Video Tips: Documenting Your Work
by LINDSAY GAUTHIER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AT RAPT PRODUCTIONS
1. Communicate with your videographer. Let them know what specific preferences you have. The more they know, the bet- ter equipped they are to meet your needs. If there is anything out of the ordinary or unexpected in your performance, like dancers entering the audience, let your videographer know ahead of time so they can plan for it and make better decisions. 2. Think about camera placement . For instance, if the theater has a steep rake, a camera placed in the back row will be looking down onto the dance. This tends to create short bodies and a flat dance. A camera that is close will give the most dynamic and pleasing image, but it may not be wide enough to capture the whole stage. Maybe something in the middle is preferable. It is best to consider how you want to utilize your video in the end,
6. Cameras can also have a hard time with extremely contrasting light, either under- exposing dark areas or over exposing bright areas . For instance, if you design a scene with a dancer in a spotlight in conjunction with other important danc- ers in semi darkness the contrast will be more extreme on the camera than it is to your eyes. Try balancing the contrast a bit more in these scenes so the camera can capture all of the dancers. 7. Negotiate with your videographer ahead of time to receive the raw files of your video footage and plan to store them properly. Highly compressed videos (like dvds) don’t make a good archival for- mat. Ask for raw or high quality copies of your footage, and keep two copies of your video files in two different locations. This is the best way to make sure your archives are preserved and safe.
8. Video documentation of your work is important. Translating the energy of a live performance to a 2D video is chal- lenging. Quality video documentation can make the camera disappear and the dance really come through. Having quality video can be the deciding factor in how an out- side grant panel or presenter thinks about your work. Grant panels need to feel the work, not just see the work from a dis- tance. So don’t sacrifice your video docu- mentation. If done well, it can provide untold awards. RAPT PRODUCTIONS has been filming dance in the Bay Area for over two decades. Their mission is to empower companies, arts organizations, and edu- cational institutions to best enhance and promote their work through compelling media content. Ar- tistic Director, Lindsay Gauthier, is a retired dancer and choreographer turned filmmaker who has been filming dance for over eleven years, working with companies such as the San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. She also directs, produces, and edits dance films, promotional films, and documenta- ries. Her dance films have screened nationally and internationally, including in New York, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. Gauthier is also the Creative Producer of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival's Co-Laboratory project, in which she guides and facilitates collaborations between professional filmmakers and professional dance choreographers to make short dance films. Lindsay Gauthier and Rapt Productions are dedicated to supporting the Bay Area dance community through archival, cre- ative, and promotional dance video creation. MAKING DANCES THAT MATTER: Resources for Community Creativity By ANNA HALPRIN WITH RACHEL KAPLAN Anna Halprin, teacher, artist, healer, and friend, has created ground-breaking dances with people all over the world; and she has lovingly defied traditional notions of dance, “Anna has extended its boundaries to address social issues, build community, foster both physical and emotional healing, and connect people to nature." The aptly titled Making Dances That Matter , provides a forum for Halprin, and co-author Rachel Kaplan, to present her philosophy, and experience, that foster individual and group well-being. The book provides a guide to Halprin's celebrated Planetary Dance. For 39 years the Planetary Dance has promoted peace among people and peace with the Earth. Open to everyone, it has been per- formed in more than 50 countries. In 1995 more than 400 participants joined Halprin in a Planetary Dance in Berlin commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Potsdam Agreements, at the end of World War II. More recently, she took the Planetary Dance to Israel, bringing together Israelis and Palestinians. Throughout this book Halprin shows dance as a powerful tool for healing, learning and mobilizing change. Anna Halprin founded the groundbreaking San Francisco Dancers Workshop in 1955 and the Tamalpa Institute in 1978 with her daughter Daria Halprin. She is the author of several books including Moving Toward Life , published by Wesleyan University Press in 1995. Rachel Kaplan is a psychotherapist specializing in somatic healing. Wesleyan University Press, 2019 BOOK H I GH L I GH T
and then make your decisions for camera placement accordingly. 3. Reserve a place for your videographer before you sell tickets. This way you won’t be forced to give them an unpleasing angle of view. 4. Try to avoid black costumes on black backgrounds. This can lead to dancers’ bodies disappearing into their environment. 5. Provide enough light for the camera to capture the dance well. Sometimes we design dark lighting to create a mood for our audience . It’s great for the live expe- rience, and yet dark lighting can make it hard for the camera to capture a clear image. If you know you have a dark lighting design, try bumping up the lights a bit during the performance that will be filmed.
Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers
My only hope, is in your eyes. —GUILLERMO GOMEZ PEÑA
In the next few weeks, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers or FLACC for short, will be back on stage presenting “ Bridges & Bones, Puentes Y Huesos . Liz Boubion, along with Juan Adalpe Muños and a few other brave souls have kept this platform running, in what most certainly can be called a labor of love. I have witnessed the festival’s development from the start; “To elevate Bay Area Latino/a/x choreographers out of isola- tion and into a supported arena by encouraging a culture of shared support through processes, as well as engaging with established artists, and artist centered resources.” As a recovering curator/presenter in San Francisco (insert canned laughter here), I know this is no small task. Their commitment endures, and this year they feature 15 Latinx choreographers from across the U.S. with the intention of confronting ideas of borders and walls while sharing the weight of their collective bridge building. This festival was designed as an international collabora- tive effort. Now, six years later, and with almost a half- dozen partners across San Francisco and Berkeley, FLACC has grown to be a platform where the already existing presence of deeply rooted Latinx performance artists are supported. In this modest span of time, it has featured over 50 Bay Area Latinx performance makers while hosting artist discussions, panels, lectures, and master movement classes. FLACC holds space for those that mean to explore performance art with a Latinx lense, a succinct interroga- tion from both artists and audiences. flaccdanza.org —Ernesto Sopprani
Photo of Gizeh Muniz by Adrian Flores Peraza
Located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mills College offers BA, MA, and MFA degrees in dance. Expand every dimension of your art through: • Choreography • Theory • Pedagogy • Technology • Performance GRADUATE FACULTY Kara Davis Robert Moses Sonya Delwaide Ann Murphy Molissa Fenley Sheldon Smith Cicely Hart, DPT Victor Talmadge thinking bodies moving minds
MAKE A STATEMENT.
www.mills.edu/dance
In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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