Elsie Metters - BTEC Musical Theatre Year13 2014/15: Dance for Camera

Dance for Camera

First Draft Video & Rehearsal Process

Choreographing & Video Notes:

Inspiration for some of the choreography and movement style for my video, has been gathered for our research into Rosa Danst Rosa.

I did not copy the motifs or movement directly, I came up with a motif from my memory and understand of the choreography from Rosa Danst Rosa.

Other inspiration and movement style comes from dance lesson taught by Emily in the past few weeks.

The style of dance will be jazz and contemporary. It will be this style as I am most familiar through having dance past research and dance lessons in class.

I have made a few storyboards, showing a brief plan of the structure of my video.

The theme & stimulus for my video is based on "chairs".

Using chairs as the main set/prop for the video. In every scene of the video chairs will either be in the background, being used as a prop or sat/danced apron.

The costume will be baggy and loose clothing. Just a bit like the costumes in Rosa Danst Rosa. They will be loose and baggy so it is comfortable to move and dance in. The colours of the costumes with be naturalistic, dull and quite plain.

I will have two dancers in my video; Cherkanah & Sophie.

I will film and reheard my choreography in lesson and at college out of lesson.

My accoonpiment with be "Latch by Disclosure".

I have chosen this music because it is a dance/house style song but when playing it out my choreography fitted in very well. I like the beats and jumpy sounds in the song. I would like to make sure my dance-music relationship,

I will use choreographic devices in my video such as; repetition, canon, fragmentation, call & response, different levels, embellishment and change in temp/speed.
I will use a AB Structure in my Dance for Camera.

The AB Structure - Binary - one of the more simplistic structures, like a verse and chorus of a song. A and B need a translation or a link.

Rehearsal Process:

I started by filming empty and rows of chars practicing different angle shots and views. These shots were middle angled shot, behind the shoulder shot, panning shots, high and low angled shots.

Then I created my first motif and played around with how it could be performed using the chairs. Next I taught it to Cherkanah , and got her to do the motif 5 times in the chairs and I filmed it 5 different times from different angles shots.

I did this because when editing my video I want to link the angle shots with the choreography together and this enables me to do that.

After that I added another dancer, Sophie and taught her the first motif, then filmed both of the danger doing it on the chairs with a empty chair next to Cherkanah so that when development the first motif I could add more travelling movement on to it and move the dancers to the next chair along.

I also filmed both dancers doing the same motif movement in the learning zone for a different setting and background. At the moment I am not very sure on that bit of film and will be redoing it because adding into my final video.

Finally I filmed just Sophie doing the motif but filming it from behind her shoulder shot and in front of her using a middle and panning shot.

Then I went home and edited the clips of the choreographic on my MacBook Pro using iMovie.

I added the music over the top of the clips and cut some of them to create jump cuts.

First Draft (2nd March 2015) - 38 Seconds so far:

Review of First Draft Video

What works well?

Choreography - I have used repetition, fragmentation, call & response, different levels, embellishment and change in temp/speed.

Camera Shots/Angles - The video so far is showing a range of camera angles and shots, For example; Low Angle Shot, High Angle Shot, Wide Angle Shot, Embellishing' Shot, Wide Angle' Shot & Over the Shoulder' Angle. I have shown screen shots and examples of these shots below.

Structure - The structure of the choreography and motifs is just an A structure, But for my second/final video will use and show an "ABA" structure.

Music - The music of the video is 'Latch' by Disclosure

What changes are you going to make to improve it?

Choreography - I plan to add more choreography and a different set of motifs. This will help the video move away for the style of "Rosa" and help to show even more camera angles and shots. This will also help with my structure of the video and develop the structure 'ABA' more.

Length - I would like to make the length of my video and little longer .

Camera Shots used in my first draft of my

'Dance for Camera'

'Low Angle' Shot