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[themillieanderson-blog]

My Creative Collaborative Project

Initial ideas and creating “Combined”

When embarking on this project, my group was initially much smaller, consisting of just three members (Victoria, Oliver and myself). After brainstorming, our initial ideas were to create a party themed piece of film like a music video, to show the more fun and social side of dance. However, as we progressed further with the process, we struggled to continue as a three. Our ideas were limited and to create the party atmosphere that we hoped for proved difficult with only three members in the group. It came to our attention that another group was struggling with a similar situation. It seemed ideal at the time to combine groups as many of their goals and ideas were similar to ours. They were focusing on how dancers can often use dance as an escape from what might be going on around them in other aspects of their life. Although the industry can be a competitive and a confidence lowering place, we wanted to focus on the complete opposite side of it and remind ourselves and our audience why we and so many others love it.  Therefore, we joined groups and created “Combined” (Victoria, Oliver, Ben, Adrienne, Rose, Eloise and myself). This immediately appeared to solve our initial problems, helping us to proceed with the flow of creative ideas and also opened up more possibilities due to the larger group. 

 Working as a larger group

It was not difficult to merge the groups as our concepts were very similar and we were able to combine our thoughts and ideas to create a vision for a piece that we were all happy with. The members of the group that we had combined with are all from the musical theatre pathway, and therefore they wished to bring their music skills and knowledge to the piece. Adrianne had been working on an original song that had a similar inspiration and message to our ideas. The song was about having someone or something to pick you up when you are down and, in this instance, we could relate this to our idea of dance being an escape from other issues people may be experiencing in everyday life. We decided to stick with our initial idea of a music video and as a group we decided that we wanted to make the choreography quite hip hop based as the song is very upbeat and pop influenced.

 Creative process and inspiration

In the early stages of developing the piece, we liked to put all our ideas into mind maps and story boards on a big white board. It quickly became clear to us that we wanted three main characters, each with a different issue going on at home and through the story to show how they all come together at the end and are able to escape from their worries and problems for a little while through dance. I thought it would be a good idea to start the video right from the beginning of their day when they wake up, as I know that if I have a worry or concern it is always the first thing I think of as soon as my alarm goes off. We decided to film the three characters in the same house and doing the exact same things as it highlights the fact that they are all experiencing similar situations, and although they are different people, they are not alone in their problems. Using a split screen helped  to emphasise this.  

 To strengthen the idea of dancing being an escape and having a positive influence on people’s life’s we continued to look at the party atmosphere and vibes that we wanted to create. We decided on having a big fun section of choreography (choreographed by Oliver) to the chorus of the song, where everyone comes together to dance, party and have fun. To create the feel-good party atmosphere that we needed, we took inspiration from a few music videos that we believe create a similar feel. These videos were- “Love on Top” by Beyoncé (Beyoncé, 2011) and “It’s My Party” by Jessie J (Jessie J, 2013). Another piece of inspiration that we took was from the quote- “Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you are perfectly free.” (Barks & Moyne, 2012)

This quote comes from a translated poem, originally written in Persian by Rumi. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, and lots of his work has been translated from Persian into many world-wide languages (Awaken, no date)

We took from this that dance could be the answer to all problems and situations that we find our selves in as humans. It might not solve the problem or get you out of a situation, however, it will allow you time to help figure it out or escape from what’s going on, and sometimes that’s all we need.

Before it came to filming, we needed to decide on location and costume. We decided to film the opening scene in a bedroom as the characters wake up, we needed a room that had good natural lighting and after analysing our options, we collectively decided that Ben’s room was most appropriate. We then decided to film the second part in college as it is a place that links everyone together much like our reoccurring theme of dance linking everyone together. Victoria came up with the idea of everyone wearing something denim as it is quite plain, uniformed and would look good as a collective for the party themed section of the video. I also came up with the concept that everyone has and owns something denim, which also helps to convey our theme of everyone having dance to bring us together; it’s something we all have in common. 

Some of our story boards and mind maps from the early development stages:

 Filming difficulties

Prior to this point in our creative process the majority of producing work had run quite smoothly as there had been very little disputes and having a larger group meant we had lots of ideas and skills to work with. However, as we began the filming process, we started to experience difficulties. We planned to film the video in two shoots as we had two main locations. The first part of the video was filmed and edited easily, as we had planned well in advance what date we were filming and who was going to be involved with what. Nevertheless, when we came to film the second part which was the party section where everyone was supposed to be involved in, we experienced difficulties. Some people in the group couldn’t make it at short notice and others didn’t turn up. This was unfortunate for those of us who did turn up as some of us had taken time off work specifically to film. We did arrange the filming date really far in advance so everyone had plenty of notice, but for those of us who were there, we used the time to work on the choreography instead. We then had to delay and film much later in the schedule, which meant that we had less time to film as we had to get it all done it one evening after class.

The initial idea was to shoot some shots outside that day when it was light, however, these had to be cut due to the rescheduling to the evening. This rescheduling also caused difficulties for Rose who was filming and editing the piece, because this meant that she had less time to edit the video the way she had planned to and added extra pressure to her role.

Eloise was unfortunately ill on the day that we filmed the “party” section, and even though she was one of the three main characters in the first section of the video, we made the group decision to go ahead and film without her and I stepped in and played her role in a few shots. The switching of actors did nothing for continuity and will add a little confusion for the viewer. At the time we made the decision, it seemed like the logical thing to do as we wanted to have a finished product on time and had already had one delay. We also had imagined the “party” section to have a lot more dancers than we did. When we advertised that we needed extra dancers, it was probably too short notice as we had little interest from people.

Whilst filming in Arts Depot we were approached by a member of staff who said if we wanted to continue filming, we would have to fill out a form called a ‘Film Permit Application’. We had not considered that this would be necessary, and thankfully they were very relaxed about it but if we had been somewhere else, they may have been much less understanding which would have caused complications. In future, we would have to consider allocating a location manager in future to organise this kind of details, and to avoid complications.

Below is a photo of the Film Permit Application that we had to fill out-

My Contribution

Our project was very much a group project, although a few people fitted in specific roles like Oliver as the choreographer and Rose as the videographer/editor; they had more experience in those roles and it seemed fitting. There was no real leader and no one was overbearing, at times different people took charge if they had an idea and we all allowed each other to voice opinions. We didn’t really distribute strict roles, which was risky but it meant that no one was worried about stepping on each other’s toes and were able to give opinions and ideas about all aspects of the piece. This approach worked well in the end and it really reflected our group name “combined” as it was a combined effort. Personally, I am quite a shy person and would usually take a step back and be scared to contribute ideas and opinions in a group project, however I enjoyed giving an input and building my confidence to have my ideas heard, specifically in the initial ideas and creative process stages of the piece development and also during filming. I believe that although we experienced some difficulties and complications that may have affected the final product, meaning that it is not exactly as we had imagined it, we have created a music video that we are all happy with.

 Message to the audience

We believe that the dance world has a reputation that it can be a very stressful and confidence knocking place, and behind all the glitz and glam there is a brutal side with negative connotations. We want to remind ourselves and the audience that many people use dance as a way of escaping and finding a sense of belonging. We want the audience to understand that dance can act as a support system for people experiencing non-dance related problems in their everyday life. Whether their issues are big or small, it doesn’t matter because dance brings everyone together and although we may not know it, we are all going through similar things under the surface. We are stripping back dance to its routes and presenting the social and enjoyment side.

 Bibliography

Awaken. (No date) Rumi. [Internet] Available from: http://www.awaken.com/2013/02/rumi-2/ [Accessed: 12 March 2019]

 Barks & Moyne. (2012) Dance, when you’re broken open. [Internet] Available from: http://andylal.blogspot.com/2012/06/dance-when-youre-broken-openby-rumi.html [Acessed: 12 March 2019]

 Beyoncé. (2011) Beyoncé- Love on top. [Internet] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc [Accessed: 12 March 2019]

 J, Jessie. (2013) _Jessie J- It’s my Party. _[Internet] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59caVlKNNEQ [Accessed: 12 March 2019]