Dance for Camera - Chandelier

For my piece i really struggled what song i was going to choose and what motif and theme I would use for my piece. After long thought and consideration i decided to chose the song Chandelier by SIA. The reason i chose this was because her original ideology behind the song was of a similar motif that i wanted to portray through dance; this theme was drug and alcohol abuse.

Below is my story board that i used to help me guide me through the dance and the shots. Deciding what camera angles you use is vital because it can connate and dennotate different emotions and can put the audiences into the action but from different perspectives, this can alter the way an audience may respond to a media text.

INSERT STORY BOARD

I wanted to use one shot to create my dance, i wanted to have a feel on continuation. I did this to link with the motif, as the path of destruction (drugs) is a continuous sequence that is hard to break. So by having broken scenes i didn't think this would of been as effective.

Here is my video for my dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5QW8vjCaII

As you can see i have changed the whole exposure of the video this is to change the audiences outlook on it, I want them to feel like they have emerged into the world of this girl, who's mind is running free on drugs.



Strengths and Weaknesses

I felt that the dance and choreography worked well together with the motif. I felt it had been well thought out with lots of choreographic devices involved these included such things as: travel, turn, retrograde, repetition. This helped engage the audiences thought process and keeps there eyes interested, as the human brain likes to watch things repeated.


If I were to do this task again I would do clearer close-up shots of her face where she would be portraying a 'fake image' facial expression, this would help get the emotion and motif of the piece across to the audience. Also this would have boosted the whole piece up to make it more eye-capturing. This could have only occurred with a shot change meaning that it could not be filmed in one continuous shot.


I liked where I set my dance as the perfect ambient lighting was created which made a distorted shadow, which I wanted especially in my short film as I wanted the sense of 2 people in 1 body. 1 personality of this person is the innocent girl the other is the drug invading her mind and bodies system slowing destroying the soul.

Magical Mr Mistoffelees

The dance I chose to choreograph was Magical Mr Mistoffelees I chose this because it's my characters main dance song. I sound this song challenging to choreograph as choreography is not my strongest point. However, by the time the show came around it went very well, and matched in well with the story line, as that was a fear of mine.

In the dance I started it by marking out individual duets and group dances which I felt is the way the dance would work most effectively. The dance began by my character Mr Mistoffelees bringing down Old Deuteronomy as in the story line I have just found him. The others applaud and welcome my presence, this continues whilst duets sing to me. A choreographic device I used here was repetition, the main chunk of the first half is based around acting. This had to be done because it needed to link with the storyline adaptation.

Then all of us go to to the back of the stage and go into there individual group dances, the concept of this dance changed. I started it being a catwalk show to show off my magical creations but that didn't work alongside the Old Deuteronomy storyline so we just made that as a motif to tie in the fashion industry adaptation.

Throughout this song I wanted to have hip-hop elements too it, so when I came down with the boys I choreographed a short sequence of hip-hop movements as this went in with the music change and the personalities of the boys characters. In this part of the song we made out for this short hip-hop stylised part to be a bit like a dance off. Then everyone comes onto the stage and does a dance phrase. The motif of this was magic and mystery.

The strengths and weaknesses from this dance:

The weaknesses and things that could have been improved on was the tightness of the movements and I would further develop the dance off hip-hop part as I felt this needed further rehearsing. Hopefully, by the time the show came it still looked very effective. Also I felt when I was standing at the back of the stage on the staging blocks I felt this was too static, as all we did was stand left and right whilst clicking our fingers. This helped bring atmosphere and played a chorus role, to keep the beat up and energy going. However, I felt this could have been developed.

The strengths I felt were the group dances, they were strong and well executed. As they broke through when each group came to perform which I felt looked visually effective.

Lesson 7th May

Response to Cats script/idea of Fashion concept

The fashion concept worked with cats because each song introduces you to a new character. This meant you could add any concept of character around these songs. However, the lyrics we kept literal as we felt this couldn't be altered, so even though the words in the songs say cats. For example, 'Practical cats, dramatical cats', the lyrics relate to cats but they describe a character. Therefore we chose the fashion industry to link with the musical and each song individually would be adapted to be a character within Deuteronomy Designs Fashion House (the setting of our show, also linked with the script of the show). We linked our how setting to the script as Deuteronomy is a cat within cats, however, in our show she was the head manager of Deuteronomy Designs a fashion magazine company. 

Going forth, another example of a song we adapted to the concept (which we did with all); in the song Rum Tum Tugger, he was a hot model who was competing to be the model for the 'Heaviside Layer' (name of magazine). Another example, Macavity was a character who was another magazine competitor who was trying to steal there fashion ideas for the next season.

 

If I were to continue this musical further artistically I would change the staging and costumes because I didn't think they were visually attracting to the audience, I felt they were too simply done. I would take it further by painting on all the white bits of the staging which covered the stage blocks, I would paint a mac computer on a design, maybe wallpapered certain areas of it so it actually felt like a room and not a stage. I would also have the colour scheme more summer colours than the autumn colours that we used. The change of colour scheme would have enhanced the outfits. 

Professionally, I would improve the sound system used throughout the show, as the music cut out numerous times. However, this did not affect us as actors when that happened we all just continued like nothing had happened and was intentional. Hopefully, this didn't quiver the audiences attention, but this was a strong strength of us as a class of actors. 

Vocationally, this musically made be further develop as an actress, which will help me if I continued musical theatre in further education then for a career. It helped me understand in more depths what goes into creating a musical, the budget and how to get it all set up so that it actually becomes a success. I felt we reached this as a class as we all set targets and goals to reach individually as management parts. For example, a few people would be set on marketing this would involve contacting schools and getting them to buy bulk tickets; this is our main source of profit. I felt this was a strength as we all came together the musical was a success. An example of this is how we almost sold out in each show which is what we predicted for it to be a success. 

Within Cats the Musical, I was trying to improve my dancing skills. For example, learning all of those songs I felt was an achievement as I struggle to remember dances sometimes. In my personal performance I maybe could have been stronger in some of my movements and be sharper with timings. However, I felt that my dancing went really well, and was proud of it. It came across to the audience that I was a confidence dancer as I stayed in character the whole time so if something within my choreography went wrong I would act and it came across to the audience that it was all intentionally. This especially shone through in Magical Mistoffeeles.

I was also trying to achieve to improve my vocals. We were fortunate to have a singing coach come and help us as a class to strengthen our diafram and with her advice and daily tips i felt this helps my voice have a stronger sound and it also helped when i had to dance frantically and sing and the same time. She helped me also with breathe control, this training all paid off when performance day came. In moments of happiness it came across to the audience I was a strong singer who had the ability to reach high notes, and retain them. 

Furthermore, in moments of happiness I felt the choreography should have been more developed upon, which was a weakness on my behalf. However, the simple choreography that was done was portrayed effectively and our concept of the night after effect came across to the audience. Quaxo and Bombalarina were capturing the moment through lyrics and body language with help from the background dancers, helping set an atmosphere.

Going back, to Magical Mistoffelees the concept was that i found Deuteronomy who was lost, and the fashion house desperately needed him to return to his management post as the disaster of Macavity had struck. This came across from to the audience as I felt it was effective that we came emerging from the audience. I found it hard to get across to the audience that I was actually magical, so I decided to not make the dance very literal to the lyrics.