Things have changed on the Fields and Frames project. Due to some technical difficulties, I have come up with an alternative. I first did some video with my phone and then played with it in Adobe Premiere.

Fields and Frames

For my Fields and Frames piece, I have decided to do a short video which looks at Minimalism, with inspiration taken from the work of Cy Twombly.

The first step was to do some basic illustrations. Once they were completed, I scanned them and made a video sequence with them using Windows Movie Maker. 

Things have finally moved into Post Production. This involved three stages. The first was the After Effects stage, which involved creating a circular mask around the dancer. The objective of this was to create a sort of 'spot light' effect, as well as to pay homage to the use of the Iris, which was a technique used in silent cinema.

27/03/14

Filming has been completed. We got the equipment from Soho in London and used the Tindle Studio. Here's a still from the shoot:

Post-Production will begin soon.

Now working on Dance Video. I got the idea from a photograph I saw of Mabel Normand.

The Video will be filmed in slow motion using the Sony PMW-F55. For inspiration, I have cited the prologue sequence from Melancholia.

Take Me Along

Another example I found was this vintage commercial directed by Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate). I have also included a basic analysis.

Opens with a shot of the men walking down the aisle to the front desk. They are wearing identical suits and hats. They are similar and boring. Their wives tag along behind them; the men are shown to be dominant and larger in the screen. One of the women says "Can't you take me along" in a soft voice.

We cut to the a shot looking at the men from behind, over the women's shoulders. The men talk back to them in a patronizing sort of way. We are looking at things from the women's point of view: the men are facing their business, rather than back at them.

Suddenly, as the men get their tickets checked, music starts to pipe up. The women sing the song, their dull clothes are replaced by colourful ones. They dance and take over the dominance of the screen. The shot of one of the men going, 'I love you little cutie but the office is my duty', shows the man's face between two of the women.

The women take off the men's hats and throw them. They seems to run rings around the men. The mise-en-scene becomes more colourful and the men and the women start to dance together. The colours are mainly red, white and blue, representing the American dream. They sing together and run down the isle to board their flight, concluding the song.  

Dance Videos

Here are three dfferent kinds of dance videos that I have come across:

The first is more artistic as you will see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxT-v9cxf7g


The second leans more to the commercial side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDeB5sDealI


The third is taken from the film 'Nine', but features an extensive use of dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ML4LD7mVs