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.