It all started when we were shown Isadora software in one of our lectures. "Complicated", that was my first thought when I saw the layout - manipulating with software, exporting it etc. Since the software does not work on my computer, the only interaction with the software I had was just during lessons and I did not even really want to spend the time with it at home. No matter how much I did not like Isadora, I knew that the time was running out and I will be forced to use it soon anyway. But, firstly, I needed to find and film a dancer.
FILMING
Fortunately I was lucky and quickly found one girl who happened to be a dancer and was willing to come to ICE building and perform for my project. I booked a 25mm Lumix lens for my Panasonic g85 micro 4/3 camera,tripod and decided to - just in case - book some LED panel lights as well. When the date came, I met with my dancer at ICE building where I set up all the equipment and was very happy that I took the lights with me, because the natural light outside the window was changing every minute due to the clouds. I closed the blinds and used LED lights instead. I started measuring the distance between the camera field and dancing space so to keep the dancer in that area I put sticker notes to border the scene area.
After a few rehearsals we were ready to film. I wanted to have more movement in my video so I recorded at least 3 rounds from 3 different angles.
Front angle :
Profile angle: video
Action angle:
In the end of the filming I asked the dancer for original of her dance music so I could begin editing.
EDITING
As always, the first on the list was to separate the video clips and pick the right ones, since I had just 3 angles this process was quick
Step two was putting all these clips together to create just a two minute piece which combined all the angles while the dance sequence remained the same. I used the original music and started cutting videos according to original dance moves following the music. I put all the clips into Premiere Pro at the same time and set a different opacity on each to make it easier for me to cut them in right the order.
It turned out that this process is much harder than I thought because even miniscule time differences during all dances made my work more complicated and putting together the correct movement order took some time. In the end I managed to produce my final piece.
PURE EDITED VIDEO (SOUND - 120 SPEED)
After, I realized that that final piece will be experimental so the right order and editing into themusic was not completely necessary - but at least I had extra editing practice. I started looking for inspiration to provide an idea of the look of my final video. Shortly after the idea started evolving in my head. I like fantasy stories such as the Lord of the Rings or the Witcher and whilst listening to one of the audio books I came up with a fairy-like or mysterious entity dancing to a sort of psychedelic music, as for instance part of some weird ritual or barbaric celebration.
Unfortunately I could not join the trip to London and see the variety of dances so I tried to look through many different styles online. While researching I came across a video which was, I would say, the biggest inspiration for my final piece. I really liked the slow movement and mysterious appearance of the Persian dancer.
Before using Isadora I tried a few effects in Studio Artist, since I had more experiences with this software. I applied a bit of blur with sharpening for some areas and blue tone. These filters were meant to get rid of the sharp camera footage and help to make the person more unnatural and prepare the clip for Isadora.
STUDIO ARTIST EXPORT:
SOUND
The sound needed to match my idea so using the original music was not an option. I did not have too much inspiration with creating my own music so I used the original then used Adobe Audition to make the sound I wanted. The music was more than two minutes long too so I sped up the audio and cut the section I wanted to use. I considered it as the best bit for my work then distorted it with several effects.
Original sound:
Since making it faster affected the pitch too, I fixed it by altering the pitch to the same level as original song. I did not want any lyrics in the song so the music would not be recognizable so I reversed the audio. In the end I applied a chorus to fill more space and amplify - tap slap effect to distort the sound even more and a tin can telephony effect to get a metallic tone of voice.
Final sound:
ISADORA EDITS
When I finally started working on Isadora, I realised the software was easier than I expected. I quickly figured out, how to use it and changed my dislike of it into "I really like this software". As I mentioned previously, my attempt was to create a feeling of a mystical, unnatural entity so I started distorting the image by changing colors, saturation, key hue etc. My first try looked fine but I did not reach my goal and did not export the video.
EXAMPLES:
PLUS EXPLODE EFFECT:
FIRST EXPORT:
SECOND EXPORT:
FINAL ISADORA
Then I came up with the simple idea of using the video invert effect which got me closer to my concept but I needed something more. I chose a red color for the invert effect which made the dancer red and background blue, with a bit of motion blur I finished my first final draft.
I still had a problem with quality export.
Then I played with the color a bit more. I chose more orange tone which created multiple color tones and made it more interesting so I decided to keep it as my first final draft.
FINAL DRAFT 1:
After the first class session where we projected our work, I came up with a new idea so I started working on the second version. This time I put one more video as an over layer to have more movement on the screen. I've kept the same settings for the first one and added just extra shimmer.Then I've set a delay on the second one so the dancer will be not following the first one but it will create the effect of two different entities. In this video, to create more contrast I used city lights effect.
The city lights effect made the entity on the top layer more powerful and the shimmer which I applied on the layer beneath makes the second figure look more like a shadow of the first one. The purpose of it was to bring the feeling of parallel universe where time has no meaning and the output chaos on the screen has made the dancer look even more mysterious. This video I chose to be my final piece of work.
SECOND DRAFT - FINAL VERSION
PROJECTION
Comments