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Dance For Camera Video 1:

For the first video, I had the simple idea of the camera just following me along as I walk along the path, switching between pedestrian movements and contemporary dance.

I mainly wanted to focus on the visual effect of the film and I did this by choosing a contrasting background that was an outdoor space with something like dance that would usually be performed in an inside space like a studio or stage. I took inspiration from instagram reels of ballet dancers dancing in normal clothes in a natural outdoor space which lead me to create my own interpretation.

While dancing, I made the decision to dance without acknowledging the camera very much as I knew that this would distract me and hinder my performance as someone who is not used to being in front of the camera dancing solo.

I also didn’t give many instructions to the person filming me, apart from having the camera follow me. This was something new for me because noticing the camera in my peripheral view while it followed specific movements, seemed to influence how I was going to move next and have the camera move and follow me in ways I hadn’t anticipated previously.

I wanted this film to be spontaneous and free flowing. I did this by planning a small idea of what I wanted to dance and having a song I had practiced to. I created a sequence of movements before hand that I had memorised and combined them with improvisation as I moved across the space.

Dance for Camera Video 2:

For the second video, I explored what it would be like to be the person filming and controlling the camera. As a group, me and my peers discussed the idea of how the final film would look. They originally came up with the story and characters in the film while I watched took this into consideration and filmed with different shots and angles that I thought were appropriate to maximise the appearance of the original idea.

We split the shooting process into sections as we traveled to specific locations and filmed in chronological order to make the editing process less complicated. We used a combination of filming with a regular phone as well as some shots using a digital camera to make the film feel nostalgic and to also film dance in a more versatile way. Also we made sure to not over analyse every shot we took as time was limited and not everything has to be perfect.

During this filming process, I learned that even when we had a set idea for shots or angles, often the best work is figured out by accident or by being adventurous and doing things you think of on the spot.

Dorich Exploration:

For the first video leading up to the final filming of our Dorich project film, I decided to use the same concept that me and my peers came up with in inspiration for the film. This was dancing around the Dorich house while embodying Dora and Richard as a sort of spirit or memory that lived in the house when we were working in it.

I used this same concept in a different location and filmed at Morden Hall park. I researched some of the history of the park and the different things that went on when the park was used differently in the past. Doing this helped me when it came to filming in the Dorich house as I was more familiar on how to dance with a person or concept in mind and how to portray that through a camera rather than just on stage.

Dorich final Film:

When filming for our Dorich site specific film, there was a lot of planning and organisation that went into the final output. We collectively decided before hand to use a digital film camera along with other equipment such as a tripod to make the visual effect as smooth and seamless as possible.

We also made a story board and vision board for outfits to make the filming process clear and for us to look as much like Dora and Richard in the short time we had.

We filmed throughout the house in order of what rooms were closest together to work as quickly as possible instead of the chronological timeline of our story board.

We managed to film all the footage in one day and took our time to edit and review in the following weeks.

Even though we had one main person filming we still communicated and took turns to input ideas for shots and angles to improve to overall film which made everything much easier .

Improv:

Here I took the time to improvise by myself in an empty studio space. Initially I wanted to create a piece of choreography but wasn’t feeling successful in the work I was making. I then decided to use the time to improvise for about 45 minutes using different songs that I enjoyed listening to regularly. I used this approach to apply when I soon will be in the creative process for the next assignment of creating a dance.  I found that having space by myself without anyone watching me was helpful for this one time as often I find it hard to create movement when other people are watching and i often don’t have the space to dance across a whole studio and so I made sure to document these improvisations for future work.

Hip Hop Collaboration:

Here is the first and final video of our hip hop collaboration piece. We worked on this piece for two weeks in the span of two sessions and combined our own choreographies with a set choreography that we learned in the first session. We worked together as a collective and decided that having smaller group sections to then add them together with various transitions for most of the piece would be the best decision as we had a large number of people to work with a and a limited amount of time. The creative process for this collaboration was not always easy as working under such pressure caused disagreements and confusion. Because of this, the dance changed multiple times as evident in the video’s but we all learned to let people speak their opinions and add choreographic input eventually as it made things more clear for the final performance.