The complete film

Radiant Baby Manifest

by Amy Bevis-Smith is live and available to watch here.

PREMIERE

Author's Note

Radiant Baby Manifest was unveiled to the public earlier this week during the showing of the Choreography and Dance student's FYPs. The complete film had not been viewed by any of my peers (with the exception of the three dancers performing within the film) family or lecturers, so needless to say it was certainly a surprise for those within the audience who had not been informed of the context or given any clue into the style of the film. This was aided by the accompanying programme notes in which I chose to give nothing away by choosing to cite a quote from Haring taken from his interview in Bordeaux magazine (1985), and the address for this blog as if the audience wished to know more about the context of the film they may find every detail online.

This was a nerve-wracking experience personally as this was the moment in which the hard work and effort applied within the making of the film came into fruition.

Prior to the performance the technical rehearsal had not gone so well as the format in which I had exported the film chose not to play within the equipment of the performance theatre. Technical support was called to help fix this problem and various matters with hard-drives and codecs resulted in reconfiguring the entire film! I would especially like to thank Corin Evans-Pritchard and Jon Morgan for their help and patience - as without their help the film may have never been shown. Unfortunately whislt working alongside cameras and computers technological difficulties is to be expected, however as technology continues to develop this may hopefully become a thing of the past.

Once technical difficulties had been overcome the film was premiered to the small audience. I received much positive feedback from fellow dance students with many commenting on the films' uniqueness as this is something (to both their's and my own knowledge) that had never been shown before, and that the production of a dance film is something that they wouldn't know how to go about creating. Hopefully with the help of this blog those who may be uncertain of how a dance film is produced may look to this project and through looking at my process and methods be able to be inspired to create and produce their own film.

RECAPITULATE

As previously stated the editing process into Radiant Baby Manifest has consisted of fine edits of various sections of the choreography.
During further fine editing of these sections it was chosen to explore further ways in which the viewer may be disorientated whilst viewing the film. Taking particular inspiration from Cornered the image was distorted and flipped up-side-down in particular frames, as well as experimentation into reversal of footage was toyed with. Footage was also altered by the speed and duration of playback, however whilst compiling each of these effects alongside sharp-fast moving edits it appeared as though too much for the viewers eye to take on, and although the desired effect of distortion and confusion was apparent, it soon became near impossible to view the choreography itself.
Each of these effects were used within the final film,however were used sparingly in order to enhance but not over shadow the choreography and camera work, as it was not the intention for it to appear as though post-production was used in order to compensate for lack of substance within the choreography.

SHOOT

Throughout the editing process it has become apparent that within the second duet (featuring dancers Anna-Lynn Gregoire and Samantha O'Reilly) that the variety of camera angles lack in comparison to the other sections within the film. The existing footage of this particular section of the choreography is arguably sufficient in order to complete this phrase of the film, however in order to maintain the same level of edit and overall aesthetic in the continuity of the film it is felt that further shooting of this section is required.

EDIT PROCESS

Compiling and editing for the final film Radiant Baby Manifest is underway as choices are being made into the overall aesthetics of the film.
The entire footage to be used has been shot using a Nikon D7000 DSLR, in High Definition (1920x1080, 24fps) in full colour and edited using Adobe Premier Pro CS5.
Sections of the choreography are currently being edited separately; this allows concentration on smaller sections of the film to be applied giving opportunity for fine detailed edits to be applied with ease. Similar filming and editing style is apparent throughout the various sections of choreography creating a cohesive stylised result within the overall viewing of the film.

Throughout a number of the sections of the choreography (six in total) each of the dancers were filmed performing the choreography separately within the space, it is now through the use of the edit they may form together by inter-performer edits where upon each of the editing choices are formed not only by variety in multiple camera angles and set alterations (by adjustment of corner angles), but also of constant variety between each of the three dancers.
This element allows further abstractedness in the film and alludes to the possibility of unity and oneness of the three dancers.

Each clip used within the edit has been altered as so it creates a high contrast black and white image (similar to that seen within Michael Downing's Cornered) which also enables the notion of the dancers becoming an element of the designed space aided by the costume and set design. This enables a clear visual link between the film and the Leibovitz portrait in which the visual inspiration to the film was initiated.

As edit choices are made to sections of the choreography, montages of still images (dancers filmed in a still position as opposed to photographic images) are also being compiled as means for an introduction into the film itself. As these edit choices into the visual element of the film are under-way the audio accompaniment to the video is being edited coincidentally as so the music fits exactly with the edit and pace of the introduction. This is in contrast to the rest of the film in which the video footage is edited in conjunction with the musical accompaniment in the form of Yelle's Safari Disco Club in order to cohesively flow with the music allowing the overall high-energy music and film to make a high impact on the viewer.


Author's Note
Editing and compiling of the film is well under-way, and although this may be a long process it is certainly interesting to see what the tools of post-production has upon viewing the same original footage.

CAPTURING

Due to the completion of the set & costume, filming for the final film is well underway. The filming process itself is relatively straight-forward as each of the various aspects that go into the filming have been planned in advance.

Each section of the choreography is filmed at a time, one dancer per time whilst constantly arranging the camera (& tri-pod) by the according angles needed for particular shots. This was again done using the same method employed during the edit experiment by using a variety  of  camera angles in producing wide shots, and shooting specific close-ups required for particular movements and gestures within the choreography.

Throughout filming the set has been used to re-create the space by re-arranging the angles and corners the four panel form creates, this gives a wide variety and diversity into the general aesthetics of the film and may lead the viewer to feel disorientated by this seemingly endless, constantly morphing space.

Shooting film in this way; one dancer at a time, with many angles and changing space is an extremely long process and where it may not be the most direct form of shooting dance for the camera it allows the choreographer the freedom to explore the use of the camera to portray different elements of the dance and gives many opportunities during the editing process. The time taken during the filming process may have also been cut down through the use of multiple cameras, however as this equipment (in the form of HD filming) has not been readily available - therefore this has not been possible.

Throughout the filming process, with the use of a digital SLR (in which this entire project shall be filmed) the use of adjusting focus, and range in depth of field has been experimented with in order to create a further detailed testing into how the use of the camera may alter the viewing of the dancers within the space; for example through a highly unfocused lens the dancer clothed in the graphic black and white costume against a similarly decorated backdrop may blend into the scenery and appear almost invisible. This ultimately leashes a completely different aesthetic into the film creating a new dimension of the film.

Further filming of the solo section (featuring dancer Emma Gotts) is yet to be filmed, alongside various stills. These stills shall be used throughout the video in order to break any stability and apparent flow within the film which shall result in the viewer unsure of what is to come.

MUSIC

The accompaniment for any dance work is essential not only in the overall viewing of a piece, but also during the creation of the choreography.

When initially choreographing  Junior Vasquez's 'The Artist Speaks' was used as an accompaniment as this was felt to be at the time the perfect soundtrack for the film as not only does the track feature up-tempo  heavy dance/club rhythmic beats, it also featured Haring himself speaking (audio clips from archived interviews etc) layered onto the track creating a further link between the choreography and Haring. 

As the choreography developed and certain sections of the choreography featured slower quirky movements it became apparent that 'The Artist Speaks' although was a great track, lacked in some areas in what was desired as an accompaniment to the movement that was being created. 

It was then that whilst searching through youtube a french band Yelle presented themselves with a strange futuristic sound in the song 'Safari Disco Club'. On listening to the first few bars of the song featuring quirky beats, it was clear that this strange and futuristic sound was the perfect partner to both the movement and overall feel that is intended of the dance film. 

For this particular project the music for the dance had to fit entirely with the concept of an avant-garde, and strange aesthetic it was felt 'Safari Disco Club' did- however it was in fact the instrumental and not lead-singer Yelle's vocals that were desired to be used as the vocals initially were felt to be too distracting.

Unfortunately an instrumental version of this song is not currently available (due to it not officially being released within the U.K.) however with the use of audio editing software chosen beats may be looped and edited in order to fit the choreography perfectly without the use of the vocal melody.
On further listening it is felt that Yelle's french tongue may in fact not distract too greatly a predominantly English speaking audience as they may not read into the lyrics and find meaning within the film during viewing, and may only intrigued into what the lyrics could possibly translate as.

Intrigued into the meaning behind the French lyrics sung within the song research into the English translation revealed that it is in fact a perfect choice for the project as the translation reveals the lyrics themselves do not make particular sense!

Abstract lyrics talk of animals dancing in a disco, poisoned apples and helium may be easily interpreted as hallucinations as a result of drug taking. The surreal lyrics mirror the visual elements of the film in the set, costume and choreography and further adds to the abstract art of the film.

Below is an  English translation of Yelle's lyrics to 'Safari Disco Club':

Verse 1

Can you see me flying away?

From up there I see you dozing off

Hang on to me, It's crazy

What we see from up here, I promise you

Chorus

Animals are dancing in the Safari Disco Club (x4)

Verse 2

I want to try everything, I want to taste,

Know how sinning tastes like

Have a bite of your poisoned apple

I'm fainting cause of helium, it's on

Click to listen to 'Safari Disco Club'

Sources:

• figure1: Anon., 2011. Safari Disco Club (Single cover by Recording Artists Yelle) [Digital image] Available at: <https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/167881_10150125638265639_8906685638_8342470_1222251_n.jpg>  [Accessed 22 February 2011] 
• lyrics for Safari Disco Club: Talesy, 2011. Safari Disco Club, Yelle: French- English. [Online] Availble at: <http://lyricstranslate.com/en/safari-disco-club-safari-disco-club.html> [accessed 22 February 2011]