Lauren's DFSA Research : January 2015

We learnt that a 16mm projector can bring cinema down to it's raw instruments of light and darkness and can allow audiences to be interactive such as with shadow puppets. Directly after the briefing, Vicky provided us with various different rolls of film, some negative, colour, clear and black, and encouraged us to manipulate it.

The images on the film - from a Barbara Streisand film Funny Girl

Firstly I experimented with splicing two pieces of film together to create an edit. I found this easier than I thought, as I imagined the process to be a lot harder. However it is very lengthy if you were to be editing an entire film like this rather than just a simple click with a mouse in the digital way I'm used to! I created several more edits throughout.

My first edit

I also tried dipping a clear strip that I had edited on, in various different food colourings to make it colourful. The colours mixed like I intended, some places show clear pink, some clear blue and then there are areas where the two have merged together. At the time Josh was colouring his clear strip in using a black marker and while ours where both wet we merged them together to transfer the colours. This resulted in mine containing splotches of black from his marker and his containing more colour from mine. We called this a collaboration! The effect reminded me of a nebula, space pattern which I really liked. This was probably my favourite manipulation I made.

Colour on clear film

I then edited on some black film and using a compass, scratched various shapes into it. This became like an animation.

Scratches on black film

The entire classes individual creations where then edited together to make one long strip.

Tom demonstrating an edit

Here was the result :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbfBCk3xYVU&feature=youtu.be (insert video later)

We were all very pleased with the final outcome and it was nice seeing the entire class (or at least the ones that showed up!) collaborate to make something together. I had so much fun in this part of the lesson and felt so creatively free to experiment.

Vicky briefed us on fields and frames being an innovative way for experimentation. We learnt what exactly the unit wanted us to explore, think about and develop along the process as creative people :

Technical procedures
Production Practises
Engagement in what we're making
Professionalism
Research
Planning and organisation
Awareness of audiences, contexts and networks

This could take the form of work in narrative, experimental art, expanded cinema, documentary or installation.

Here are pieces we looked at throughout the brief :

David Hall // TV Interruptions - Tap Piece (1971)

Commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council, 7 pieces out of an original 10, were assembled together as TV Interruptions. The third one, Tap Piece features a tap placed by unknown hands in the right of the screen and which then begins filling up a tank with water. The meniscus of the water gets higher and higher until it eventually takes up the entire screen, submerging the tap. The tap is then taken away and after a short period the tank is drained, the line of the water going down horizontally on screen until it vanishes. The edges of the tank coincide with the TV screen's edges, demonstrating an importance of framing as acknowledged by Nicky Hamlyn. The piece is very self aware and in those few moments of stillness after the tap is removed it leaves the audience viewing the emptiness on screen, something that never occurs in standard TV and cinema.

Lis Rhodes // Dresden Dynamo (1971-72)

A very experimental and political piece, investigating the relationship between sound and image. Lis Rhodes states it was '...a film I made without a camera - in which the image is the soundtrack - the soundtrack the image.' Filters and stickers were used to achieve all the shapes and colours observed, along with white noise and atonal beeps for the sound. The piece illusions itself to be more than just a flat surface, giving it more of a depth.

Turbulent // Shirin Neshat (1998)

Statement about how females aren't allowed to perform in public in Muslim culture. Two screen piece, however the screens were not placed side by side but opposite, forcing the audience to make a choice in which one to watch. I liked this piece a lot due to the movement and style, as well as the strong performances. To me it conveys a very powerful message.

Gary Hill // In as Much as it is Already Taking Place (1990)

Various body parts were displayed through different channels. It gave an impression of how the body exists in frames and how the audience created a meaning through having to walk through the screens and piece the parts together.

Tony Oursler // Various

Projections on to objects. I really liked how he gave personality to these items and focused on movement and feeling through the eyes and mouth - he spoke at one point on filming them separately to do specific acting such as "eye acting."

Malcolm Le Grice // Horror Film (1971)

Using 3 different projectors, each displaying a different colour, Malcolm Le Grice used his own body as a screen.

We have decided that the deaf dancing idea has too many problematic issues and so are leaving it behind for now, despite still liking the concept. At the moment we are stuck on several ideas, but hopefully a tutorial and some advice will assist us in making the correct and most interesting decision. The new ideas that we are leaning towards are as follows :

A Break Up

Only two dancers required
Could include tango - like moves
Use of physical objects such as smashing plates
Nice use of cinematography - could spin around the room with camera
Could be similar to a music video depending on song choice

Pop Punk / Traditional Dance Mash-Up

Idea that pop punk songs have generally quite poetic lyrics, however these are dismissed and not thought about due to the style of the music and screams.
Music - pop punk music over traditional dance such as ballet etc
Could contrast the screaming of the singer with the gentleness of the dance to reflect the poetic side

Liminality Poem

Dance based off of this poem "Liminality" by Neil Hilborn

Potentially make it look underwater - after effects, 3D
Interesting cinematography and lighting
Poetic dance between two people - man and woman

Gothic Fairytale

Would have a cool production design
Very costume based
Story - like - has a structure

Today we worked more on coding and were left to figure some of it out for ourselves, based off of an english description provided. We had to translate this into coding language.

Coding for a cat and mouse game

For example, the first coding asks what if the cat is asleep and the mouse is awake. The answer to this is in the line below, indicating that the mouse does not need to hide and therefore mouseHide = false.

In the one below that, the exclamation before the 'catAsleep' means that this is not the case and therefore the '!' is a shortcut for meaning the cat is NOT asleep. Therefore the mouse will have to hide in order to not get caught and therefore mouseHide = true.

We also learnt some coding in order to change the colour of a cube when clicked upon.

Then we started developing our game, which involves spaceships. We learnt how to put the spaceship down to it's most basic shape, re-size the game landscape and spaceship in relation to each other and added a moving engine to the back of the spaceship.

The spaceship with engine activated

How spaceship will look in game mode

I was very anxious for interactivity as this was something I've never done before (creating a game and working in unity) and generally when learning software I like to go at my own pace, looking at tutorials and going over things multiple times to make it stick with me. Whenever I can't do this and I have to keep up sometimes it makes me very stressed! However I found that even though there were times when I was stressed, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I found it enjoyable being allowed to mess around with the software before seriously beginning anything. It allowed me to get the hang of things a bit easier.

We were taught some basic keyboard shortcuts for unity :

Pan : Q

Move : W

Rotate : E

Scale : R

Snap : V

Frame Selection : F

Duplicate : Ctrl D

We were then directed to create a room, using planes and cubes and then re-sizing and moving them. The we were taught how to make a surface 'bouncy' and placed cubes so that they would fall and react to this.

We also started learning how to code. I found this difficult to understand but hopefully with more practise I will get better!

Bouncing

To get an idea of how to direct dancers, Rachel got us to perform several different exercises in relation to movement. We began by doing individual activities - we were allowed to move within the room but at some points had include specific tasks such as walking, sitting and standing (still). It was amazing seeing how different people interpreted this and included these tasks in various ways and how being able to interact with others could affect the outcome of performance.

Another involved us pairing up, with someone becoming limp and only allowed to move when the other directed them through touch to do so. It meant that the person not allowed to move of their own free will was giving total control to their partner. This created some interesting movement between everyone and the result was quite amusing as we could manipulate each other into funny shapes and situations. After the person being manipulated was told to occasionally resist the control of their partner. This provided us with more of a variety of positions and gave off more of a tense mood.

One person being manipulated by a partner

One found us splitting into two groups which were against each other, having two main leaders. We would have to move around each other, gradually getting closer. If we bumped into someone we would have to exaggerate a reaction such as being annoyed. Eventually we all got so close that we couldn't avoid bumping into each other and therefore our reactions became more often and faster paced, until we could barely move. At this point the leaders would push against each other and the rest of us would help our respective leader from behind. We developed this more by adding actions such as attack and defence.

We also learnt how to carry out bigger performance moves such as lifts, which looked scary but was actually a lot of fun!

We were also give the opportunity to look through a camera at various body parts moving. This allowed us to see that certain body parts are better seen through different framing. For example hands look better in close up shots as they can show a lot of intricate detail and fine movements which make them interesting to watch. This gave me a better understanding of the possibilities of how to film the dance in the future.

Feet filmed from relatively close up

On the last day, actual dancers came in which gave us practise in directing them and translating our creative visions to them in order to perform what we want to achieve. My group based our idea around trying to stand out from the crowd. The idea was that there would be a group of dancers in sync, when another comes in and tries to copy their movement in order to fit in. However they fail to do so and can't keep sync with everyone else, getting lost in the movement of others. After the initial idea, Rachel asked us to develop it more, give it some background and maybe a setting. Our idea kind of reminded us of a scene from the musical The Producers (2005) in which the lead character wants to break out of his boring lifestyle of an accountant in order to become what he dreams of - a producer.

From about 0.15 - 2.55 in the video provided us for a basis of inspiration. The way that Matthew Broderick walks in, synchronises with the other accountants, yet starts to do things slightly differently/ more laid back. At around 2.30 in the video, the other accountants begin typing in synch whereas he stares dreamily into distance while singing about his desire to be a producer.

Our final idea that we asked the dancers to perform was set in an office, in which a group of dancers would be carrying out the synchronised movements - based on activities done by workers such as filing, drinking coffee and typing. These movements would almost seem robotic. The different one would then walk in, sit down at the desk and try and join in with the rest, however failing to do so. She would get in sync but then mess this up and fall out with the rest of the workers, causing her frustration. At the end all would get up in order to go to a meeting, however the different one, who at the end of the line, stumbles causing a domino effect on the rest to fall as well. While actually working with the dancers to do this we played around with the domino effect, even when they were sitting at the desk having the odd one out's misplaced actions mess up the entire synchronisation of the rest of the more robotic characters. I found it intriguing how new ideas can pop up and change things from just playing around with the order and actions.

Overall I really enjoyed the entire three days. The exercises brought back some fond memories of being in drama school as we would carry out similar activities and I felt in my element. I am also very happy about the fact I pushed myself a bit more to be more outspoken as for once I was generally the main spokesperson for our group at times such as explaining what to do to the dancers and our idea to Rachel. This is something I'm usually very bad at being quite a quiet person, but for some reason I was very calm about doing so, even when addressing the entire class. Hopefully this is the start of me developing a bit more confidence and not being so worried! :)

To begin, Rachel gave us some background on the history of dance, showing us pieces such as The Serpentine Dance by The Lumiere Brothers (1899), Pas de Deux by the Royal Danish Ballet (1902), The Magic Lantern by George Melies (1903) and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1903).

Here are the videos respectively :

We were also shown other modern videos that have incorporated various dance techniques.

LXD PRESENTS: "MATCHED" // Charles Oliver and Christopher Scott

Using Tchaikovsky 's Ballet Op. 71, Act II: Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker this piece seemed very magical and fairytale-esque. I liked how at times the dancers were all in sync and then at others one would break off and do their own thing in a very playful way that I thought fitted the atmosphere. The use of objects also interested me as I thought it added another layer to the dance and this could be something to consider for future referencing.

1234 - Fiest

Filmed entirely in one fluid shot and uses kind of a flash mob approach. I liked how the dance looks very fun and colourful. Rachel informed us that the song was written about young love and the movement can reflect this in it's very basic, innocent, child-like manner.

Yeasayer "Sunrise" // Dante Russo

I liked the idea of the dancers being in a therapeutic support group and their dances reflecting their 'personal issues and psychological pains.' It was pointed out at the beginning people dancing in streets seemed a bit unrealistic and strange. Quite a bit of fast changing shots and various angles.

Tamara Levinson Choreography Reel

I liked how there was no distraction from the dance due to a lack of objects and background. However this resulted in disorientation as the viewer isn't able to tell the direction or whereabouts of the performance. The black and white was good at highlighting and shadowing areas to make it visually interesting. The music seems a bit strange and misplaced.

Rosas danst Rosas // Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

The movements were very synchronised and on point and even though someone would break the synchronisation, everyone would still end up back in the synchronisation again. Movement is very fast and robotic.

Ghost Catching // Bill T Jones, Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar

I really liked how the lines trace the movement and shows a journey. It also gives a sense of the past and what has just happened. Looks very impressive visually and was something very unique and different for it's time.

Guns and Horses - Ellie Goulding

We mainly concluded this was a bad interpretation of merging dance into a video. Ellie, wearing casual, modern clothing seems out of place with the uniformed dancer. The fact that the background dancers are all in sync in the background while Ellie does her own thing in front is very distracting and the two don't fit together fluently at all.

Katherine reached out to me and Laura with her idea of deaf dancers and how even though they cannot hear the music, they create movements based on vibrations from the sound around them. I found this to be a very intriguing topic and it amazes me the capabilities of the human body, especially in disability. We all looked into other works and videos that included deaf dancers. Here is some of the videos I found interesting and useful.

Allison Becker

An audition for the American TV show So You Think You Can Dance. When asked the question, "How do you dance if you are hearing impaired?' Allison responded, '...it's just feeling the music. It's just that the vibration helps me to keep...on beat and on rhythm.'

It's incredible and inspiring watching her talk about her story.

Jarrell Robinson

Another audition from So You Think You Can Dance. Jarrel says that '...the only way that I can hear the music is if you really...turn the bass on.' This reinforces the importance of vibrations - something we want to incorporate if we follow this idea.

Physically Being Me (Six Stories from Deaf and Disabled Dancers) // Foundation for Community Dance

Interesting stories from both disabled and deaf dancers. Useful for background knowledge of the dancers.

Sound of Silence // Deaf Can Dance

The dancers say they feel '...inspired by the vibrations,' and wish to show that 'deaf people can do anything in life.' They mention how the vibrations make their body move and how that they as a group can feel and share that together.

Thousand Hands of Buddha // My Dream Chinese Deaf Dance Team

Very beautiful piece that really shows off the capabilities of deaf dancers. The movements and synchronisation are amazing.

Beijing Chine Paralympic Games

Consisting of 320 female dancers. The amount of dancers in this is phenomenal and allowed me to see the scale of how far deaf dancing can go. Very inspirational and beautiful. I especially liked the use of lights and how flowy and gentle the dancing was.

Mark and Emilia Villaver

Consisting of Mark and his deaf mom Emilia. It's interesting to see how have a connection through dance and how she is just as perfectly able at the dance as he is - shows the capabilities.

Reflections

I really like the idea. I think it would be nice to incorporate the emotion and stories of the deaf dances into their work, as through watching these videos and interviews you can easily see the passion, commitment and dedication these people have for dance. I think it would be nice to translate this in the piece. However I am worried that this would be not be achievable - we would need to find deaf dancers, a translator etc. We are going to look further into this idea and see if it is a possibility, as well as thinking of other ideas we might want to pursue as this is early days!

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