Showing posts with label DANCE VIDEO. Show all posts




As I explained in the previous post I changed my project's idea and collaborate with Ivan Uzunov. His theme was couple relationships and therefore his idea played around wedding scenes.

White Wedding


White Wedding’s inspiration comes from marriages, and all the difficulties they carry. The video is set during the breaking moment of the couple, whom lack affection and caress for each other resulting in the birth of pure evil. 
White Wedding is a music video based around a broken love story, with a ‘dark comedy’ gist. It follows December and June a recently wed couple, they quickly realize their relationship is deteriorating over small arguments. Growing distant they chase each other throughout the corridors of the decaying mansion they once called a happy home. The chase sequence is created in cinematic montages for an opportunity to capture the decaying beauty of the old manor along with December/June’s outfits. As the video extends both June and December become increasingly rough and hateful to one another; it is then June gives birth to a pile of guts (evil) rather than the beautiful baby they once wanted, in return for their aggression, violence and repulsiveness to one another.
“The greatest evil is physical pain.” – Saint Augustine

I told my thoughts and we went in different ways of an emotional show. How it should be represented, what kind of song we should use and so on.

Inspiration


I kept in mind these videos while shooting, tried to express similar look. 

 MUSIC

This was a bit problematic, but I think I did it right. 
Trust-BulbForm - we chose this song because of the mood. It contains many audio overlays I was cutting in post. All cuts blended together using the same rhythm and I think I did well.


Set Location

Back in summer of 2016; I and Ivan went to a couple of ruins and abandoned buildings- Ivan went back to the synopsis and figured it out; dying relationship, lack of love, anger, fear, and havoc. Ivan wanted a distressed looking building with torn down walls and dark corridors, something that was once beautiful in relation to June and December's love. He revisited BULL MANOR in Slough and called the number on the plantation post; We got in contact with the Site Manager Kevin and asked for permission and actually got his approval as long as we were accompanied by a member of Vividline (Daniel Holland) Ivan promised him a copy of the film. We had to shoot immediately, as we only got signed off a day before the shoot. Below are some images Ivan took of the location and permission approval.




We had the permission and then I started my part in a different role. Production... I was writing risk assessment and I was in charge of the project folders.

While Ivan was doing storyboarding, directing and script writing I had my positions as a cameraman, editor, and part as a creator of production pack.

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Filming

Gear

We used fully only our personal gear. Fujifilm X-T2, which was used for 4k and FHD slow-motion videos. For this camera, we used wide angle 12mm 2.0 lens.Another was DSLR Nikon D5200 with Sigma Art 50mm 1.4 lens. Velbon fluid-head tripod. Flycam-Nano stabilisation system and LED portable lights. We used walkie-talkies for better communication through the house. 

Techniques

Because of Fujifilm x-t2 capabilities in low-light, I was shooting video even using 8000 ISO without any noise. For moving shots I used 4K option so I could stabilize the footage in post. We tried to use fluid movement, so all shots look more cinematic and more immersive in this scary house. We also used post-production dolly zoom, It made the effect called "Parallax". 

Editing

Gear

For editing, I used my custom built PC (WIN 10). i7 3.4 GHz; RAM: 24GB; SSD 128GB; HDD 2TB; GPU 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 770. As my monitor, I used Dell U2412M IPS. My sound was monitored on MicroLab Studio 6c speaker set.

Software

I used Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

Techniques

I used post production layer masks, different sound merge tools. I used digital parallax effect technique which took me about 4 hours to learn. I was using many subsequences and pre-compositions. Premiere compositions were working all the time together with After Effects and Photoshop.


 Fujifilm X-T2 allowed us to film in flat image profile. Retouching and color edit was easier then ever before. I used colour look up table to set the colour gamma at first. It was easy to pull out the details from dark areas and highlights from overexposed shots.

Facing problems

Because of linked media, pre-compositions in After Effects and some layers that were interactive with photoshop I faced problems exporting the clip. It took ages even on a powerful computer. It did not render out the visuals on the first go. On the second something was wrong with the audio. Only on the third go, we were completely done.
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To look for possible dancers I contacted some on Facebook directly. It was not very successful but at least I got one candidate. I also posted advertisement on 3 different websites...

  1. londondance.com
  2. http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/
  3. http://www.theplace.org.uk/

In one week 5 dancers respond to my idea. 
They sent me showreels, CV's and short descriptions about themselves. 

I keep in touch with all dancers and answer to all questions they are sending me.
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The Story


This idea now was a result of two main parts.

Technical Part



Attached strings
Given dream world

The Story


Disability and exploration
Finding a way around limits

I got a plan:

PUPPET THEATER- The Story Behind Unknown Dreams (The Artists has to keep in mind to move in a dream scene like a puppet. There might be someone else who may manipulate the dancer, i.e. move their legs, knees, and arms so they understand what it feels like)
The actor will be filmed in two different environments. First, an apartment, second the green screen studio which will be made in the post as an endless space (Dream). During the edit, there will be CGI involved, geometric lines and shapes will reflect and interact with the motion.




1. The actor/actress prepares his or her work space. He or she finds sewing kit, puppets, strings, a bit of paint and some glue.
2. The doll is attached to these strings. The actor/actress paints some new facial expressions and cleans the puppet. Then starts to play around with it.
3. At this point, the artist falls into a dream…
4. He or She is in an endless space. The puppet is on the floor, slowly standing up and paying a lot of attention to leg movements.
5. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements.
6. The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast.
7. At one point it becomes so energetic and precise.
8. But… Soon he or she runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.
9. Filming face and it morphs from the dream to an apartment.
10. Next shot – Slides out from his or her work space with a marionette on the desk.The camera reveals the reality, the dancer who was in the dream is disabled, sitting in a wheelchair and repairing marionette.
Basically, the story is built around memories. The dancer who once was able to do much more than right now is sitting in a wheelchair repairing a puppet.


Marionettist
Dance Short Film By Arturs Reinholds
1 INT. MARIONETTIST’S HOUSE. DAY


Very cozy house and a desk in the middle of the longest wall. Sunlight is falling on one side of the desk revealing dust and many strings on it. there is a water glass, a watch, different fabrics, strings, measurement tape, pencils, a paper knife, a notebook, a newspaper, an ink, old desk lamp, few nails, black and brown paint, tissues, scissors, a magnifying glass, sewing kit, and glasses.


(You can hear noise in the background - In another room, pencils drop and a metal bowl hits the floor.)


a camera is shooting close-ups only.


Men’s hands are putting a puppet on the desk. It is a bit scratched. He reaches after few pieces of fabric. He compares different textures for this new puppet. He takes some measurements and writes that down on the paper. His face is very focused and serious.


HE THINKS OF SOMETHING
2 INT. ENDLESS SPACE - THE DREAM. NIGHT


The puppet is on the floor, slowly leaning up and paying a lot of attention to movements. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements. From that position, uncurl, from head, arms, then legs, reaching out for something. Movements will increase, larger movements, legs kick, jump. (Imagine the puppet/marionette is being pulled at its extreme) The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast. Soon he runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.


FILMS A FACE AND IT MORPHS FROM THE DREAM TO AN APARTMENT.
3 INT. MARIONETTIST’S HOUSE. DAY


His face is sad. The puppet is dressed, all strings attached and ready for a show.


A CAMERA SLIDES FROM THE SHOULDER AND REVEALS THAT THE MARIONETTIST IS SITTING IN A WHEELCHAIR
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Why marionettist?

A disabled person?

Does it make sense?



WHAT IS DANCE FOR ME

Okay... I think for many of us a word "Dance" means physical movements in certain sequence, a beautiful way to express emotions, and maybe for someone it is just an art-form and nothing else. For me personally, it was a passion - I loved to be there in an action. When I dance my body never lies. Expressed emotions is in those movements. I stopped dancing when I came to study at UCA. Dancing takes time and if you want to do it, you have to do it properly, you have to give all yourself. Once you start doing it, there is no way back, you will like it later, if you did enjoy it before. 

For me dance brings me in different stage. I do not know how to describe very well, but when I am in this motion I feel as a different person. I used to dance folk dancing in Latvia for 14 years of my life. I started when I was 5. Our dance culture is very orientated around dances with a partner. It is a very interesting feeling when you know that someone else is moving in same direction, doing same arm movements, jumps and rotations in the same time. It feels wonderful. I have to say, it feels wonderful when you know the choreography. Learning steps, positions and small details like where your head will be looking at takes time. It sometimes was a painful process. I remember being very exhausted in the middle of the training and the teacher says:"Come on, stand up. Let's do it again!" That repeats for many times and the energy is just going down and down. Learning technique for hours, sometimes for days and even weeks. I believe it is just part of what dance actually means! I lived that moment and I think it is all about the passion...

  Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. - Martha Graham

 THE IDEA BEHIND A DISABLED PERSON

 I was thinking of the unit a lot, how to make this idea interesting. I thought of folk-dancing, I have archive footage, I could do some dancing myself as well...But nothing was what I want.

On the last days before tutorials with Rachel I thought about possibilities for movements, traces what we leave behind us. The idea itself was not really clear. I wanted something around real life situations and simulating that with a dance movement. Basically using VFX compare two different motions. Human abilities to a car or a fruit that drops on the floor. Seeing how these objects reflects human body.

During the week I came up with another idea. What if human being starts to explore motion. How would it look like in reality if someone has never moved before.....AND I stopped there, because I really needed a background for my research... It simply did not make any sense...I tried to think of options, what is very different from a person who can do anything, use his body with no boundaries?


DISABLED PERSON

Active lifestyle and a disability is not what we try to imagine together.
How does it look? A dance with limits. Limitation is a challenge.

 I think, people don't like to think of something they cannot achieve because of different limits. Limits can be financial, physical, emotional and sometimes all together.
Solution?
Many just try to find a way around it.

In my story, a disabled person has found a hobby that takes him or her away from these thoughts in the head. Making puppets and playing with them very much symbolizes control over someones body. Therefore, I wanted to make a twist.
I wanted to show that this marionettist can take control over his or her body in the dream.

At this point, I could also improve my first idea about those traces we leave. I could use VFX to make strings to a human body, just like it is with marionettes.


I had a tutorial with Rachel Palmer and she showed me videos that being disabled does not stop you from dancing. At first I made my statement wrong, I did say, that disability may stop successful dance career for a person whose life has always been around dance.

I looked for videos and changed my statement that disability just puts some limits.





So there is this Dance Company Stopgap. They employ disabled and non-disabled artists who find innovative ways to collaborate. Stopgap value a pioneering spirit and are committed to making discoveries about integrating disabled and non-disabled people through dance.

Our productions seek to offer a window into a parallel world where human interdependence, strength and vulnerability play out with poetic realism.
This is something amazing, people who are disabled and can dance like a dancer from Stopgap just makes me look at myself and think, why I just sit down, I have to be in motion, I CAN AND I HAVE TO!


Strings and ropes

Controlling direction and motion.
Watching dance video I can see how motion can be made more visual involving VFX. representing strings for a dancer, just like a marionette. 
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The story behind unknown dreams. 

There is only one concept, but two ways how to play it. Therefore I will be introducing the main idea first.

There is a guy or a girl who has danced all life. The dancer was very good at it, a talented and strong competitor to others. It wasn't only a hobby, it was a lifestyle, it was everything. Life for her or him changed in only one day. A wheelchair is not what you want in your dance career. You still can dance, but there are limits that may hold you.

DRAWING OR PAINTING?
PUPPETS?


DRAWING OR PAINTING- The Story Behind Unknown Dreams

The actor will be filmed in two different environments. First, an apartment, second the green screen studio which will be made in the post as an endless space (Dream).

1. The actor prepares his or her workspace for painting or drawing. Poors some water in the glass, takes pencils and brushes, clean the paper, find a rubber, sharpen pencils, find some colours. 
2. Few strokes on the paper, a B shot and back to the drawing or painting, seeing a person who could be called a dancer. 
3.  At this point, the artist falls into a dream...
4. It is himself in the endless space. He or she is on the floor, slowly standing up and paying a lot of attention to leg movements.
5. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements. 
6. The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast.
7. At one point it becomes so energetic and precise.
8. But... Soon he or she runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.
9. Filming face and it morphs from the dream to an apartment.
10. Next shot - slides out of this drawing or painting which already finished, and the camera reveals, that the dancer in the dream is disabled, sitting in a wheelchair. As an alternative, we can use crutches.


PUPPET THEATRE- The Story Behind Unknown Dreams

The actor will be filmed in two different environments. First, an apartment, second the green screen studio which will be made in the post as an endless space (Dream).

1. The actor prepares his or her workspace. He or she finds sewing kit, puppets, strings, a bit of paint and some glue.
2. The doll is attached to these strings. The actor paints some new facial expressions and cleans the puppet. It starts to play around with it.
3.  At this point, the artist falls into a dream...
4. It is himself in the endless space. He or she is on the floor, slowly standing up and paying a lot of attention to leg movements.
5. Movements are slow and gentle, nothing much with legs, mostly arm movements. 
6. The dance becomes active, very strong leg movements, wide and fast.
7. At one point it becomes so energetic and precise.
8. But... Soon he or she runs out of energy, especially legs. Slowly sits down and still moving arms.
9. Filming face and it morphs from the dream to an apartment.
10. Next shot - slides out of this drawing or painting which already finished, and the camera reveals, that the dancer in the dream is disabled, sitting in a wheelchair. As an alternative, we can use crutches.

TECHINAL INSPIRATIONS
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At the very beginning, I want to write down my possible ideas. For me, dance is something very personal. It is a relaxation for my body. I was doing Latvia folk dance for 15 years in my life and I can say that it is more about your thinking than your body abilities. It is a way to express your mood with no words.

IDEA #1

Continuing with Latvian folk dance, I would like to mention our festival "The Latvian Song and Dance Festival". It is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world and an important event in Latvian culture and social life. It is also a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The All-Latvian Song and Dance Festival has been held since 1873, normally every five years. 30,000 is the grand total of amateur-level but supremely talented singers, dancers, orchestra musicians, folklore collectives, amateur theater troupes, applied arts and fine arts studios and others, devoting themselves to ethnic traditions at the Festival.

I took part in few years and I have old style not-edited old camera footage. It is the behind the scenes footage how everyone is preparing for the show. Training and fun have been captured with a mobile phone and old-model GoPros.


IDEA #2

Before any comments here are two dance video I made last year.

Okay... I may haven't thought this through very well, but my idea is to show our body movements and compare them with liquids, mechanics and daily objects we use for ourselves. My idea comes from the videos that represent traces. We watched many videos with a line behind the dancers, with a different environment that has been affected by the movement.
I thought, what if I can bring that one step forwards. Showing human trace in a dance and compare it with a thing we use on our daily basis. Showing similar movements, traces, and directions.

"Great Minds Think Alike" Creative Collective - We Live to Inspire, Not to Impress.... This is a line from a guy in a second video. They are from London and are happy to work together again.

J.Illustrations: "The results are perfect. Again, thank you for your hard work on the project and please feel free to contact me in case you have any other project it will be great to work with you again."

FOR INSPIRATION:

My goal for the audience?
To show how some movements in dance can be represented with daily objects.

I want to use after effects to show some traces, to understand more the direction and point for the motion human body does. For certain results, I want to make some time warping. I think I can technically use special effects to compare two different things. In my opinion, I will be struggling with getting a legal music, probably my choice with dancers will take long time and that will be the hardest part for me.
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I chose two very different videos that represent art in different centuries. The thing that I learned comparing them, no matter how old or new is the video - the idea will live further on. It might be and most likely is done again and again in different ways, using techniques that have never seen before, using post-production that may change the original message in many forms.

Dance is a performing art. It is like an active meditation. For me personally, dance is a relaxation, it is a circulation of energy (I am using my energy into physical motion and gaining it back through happiness). In my opinion, dance is like a music, it has its sequence. Dance can be a chaotic, coordinated, performed individually or in groups - it has no boundaries. Dance can symbolize deep feelings or everyday jokes, the value of which people do not think so much facing different problems or fun situations.



FIRE FLIGHT

Fire Flight is a promotional music video featuring the dancers from The Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds, England. The project was shot on the Phantom Flex camera at 1,000 frames per second. It was produced by Ink Films (www.inkfilms.co.uk) and the creative and director by Uber Agency (www.uberagency.com).



Directors idea was to add fire in the post to make it look like dancers have been set alight. The project took just over a year to complete with 6 months being dedicated by Ben Daure to create the rendered fire in Maya. Daure had never even opened Maya before and it was Chris Birks of VTR North that showed him how to use the program allowing him to focus on creating the fire post work. The video was edited using Maya, After Effects and Adobe Premiere.

Phoenix Dance Theatre is the UK’s longest standing contemporary dance company outside of London. I think the video stands out and works for the dancers how hard-working they are... Phoenix Dance Company was formed in 1981 by David Hamilton. Almost 40 years of work has been filmed in this art-piece to reach attention to their achievements over the years.

Watching this video, I try to notice all those tools they have used to implement the movement. VFX has been used a lot and it works amazing bearing in mind that the editor has never been using Maya before. I like the fire because it reminds my eyes where the motion was a second ago. It leaves a trace after every motion the body does. It is something that performer is in front of every thought.
GIRL HUNT BALLET

 Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, 1953. This dance piece is from the musical film “The Band Wagon (1953)”.

First, it reminded me music videos of Micheal Jackson. It is very different from the first video. It is more theatrical performance art. The power the man use to show his personality has been reflected using the group of people. I think it reflects world's idea what makes his or her personality. It is not the position but the people who are around you. For example, the leader of the country can come in the room and no one will stand up, later on, another leader is coming in and everyone will stand up and will give an honor to him or her. It is about the respect from others not about the name of the position. In this dance video, it is well performed. The main guy is in a light gray suit. Everyone around him is in black. The red colour in the room sets the mood to anger, to some actions. He is challenged later on by a lady in red dress. That is his opportunity to be more powerful over others. He uses it and there is a competition between both dancers. 

It well though out. Starting from lights and environment. Using different outfits, ages and using specific space. ending with an actual story behind it, ending with changes and interesting actions that turns out differently than expected.
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When the music was founded it was easy to look for right footage. I watched all footage in second day. Organised best shots in one folder, mostly using DSLR footage. I wanted to make it in chronological order so I built everything around one of my shots. I choose long shot which I shoot going around the dancers. Fast moving and reverse editing was used in some shots. I loved to edit colours. It is hard to edit compressed format video, but I didn't make crazy saturation or offset editing. I liked the natural view. I did white balance and warp stabilizer for long shot. Many jump cuts are used in middle of video. I also simulate strobe light effect with solid white colour. When we filmed the actual footage we tried to use speedlights from both sides, but it didn't go well because cameras didn't catch the light fast enough.

 Editing for this video particularly was really strange because I started to edit from the middle moving to the end... When I finished it I started to edit intro of my video. The best footage was already gone so I though about something abstract like lights in darkness or just setting up the scene. It was also really difficult for me because this is my first video using Adobe Premiere software.

 For my final edit I used 5 camera footage. Mixing dark and light scene occasionally. I mixed also my soundtrack because of time. I wanted really good beginning and ending of my soundtrack. I spent a lot of time mixing parts of chosen song. I am not well known with music edit. Tried to separate in right second and put together in same beat. I think I did it pretty good. The goal was to make it so good so you cannot tell where I blended it together.

 Cuts and flashes are added to make excitement full mood. It took me time to edit because it has been processed in chronological order. It is more difficult to make good looking video mix in correct order than just mixing best shots together in a beat. 

 Before I exported my final video I thought about adding frame to make aspect ratio 1:1.85 (Cinematic look) but I realised in that way I loose a lot of information of my work. So I left my video using aspect ratio 16:9. 

I also used a lot of cropping and motion tracking to make the scene more effective. Added credits and HD colour bars and tone 1Khz; -18dB . I didn't made vibrant or saturated colours. I wanted to leave it it pretty moody. 

Next time I would improve my video using constant lighting. The room was not interesting. I would love to film dancers outside or in a old building.



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SLOW OR FAST?


First thoughts for my video
I wasn't sure what mood I want to bring to my audience at first. I guess it is one of the hardest parts of planning your short film or movie. I usually start with soundtrack. Music is part of video that also affects emotions.

I decided to edit fast motion video. To show editing skills of software it is easier to show that in many cuts, fades, jumps, colours, fast and slow motion effects.

MUSIC


I used  Kaskade ft. Ilsey - Disarm You (Illenium Remix) which was on Soundcloud.com as royalty free music. I spent a lot of time looking for the right one... Already mixed with some shots and I loved this song. It was pretty long so I remixed it by myself from beginning till the end. For me it was challenging because I do not do a lot of sound editing.

MOVEMENTS


My favourite part of editing is mixing shots with soundtrack. Doing that I can pool attention to my scene. I love to find right movement for specially chosen soundtrack. If it is edited well that it is a bigger chance to set a mood for a viewer.

Translating a three-dimensional art form (dance) into a two-dimensional space is not easy. In my ideal world, dance would largely be filmed with wide (or normal) lenses, and telephoto lenses would be used sparingly to bring the audience in for moments involving facial expressions, details of small movements, and other specialty shots.

Visual continuity is still very important in dance film, otherwise the movement disorients the viewer. Based on conversations with other editors, it seems that some are unable to follow the storyline contained in the movement of a dance piece; they erroneously conclude that because they only see the dance as a series of unrelated movements, that’s how audience members will see it.

If the edit is made without a sense of conveying the storytelling inherent in the dance movement, the audience will mentally struggle to assemble a narrative based on visual fragments, and will often feel dissatisfied. So I made mine really organised. I love to edit a lot but in the same time keeping all details and chronological story.
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Techniques 


I have made few dance videos before in different places. This time we were filming dancers in a studio. It was challenging because of lighting. No additional studio lights. I used my DSLR LED light to realize one of my ideas. Before I came to studio I thought about angles, lighting and movements. I had only one light, but I tried my best. Lighting inspiration came from one of my last drum cover and Latvian hip-hop dance video.


In both videos there is 3 lights behind the subject. During our dance video I put LED light behind the dancers in the middle to make similar look. It was dark and I was forced to turn my ISO really high like 1600 ISO using f/1.8 50mm lens on my Nikon D5100. It was able to pick up a lot of details anyway. I was surprised that there weren't so much noise in black areas.

Apart of lighting I shoot a long shot. Screwed my DSLR on a tripod and I hold it in my hand. For this shot I asked my team to leave that dancing area because my plan was to go around them. Before doing that I shoot a video with my smartphone and tried to remember where Josh and Grace is moving. 

I did not enjoyed constant lighting and black curtains. It wasn't vibrant and interesting. The area was challenging too. 

In my opinion video is all about lighting. In this situation it was really bad. The room can be boring and lights can save the whole scene. Light can improve attention to movements. I guess that movements in a dance video is really important. 
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