Whilst we knew that we wanted to create a video exploring movement, as a group, it took a while to decide on a specific concept. Upon researching, we came across this quote which particularly resonated with us all, as it highlights an ever-present discussion within the performing arts community – diversity. We felt that this was a current and significant topic to Focus on, as we believe that diversity in the arts can lead to explorations in creative freedom and developments of techniques, both new and existing.
Initially, DIV-VID’s artistic concept was to explore the diversity of humans through the use of movement and dance. During the early stages of creating our piece, we designed a mood board to encapsulate what the term ‘diversity’ meant to us, both from our own knowledge, and also from further research that was undertaken. This was beneficial to do, as we were able to confidently say that we had a vast knowledge on the subject matter, meaning that we were able to produce a piece that effectively demonstrated our intention.
As we began to navigate the process more thoroughly, it was decided that, after a wider research and understanding on what diversity is, it was important to explore more than movement through the means of dance, as we felt that true diversity represents more than dancers and performers, it represents every individual person, regardless of their experience or ability. Therefore, DIV-VID’s artistic concept became: Exploring diversity, not only through dance and movement, but also to investigate and understand the individual lives lived and how, throughout the world, everyone has their own unique story to tell. 

Throughout the video, you see how each dancer is performing the same choreography, although it is evident that no two performers are the same, which is a concept that we wanted to capture in our own video. This is a signification demonstration of diversity within movement, and how everyone interprets music and choreography differently, as it emphasises The individuality, rather than conceals it – this is because you are watching dancers who have been given creative freedom to execute the choreography in their own way, which is not a large difference, but analysing the small nuances, such as the hand placements at 0:27 seconds. This highlights the difference in interpretation of the music, as no two dancers will move in the exact way as each other, conveying the theme of diversity in movement and dance.

 

Another crucial element to think about is how everyone living individual lives and stories is presented. Throughout the video, there are clips of everyday settings, such as a main road and a bus at 1:36. The decision to include this in the video represents how life goes on around us, and how you never know what is happening in a stranger’s life - everybody is unique, and no experience of life is the same for anyone.

 

Once deciding on the software, I began to brainstorm ways in which we could edit the content into a video in a way that not only highlighted our intention, but also was enticing for the viewers and made them consider the idea of diversity and everyone as an individual. Initially, we had planned to have longer sections of choreography within the video, however once beginning the editing process and listening to the music a number of times, I noticed a number of accents within the music, which repeat throughout the song. This made me consider different ways to emphasise them, as I felt that I could utilise them in a way that would add emphasis to the diversity in movement and interpretation that each dancer was demonstrating. I started by splitting the video clips up and including different video effects, such as a glitch on the screen, because I wanted to explore different transitions. However, once watching it back and reviewing them against the whole piece, I found that they didn’t look particularly effective, nor aesthetically pleasing, as I felt they looked out of place and didn’t convey the concept successfully. Therefore, I removed them and began investigating other ways to highlight the accents in the music. In the original idea, I had planned to have the choreography run without interruption. However, after adjusting the video, I discovered that the clips of every day life would look effective if they appeared onscreen, syncopated to the accents of the music. This was because I felt that, throughout the music, there was a steady beat, and only moments where the music would change. Therefore, by doing so, the video became much more cohesive, and it emphasised the theme of diversity within dance and movement, and everyday life a lot more clearly as the viewers are able to see a strong distinction between the two ideas. As the task of video editing was fairly new to me, I watched multiple tutorials online on how best to navigate the site. The one linked was the one that I used as I felt it gave the most in depth description and information which allowed me to effectively edit the work.
https://youtu.be/yMbu1A5N-jc?si=4rUFKOKvoTaRZGa7

 

As the editor, I was given creative freedom to truly express how to present the artistic concept, and I feel that, overall, I successfully achieved this. However, this part of the process did present me with challenges at times, due to unavoidable circumstance. One group member was unable to fulfil their part of the brief, as it was agreed that myself, Lily, Emily and Camiah would film the hip-hop section individually, and then I would edit them together with an overlay to have all four of us doing the choreography at the same time. However, I only received two of these, alongside my own. Therefore, to overcome this, I changed the plan, so that rather than have us do this section at the same time, I would edit them into the video to have them one after the other, with a glitch effect for the transition. From this experience, I have learnt that we should film every piece of choreography with every group member present to ensure that we have everything required, as it is much more challenging to do so when I am unable to get hold of a person to receive the video content.

 

There was a miscommunication with the rehearsal process, as we had agreed that Lily would share the videos of the choreography and we would learn them in our own time, as that way, we were fully prepared before our filming day. However, we discovered that not everyone was as comfortable with the choreography as we had planned for. Therefore, we needed to schedule extra rehearsals which changed our filming schedule around. To overcome this, we met during reading week to practice and ensure that we were confident with the choreography. In saying that, this meant that we were able to produce a piece that was a lot more cohesive, as the dancers were confident in the movement, and we were able to execute the choreography with finesse, which ultimately allowed us to communicate the meaning of our piece more powerfully. 

 

Another challenge that we faced was the filming date that we had originally set. This was the main challenge of the process, as it is where we encountered the most amount of trouble with our original plan. Originally, the idea was to film the group sections at Alexandra Palace. However, we were unable to get a filming permit, so we had to find a new location, Friary Park. We had around fourteen dancers who had agreed to be a part of the piece, however, due to differing circumstances, most of them were unable to make the date that was set. Therefore, we had to overcome this by reworking the idea, which was to have a large group section of choreography, and individuals improvising. We decided that improvisation would look better with a smaller group of people dancing alongside each other, which we discovered was more impactful, as it demonstrated the theme of diversity a lot more clearly, as opposed to watching the dancers improvise in separate sections of the piece. Therefore, we reworked our initial idea to have mainly group sections of choreography  to show more soloist work as opposed to large group sections, which worked in our favour when it came to the editing as it allowed me to have more creative freedom to interpret the video how I had originally envisioned – I was able to edit the video with different effects and transitions as we now had more content then we had planned for. 

 

We discovered that executing the choreography, particularly the lyrical section was proving a challenge on our first day, due to the weather conditions which made the grass slippery and muddy, meaning we had to reconsider the initial filming schedule. Because of this we had to film in the dark, as it was the only time that were able to find where every group member was available. However, it was decided that once this was completed, we liked the aesthetic of the movement as it emphasised the individual interpretation of choreography without background distractions. 

 

On the whole, I feel that we successfully collaborated on the piece, and everyone contributed good ideas, which in turn, has made our work successful. Nevertheless, we did encounter a few moments where communication could have been more positive between us. An example of this is when we were discussing the filming date and time, as we were informed that a group member was unable to make the session due to prior commitments, which we were told the day before we were due to film. The communication could have been better on both parts, as we had agreed on a time and location several weeks before, therefore we felt frustration that we weren’t told this further in advance, as we could have rearranged to suit everyone. However, I think that we also could have been more understanding and tried to come up with a solution quicker. Although, we did overcome this and we found a time on the same day that suited everyone, which was good because it allowed everyone to participate in the session. As this seemed to be the only major obstacle that we faced, I feel that the final work produced was highly successful. The contrast between movement, stillness and every day life allowed us to highlight the diversity in movement and dance, alongside a person’s individual life, because it’s right there for the viewer to see – by editing the video in a way that broke up the dance sections with clips of day to day life, it successfully demonstrates the artistic concept of our piece.