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.

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.

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.

Itch

My first attempt at Final Cut Pro didn't go so badly, particularly once I stopped using iMovie keyboard shortcuts! I'm not sure I explored the full range of possibilities but I like the fact that even if you split a clip into tiny, minute sections, reverse them, speed them up, slow them down, whatever there is still a copy of the clip in it's original form. So much easier than having to undo things and remembering to make duplicates all the time.

After I'd got the hang of capturing the film, naming it and marking in and out points it seemed very straightforward and the film was completed very quickly. I never have to spend long going through the clips after I've filmed them as I always know at the time I'm filming which sections I'll use and which I won't.

For this film I decided to work with the found audio rather than editing to a soundtrack. Again, because of my previously less advanced equipment I've always worked with a soundtrack in mind. It was interesting working with the found audio and finding a natural rhythm in the movement and it's something to consider for future work but I think I'll try to combine both a soundtrack and found audio to add texture.

The Space Masterclass

Yesterday was spent working on tasks set by Katrina to get us used to working with the camera and gaining confidence in holding it and moving with it. It's something I've never done before as I've never had the equipment to deal with that. it felt good to get involved with moving the camera around the dancers, more like a duet than dancer/viewer.

One of the tasks yesterday was to film approximately one minute of continuous footage to create a short film clip. We had to use a location outwith the dance studios and we weren't allowed to edit at all. Bored by all the clean lines and shiny metal I asked the dancers to show me the grimiest place in the building. This turned out to be the boiler room underneath the theatre space, it was dirty, dark and had the constant drone of the boilers in the background. The dancers were positioned in the darkest part of the space and the camera moved from there outwards into the light passing more dancers on the way. The end result was slightly Blair Witch, slightly Girl Interrupted and very different from anything I've filmed before.

Today I went back to develop the idea with new dancers. I gave them a short sequence of movement to give the piece a theme and instead of being restricted to one shot I filmed a range of shots around the space using the dancers in all areas. I'm looking forward to editing this material over the next few days particularly as it will be my first time using Final Cut Pro.

Where I've Been Going Wrong

One session with Katrina is all it's taken to realise how amateur my film work is. The ideas are there but I need to be braver in what I choose to include and leave out. I need to be braver with angles and shots and move the camera around more. I haven't been able to do these things with my little camcorder before, the slightest movement and the thing is struggling to focus for the next 10 minutes.

Now that I have the opportunity to work with equipment that can handle movement I need to take advantage of it.

* More angles
* More shots
* Move the camera