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

Editing Process - Print Screens - 3

after second shoot

The Second Film Shoot

After I had completed the first shoot and had added in all of the clips I had and was able to use, I was left thinking that the film itself was too short, by this point the film was probably around 1 minute long and then the rest were the credits, every time I watched it I thought it needed something a bit more, something bigger, like some better looking moves.

Luckily I had used Claire (my model) in another photo shoot for my major practical and had her in again at a later date for a shoot (today), I was using a black background for todays shoot but quickly changed in over at the end of the shoot to the white and remembered exactly how I had set up the lighting before and managed to do it really quickly and got my model do just so some spinning moves.

By this point in my film, I had already completed the whole film with all the clips I had before, this was just adding sections in my I knew I wanted them ALL to be completely out of focus and blurred as this it the look of the whole film.  I also wanted the moves to spin for longer so that it stretched the film out.

Here are some images of the added film clips. 

• From the first film shoot I narrowed all the movie clips down to 25 
• The 25 were the clips I edited from to find just the blurred sections to use. 
• Once I had all clips used in the film I thought it was too short
• This second shoot went extremely well and I came out with some great clips to add.
• So here for this second shoot I have 10 extra clips to add. 

These will be added to the film asap.  I have already finished the first film and will add these 10 clips, I change the colours so they are exactly the same as the clips before and use the same techniques of changing the speed, audio and reverse if I want to.  I am a lot happier with these clips than some of the ones from the first lot of clips in the first shoot. I am looking forward to adding these too my film. 

My Mixed Media Essay (Only an Extract)

The Male & Female Gaze

In this essay I will examine the concepts of ‘The Male Gaze’ and ‘The Female Gaze’ and use these concepts to understand how dance and pole dance in particular is portrayed and perceived by different gender. There is a focus on the sexually represented side of this throughout time and in the production of films. My own short dance film was performed by an experienced dancer and pole fitness instructor and a range of techniques have been used in the filming of this, especially related to the speed and focus, to try and portray the dancer in a different light, and change perception based on the overriding stereotype. The film changes the focus from the sexuality of the dance to the portrayal of the dancers body and mind into an expressive form of performance art.

Laura Mulvey in the 1970’s began research on the way in which women are represented in film. The concept of the ‘Male Gaze’ was used to explain the representation of females within media. It was thought that because of the majority of filmmakers, producers and other controlling members of the film industry were (heterosexual) male; women were portrayed in a certain way that appealed to them. Therefore the audience was also placed into a ‘masculine’ perspective. The ‘Male Gaze’ objectifies women and makes the male viewer a kind of ‘voyager’ who experiences pleasure from looking at her. The ‘male gaze’ can also have the effect of partially controlling the woman seen in this way, because it convinces them of a certain way that they should look and should be perceived, therefore they may perceive themselves with the same expectation. "Men dream of women. Women dream of themselves being dreamt of. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. [...] Women constantly meet glances which act like mirrors reminding them of how they look or how they should look." (John Berger (1972) ) Mulvey’s view can be dismissed by some as just a feminist opinion but there is clear evidence in the way that men ‘gaze’ upon women through films, adverts, pornography and even the use of the topless page three models in newspapers.   

When a production is presented from a female perspective, reflects female attitudes or is specifically aimed at a female audience, the ‘Female Gaze’ can be used in the representation of men and to meet the expectations of a female audience. It is only relatively recently that men have been portrayed in a sexual way, although often in a way that does not disrespect them or threaten their masculinity. The existence of a fan base for many men considered attractive is possible evidence for the female gaze, as there are women who adore men due to their portrayal in the media designed to put them in a sexual light. Male pole dancers and strippers also now exist that can be objectified in the female gaze. An example of a book using the female gaze to appeal to women is ‘The Beautiful Boy’ by Germaine Greer (2003) which features images of boys through the ages in a controversial display of ‘beauty’. 

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(skipped to a different section)

In the short video created the film has been slowed down to fully appreciate the ‘form’ of the dance. In this way the movement of the body performed in a well practiced and hard trained manner can be clearly seen, even though the body itself is out of focus. In this way the exact body shape, type, clothing and appearance so often critiqued and examined within the male gaze is not the main focus. The elegance and grace displayed along with the hard to attain strength and technique used in this dance are allowed to be more of the focus in the film. Every move is well practiced and thought out and there is much expression and feeling as you would like and expect to see from performance art. However at the end of the film, when the dancer comes into focus, the beauty and details and the ‘male gaze’ look for can start to be seen. This indicated that there may always be this appealing view to men but also that the dancers themselves like to have the appeal and attraction related to the pole dance. In the opinion of photographer Julie Cook in response to a e-mail, “I understand that pole ’fitness’ is very popular but I cannot see how you can ‘take it away’ from the sexual side of pole dancing (or why you would want to).  There will always be a link there as it is part of out culture and as adults we all understand what pole dancing is and where it originates”.  Cook adds, “Nudity or very few clothes semiotically equals sexual desire for most people.  It can still be something beautiful and many commercial pole dancers do aim for this.  By slowing it down you may even make it more sexual”. 

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I wanted to include some of my Essay (20%) as it shows and reads exactly what I think about from my video and the reasons why I worked towards a non sexual aspect of my film.  I was advised to look at the subject of the Gazes and include in my research for my film that I was creating.  I have linked my essay to them same subject and am happy with the discussion of what I think about the gazes. They do have a huge link to my work and the way that people look at my film, as every male and female will look at it in a different way. 

Film Editing Process - Print Screens - 2