Update on my new screendance piece:

Almost half way there! I have completed filming four of the eight-or-so main scenes for the new piece on adoption, and I could not be more than pleased with the footage that we have gathered thus far. An early thanks to Hope Burghuis, Nicholas Hunderman, Hannah Ferianc, and Eric Rusticus for being awesome movers and for stepping out of the box and playing with a lot of different ideas, as well as doing so in the public arena (for all of the shoots have been filmed out in public spaces which can be very nerve racking)! And thanks to Tyler Ebel, Crystal House, and Tyler VanHouten for being awesome assistants and generous to lend me materials that I need to complete this project! I appreciate each and every single one of you!

So what does this process look like? How do I create a scene?

STEP 1: Generate a Scenario to Explore
Generally as I am doing research for a project (in this case adoption) I begin with some broad concept, usually stated as a question. Here are some examples of questions that were created in during the process for this shoot:
What causes a person to give up/abandon/surrender a child or loved one?
What are the circumstances surrounding those who desire to adopt others into their own family?
What are the mental/emotional/physical/spiritual states of those who are abandoned/adopted?
What is the definition of family, and how does adoption affect that definition?
Once I have some idea of the themes I would like to explore then I move on towards making those big picture ideas more specific.

STEP 2: Develop a Series of Characters
Once I have a solidified idea for the piece, I move towards creating a series of characters that the piece will focus on. These characters are usually abstracted concepts which show (in part) possible answers or reflections of the questions that I started asking during the research phase of development. For instance, lets look at question one above, What causes a person to give up/abandon/surrender a child or loved one? In doing research, I came across several legally acceptable reasons as to why a person might give up their child, or have a child forcefully taken away. These may include:
Financial/Monitary Failure
Medical/Physical Risk
Single Parenting; Male/Female
Abuse/Neglect
Inconvenience/Lacking Maturity

STEP 3: Define Core Characteristics of a Character
At this point in the process, I have to start thinking about how defining characteristics will affect my three major mediums of communication: Choreography, Camera Movement, and Location. Example: Looking at Financial/Monitary Failure (which is the role that I will be playing) I begin to think about ways that I can describe what that means through verbal, physical, and visual terms.
Global/National
Inflation/Exponential
High Intensity/Increasing Pressure
Green
Isolating
All encompassing

STEP 4: Executing the Concept
Choreography: The development of movement vocabulary came from a few different places. I started with the western hand gesture that we often use when talking about money (rubbing the four fingers against the thumb). The second concept came from the idea of having empty pockets and as a result looked at the manipulation of the hip bones (or iliac crest, where the front pants pockets would be located), back of the sacrum (where your back pockets are located, and the left pectoral (which is generally where a shirt pocket would be placed). Using abstracted versions of the hand gestures I have been working on locomoting the body through space by those specific points on the body. To deepen the dynamic qualities of the movement, I often think about the frantic state of chaos that people experience when they are experiencing some sort of financial strain. Muscle tension, extensions of the arms,  and sharp movement qualities all enhance this idea, and becomes the basis for the improvisational score that we use while on the shoot.


This is me improving a score for a friend of mine earlier this year. Anna gave me the words: Lock, Take, and Hide to experiment with. All of this dancing was based off the words given and was created in the moment of the shot being taken. This is how many of my own scenes are created.

Camera Movement: The relationship between the dancer to the camera can be very telling of these ideas as well. For this shoot I plan on starting with a Extreme Wide Shot that will continuously cut closer and closer to the performer during the improvisation. Hopefully, this will cause the viewer to feel more and more claustrophobic as the shots draw closer and closer to the action. It has been my experience, and my observation, that there is a slow but exponential wave of panic that occurs when people are financially strained. It is unsettling, and often a slowly increasing feeling of loss of control.

Location:
The location for each portion of the work again says a lot (hopefully) about the concept of each scene. For this shoot, I am planning on being on a busy street corner during rush hour. The camera will be placed on the adjacent corner, so all of the cross traffic will appear in the shot. The global recession and the disintegration of the American economy will play an active role within this work, represented by the mass of vehicles and public interaction with the scene. This topic of financial/monetary failure directly affects us as a collective... and I desire to show that through the location.

STEP 5: Editing
Obviously I am not to this place yet, however, I am already trying to think of how I will cut each scene into one single and fluid piece. Editing is one of the most fun, but difficult processes within the filming medium. I don't have a lot to say at this point since I'm not there yet, but I love editing!

So, that is a sneak peak into some of my process for this project. It's really hot outside right now, in the high 90's so shooting has slowed down a bit... Actually, yesterday I was in a film shoot for one of my churches dance projects and we shot outside...  very hard. By the end of the sixth or seventh run through I was feeling ill (and so was everyone else), but it went well so... Awesome! I am hoping to shoot my own scene later this weekend if not early this next week, and in the mean time I intend on making phone calls to a few more dancers and scheduling the final scenes. I hopefully will be editing a small trailer from the footage I have thus far so I can better show you what the temperature of this piece will be... But we will see.