14. Test Shoot part 2. 5/12/14

We got off to a great start and the images that were coming out were brilliant, it ran very smoothly. It took me and Rachel a few shots to get used to how each other works. I had to work out when she was jumping and when to press the capture button. Because we had the camera on mirror lock, that meant I could be more accurate with my timing and it would take the picture immediately. I got used to looking at her jumping and seeing the position i wanted for that split second in mid air and capturing the image. See image 1.00 below as an example. 

Image 1.00

This was one of the best images we got over the shoot. The way i directed each jump had to be very specific so i could get what i wanted and Rachel was so cooperative. The lighting had to be very specific so i could get the look i wanted - i wanted shadows and depth on my dancer. Each pose was very strong which was also the look i was after. 

13. Test Shoot 5/12/14

Today was the first test shoot day. I was really nervous in case i had forgotten to ask Rachel to bring anything with her or in case i wasn't prepared enough. 

The breakdown of the day: 

11:50 - i arrive at the studio.

12:00 - I filled out the risk assessment and health + safety forms. We put carpet down underneath the white screen in order for Rachel to have a softer landing as well as prevent her from slipping.

12:10 - Set up projector and tested what it would look like if we projected my images of the pocket watch onto Andy. See image 1.00 below. We found the problem with this was that it created a large shadow in the background and wiped out the majority of the background image. The projector also wasn't strong enough so the image looked rather faded. Image 1.01 shows the other problem we had - motion capture/blur. The shutter speed is too slow to be able to capture the motion and we couldn't use flash as that would wipe out the projector. 

12:30 - Deciding which background we should test and try out to ensure i have plenty options to work with in post production. We decided to shoot the grey/shadowed background, then the white, then the green screen. The grey background settings on medium format camera = Manual. 1/125 ; F7.1 ; ISO 100. Flash beauty dish. See image 1.02. 

12:40 - Then we added in a reflector as it was too dark. See image 1.03. 

The grey backgound = mirror lock, beauty dish at 1/4, shutter - 1/125, Aperture F5.6, ISO 100.

The white background = studio flash with soft box. Full belt. Key light 1/4, back light 1/2.  

13:15 - Rachel arrives in Leeds. We are in the studio waiting for her to get there and talking about the use of the displacement map in photoshop. Blurring background and tying her into the image. Image laid over the top of her to look like she is wrapped in it. We looked at some youtube video clips and i decided that would be a better option for me. This meant we didn't have to do the green screen as we weren't keying anything into the background behind her - i would be cutting her out of the white/grey background anyway. 

13:35 - Rachel arrives and is getting changed. She brought a selection of outfits that i had told her to and i chose the more basic outfit that wasn't as distracting and showed off her limbs more for the image. Her makeup was black which really looked good on the camera. She was in bare feet. I made sure she warmed up before the shoot and was limbered and ready to perform. 

13:55 - Rachel is warmed up and ready to go, she signed her model release form.

Image 1.00

Image 1.01

Image 1.02

Image 1.03

12. Extra ideas

The day before the test shoot i popped into see my tutor and spoke again about the editing stage. He suggested projecting the images onto the dancer of the clock and that would make the editing stage and process more easy. So i went to see the technician and asked whether Andy could bring along the projector to the shoot the following day so we could try it out before the dancer got there. 

This meant that I could safe myself time in post production but also whilst the dancer was there, if i tested it before she got there and it didn't look right then i knew what my other options were and i wouldn't have wasted time with Rachel.

I only had about 2 hours with Rachel which wasn't a lot of time to get the images i wanted. I had the type of positions i wanted her to be in printed out on paper so i could show her. We were in regular contact before the test shoot so she knew what i was after and she knew the type of things i would be asking her to do.  

11. Dance leap ideas

Some images for inspiration and what poses/leaps i would like my dancer to do. Depending on her flexibility we may have to alter some images, but i'm happy that she can pull most of these off. 

10. Update

I spoke with Simon Popple about my project and one area we identified as an issue was the editing stage after the shoot, where i edit in the images of the clock and tie them to my dancer with the chain. 

Issues:

1. Editing the chain to make it look bulky and thick so its wrapped around a part of her body was risky without trailing it and making it look effective - risk it looking cheap and cliche.

2. I took my pocket watch images separately and in order to match the lighting would be difficult in photoshop with the images of my dance in the studio and then the images i took in my flat.

3. I can risk over doing it in photoshop like last year and making my images look grainy - it is a long winded process editing that much of an image and could make the image look cheap.

Solution:

1. Photograph my dancer in front of a green screen and key in the images of my pocket watch.

2. My pocket watch images will still be of a different lighting so i will retake those at the start of the slot in the TV studio before my dancer arrives. This way i can match my lighting with the technician.

3. I can play around more subtly in photoshop to drag out colours and flatten the colour of the skin tones. 

9. Dance Quotes

Time as a strand of the dance medium. Emma Alvarez, Lecturer, England.

p.2. 'does time shape dance or does dance shape its time? Is time in dance comparable to time in the other arts or does it display unique characteristics? What variations of time are introduced by each choreographer? What are the temporal openings specific to choreographed movement?'

p.2. 'Audiences as well as dancers cannot avoid spatial awareness, while temporalities are more easily neglected through inadvertence. Of course, there are means by which time has the capacity to become visible and audible such as rhythmic patterns in the choreography or explicit narratives like the ones in the tradition of the classical ballet, but as we will see, these are limited displays of the more profound involvement of time in dance.' 

p.2. 'A dance piece evolves in a set length of time, and then disappears.' 

p.3. '[...] filmed or videoed dance events not only have made possible a more careful attention to time, but they have also offered dance the possibility to utilise it in new ways. [...] the human body in motion is essentially recognised as the medium.'

p.3, 'In dance performances every movement is followed and preceded by another one, and sequences can only progress into further movements in the future.'

p.3. 'Time, however, is both intrinsic to other dance elements and part of the dance medium. Dance captures time but also creates it.' 

8. More Quotes

Photography, Cinema, Memory: The Crystal Image of Time. David Sutton:

p.36. 'So we have three elements that make up the time of our own identity: duration as the ongoing change, memory as our awareness of duration (the image of duration) and time, and the sense of past, present, and future from which our awareness is created.'

p.39. 'The photograph is often considered timeless, negating time or simply poor in comparison to cinema. Andre Bazin, for example, might have talked of cinema as "change mummified", but photography, for him, "embalms time" itself. Such an approach only considers time as chronology and does not consider the possibility of an image of time that is not based on a sensory-motor schema.'

p.39. 'This is developed by photography, to the extent that "timeless" does not necessarily mean "durationless." This forgotten time of the photograph is given shape once again by Deluze's philosophy of that time, ironically, relegated the photograph to playing a small part in a cinema's technology.'

p.49. 'Time seems to speed up or slow down, with different sensations of time ("other rhythms") competing with each other. The experience is familiar to us all, for instance, as we wait for a kettle to come to the boil, but perhaps more interesting in comparison to the similar experiences of space.' 

p.50. 'The photograph has a distinct contiguity with the time and the place at which it was taken, but its relationship with time is characterised by a powerful, transfixing immobility.'