Frameform

This episode is full of COLOR. Maybe not every color of the rainbow, but do they look very pleasing to the eye. Today’s keyword for this episode will be ‘aesthetic’ which is definitely the first thing that comes to my mind while watching these 3 picks.

Red, yellow, green, blue, and so on can emphasize many different moods. If you’re someone with synesthesia, you absolutely know the feeling of what color does to the brain when you are either listening to music or reading a story. It wasn’t until 1939 when Technicolor perfected the 3 color process making its big debut in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, making it a normal thing having everything we capture and watch in a full color spectrum. Today, color is used in film to heighten the tone of a story. We associate monochromatic colors with dramas and thrillers, while saturated palettes are most often seen in comedies and stylized sets. In post production, color is seriously pushed to the boundaries with its “looks” while going above and beyond with color keying green screens, or perhaps changing the hue of someone’s shirt. When they say to color outside the lines, colorists took that saying to heart.

In this episode we’ll be examining films that demonstrate color that satisfies our eyeballs. We question what the color means to the film and why it works. At the end of the show, Hannah lays down some key tips for correcting and grading films.

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FILMS

FEELINGS (2022) - France

Dir. Charlie Luccini

Featuring Louise Courant

Colorist - Wouam

GOLDFISH (2022) - UK

Director/Choreographer - Charlotte Edmonds

Starring - Aishwarya Raut and Edwin Louis
Color grade - The Mill

Wake (2017) - Canada

Dir. Katherine Macnaughton

Choreography- Ashley Werhun

Color grade - Derek Branscombe

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If you thought we were done with location scout episodes, boy you are incorrect. We still have a few in our back pocket! We’re going into the deep deep forest to ground our roots in what nature has to offer in this episode. 

Let’s be real. Dance films taking place in the woods is a hard production. Most we’ve personally seen or made are not the strongest works. To be honest, forest films have a lot of limitations. To feel totally immersed, you have to take your gear and crew far away from battery supply. Available light and weather is questionable. The dangers of poisonous plants, sharp objects, wildlife, and land preservation are a few other curveballs you may face if you plan to make a film in this environment.

But what is it about the woods that makes it so desirable to shoot in? Is it the feeling of being wild and free? Is it the mystical wonder that creates curiosity? Or is the land a symbol of something way bigger that only history can tell.

We’ll be looking at 3 very different films that highlight the forest with 3 contrasting personalities. They exhibit the forest floor beyond a backdrop, but a character in the space. You definitely need to watch as you listen, or you may miss the feeling mist and fresh air against your face.

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FILMS

Grief (2022) - France

Dir. Max Gozy, Florence Peyrard, Bastien Fiche

Choreographers : Florence Peyrard

Outside In (2011) - Sweden

Dir. Tove Skeidsvoll & Petrus Sjövik

Choreography and Dancing by Tove Skeidsvoll

The Earth Will Come (2017) - Germany

Direction, Camera and Edit by Katelyn Stiles (US Indigenous artist “tribal citizen of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.”)

Dance by Kira Kirsch

Music composed and performed by Barnaby Tree

Music produced by Pebble Music

OTHER MENTIONS

Walking to Birth

In Capsule (Upstate New York, USA) 

COLD CHAIN (FINLAND) 

Bonheur 

Dancinema 2020: Røtter 

Dancinema 2021: OUT OF RUIN (RI, USA)

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Please reach out anytime at [email protected]

You’re probably reading the title of this episode and thinking “site-specific choreography? Aren’t most screendances site-specific?” You are certainly right, listener! You must be a screendance fan!

As you know, site-specific episodes have been a recurring topic on the show. As we’ve segmented the dropped pins over the years, we’ve built an understanding of what the director may be conveying through movement within the landscape. The camera allows dance audiences to go on a journey that they may not be able explore on a live proscenium stage. The beauty of these films is that they push the boundaries of what these spaces can do. Art is experimentation and experimentation allows curiosity to run wild, and yet make all sense with it in the end.

In this episode, we’ll be picking apart the art of creating a site-specific dance film including many questions going from the very start of location scouting– Why do you want to create a film in/on/around this location? What is the significance of this space? What can you create in this space and what are your limitations? How do you want viewers to see and understand this environment? Along with all of that, we drop some useful advice that may help future makers well prepared for their next big film shoot. Press play and find out!

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Check out Studiobinder for all your planning needs!

Crash course on location scouting from the folks at Aputure!

5 week online course from 2014: Site specific dance / choreography Stephan Koplowitz / CalArts

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Got a question? Send us an email! 

Please reach out anytime at [email protected]

In this episode, we are highlighting the wonderful Jennifer Scully-Thurston, also known as Rogue Dancer.  Frameform listeners may already know this friend of the podcast and fellow panelist at last year’s Screendance Symposium. Enjoy this conversation with Scully and Jen Ray including experiences producing  festivals online and in person, creative approaches to curation and the pursuit of solutions instead of obstacles. 
 

Jennifer Scully-Thurston (Scully) is a choreographer, dance filmmaker, curator, journalist, and video installation artist. She is founder and director of FilmFest by Rogue Dancer, a monthly thematic on-line event devoted to dance. She has curated and adjudicated for EnCore: Dance on Film, James River Film Festival, and Screen Dance International.

Her dance films have been featured in Core Dance presents… REEL ART (commission), ADF Movies by Movers, Golden Earth Film Award (Best Female Director 2021), Direct Monthly Online Film Festival (Best Female Director 2019), DepicT! (Special Mention), and numerous other prestigious international festivals. She has been an administrator with Grasshorse (character animation studio), HOU & ATL Core Dance (performance company), and NC Arts in Action (in-school public dance program) and is currently Manager of Studio Programs and Community Engagement at the American Dance Festival.

More about Rogue Dancer: We believe dance exists outside the walls of a proscenium stage.  It can exist in the wild with mischievous playfulness.  A person or organization can create work anywhere that wanders and behaves in unusual ways.  The creation and presentation of Dance Film is a great representation of these ideas.  We are dancers who have gone off grid to create work in our own way, with our own rules.

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Thank you to Scully for being our first ever Frameform Fan and all of the wonderful support and engagement over the years. We are thrilled to share about your dynamic body of work and we’re looking forward to having Frameform be part of ADF’s Movies by Movers this season!

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Listen to Season 3 Screendance Symposium Panel Episode

Watch and Submit to FilmFest By Rogue Dancer

Become a Rogue Dancer Patreon Supporter

American Dance Festival’s Movies By Movers

 

Follow on IG @roguedance @amerdancefest

 

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In this episode, we are highlighting Gabri Christa, a core figure and throughline of Dance Camera West’s events we attended earlier this season. 

“Gabri Christa makes work for stage, screen and everything in between. She hails from the Dutch Caribbean and lives in NYC. Christa is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she teaches Screendance, Composition, Dance in Film lecture course, Contemporary Caribbean Dance and Yoga. She also directs the Movement Lab at Barnard and is the founding director of the social justice screendance festival Moving Body- Moving Image.

Gabri Christa's years of filmmaking, choreographing and teaching, have created a list of filmmakers who have studied and created work with her. A dedicated educator, her focus is on encouraging using what you have, uncovering and trusting your own vision, without letting need for high end equipment stand in your way.”

At DCW, Gabri offered a workshop on single-shot filmmaking that covered important fundamentals of making your creative visions a reality, no matter what your chosen format. Enjoy some clips from the workshop in this episode! 

 

An evening was dedicated to highlighting selected works and she was presented with a much-deserved career achievement award from Dance Camera West. Congratulations!

 

Thank you to Dance Camera West and Kelly Hargraves for inviting Frameform to be part of their 2023 season! We loved attending the festival, highlighting some of your programs, and kicking off our fourth season of the podcast with you.

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Visit Gabri’s website here
Explore Gabri’s films here

Follow on IG @shaolinfilms

Learn more about Moving Body Moving Image Festival here

Follow on IG  @movingbodymovingimage

Follow Dance Camera West

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David Roussève is a renowned choreographer, writer, director and filmmaker, as well as a longtime board member and juror of Dance Camera West. Along with his many accomplishments as a professor at UCLA, and artistic director of the dance theater company REALITY, David has been a dance film practitioner for decades. 

His films, such as Bittersweet & Two Seconds after Laughter, have screened worldwide and he was involved in the UCLA Dance/Media Project, which produced the anthology Envisioning Dance on Film and Video edited by Judy Mitoma.

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Visit David’s website here

Watch the Two Seconds After Laughter Trailer

Follow David Rousséve on IG

Purchase Envisioning Dance on Film and Video edited by Judy Mitoma

Follow Dance Camera West

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This week, Clare speaks with Samantha Shay, a multidisciplinary artist and founder of the international production company Source Material, who is currently in residence at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Samantha outlines her unique path to dance film and shines a light on her research and engagement with Pina Bausch’s work. She also discusses the process (and some funny anecdotes) of the creation of her film Mother Melancholia, a film that approaches patriarchal politics and eco-feminism through an unguarded, unsettlingly beautiful meditation.

Mother Melancholia continues its festival run along with Samantha’s newest work, Romance. This film is another collaboration with dancers from Tanztheater Wuppertal and will premiere at Cinedans in late March. This episode is a part of a series in collaboration with Dance Camera West, featuring interviews with 4 selected filmmakers who were screening at this year’s 2023 fest.

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Watch the Mother Melancholia Trailer

Follow Samantha Shay on IG

Follow Dance Camera West

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Frameform is back in session and we’re kicking the season off with a collaboration! Earlier this year, we joined forces with Dance Camera West, by interviewing 4 selected filmmakers who were screening at this year’s 2023 fest.

First in line, Hannah chats with director/producer Bridget Murnane, celebrating her first feature documentary “Bella,” a biopic championing the life of California’s own, Bella Lewitzky. Murnane discusses her experience tracking, collecting, and building a story from archives, while reflecting her passion for sharing Bella’s life work for art and performance. “Bella” has been quite the success so far this year and is making its rounds in the festival circuit. So be on the lookout for a screening near your neck of the woods– you don’t want to miss this.

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Watch the Bella Trailer

Keep up with the Bella doc and subscribe to the newsletter!

Follow Bridget Murnane and Bella on IG!

Follow Dance Camera West

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*CONTAINS SPOILERS* 

We’ve made it to the annual Beyond Spectacle episode which means our feature presentation today is our last viewing of the year. 

But before we wrap up on season 3 of Frameform, we’re screening Anna Rose Holmer’s 2015 indie feature, “The Fits.” A story taken place outside of Cincinnati, Ohio following 11-year-old Toni, a tomboy who struggles to fit into her new dance troupe while experiencing an epidemic of violent fits amongst the team. As we follow Toni’s day to day routine– boxing with her brother, filling water canteens, and observing the next door dance team, Toni is captivated by the freedom of expression that dance offers outside of boxing. In this film, Holmer’s cast completely features a playbill cast of non-actor dancers from Cincinnati’s Q Kidz Dance Team after discovering their talents on YouTube.

Watch the film before you download this episode, because we’re full of spoilers today.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Screendance Journal Article (Dis/Orientation: Rhythmic Bodies and Corporeal Orature in The Fits)

How Did You Create aDirector/Actress Interview: Coming-of-Age Portrait Through Dance

The Transcendant Gaze

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Thanks to all who have been tuning in all season! We appreciate our audience and your support. If you have any ideas for topics for future episodes, please let us know! We love crowd-sourced recommendations because you too are a part of this ongoing conversation! We’re always available by email at [email protected]

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This week’s episode is dedicated to the life, work and legacy of Simon Fildes who was an international award-winning film-maker, artist, curator and teacher.  This episode features the voices of some of Simon’s many collaborators and colleagues, who share their memories and reflections on both him and his work.

Simon was a pioneer in choreographic approaches to editing and his work with frequent collaborator Katrina McPherson continued to push boundaries and expectations of the hybridization of dance and film. Simon was also a leader in the screendance field, facilitating networks and conversations that connected and inspired artists through both in-person and online initiatives. He worked as a curator for many organizations and  eventually established Screen.dance Scotland which showcased the work of other artists and filmmakers to a global audience.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS:

Ellen Bromberg

Omari “Motion” Carter & Anna Clifford (The Motion Dance Collective)

Robin Gee

Abby Warilow & Lewis Gourlay (Cagoule Dance)

Ben Estabrook

Mitchell Rose

SELECT FILMS:

There is a Place

Dancer: Sang JiJia

Camera: Katrina McPherson

Editor: Simon Fildes

Six Solos

Director/Editor: Simon Fildes

Choreographer: Sang Jijia

Coire Ruadh

Produced and Directed by 

Simon Fildes and Katrina McPherson

BONUS READING:

Repetition, revelation and transformation, the loop in video dance structure.

Screendance Bingo (pdf download)

MUSIC:

Garden Music by Kevin MacLeod | https://incompetech.com/

Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

Creative Commons CC BY 3.0

We would like to thank Simon’s wife Wyn Pottratz for her support of this episode and continuation of Simon’s legacy.

 

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