RES 1: presentation

Coalesce: Dance Video Evaluation

I started this dance video journey with a map leading to one place and ended up in another. I was lucky enough to be able to watch my classmates presentations before completing my own project which was inspiring in terms of the quality of work I should be producing and what to do in situations where things don't exactly go to plan. (In this instance, the rainbow projector was not intense enough to be seen on camera and we did not have the best camera to shoot in low light for the LED rotating bulb)

Yes, I had an initial idea and it was great and I had worked on a routine with my dancer Jayden; but over the Easter break we decided on a complete change of music which meant I wasn't able to direct him in person. We then decided it would be easier if he were to choreograph the dance piece, send me his progress via Snapchat and I would give him the thumbs up or thumbs down.

When we returned, we met up and had a little session where he showed me what he had all together, and we worked together to tweak some small parts here and there to fit in with the new narrative.

Making the cloud was pretty simple, I got the instructions from pinterest and had already purchased the supplies in advance.

Initially I'd put the fairy lights inside the bottle but the glow of them was much more intense if they were stuck on the outside of the bottle so that is what I chose in the end. 

I used pillow stuffing, hot glue and duct tape and the outcome is pictured below.

The shoot day was pretty successful in my opinion, everyone's hands were on deck helping me out. I had TJ and Arturs set up the camera equipment whilst Nina and I set up the softboxes and Jayden rehearsed his routine. Once everything was all set up and we were ready to go, as the director I worked very closely with my camera operator Arturs following my shot list to make sure I got all the shots I needed for post-production. It all ran very smoothly and everyone involved was amazing to work with.

Since I wasn't very confident with Premiere Pro before this, and now I'd say I'm quite confident with using it. I'd say post production was a success because now I know how to tweak the basics to create some of these visual effects I've always wanted to learn how to do and now I can implement these skills in future projects. It also has given me the push I needed to be able to develop my skillset further and I can't wait to learn more.

Overall, throughout this project I feel like I've pushed myself and learnt a lot of skills that I didn't have under my skillset. I had told myself I'd never be able to be organised enough to produce an entire project and I achieved that. I didn't believe I could successfully direct something that people would care to get involved in and I feel I have successfully done that. I had a little bit of confidence with being able to edit the video but the visual elements had strongly relied on the lighting used on the shoot days which didn't end up happening, so I had to learn these skills and "fix it in post". I am pleased with the outcome of the video and this project has given me the push I needed to succeed in future projects.

Coalesce: Dance Video Post Production

I must admit, I really enjoyed editing the footage I gathered on shoot days. As somebody who's always amazed when I see visual effects on screen, I have always wondered "how did they do that?!". The editing process of this video was both a learning curve and so much fun for me. I have done some simple editing in Premiere Pro prior to this project, but I really wanted to make this video look how I envisioned it or at least something close to that.

Having little knowledge of the effects I could use in Premiere Pro, I took to the internet and to the music videos that intrigue me when I watch them. I spent a couple of days just playing around with different effects and seeing how they changed the whole vibe of the video and added character to the narrative which was of course a dream-like state where things seem normal but they're a little weird, different and distorted. From playing around with the effects on Premiere Pro, I really started to understand how they worked and how I could possibly try to replicate some of the visual effects I had seen in The Weeknd's // Party Monster,  Frank Ocean's // Nikes video and also 6Lack's // PRBLMS video.

When I took the rushes from the shoot day into Premiere Pro, I didn't really need to do much organising of the footage because I knew what order we took the shots in and there wasn't that much footage to organise in the first place.

I looked through all the footage and began to add footage into different sequences scene by scene. and organised everything onto my sequence timeline following my narrative. I then colour corrected using the Lumetri Color controls in PP. I did this first so that I could have a foundation down before I started adding my effects to the video, because I wasn't too sure how I was going to do it at the start.


The Effects I added in Premiere Pro

Old VHS Effect

After duplicating my clip twice I used the Arithmetic effect on PP, changed the red, green and blue values and displaced the red value a little bit. 

Trippy Effect

To create this effect, I used the opacity control in the timeline to create the "flashing" effect. I duplicated the clip to change the hue of each different clip. 

Rose Overlay

I wanted to add a very subtle overlay of a Rose and have it spin zoom out of frame so I used keyframes to do that.

Title

I used keyframes to toggle the glow and opacity of the title.

Cloud Overlay

 I had this footage of the cloud flashing within my rushes, so I chose to overlay that above the dancer and then played around with the blending modes, opacity and masks. 

Shrooms

I used the opacity control again to create the flashing effect and used a stock image of a mushroom, overlayed it, changed the blending modes, added a wave warp effect to it.

Foot Spark

Same process as shrooms, except used keyframes to control hue.

Seeing Doubles

Duplicated the clip and used the pin light blending mode and wave warp effect.

Dance Video: Sound Piece Edit

I used audition to put together a sound piece to go with my narrative using Adobe Audition.

Growing up I used to watch Boy Meets World on Disney channel and I always thought the way Cory talked about his girlfriend Topanga was very endearing and the show came to mind when I was looking for dialogue to sample for the audio piece. 

I found some relevant dialogue that I feel fit and worked very well with the narrative and script I'd quickly written up.

After finding my dialogue (and not being the best at Audition) I went on a soundcloud search for music with a creative commons license to use for my video. I'd already manage to find a remix of Chris Brown's Privacy during the pre-production stage due to the choreography being created to that song. 

These are the two songs I took into Audition and played around with the create the final sound piece.

 They're both under the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

I took these songs into Audition and matched it to the dialogue, Fixed up the volume, pitch and speed so that it all sounded smooth together.

I also added a heartbeat sound to the 2nd dialogue because I wanted it to have more feeling in it because of the context of what was being said.

Dance Video: Stock Footage

I went on a search for some stock footage that I could use for the 2nd dialogue of my edit because I  wanted the "memory" feel to it, and I also wanted it to contrast with what the dialogue was saying.

I did find some great stock footage but it didn't quite look right and I had my heart set on using some clips from American Beauty (1999). The main reasoning behind my use of American Beauty was the roses. Roses are a very symbolic and important part of this film and with the development of my idea, roses were also significant in my dance video.

I didn't think I could use clips from American Beauty, however I discovered the "fair dealing" copyright law. Since my dance video was made for non-commercial purposes and I only used a couple of seconds from the film, I believe I am not infringing any copyright laws.

Behind The Scenes

Coalesce: Dance Video Pre-Production

The Idea

"Imagine what it would be like have a trippy dream about the love of your life?"

Coalesce means to combine, to merge, to blend, to join together etc. whatever term you may choose to use.

Flowers are traditionally associated with femininity and womanhood and in this video the flower of choice is the rose. I chose the rose because  as you may know flowers have genders and most of them have both male and female parts, this includes Roses. Coalesce is a combination of some masculine and feminine elements in a way.

In this dance video we'll get to experience the contrast of a man in love's thoughts. We'll listen when he thinks about how much he loves her but then also how much her wants to have sex with her.

The story/script


INT. Scene 1

JAY

[laying down on sofa/bed scrolling through his phone thinking about his girlfriend Rose]

I met this girl when I was 10 years old and she was so beautiful she reminded me of the roses that bloomed in my aunt's backyard. We would wear matching outfits go on these crazy adventures together in the fields behind her house. I remember thinking she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever laid my eyes on, as pretty as her name. Rose.

[Jay accidentally falls asleep, dropping his phone.]

FADE TO BLACK

INT. Scene 2  FADE FROM BLACK

Dramatic transition into the dream.

FADE TO WHITE

Lo-fi hip hop music playing.
 [Jay dances using soft and fluid movement.] BRIGHT SCENE


INT. Scene 3   FADE TO BLACK

EXPLICIT IMAGES/FLASHBACKS of Rose play on screen

JAY

[dreaming about Rose]

I love her. I love her big brown eyes, I love her bright red hair, I love the way she smiles at me when we wake up in the morning, I love her when shes angry at me, I love her when she's sad, I love her in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. I love her when the world is awake and when the world is sleeping. I love everything about her. 

FADE TO BLACK

INT. Scene 3  FADE FROM BLACK

Transitioning from Scene 2, Jay dances to an explicit song due to the flashbacks he just had thinking about all the sexual things he wants to do to her. He completely immerses himself in the environment and just has fun in his little dreamworld. 

JAY

[rapidly wakes up as if his dream were disrupted with a cheeky/cheesy smile on his face]

Visual Inspiration

Frank Ocean - 'Nikes' from DoBeDo Productions on Vimeo.

Moodboard

Advanced Photography: Task 1

Bringing Sunlight/Cloudy shoot into Lightroom

Comparing the colour corrected images

Editing in Photoshop

Playing around with White Balance

left: as shot             right: with white balance

comparing images to choose final

Editing in Photoshop

Adding Copyright info

Creating Collections

Advanced Photography: Task 3

Chiaroscuro

The Final 3

Organising my photos into collections

Selecting and Editing the Final 3