201MC Professional Experience: Denise Horsley Collaboration (mini)
Duration (of experience): 2 weeks
Within the next coming weeks (February 2017), I will be working with Denise on a short collaborative project. This project will highlight various emotions, through particular body movements. Further utilising the following moving image elements, such as 360VR (possible venture) and stop motion. Thus bringing each particular routine to life within this way, further accompanied by stills reflecting 'muscle', 'tone' and 'feeling'.
As for the inspiration behind this project, Denise herself showed me and studied the following music video, playing close attention to editing, the style of dance and the cinematography of the piece (which I touched on more prominently once I viewed the music video myself).
Another means of inspiration included my collaborators friend/photographer 'Simon Richardson'. A photographer who specialises in movement and dance, with key interests in these fields and more.
One particular page on Simon's page includes his project 'Rhythmic Skin', which is one that I've sought inspiration from (after being introduced to his work by Denise). For me, these pictures which focus on muscle, skin and movement are really raw and captivating. They are even thought provoking and visually engaging, further creating a narrative of identity and bodily love. This is because each movement is pro-annunciated by a particular body muscle, further embossed through the type of lense and also angle, really adding to the final photographs themselves.
[2] Madonna- Celebration (2009 WMG 'Celebration')
Upon starting to take inspiration, from Madonna's music video, I started to capture moving images of Denise along with some stills. Further emphasising on emotion and feeling by encouraging Denise to improvise some routines. This helped me to really capture the raw emotion of 'expressional dance' as it gave me time to film Denise moving from various angles, further merging in 360VR and also moving image (in order to reverse and fast forward in post). One other element which was explored including utilising the 'burst shot' function on my Canon 700D. This helped me to document the whole routine in a few seconds, in order to view images back and forth as a 'moving piece of film, also known as stop motion'.
Upon reflecting thus far on this particular collaboration, I would say that I am very excited to be documenting "feeling and emotion" through dance, with Denise as my subject. This is because she knows her craft inside and out, but is very free flowing in terms of how its distributed and even captured. Thus is further open to utilising modern mediums of technology (i.e 360VR) to really flourish and grow each particular movement.
Artefact Building
Upon looking over all footage, I wanted to start off with recreating some of the images into mini videos (also known as gifs). In order to hone in on movement and craft, in this way.
Example 1: DH Gif
Movement and Motion
Original Images:
Movement & Motion Denise Ballet_1 Denise Ballet_2 Denise Ballet_3
Inspiration board
In terms of our inspiration, I made sure to show Denise some details of an exhibition I was thinking of visiting. The exhibition in particular was being held by a group of second year photography students (@City Arcadia, 1st March 2017), showcasing their work alongside others within the central theme of 'Skin & Bone'. The exhibition (fronted by Georgia Hutchins) brought clear emphasis on skin and tone. Further bringing in emotive triggers to elevate various responses within each image (showcasing a particular body part, highlighting skin and bone). Upon reflection, the exhibition was very well tailored and laid out, as the space was not too big nor too small, providing enough room to walk around each piece of work. Whilst also giving one enough time to process and appreciate each image in due course.
Analysis of Own Images (movement and skin)-AshishP.Photography (credit)
*Inspired by research shown above
Upon creating various shapes, poses and body movements, Denise decided to experiment with various other poses. Further leading me to try out various angles at the same time, in order to see how the movement can be changed through a particular angle, to connote different emotions etc.
What intrigued me about Denise's command for each pose was a facial expressions and key eye for posture. Having been a freelance Ballet teacher for some time, Denise has certainly perfected a craft over the years further developing herself along the way through the students she'd teach/those which she'd take influence from (see Simon Richardson Photography page attached above).
To conclude, having the pleasure of working with Denise the second time round proved even more rewarding than our first collaboration. This is because we really brought together our respective crafts to creative a project which would demonstrate not only our working abilities, but also our passion, dedication and own vision(s) for our respective art forms. I'd definitely say that I'd work on future projects with Denise, as we bring alot of understanding and patience to each of our collaborative projects. Further asking each other about our own art forms. Thus learning about them in more detail and engaging with each one through various forms of media (such as articles, videos etc.)
Finally, I'd say that we really demonstrated our key interest in movement and dance through photography, visual arrangements and discussions (alongside own respective research) as a collaborative. Therefore representing us a dynamic team, as we really worked off each others strengths and inputed our own individuals ideas throughout. Which we either tried or discussed in more detail, adding to our experimental nature as creators of our own crafts. Thus developing professional working practices in a very creatively flowing environment.
Bibliography
[1]. Kikuchi (2017) Rhythmic skin (Simon Richardson © 2017). Available at: http://simonrichardson.org/rhythmic-skin/ (Accessed: 6 February 2017).
[2] Madonna (2009) Madonna - celebration. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTDR6ztcnQ (Accessed: 6 February 2017).In-line Citation:(madonna, 2009)
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