Final dance self evaluation

After feedback from my first draft I was able to take each point for development into consideration when I constructed my final film, although the location would stay the same I ensured I made the dancing and atmosphere very different, whilst still keeping parallel to the stimulus.

The set/mise en scene

Was based in my garage much like the original as it showed a sense of loneliness with the cold flooring and the timeless still objects.

Boxes, equitment, bikes, bins, normal garage stuff was placed around, but unlike my first draft these were more different to see and had less of a status.

The lighting

My first draft had a lot of high contrast lighting which didn't give one specific object any status not many the dance very visually impacting, so this time I make the risky decision to the only lights coming from a set of bright spotlight bike lights, the spotlight aspect to them reflected the stimulus of feeling claustrophobic.

The lights would vary in each shot to ensure the shadow of the camera man could not be seen and that not 'too' much light was on the dancer. Not every light was on at any one time.

Camera

Being a camera orientated unit, I decided to work more on the angles and shots rather than the actual dance as any movement could be interrupted as dance depending on the supporting camera angle.

To show the stimulus I used lots of close up shots and tracking shots to allow the audience to understand and relate to the dancer/themes.

Sounds/Music

Most of the sound in the filming was non-diagetic, such as the music, as having zero noise by the actual dancer assisted in the stimulus.

Although towards the end when the dancer steps out of the dark garage and into a much more open world the sound of his feet on the stones can be held, diagetically, allowing the audience to understand he is now free and can finally be heard.

Editing

I used editing to make the dance more visually impacting, I did this by adding jump cuts from movements to show a change in time, montages and it allowed me to make the dancing linear although the clips were not in order editing enabled me to show them in a different order whilst they still looked in time.

The dance

Aspects of the dance were just small movements, a few rolls and the use of levels, such so they could support the camera shots.

Stimulus

My stimulus stayed the same from the first draft as it was not only interesting but a challenging stimulus.

Narrative structure

One point of improvement was the use of an actual story going on in the dance, and showing character development, I showed this by the garage door opening at the end to reveal he is finally free from his fear or tight, close spaces.

Choreographic devices

Although less choreographic devices were used in comparison to the first draft I still included a variety, such as repetition through levels and spins, retrograde to show the never ending cycling of trying to get free but being brought back down by fear and tempo, some movements were fast and others were slow.