Contingency Plans for Choreography

In addition to my last blog, I am going to discuss how I am going to have a back up plan in case my original choreography idea does not take.

I have attempted to arrange a meeting with the students who are studying choreography or performing arts. And I have discussed with their teacher as to whether or not they would be able to construct a fresh piece of choreography for my production.

Unfortunately, there would not be enough time to create something so close to the date, which the video will be shown. However, I have decided to film some original pieces of dance work in order to still have choreography being shown. I will be flexible towards this, by picking out bits of dance which might still be able to portray the narrative, which I would like to express.

Also, it has been suggested that a choreographer could in fact improvise on their dance in order to meet the storyline.

Now, I have decided that on the 11th and 12th of March I am going to observe some of the choreography produced by the students who study this aspect. I will then conclude on whether or not I like the dance well enough to use it in my video. I will also think about whether I will use a performer to improvise so that I may film.

As a last resort, I would have to perform the dance myself. However, I do not think that it will go this far. Further more, I should mention that my choice of music has also changed to Bjorks 'Army of Me' Suckerpunch Remix from the Suckerpunch official soundtrack.

Choreography Research

Today I have decided to research different kinds of Choreography, in order to understand how I can ask the performers in my video for what I would like to happen.
My original thought was to base the Dance on a 'Metamorphosis' expression by showing a simulation of Human Development from Birth to Death. This is something I still intend to do, however I needed to research different types of Choreography, which could do this.

Whilst discussing with a tutor about what I would like to produce and what other films I had researched, I promoted my thoughts on how I would produce something surreal, similar to a 1920's movie produced by Salvador Dali as these genres of movie were labelled more 'expressionist' than 'surreal'. My tutor then suggested that I perhaps I should explore the 'German Expressionism' Technique, which was also used during the 1920's.

German Expressionism was a creative movement, conducted by Berlin Expressionists after the first world war. The Germans wanted to stand out among what was well known to be European Cinema and wanted to produce something unique.
They did this by using different techniques whilst filming; using shadowing and brighter lighting, furthermore the actors would move on screen with 'Bio-Mechanical' movement. This introduced a 'Contemporary' style in the world of Cinematography.

This then brought me to the conclusion that I would next research 'Contemporary Choreography' and alongside this I decided to investigate whether or not a Contemporary dance had been choreographed to the song 'Requiem for a Dream'. The video at the top has been an inspiration for ideas on how I would like my dancers to perform.

This is a video, which I have discovered, which combines both contemporary choreography and German expressionism.

Composition Choice Part 2

After giving my composition choice a lot of thought, I have decided I am going to introduce a third track of music to my remix. I have been researching on the website youtube for a piece of piano music, which will fit in with the 'Requiem for a Dream' Remix I am going to do using Audacity.

In the final remixed production, the piano will most likely only be heard in the chorus of the composition. Here you can listen to it to get a feel for how it sounds.

The best way to get an idea of what my 'Classical Dubstep' music will sound like, listen to all three of them.

The electric violin will play for up to 1.06 and then the piano is introduced lightly in the background. The dub-step has no particular timing yet, but I will get to this once I am editing the audio.

Visual Language, Semiotics and Communications (part 2)

Research, will have to be conducted in order for me to create the correct effect I would like to have on the audience to gain the responses that I would like them to have.

Semiotics, will be a major role participating in my film. And in order for me to use them in the right way, I will be purchasing a book to help me further understand how I can use them when planning to produce my project.

As a part of the extended project, it is important that I use more than one source of information. The internet is a very resourceful technique for gathering various information, however books, newspaper articles and film archives are also very useful.

Composition Choice

As a part of my experimental video, I have decided to use a composition for audio in my film.
At first, I was thinking of creating a silent movie, but the more I researched a lot of experimental films there was a lot of music involved, especially in the background.

I had a few ideas of how I wanted the choreography to be and in order for it to be the way I pictured I need a specific type of music for my performers to be able to dance to it.
A few of the songs I had picked didn't really contain a rhythm and I know that this is crucial to have in a composition if a choreography was to be influenced by it.

I had created a playlist on my youtube account of all of the songs I have considered:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMILe0C8DX7pDCLHLLXtNZfHqq5C3nJF&feature=mh_lolz

If you observe the playlist, then you will be able to see the compositions I have considered including.

However, rather than just using one single song I have decided to produce a remix of my favourite two.  A very common experimental method used when it comes to audio production is to remix sounds. You can either record your own primary sounds from scratch or you could even use something that has already been made, but put your own creative twist on it.

The songs I will be attempting to remix are:


This is 'Another World' a dub-step song composed by Obsidia.
Obsidia are electronic/ dub-step/ dub style producers from the UK.

This is a 'Requiem for a Dream' cover by an electric violinist named Kate Chruscicka.
Kate is a soloist violinist from the UK and plays from classical, session to popular music.







If you listen to both songs, there seems to be enough rhythm for a choreography to be influenced by it, particularly the dub-step. I am choosing to remix this with the electric violin music music because I didn't want dub-step to solely be heard through out the whole of the production. Originally I wanted a piece of music that would be more classical and moving to listen to.

My idea for the audio is that I am going to remix the two songs, by playing them at the same time. I am going to import the tracks into an audio editing software named Audacity and will edit the tracks so that they become one song. I will turn up the volume for when it is each tracks chorus and I will make the voice narration much more higher so that it can be heard once the dub-step has been remixed with the electric violin.

Visual Language, Semiotics and Communication (Part 1)

When we watch films, there has to be some kind of interpretation of what we are seeing. Everything we tend to observe, has a form of stimuli causing us to respond in different ways. The responses we have toward our observations can separate us into three different types of people.

• The Dominant (Passive)
• The Negotiated and (Sees both sides)
• The Oppositional. (Believes in the opposite of the information they're receiving, whilst understanding it)

These three types of spectators, were conducted through the 'Audience Response' Theory. But, it is believed that depending on our individual life experiences that this is what shapes us into the type of 'Responder' we are.


Visual Language, Semiotics and Communication within a film is vital. It is absolutely necessary for the Director and the Producers to decide what sort of a response they would like from their audience.

As the Director and the main Producer of 'The Mirror Effect', I will have to research what kind of language I would like to use to create communication between the Film and the Audience.

In forms of response, I would like the audience to come away from the film feeling as though they have experienced something strongly philosophical and perhaps even spirit-motivating. The whole purpose behind producing something experimental and psychological is so that it will be thought provoking. I would like individual viewers to ask themselves 'what did that mean, to ME?' 'what has it made me FEEL?' 'Why was it made like that?'

And maybe, when they ask themselves these kinds of questions they might get the message, which I am trying to put across whilst making their own decisions and opinions of what the Film means to them.

My Extended Projects Proposal & Objectives

In the beginning stages of any production, a proposal must be created in order to allow others to see what it is we are aiming to produce, how we're going to do it and of course why we want to do it.
As part of the Extended Project, we have been asked to create an Artifact (a piece of video art) revolving around anything we wish.

My proposal includes information about what I wish to produce, how I would like to produce it, what I wish to learn, a set of objectives I want to complete and why I have chosen to produce the idea I have specifically picked.

The objectives, which I have specified are:

• To carry out research on background information on visual language, aesthetics, semiotics and communication; since I will be looking at the use of subliminal messaging through film and cognitive responses, which people have to film. I will also research into video editing techniques in order for my video to appear surrealist (very much like my inspiring: Salvador Dali) 
• To conduct primary and secondary research through observation, collecting items and my ideas in the form of a sketchbook journal. 
• To document my developments and the production process of my video in the form of pre-production paperwork and a blog.
• To use relevant references regarding film theory and psychoanalysis.
• To research Gothic style, philosophical characteristics and 17th-18th century fashion (maybe even a Steampunk sense of fashion and materials) 
• To explore different types of music and choreography, to find which will be best suited for my video.