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

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.

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.

Day 4 - Creative Lab

My idea is working and the material is coming together. Joan and I have set a large section of movement incorporating the Bodyslam moves into my own style. Technically, the live streaming works and would be effective if the screen was in a more interesting position, it's quite high on the wall so seems like a very separate entity. Unfortunately there's not much I can do about the position of the screen in this space. I have had to record the material as I'm streaming to stop the camera turning itself off so I now have a record of the movement and it's development as well - quite unusual for me.

There are a few people coming tomorrow so it will be interesting to hear their take on all of this.




Short excerpt of the material I've been working on.

Day 1 Creative Lab

LAB

Movement
Bodyslam Technique - Low fly/Dodging/Material from Blok

Idea
Anonymity - Dancers as Audience/Video Feed/Black&White film

Technical
Dark - Projector light only/Disorientate audience/Non-traditional positioning/Crash mat throughout space/Camera moves

I started work on material today that will be used for the rest of the week. It was fairly slow to get going but managed to get 1 full sequence done with ideas for another one to do tomorrow when Joan (one of my FireBox dancers) joins me. I always find it difficult to get started when I'm on my own so made use of the day by filming little sections and seeing what they look like on the screen. The space is very bare so it all looks a bit sterile at the moment, especially with just me here, but I can imagine it already in different contexts.

Creative Lab Prep

This is turning into a nightmare.

I've decided to make use of the projector at The STAND during my Dance House Creative Lab to hook up a camera, film the dance and project it live onto the screen. Because this is part of my course I thought it'd be a good idea to make use of the equipment and get a decent camera out to film, that way I could use my own camera and tripod to document the whole thing which would be fine if the uni had any equipment available.

The main reason I applied for this course was for it's facilities and the fact that my work would improve just by using more sophisticated gear and now I've ended up using my own stuff anyway. All because students hire stuff out over a weekend to save them bringing it back on a Friday afternoon. The most frustrating part of it all is that I approached the techies numerous times this week and they kept assuring me that I'd be able to get stuff out. If they'd had the proper sheets out at the proper time I might have been able to approach whoever already had the equipment and see if I could collect it from them.

So. I'm annoyed and disappointed but I can still try things out with my own camera and, if the idea works, I can see about getting more space to develop it properly.

I've also downloaded the demo version of Isadora but the tutorials aren't working. It isn't my day.