Moving Camera

The camera constitutes another tool for my practices; a tool for documenting and reflecting on the process of my practices, a medium to distil themodalities of instant composition practices, a condition into which I compose instantly as a dancer, operator or editor. Below, I will bring some examples of the videos that I have made dividing them in two categories:

1. The process of video-making through choreographic tools.

2. application of instant composition to different levels of the process of video-making

and accordingly I will make a short reflection on them approaching as a work-in progress and focusing on how they was made, what was the idea behing the video.

A brief reflection on my process

by taking “not knowing” not as condition

to be overcome, surpassed, repressed, or feel anxious about

– but as rigorous method

 to be pursued to its ultimate consequences’

Andre Lepecki

In the context of my research, the state of not-knowing constitutes a main characteristic of the mental state of the dancer who needs to engage with in order to execute instant composition performances. After my camera experimentations, I realized that the quality of not-knowing can be transformed into a powerful, motivating and dynamic quality when a structure and some points/ has been predefined.  Experimenting with the camera, I had a structure before I start shooting, editing or dancing. Sometimes it was more opened and sometimes set. However, the way that I dealt with was dynamic letting surrounding stimulus affect my process. I arrived to the conclusion that the state of not-knowing could be motivating when the starting point of the creative process was known.

The process of experimenting with the camera brought out the quality of playfulness and curiosity on my mental state. The fact that I come from the dance field, and screendance is not my subject area, let me focus on the process, use each ‘accident’ as another material to incorporate in my process without having any expectations for the outcome. Comparing to mental state that I find myself during movement exprerimentation, I realised that the desire for the outcome, the knowledge of different parameters about movement, prevented me of engaging with such qualities. The combination of my studio practices with tools (such as camera, objects) that I don’t have a specific knowledge about them can bring in the surface the quality of playfulness and the aproach of not-knowing as ‘a rigorous method to be pursued to its ultimate cosequences’ (Lepecki, 2010)

Below, there are some more examples of video dance that I have done as part of my research, divided in the already referred categories.

The process of video-making through choreographic tool

‘Hunch’

The process:

I tried to create scores for the movement, the camera, and the editing ; to create a structure that I would follow during the process of shooting. It failed. The process itself created its own path, went into another direction. I followed it and this is the outcome. In the end, I started searching for a balance between following the already defined structure and at the same time, letting stimulus and instant desires affect my process; Organising the space, the time and the movement while at the same time making room for not knowing and for interacting with possible instant stimulus both as performer and editor. It is also ok sometimes to do things that you cannot define.

Not-knowing, the use of failure as a motivating quality, curiosity , the response to the stimulus are some of the ethics and values which penetrated my mental state in the process of editing; ethics which also intersect with the practices of instant composition in dance. In that way, the process of editing the video became a practice into the ethics and values of instant composition.

‘Antarctica’

The process:

This video was made as a response to a poetic score approaching it through a sensorial way. Coming from the field of dance, I used my tools as a dancer and dance maker during the whole process. As a choreographer, I tend to gather my materials based on my research and,in a second level, to compose them. Accordinly, in the process of video-making I didn’t follow a specific storyboard but I defined the context through which the materials would be generated. The read of the score, the process of brainstorming some ideas, and the definition of the condition ( the light, the space, the distance between the camera and the performer) constituted the preparation for the video. During the shooting, the condition that my collaborator and I had defined constituted the base, the structure into which I started taking videos. At the last part of the process, the editing, I started to compose my materials and let themeself speak and create a narrative. It is important the decision of creating a narrative at the moment of editing. Julyen Hamilton argues that:

‘We must learn to see, to grope, not exactly to analyze but look beyond to see how things live together. Look! There is a woman standing in a doorway [...]. Try not to draw conclusions. Look exactly where and how these things live together. And then dance with this technique. It can be very rich.’

The decision of not creating a specific narrative was an attempt of sustaining the state of curiosity and not-knowing during the whole process of video-making. Not arriving to conclusions and not trying to compose a specific end image were the qualities which penetrated the whole process of video-making. Finally, the outcome is delivered in a solid form. However, it can be argued that If I would do the editing again, the outcome would receive another form.

Application of instant composition to the different levels of the process of video-making

‘ROUGHCUT’

Instant Composition in Editting

Here is a video I made where I experiment with the application of instant composition in editting. Below is the score that I activated:

‘A score for choreographing the process of editing’

Build up a dialogue with the used sound/music and let it become the partiture for editing
Create rhythmicality through cutting.



‘I’M WATCHING YOU’

Instant composition for both performer and operator.

Application of the same condition to the camera and the performer.

Process:

• In the video ‘I’m watching you’, camera and performer share the same condition of limited vision. The eyes of the performer and the lens of the camera are both covered. The quality of instant composition was applied in the process of decision making during the shooting.

• The approach of time concering decision-making was instant; a quality which penetrates the practices of instant composition. So, we took an immediate decision exactly before we start filming it.

• My collaborator and I went to the woods with the camera without a set structure of what we would do. We had as a goal to create space for not-knowing and train ourselves on how we interact in a playful and creative way in this context.

KONTA

One-shot as a way to compose the process of shooting instantly.

Process:

• The questions which appear during the shooting of the video ‘Konta’ was: How does the distance of the camera affect the movement of the performer? What is the relationship between the dancer and the operator? What is the role of the camera in this relationship?

• The process of preparation, the state of not-knowing, the quality of experimentation, the constant negotiation of the relationships which are delineated between the camera, the operator and the performer became visible through our decision of making a one-shot video.

‘Falling eye’

Instant composition for the operator

Process:

• In that video, as operator, I tried to embody the quality of falling through the camera, approaching the later as a partner.

• The video was made through one-shot as a way to make visible the flow and the movement of the operator. Moroever, the practices to one-shot video brought out the importance of repetion of one specific action.

Reference:

• Lepecki, A(2010) We’re not ready for the dramaturge: Some notes for dance dramaturgy. In: M. Bellisco, M.G. Cifuentes and A.Ecijca(eds) Rethink dramaturgt. Errancy and Transformation. Murcia, Spain: Centro Parraga, 161-197

• Santos, M. (2015). The Choreographic becoming in classroom contexts: The serendipity in the instant composition of Julyen Hamilton. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304716954  [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].