadora so I'll try and arrange to meet up with them.

Practically Speaking...

How to effect movement change in clubbers?

Small interactive area
'Mini' Disco (Miniscule of Sound, Bestival)
Self-contained
DJ
Lighting
Visuals - After Effects?
Film Delay -Obvious/Subtle?
Isadora?
Death Disco - Jaygo Bloom
Possible Venues - Arches/CCA/Soundhaus/Flying Duck?
Fully interactive
Choreographed element? - Trial at Dance House Creative Lab

Gair - Tutorial 1

My first tutorial today with Gair has certainly left me with some food for thought.

He suggested I look at the work of Troika Ranch, Gina Czarnecki and Pipilotti Rist for their work with dance and visual art. Practically speaking I'm going to look at Isadora and how to document my practical work (obviously tutors aren't going to turn up to a club at 2am to find out what I'm doing). I will need to get another student to film my practical work in such a way that my input and the effects are clear.

I've also been looking at Pointless Creations who currently do the visuals for Death Disco at the Arches. One of the members of the collective, Jaygo Bloom, works with Isadora to create visuals so it would be great to get in touch with him and maybe go along one night to see how it all works.