Evaluation

Evaluation

A Short Dance Film "Body & Mind"

I am happy with the outcomes of this whole project and think that it turned out better than I thought, and that it had some interesting research options.  My final out comes are actually very different from the start of my project.  I originally started the project wanting to create a short dance film of a ballet / contemporary dance, from in studio to on location, I researched many different photographers film directors and creative people that have created different dance films and included them at the start of my research.  I know that I would have been able to create a imaginative dance film on location, but for this idea it was the the problems I faced was finding a dancer, and in enough time to actually create a short film.  And because of this problem, its's the reasons why it didn't happen.

Because I was struggling to find the dancers at the right time and I wanted to make sure that I had the dancer/s before I left the shoots too late, I decided to think about something I should have thought about from the start - 'Pole dancing' as the subject, this was actually an interest to me because I have actually previously been to a six week course with Claire's Pole Fitness.  I found it extremely fun and great for the body.  The only reason for opting for this idea instead of just dance is linked to my Major Practical, I have never danced before but have had experience with pole fitness/dance before, because of this I know more about pole fitness than dance.  The option meant that I could construct my dancer even more and know what I want for the film. Once I had this idea in my head I then need to check if it could actually work so the best way was to ask the instructor with is Claire.  She agreed and then that was it, I needed to get the lighting and my home studio ready.

This pole idea gave me so many ideas in ways in which I could capture the body moving round the pole, my initial ideas for this was to show Body Movement and also the 'Body' as an art form on a pole not pole dancing. For shooting purposes, I chose to have a white background so that it creates more of a pure and truthfulness of the overall imagery and film, I also wanted the focusing to stay blurred for the entire film, this caused only a small problem which was that within my first shoots I edited some that were uses and some clips that looked nice.  I knew I wanted it all to be blurred so that there was less of a provocative side to the film, as looked at within my research.

The first films shoot I came away with a lot of clips to sort through but once I had done this and found the best parts i had to edit.  I chose to edit my film on iMovie because, it was the easiest processor I had for film making, I almost downloaded Final Cut Pro, but I figured that I would still be able to create everything I wanted on iMovie.  I placed all separate clips that I had in iMovie and started cutting them down and taking the audio off, and slowing them all down.  My editing process did take me quite a while but once I got used to the software I knew exactly what I was doing.  I had finished the film with all of the clips I had, and had used all of the ideas I had for the film but thought at this point it was too short, I knew I had a problem and needed to resolve it, So I had my model/dancer come to my studio again for the second shoot. The filming went really well this time as I knew exactly what I wanted to add in because the film was already finished and edited, these added clips would literally just have a small edit then added in to the film I had already done. This worked great and I then arrived at my final piece after a lot of time editing until i though it was right.

I like how I have edited and pieced all clips together and how the film has a calm fitness sense to it.  I think that the music gives a very relaxing fitness fell to it, but works because you do not watch it and think about the sexual way at all.  I like to think that I have produced a film that shows exactly what I wanted to show.  I wanted to stay away from a more sexualised side like Susan Meiselas's carnival strippers and julie Cook's Baby Oil and Ice and stay with a calm, concentrated of the 'form' and the 'body Movements'.  The slow motion of the film works towards showing the movements of the body round a pole as the exaggeration, and fits well with the title of 'Body & Mind'.

Overall I am pleased with my outcomes, I produced research leading up to my change in ideas and still worked on the editing towards the ideas I had all along.  I used my research filming examples and used it within my own work and also took the advice of other, looked into the Gazes and why my film would be perceived in different ways.  I do think the 'viewer' would not see as much of a sexual side, but more so look at the moves and the body.

Final Film

Finalising The Final Film

Finalising the film and saving

My Final Film in 97 Stills

Music for my Final Film

This is the music that I chose to have for my final film.  I mentioned earlier about having a composer Frank composing a piece of music for this film but I found I was searching for example music to use and was actually really happy with the music.  I wanted to try it out so I had to cute the songs down.

The actual mix that I found and liked the beginning is a 3 hour mix called 'Chillout Mix 2012 vol2.

The good thing about this film is the fact that the only piece of music that I was using was only the first 3 minutes of the film. So once I had downloaded the film I had to completely crop it down using the trim in quicktime player.

The reason for this music and the reason for a slow chillout mix is because if I chose to have an upbeat fast track then the film would have been seen as more sexualised and thats what I was trying not to show as much. Im happy with this track and think it fits really well with my film. It turns it from maybe being sexualised as a short film to a slower more noticeable as a fitness video.

The Credits / End of Film

Here I have posted several images of the final credits screens that come up after the film has finished. 

Just before the credits come up, the last image of my model blurs and fades to white which then starts onto the credits.  The credits still have music playing right through to the end of the film. 

I chose to use a font and colour that mean you see the text well enough, but is is a soft focusing and in the colour white and grey so it is partially visible.  This is because the whole film is shot out of focus and I wanted the last credit text to create the same effect.  

Here is the print screen below shows the box listing for what type of text transition there is.  I chose to use the 'Vertical Drift' effect because I think that it works really well for being subtly and it doesn't move to quickly.  

I am really happy with the way the images blends out and how many credits there are. 

I wanted to make sure I included everyone that helped in my work and show these people as a thanks at the end of the film.  I am very happy with the final outcomes and think these credits finish off the look of the overall film very nicely. 

Editing Colour - Second Shoot to First Shoot

When I had to do a second shoot for some more moves and more clips to add into my film, I set up the studio to exactly what I can remember with the same lighting set up and settings.  But the colours with the two sets of clips form the first shoot clips to the second shoot clips were a different colour.

The first shoot had some nice whites with a slight pink colour to them where as my second shoot clips came out with a more orangey colour.  this top image below shows the differences between a first shoot clip and the second shoot clip.  The colour is quite obvious and a lot darker and I knew I would have to change this in editing.

First Shoot (left) Second Shoot (right) Colour Differences

Once in iMovie and in the places that I wanted the clips to go in the film I then worked on changing the colours of the second film to get them as close as I could to the first film shoot colours.  Here below shows the two boxes and editing tools that i used.  I started with changing the colour setting to the 'Romantic' Video Effect, which automatically made in lighter but I also changed where the white point was in the film, and added a bit of brightness.  

I didn't want to make it too bright and wanted to keep as close as I could to the original colours of the first shoot and I think I managed to do this perfectly.  Here below shows the two clips again.  The colours are more alike and the same.  It is barely noticeable that they were done of different days with different lighting. I am happy with the editing and I done this and used the same technique above will all of the added new clips from the second shoot and now the film looks good altogether.

First Shoot (left) Second Shoot (right) Colour is now the Same