Pace the Film
I believe there isn’t a good/bad idea in the world. Whether the idea becomes a good one or a bad one depends on how this idea is expressed. In this project, I am seeking to improve my ability to express an idea in a more professional & attractive way through film language. Therefore instead of creating an original idea then argue with my cooperators, I decide to develop my idea based on the storyboard provided by LSC group.
Original Ideas by LSC dancers
“Hey. So great to be able to be able to work with you. I wasn’t present at the last meeting so I’m sure the other guys will expand... however we’re hoping to create a choreographed piece which involves a time lapse. The hectic pace at which life moves. We had the original idea of condensing 20 mins of filming into a 3/5 min video which involves us moving at an extremely slow pace in contrast to the regular moving pace of people/students around us so that when it’s sped up we will be moving at regular pace and the extras behind become a blur. If that makes any sense”. —-Hannah
“Our idea kind of focused around the idea that things and people move at different speeds. Our main idea was to have someone doing really slow movement whilst those around we're moving in fast forward (like a time lapse). We also talked about potentially filming from many different angles, either with go pros or static cameras. We have some material that we've been inspired by that we'll upload here or put links to because I think that would help - we're quite open to ideas so anything that you feel could add to the project we'd be really grateful for!” —-Christina
From my perspective, there are positive parts and negative parts of this storyboard created by Lydia.
(+):
universal expression of ‘being different’(contrast between fast and slow), which makes the story understandable for most audiences;
(*maybe we can also make big contrast between colors of each folks’ clothes, and also we may consider about the color contrast between clothes and background)
(-):
the story is a bit plain, i may use some scene language to render the film, or/and to use a complicated story timeline to motivate audiences’ curiosity.
Reflection:
Research:
"LONELY" YANIS MARSHALL. DIRECTED BY FERNANDO DE AZEVEDO. MUSIC YAEL NAÏM.
Dance film "Lonely",
by Yanis Marshall,
Recommended by LSC dancers
I watched and studied the dance film recommended by LSC dancers, in order to avoid communication failure between us, due to the completely different ideas.
IDEAs - folks and background
& sound effect
PAINTED
Dance film “PAINTED”
by Duncan McDowall
The deep black makes a great composition with the grey in background. Also because of the use of large aperture(blurred background), the character has hence stood out of the frames.
*we may think about how to compose folks and background together, to create emotional scenes.
*Since we have multiple dancers in Pace project, I think we should experiment the following compositions:
1)dancers in the front wearing black, blurred pedestrians wearing white, whilst the surroundings are colorful;
2)dancers in the front wearing white, blurred pedestrians wearing black, whilst the surroundings are colorful;
3)dancers wearing daily clothes(which are colorful and sundry), whilst surroundings are monochrome. (may be black lab/white lab, or somewhere that is grey)
4)dancers wearing black/white/daily clothes, whilst surroundings are mainly in a single color, for example the whole environment is generally orange.
5)use composition based on common sense, e.g, people wearing pajamas in a factory.(to express the different in pace between different places)
IDEAs-Universal & Expressive body language & Multiple dancers
Dancing in the street: watch the National Youth Dance Company perform in Hull
dance film “HY”
by The National Youth Company
1)The ground sweeping hair-movement is very impactive to an audience, because there is a relationship connected between the dancer and surrounding(*which refer to ground); the contrast between the head shaking leading dancer and the still dancers at the background has also helped to set off the visual strike of the movement of hair.
*i believe the ideas of this contrasting movement can be helpful to choreographing.
2)Montage scenes(switching)in this dance film has definitely improve richness of the audiences’ experiences, this could be useful to create an interesting experience when the story is kind of plain(?).
Montage Scene Study
10 best Montage films in history
by CineFix
Brazilian Childhood Experience | Memorias by Bertie & Ponciano Almeida | Short Film | Random Acts
Memorias
by Bertie & Ponciano Almeida
This is a typical dance film focusing on aesthetic of movement of background, with the use of Montage, it created a dream like scene.
We may apply this sort of scene language to our dance film to show that each person has a different story.
*however, since a dance film is usually focusing more on the movement of dancers, too much information will makes the film chaotic; in our case, I think we are not showing the pass of each character in ‘Pace’, instead we are going to give a closeup shot to each characters’ face or foot or hands or any part of their body; In order to show their unique experience by the comparisons between same body part of different people.
MOVEMENT ON SHOT
SLOW-MOTION, REVERSE, CLOSE-UP SHOTS, etc.
A farmhand has a secret | Untethered by Joe Betteridge | Short Film | Random Acts
by Joe Betteridge
The use of slow-motion, reverse clips, close-up shots, have mixed together and making some simple movement become magical.
but be careful, over use of these technique will make a Chaos.
CHARACTERS DESIGN
These are designed to fit the story, please check Storyboard & Storyline page for details of the story.
shooting angle
To experiment how the expression of different scene angles change audiences' moods, I decided to shoot this dance film in multiple angles and ways.
Due to the complicated scene changes, I decide to use bird view angle to make audiences feel more clear about what's going on in the film.
Things can be improved:
(opinions from audiences film industry and dance industry, and my own)