Filming at Location 1;

Here are a few examples of the footage I have filmed so far at location one, they have not yet been edited or sorted through. The only remaining footage I have left to film is in the Theatre (location 2) which I do not have access to until after the Christmas holiday.
As I have to re-film parts of my Media music video at this location, I may possibly take advantage of the opportunity to re-film or film a few extra dancing scenes so I do not have to do it towards the end of my project.
The scenes I got filmed are the awakening scene, kitchen scene, dancing scene and the first section of the death scene.
I will be editing my footage over the christmas holidays and shall hopefully have some edited footage to upload soon after.

Filming Update;

As I also study Media and am required to film a full music video for a sooner deadline than my short film, I am going to be focussing more time on that project for the time being, however, I am using the same location for both projects so I will be filming my scenes for Location 1 of my short film very soon.

Due to a Performing Arts exam at my college, I am unable to book the college theatre for filming before christmas so I shall be filming at Loaction 2 in approx early/mid february.

Storyboard Location Two;

Storyboard Location One & Animatic;

Black Swan Dance Scene Analysis;

(4.13 - 7.34)

The majority of the shots in this dance scene (White Swan character) focus on showing Nina's (Natalie Portman) face rather than the rest of her body, which is not typically expected of a dance sequence as the majority of movement comes from the dancers feet.
The cinematography of the sequence is heavily based on mid shots of Nina's facial expressions and arm movements. Her expressions have quite a subtle contrast to her body movements; her expression is always poised and focused whereas her motion is far more fluent and flows with the music. I believe this is done to show the personality of the character of the "White Swan", she is calm in appearance yet stern within thought. The first part of the dance shows her being cautious of a male and then slowly giving into his charm, the second half of the scene however shows her dancing in sync with the male but then her body movements become stiffer and much more disciplined as she begins to be drawn into temptation by the black male swan thus leading to her portrayal as the Black Swan.

(9.40 - 12.14)
The camera, although still mainly positioned in a mid-shot, is far less motionless as the first dance scene. The camera continuously tracks back and around the dancers on the stage as the dance becomes more and more abrupt.
Nina's arm movements are much more structured as well as her expression, the dance style has changed with the music playing along side also as her character is now joining "the dark side".

Dance Video Research;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r801idgt0E4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwWvWr96s24&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiJhRjBEm6o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ERSLuUW6SQ

Video - 'Ballet in a Box'

The Director (Daniel Pi) uses a simple but clever technique from the outset of the short film. He has recorded the dancer and then repeated the footage at different areas of the screen, the footage then comes together and creates a layered blur of the dancer as she moves.
The sound and footage are well syncronised as a new instrument is featured, a new piece of footage of the dancer is played.

I am going to use these techniques in aspects of my video. The effect of layering the same footage on top of each other just slightly out of time will help with the 'dream' aspect of my video.
As my short film is called 'A dance of shadow/a dance of light, I want to show a varying depth of reality (between the shadows and the light). I will do this through the use of lighting techniques as demonstrated within the videos featured.

'Ballet in a Box' (1.33) uses the technique of having the dancer behind a white curtain with a spotlight revealing the dancers shadow, I will not use this exact style of shaddowing, however, I will make use of spot lights.

Video - 'Cupidita'

The director (James Dyer) uses varied angles of light to created numerous shadows on a plain back drop. The shadows give off the appearance that there are more than just the two characters danciong within the scene.

As the dances performed tend to be quite complex, the driectors make storng use of close-ups for emotional establishment to the spectator. I will use this technique quite frequently as I want to establish an emotional connection the dancer and the spectator even thought the spectator will probably not fully undertsand what it is like to be the character.

Video - 'Radical Dance Project/ Alone'

Although the video is not footage of Ballet, a very clever technique is used at 1.12 minutes into the video, the dancer stretches out her hand and as he draws her fingers in the camera tracks closer towards her in sync.

Character;

Bethanie Walker - Tam - Protagonist




I chose my friend Beth to play the part of Tam as she is currently a theatrical studies and performing arts student at my college and is currently learning ballet with the college. I have seen her in previous productions and believe she is ideal for the roll.

For my character I wanted her to be portrayed as a very shy, quaint girl with a vivid imagination of achieveing her dreams. I wanted her to be a character which an audience could relate to no matter what they were going through; not with the fact that Tam is deaf, but overcoming troubles no matter what.
I based Tam's character on Nina Sayers (Protagonist in 'Black Swan', 2010) played by Natalie Portman.
A ballet dancer who dreams of being the main dancer in the infamous "Swan Lake" production. Her strive for perfection eventually leads her to be psychotic and she kills herself when she achieves her standing ovation at the end of the performance. I didn't want my character to be portrayed as psychotic but I wanted her to appear to be emotionally challenged due to her illness.
As it is not immediately obvious that Tam has a disability, I wanted my actress to act as though she was deaf herself (she wore ear plug throughout the duration of filming) to allowe for a more realistic experience for the viewer.

This is a short clip of an interview with Natalie Portman (2010) on Black Swan and why her character is how she is.

Soundtrack;

As my film is about a dancer I need a soundtrack which fits to the genre of the dance style, in this case: Ballet.

I have not decided upon my final song as of yet, but I have narrowed it down to a smaller selection.

I searched my own personal music library and the Internet for classical tunes which had previously been composed for ballet or ones I thought fit with my plot.

Choices:
Track: Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday (Piano Version)
Artist: Rika Muranaka
Album: Metal Gear Solid 2 OST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnIUZB3mRgw
Track: Dietro Casa
Artist: Ludovico Einaudi

Track: Colorblind (Instrumental Version)
Artist: Counting Crows
Album: The Desert Life



For my final soundtrack I am going to use 'Can't Say goodbye to Yesterday (Piano Version) as it has the most accurate pace to what I want my film to have. Together with editing, I will try to create the best environment for emotional response withing the audience.
I believe that music is one of the key features that can change the emotional outcome of the film. It can alter the entire feel of a scene and be the main feature that changes the spectator reaction from crying to laughing/angry to calm etc. When I initially came up with the idea for my short film, I could not piece a soundtrack to play along side it so I put my iPod on shuffle in an attempt to find one and I eventually found the tracks listed above. I played the songs over and over with my imagined film in mind and decided that 'Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday' fit most accurately.

Shooting plan;

As my film is going to be silent, except for diegetic music and muffled sounds, I do not require a script of speech, however, I do require a shooting script.

Location 1 - Bedroom

- Shots of bedroom, establishing, realism and verisimilitude.
- Shots of character sleeping, (blurred shots and in focus), getting out of bed and ready.
- Shots of character starting to dance

- Establishing shot of Tam asleep in chair, high angle shot, low lighting
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of iPod on speakers
- Cut Away -
- Close up, high angle of Tams face, low lighting, Tam wakes up and sighs
- Cut Away -
- Extreme close up of Tams eyes, low lighting, Tam looks around room and into camera, focus variable
- Cut Away -
- Long shot, Centre framed, low lighting, Tam sits up and sighs
- Cut Away -
- Close up of Tam, centre framed, Tam sighs loudly and runs fingers through hair
- Cut Away -
- Extreme closeup of Tam's feet, Tam's hand comes into shot from top left of screen and rubs feet
- Cut Away -
- Long shot of Tam sat on chair thinking, framed to the right of the screen, Tam stands up and picks up mug and exits room
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of Tam walking through door way into kitchen
- Cut away -
- Long shot of Tam walking to sink to fill kettle
- Cut Away -
- Close up of tap filling kettle
- Cut Away -
- Low angle shot of Kettle being placed back on stand and turned on
- Cut Away -
- Long shot of hall way, Tam walks into shot from left and exits Kitchen
- Cut Away -
- Mid shot of Tam walking through doorway, camera pans with Tam as she sits down in chair and moves her hands to her feet
- Cut Away -
Extreme close up of Tams feets as she rubs them
- Cut Away -




Location 2 - Theatre

- Closeups of hands, feet, preparing for dance
- Shots of charatcer dancing, possible split screen between dreams and reality
- Lots of lens flares and bright lighting to re inforce illusion
- Switch between bedroom and theatre after she has falled down

Body Style and Movement;

As Ballet has a very strict structure style of choreography with lots of precision and poise, I want to clearly differentiate between the two realities with movement of Tam.
In the real world I want her to be more fluid and free with her movement but still apply discipline, I aim to show this through close up shots of her hand movements and hair/head positioning. However, for the dream scene, I want her movements to be far tighter and precise as she is imagining that she is a professional performing to an audience.
I researched into split dancing styles within Ballet and feel the best example of this is 'Swan Lake' A dance which has both a Black swan and White swan, often played by the same dancer (representing the switch in personality) I chose two clips from the film "Black Swan" (Starring Natalie Portman, 2010) which I feel best portray the difference between two seperate personalities/realities.

White Swan Performance : (4.16 - 5.13)
Black Swan Performance : (11.14 - 11.45)

Props and location;

- Dressing Gown
- Kettle
- Large arm chair
- Mug
- iPod
- Coffee table

Location 1: Real World
I had the image in mind of a large armchair to be used in the establishing scene from the very start of planning and knew that my friend Abi had one in her new house so I asked her if it would be okay to film in her living room and she said yes. Her house is also used for the kitchen scene as well as it had the right amount of space and the mise-en-scene for a kitchen was already in place, therefore verisimilitude was automatically created without use of extra props.

Location 2: Dream World
As the main theme of my short film is the shift between dreams and reality, I felt it necessary to have two locations; one being the dream world and the other being the real world. For the dream world I wanted to portray what the inside of Tam's mind would look like to her (Empty due to extreme focus on dancing) I chose to use the theatre at my college as it has a very large black back drop but also has the set up of a stage to reflect that Tam's dream is dancing on a proper stage instead of her living room. The theatre all has sufficient lighting to be able to adjust the lighting to a spot light, emphasising the focus on Tam.

Costumes;

As my short film is set around a dance environment I will require appropriate costumes, such as leotards and ballet shoes. I want to stick to the traditional style of attire that is associated with Ballet. My actress, although she does do a variety of dance, is not very advanced in Ballet so the choreography will be very basic, therefore through the use of the costume, the audience will be able to recognise she is indeed a Ballet dancer.
I want to keep the outfit the same between the dream and real world to show continuity in performance, however I will change my actresses hair style within the shift; I want her to have a very casual down hairstyle for the real world (to prove she is not professional) and in the dream scene I will place her hair in a tight bun like most professional Ballet dancers do (this will reflect on her dream of being a professional).