This is going to be the cover for the CD. Im going to get it printed better than I have for the prsentation becuase I ran out of time but it looks fine. I'm also goign to put seperate pictures inside the case, just some of my favourite shots, these are the ones I've chosen:

Thinking about the text in the film (the title and credits), I wanted something scratchy and rough so I traced over printouts of the words in Baskerville Old Face.

The marks come out differently on different sizes, I liked the largest size best becuase I ended up being messier.

Editing

It's going quite well so far I think although I wold have preferred to have more footage for the end of the film. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it - I think the main problem here is that I didnt plan it thoroghly enough. These are some of the shots from the film so far:

Filming over!

Finished the filming today, think it went well, There were some very nice shots - especially the ones we did inside where I could control the lighting. It was surprisingly easy to work wth someone else - I don't know whether this was becuase Lauras my friend anyway, or shes used to working with people like that but I found it quite encoraouraging - I was dreading working with someone!
This is for one of the where I'm chasing her down the road. Obviously we were very careful and we were in the safe hands of our stunt driver.

This is the carefully constructed and thorough filming plan:

I'm deciding to use Blue Orchid by The White Stripes, its got a very clear, constant beat and I think it's a very exciting song! I'm finding it alot easier to imagine how the video might look and type of movements I want now. Christoph Stoltenburg said to me that I have got to plan EVERYTHING out exactly and you've got to be able to just tell people what to do becuase you know whats got to be done which I thought was good advice however I didn't have an actuall idea of what I wanted to shoot.

This is a rough plan, looking at the structure of the song.

These are some rough storyboards so I've got bit more of a clue on wednesday:

Planning the Shoot.............

I'm planning on filming on the 28th and 29th, this week. Me and Laura are going to Jo's derelict mushroom farm. These are some photos of around the farm to explain why I got so excited:

I've been trying to find potential songs I could use. I want something quite rocky, lively, lots of guitar. I want to use somthing that isnt instantly associated with dance (more classical instrumentals), I've also been looking at songs with singing in them - I havn't seen many examples of dace films which use songs with lyrics in then (see Still You by Mijke Dejong). Having a song with singing in it will make it seem more like a music video rather than a dance video, which is what I want becuase the people I'm going to be showing will be more familiar wth this format, therefore, wont be put off by something they think they wont understand (which is the reaction I normally get when I talk to people about dance).

These are some of the songs I've narrowed it down to:

Secret Eyes Fear of Flying

Stranded The Mutts

Eyes Only The Cherubs

Blue Orchid, Seven Natin Army and The Denial Twist The White Stripes

Break on Through The Doors

Baby The Drones

Uncle Johnny The Killers

I Feel You Depeche Mode

These are just some vague ideas of what I might to include:

Idea 2

I've found a dancer now (one of my friends in the end) for my main idea, I just wish I did earlier becuase she really wants to work on this collaboration. Shes a dance teacher at the Laban Contemporary Dance school. She's interested in combining contemporary dance with parkour (this is where I know her from).

She said something that I found interesting; she doesn't enjoy videos of dance becuase she keeps expecting the dancers to stop dancing and speak as in normal films. I would really like to experiment with using some sort of dialogue in the peice - whether that be words from a poem or just the dancer talking to me. I've got to avoid it seeming too casual though - I dont want to just show two freinds out somewhere having a chat whilst one of them is dancing!

Thinking about the parkour influences we want to include, I was thinking about suitable locations we could film. I can organise t film in one of my friends barns (yes, one of my freinds has a barn!) with electricity in it so I can control the lighting. I'm also gong to have a look along the Thames at the industrial areas and docks for anywhere around there. I want a very cold, industrial look to contrast with the movemets the dancer will be making. Also, there will be oppurtunities for some parkour-ness to go on if it has interesting surroundings.

Idea 1

The other night I went to see the Rambert Dance Company at Sadlers Wells. In the last performance Infinity choreographed by Garry Stewart, I particularly noticed the lighting.

Ballet Rocks

I watched a behind-the-scenes documentary of this dacne film Ballet Rocks performed by the English Naional Ballet with costumes designed by Giles Deacon and music by Bloc Party.

hmmmmm, re-thinking

After meeting and talking to a few dancers and being let down by a few dancers, I'm considering other possibilities for my film. I don't nessarcarily need to use a professional dancer, the movements can be fairly simple and still be classified as "dance". I'm going to focus more on creating impact through the filming techniques I use, and less on the actual movement. I could include different componants (as in Pull by Bruce Mclean, David Proud, Ashley Page, Jane Thorburn and Mark Lucas).

"What the Body Does Not Remember became a very physical performance. It won a Bessie Award in New York and suddenly everybody called it 'dance', while actually the piece was not created by professional dancers, we were not working with the 'contemporary' dance language from that time. The result was a movement language created by the performers and myself. Over all these years, and with the different crews I have worked with, we have kept on developing this language." - Wim Vandekeybus

These are some photos I found on a flyer I had for the Rambert Dance Compnay's perfrmance of World View. I really like them, I'm not entirely sure how they are done.

Wim Vandekeybus

Wim Vandekeybus' mainly draws his inspiration from the world surrounding us and life in all its aspects. Encounters with nature, people, different movement forms and styles, music, film, literature, theatre, … form the seeds for his creations.

interview with London Dance:
You originally trained in psychology. What impact has that had on the kind of work you make?
I studied psychology at university during 2 years, but never finished these studies or practiced it professionally. So, in fact I only got the theoretical part. My work is more the result of intuition, the intuitive psychology that everyone has in his/her way.
Who, or what, are your main influences?
My youth experiences, writers, photographers (koudelka), cineasts (Kalatozov, Cassavetes, Imamura, ...), encounters with people, the world around us, ...
Film is often an integral part of Ultima Vez performances - and the films also stand alone. What is your process? Do you consciously make two works - a film and a performance - or does one emerge from the other?
This depends, I made several short films as part of my performances, in which the themes of the performance were approached from a different angle, or that were part of the scenography. With film you can create a strong context/past of the people on scene and thus enrich there existence. Next to the short films, I also made dance films adaptations of my performances.

Becuase of all the faffing about with dancers, I hadn't actually produced any actual work so I made this video today just to play around really.

MOTION CONTROL

Choreographer: Liz Aggiss
Director: David Alexande Anderson

The Snowball Effect

Choreographed by the V-TOL Dance Company for the Dance For The Camra series on BBC2.
Director: Brett Turnball
The music is the driving force behind this peice, the deep bass makes it all so exciting, almost like a chase scene. Its in soft focus, the clours and the light are very important -very soft, yellow, warm colours, the light bleeding into the hall they are in, makes it look very dramatic. theres also a secion in it where its all slow motion with added motion blurrs on the characters, theres also red lighting, all of this completely shifts the mood.

Still You, Dir: Mijke Dejong, choreographers: Suzy Blok & Christopher Steel

Janneque Draisma

These videos are fantastic!
The music and sounds she uses as well go so well with the visuals.
Janneque Draisma is a Dutch choreographer/dancer and director. After an education in classical dance, she studied painting and film in Amsterdam. She then went to Paris where she took lessons in 'corporal mime'! In 1992 she received the prize for 'Best Actress' (Golden Calf) at the Dutch Film festival. Since then Janneque performed in several films, participated in a number of opera productions. At the same time she continued realizing and producing experimental films and theatre performances for which she founded her production company `The Draft Foundation' in 1995. At the moment Janneque is gradually developing three feature film scripts, which she will also direct: a Dutch film, a French musical and an Italian film. She is also a photographer and actress.


This is a picture of her as a sea monster (?)

research

EXIT
Choreography: Jamie Watton
Director: Charan Goul

The location (the london underground) in this peice is as important as the dance itself, some shots have no dancer oin them at all. Clear narrative, shown by cross cuts.

PULL
Bruce Mclean, David Proud, Ashley Page, Jane Thorburn and Mark Lucas

This discribes itself as a "scultural dance". its about searching for the perfect body. The movements and editing are fosuced around and influenced completely by the props - which make up some of the costumes (huge card hats) and also big boards the dancers transport around like billboards. There are lots of sliding screens and split screens so in the end you dont know whether its the boards moving around or the editing! this is one of the few peices ive seen so far that include text within the dance, almost like headlines. the screen is alos in widescreen format which i think is to remind you of watching films.

MAN IN MOTION
Choreographer: Moniek Merkx
Director: Noud Heerkens
1995

E PUR SI MUOVE
Choreography: Harijono Koeban, Andrea Leine
Director: Peter Delpeut

The entire film is done in one shot, it zooms in and out but stays stationary. Interesting use of blurring - the film starts of completely blurred, you can just see movemet and colour.

CORZAND
Choreogrpher: Clara van Gecol, Angelica Oai
Director:George Bugmans
1993


KADER

madness

Duet
Choreographer: Will Tucket
Director: The Quay Brothers
2000