Holly Probert DFSA Productions

Suzie's Dance film: Suzie's dance film was about her finding friends and finding confidence. she had a desire to film in silhouette which I have wanted to dabble in for a while. she contacted me, knowing how much I love to gaffer, sat me down and spoke to me about her idea. I really loved it and felt that I could be able to assist in bringing that to life. so I signed on as her gaffer for the shoot. I have already researched silhouette lighting so I didn't feel like I had to do that again, she spoke to me about some of her influences for the piece including 'Thought of you' by Ryan Woodward. as well as a couple of silhouette dances, all evident on her blog - suzannebellisio-dfsa.blogspot.com. when arriving on set, we had booked out the three lights, of which we only used two, as well as a gaffer kit. the gaffer kit came in really helpful as I had to remove two sets of barn doors from the lights before using them as they would've got in the way due to needi...

What is EMDR? the reason why I've decided to include this at the end is because I really want to make people aware of what I was trying to show as it is massively important to me. I'm not going to talk too much, but I would like to offer a place to find some helpful videos and links in order to understand more behind the ideas of the therapy and how incredible it really is. but also to make people aware that this is not a miracle therapy and it doesn't always work for everyone. for some it can be more harmful due to its intensity and what it deals with, it can just be inappropriate for some, different therapy effect everyone in different ways, and I just want to give people the chance to make themselves aware of something new.

Conclusion: so I unfortunately can't upload the video right now as I don't have a USB port on my Mac and haven't brought the adaptor yet. But, I think there are things I could've done better, such as sound, I think I could've been more organised but overall I think I did ok on this actually, probably the project I'm second most happy with to date, besides my sound piece. shout out to my incredible crew, theres no way it would've come together without them. im insanely happy with the dancers and dance styles I ended up with, the dancers were incredible and easy to work with, made the shoot very enjoyable. I've enjoyed the experience of finding dancers and choosing a crew, I found it very rewarding to build something by myself from the ground up which I actually felt attached to and was meaningful to me, it has made me feel a bit more confident to try out new crew roles that I haven't previously and has also made me see I can direct. I'm no...

Edit: I looked through all the footage and honestly found it really difficult. I tried to edit some clips together as we tracked in different ways, some Sav decided to track her face, some her feet or torso. but it just looked uncomfortable and unnatural and just did work for me. so instead a choose one clip per dancer as when we were shooting we shot various continuous shots. when I looked at this it just felt more natural and like it was more appropriate. clearly if this were to ever be in an exhibition, I would have each video on its own screen instead of all on one but for the purposes of this presentation it makes more sense to have them laid out like this. the lighting between dancers was incredibly controlled and I have ollie and susie to thank for that because I love how the clips look together. and I love how the tracking looks, Sav really out did herself with this and did an incredible job. I couldn't have achieved such an impressive and aesthetically pleasing film th...

Sound design: I remember when I discussed my ideas with Rosie and Rachel, and they suggested I work with sound design to create a sound scape using elements of each age group to Crete one sound scape for the three videos and just allowing the audience to make connections between the two as they see fit. rather than trying to create three different sound scapes, one per video. I tried creating a sound scape however, I couldn't find something that felt right. it always felt like it didn't work, didn't match up, didn't show what I wanted it to, etc. so I ended up deciding to look at royalty free music. music has always been a huge part of my life and so I decided to use this to reflect the growth in age and how I have developed, as well as the age orders I dealt with in therapy. as I started with the youngest and worked up to now to join the dots together. I also recorded some basic sound effects like breaking plates and breathing to add under the music just to give ...

Saturday 14th of April: today we had a 5 hour rehearsal and shoot with Laura. it went smoothly overall. as well as the routine I also dressed the set with objects that would reflect where I am in life now, so I used photos of myself and my sister. we also added a little at the start of the routine with her sitting on the chair on her phone, again to reflect how I am now. we has some issues with the lenses meaning we couldn't stick to the original shot choice. sav had an idea to track the dancer instead using the 50mm lens creating a closer tracking shot instead. I also feel that the varied movement and speed of the camera tracking reflects the intent of the dance instead of keeping them static for all three. Sunday 15th of April: we started off filming with Mel, we added on a short bit at the start with her as well, with her falling back onto the chair, to reflect a lazy teenager. then we did a couple of run throughs and started filming the same way as with Laura. Sav r...

Mel: Mel has come in to rehearse on the 11/04/18. the rehearsals were easier than expected. we used routines she already knew as a base, and then began to create a mash up of these as well as some transitions between sequences. but overall went very smoothly and we produced a routine we were happy with that flowed nicely. we also started to add in some characterisation to the routine. asking her to look frustrated and act angry like a frustrated teen. after a couple of different tries she nailed it, very happy and looking forward to filming. when compiling this we decided it would work best if we performed it on set to a new song, we tried to find one with an appropriate beat, sav suggested 'Pork soda' by Post Malone which when we tried it, worked perfectly. Keira: keira came to rehearse on the 12/04/18. we did the exact same with her in regards to routine, we chose 'Run the world' by Beyonce, enabling us to have a quick and upbeat routine. when working on charact...

Final choices: People: after auditions/watching the audition tapes, i have finally decided on my contributors. for ages 10 i have chosen 11 year old Keira Ayling, trained in street and break dance with elements of tap, modern and contemporary. for age 14/15 i have chosen Mel Gilbert, age 17, trained in various styles but especially street and break dance. and finally for age 17-present i have chosen Laura Hardie, 17 years old, trained in contemporary, musical theatre and performance based movement. Location: i have decided that for both filming and rehearsing i will be at my home, (address on production pack) in farnham. my reasons for this being because my home will help portray a family environment reflecting my childhood, also it is easier than trying to book a studio. Costume: for Keira i have decided on leggings and a high neck, bright coloured top of some description, keeping her more covered and presenting a more age appropriate, child like appearance. for Mel, i have gone...

so after alot of discussion with rosie and alot of thought i have decided where and how i would like my work to be displayed. i want to have it in a 3x3 grid which each image measuring 20cmx20ccm, with 3cm spaces in between. the reason for this is to visually represent my support network around me, my image will be in the centre and everyone's hand's will be around it in the grid.   honestly im disputing doing it this way because i dont want it to be about me, i want it to be about them because thats the whole point. but i dont see any other way i can accurately portray the message.  also i want to display it in the cafe by the pool tables because that was where i met most of my friend group, we went to farnham college and its where i spent most of my college days and where our friendships grew. so its important to me that i reflect that within the placement of my work. 

evaluation looking back on my series i feel that i could have done better. the images themselves were okay but the lighting could've used a bit of work as editing them into the same colour scale was a huge challenge and honestly didn't quiet happen. but i enjoy the message behind it. i enjoy the fact i've been able to feature my friends in my work.

Edit: after looking through all the images I'd taken, i had settled on these. the reason i chose these is because they are all in focus and the lighting is the most similar between these 11. i know that for my installation i only need 9. so i began editing in photoshop. changing the exposure, temperature, white and shadow balance, in order to get more similar lighting between each photo in my series. after spending the last two days editing these were my results.

shoot day 2: today i re-shot sav, as well as shooting tom, steve, ryan, owen, george.S and nommy, as well as asking Nommy to shoot me. we got loads done today that only thing i struggled with was recreating the same colouring live. so instead i lightly over exposed it and then i plan to edit in photoshop to achieve the same effects as i did in shoot one with all shoot two images. owen's chosen pose was very difficult to shoot. he decided to have his hand out, almost like he was going to give someone a manly hug, where you grab hands and then pull together. it was difficult to position in front of his hand which i found difficult. i showed my images to rosie and she loves the slightly yellow/golden lighting, with the silohette. i personally cant decide which ones i like best so i will probably decide during the edit. here are a couple of my images.

Shoot day one: today i did my first shoot and it went alot better than i thought because i had great help from savina and adelaide. today i shot savina, adelaide, millie, george.N and jared. this image of adelaide really stands out to me, the composition of the image is astetically pleasing to me, it shows her blurred face behind her hand which covers half her face keeping her unnamed yet still revealing some of her individuality unclearly. i love the drawn focus on her hand that i created, as it draws the attention exactly where i want it whilst still leaving more to see. however i also really like the silohette images of the hands because they are more obscure and leave the subject completely unnamed. they also look incredible as ive managed to manipulate the light sources to curve around the hand making it soft (via the use of two soft boxes), and gentle. that is the exact effect i wanted to create because the theme is around a caring and loving network of support, and so i want...

final plan: having now completed my paper work and having spoken to rosie alot about my plans and ideas i have decided to take three different sets of images. one silohette, one in front of the face and one with the hand out to one side. these all have different reasonings behind them which i will go into in the next post with the images. i want to take all 3 to see which ones work out best and how i feel they represent each person. my shoot starts tomorrow, hope it goes well!

one to one with Rosie: So Rosie and I spoke about my first idea "idea one" and she told me to think about it in different ways, leading to ideas 2/3. She then said to go away and make something, because I was thinking about hands, I took that a little literally, she also said instead of a mannequin could I create something to represent me, so I made a literal hand. As in I went to the range, brought clay, and made it. Honestly, it makes a pretty good candle holder. But I was thinking about how I could decorate it, so maybe that can work?

So I started off with a really solid idea. But now I've kind of lost my confidence, I don't really know why I felt like it wasn't enough. Idea 1: take photographs of people holding hands, split the image down the middle, and then mount them on A5, and present them almost like a sculpture. In an octagon with the images facing outward, then a manniquin in the middle (represents me), there will be ribbons connecting each image to another, showing how they support me and how they also support eachother Idea 2: take photographs of peoples possessions instead of hands, hand them from the Ceiling at different levels, connect via string to show that they support themselves and overs, because supporting yourself should come first. My image would be a physical manifestation of my panic. Idea 3: memories. It would be a network of life events that have lead to the finished product. Honestly this idea came from the lecture on Tuesday and something my socioty leader said. It shows ...

Marta Zawadzka "my memories" I found this really abstract image by Marta, she created it to represent the city where she was brought up with her grandparents. She says "there are my roots there is my soul." She says that the painting "is a way to show the wonder of various aspects of existence experiencing joy every day" - the reason it stood out for me is because it's such a lovely and symbolic way to manifest a memory. She is so passionate about her work and her creation. "Paintings are a bridge to my soul", how she speaks about it really grabs me, and I want to create something that makes me feel the same way.

this is my mindmap about what ideas I could use about maps and networks. my attempt to think outside the box. so I started by thinking about what different areas maps and networks could fit into, then thought about what that could include and what it could mean or relate to. its given me some good ideas to start with and I will continue to add and adapt the mindmap depending on where I go from here.