Costume Research
As our genre is dance, clothing plays a big part in telling the audience about the characters; their attitudes and status. Clothing can give the audience a real good sense of what this character is in for.
For our opening sequence we have researched about the clothing that dancers wear, and as a dancer myself I can also use personal input for this. We are only using two different types of dace in our opening sequence, Ballet and Street, so these will be targeted in our research.
Form research we have found that, to begin with dancers use to wear their own clothes and not specially designed costumes. In them days it would have been tight corsets and long heavy skirts. But wearing these clothes restricted the movement of the dancers, only allowing them to do simple, executed movements. Also all the different elaborate colours that the dancers use to dress in made it hard for the chorographer to differentiate each person from one another and see clearly what they were doing.
But a woman called Marie Camargo was the first ballet dancer to shorten her skirt. She did this to enable the audience to see her intricate footwork and movements she was performing. This began a revolution in dancewear, restricting dancewear to simple, lightweight, clinging robes. Greek models influenced this so this style also became a fashion, not just for on the stage also street wear.
A costume maker and designer at the Paris Opéra were known to invent tights. This changed dancers freedom, allowing them to move a lot easier and meet a greater technique above what they were previously limited to. This then caught onto all different choreographers and designers. A lot of changes happened with the clothing, but the tightness and movement was still a major element. We found this quote:
"The dress of dancers should always sit close to the shape, and fit perfectly well, that no part of the outline of the figure may be concealed; care being taken that the dress be not so tight as to confine or embarrass any of his movements or attitudes."
Really lets us know how important this dancewear was.
The leotard was then put in place and modern day dancers have stuck with this dancewear.
Most street dancewear throughout the years has consisted of wearing what you like. But grew to a uniform of baggy clothing, But still should keep the same aspects of the ballet uniform of being able to move and easier to meat greater technique.
As a dancer myself I can back up my research.
I have been dancing since I was two years old and my uniform in a ballet lesson has always been consistent, wearing: tights, leotard and a skirt. The uniform I have worn has been mainly made from lycra, as this allows freedom and movement for the body. Also clings to the body allowing the body to be seen. Colours and different styles can change throughout the grades but has always been very neat, tidy and uniformed.
In a Jazz or street lesson we have always been allowed to wear what we like to a certain extent. Clothes that I could move about in, not get hot and be able to stretch in were allowed but otherwise not. In younger grades I would wear dancing outfits made from lyrca but as I have achieved higher grades the uniform that is mostly worn now is joggers, tank top, or any lightweight top and trainers.
Location Research
For our opening sequence we have researched about different locations to suit our genre for filming, we concluded to a studio and the street. Since we thought these two locations would suit our genre (Dance) also location is a main aspect of a film, it sets the mood of the genre and lets you know as an audience what the film might be about and what you will see within the film.
Ballet dancing is normally performed in a studio or on stage, since they need a lot of space to warm up and practise their moves.
Ballet studios normally consist of a big, spaced out room with one side full of mirrors, top to toe and the other side with a bar the full of the room. Studios normally have mirrors so that the dancers can see their reflection, to see whether they are performing to their standards or correctly doing the right choreography. Also a bar is used to do different tasks, such as warming up your muscles, arms and feet, the bar helps them keep steady and hold them up right in a sophisticated position, basically gets you prepared for centre work.
Whereas we got the idea of the street since many American street performers are portrayed to start off in the street since they cant afford the luxuries that ballet dancers might have also where we have researched different Dance opening sequences such as step up + step up 2 etc we realised that it's mostly filmed and based within the streets. This gives the film a more up beat agressive feel and gives us as the audience an impression of the characters and the way they live.
Within the streets, this seems to consist of lamp posts, trash cans, roads, cars, walls, grafitti etc. These are normally featured without street dance films/opening sequences since with those objects you can make sounds, dance round or on top of them or even move them, this gives a more urban feel to the film/opening sequence.
Music Research
I will be investigating music and how it affects or creates motion or certain emotion to a scene in a movie. I will also include different examples from films as evidence.
Music can be defined as an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner. This is a definition off a Google website. But with many people the definition of music can be answered off the top of their heads with their own personal definition, being what music actually means to them and what it does to a person in terms of emotion. Having asked around and looked around on the Internet, there was one particular explanation of music that I liked. This is from the popular DVD ‘Kings Of Comedy’ which featured famous comedians such as Steve Harvey. On it he said ‘When you hear the first hear the song, you just lite up!’ I love this explanation because it explains what music can actually do to a person, emotionally.
There are different genres of music that are played and practiced around the world. Labeling music with genres often do not reflect a specific culture or race but are closely related to styles which often overlap and cause unnecessary controversy. For example, many people think Goths and Emo’s support heavy metal bands and electronic. Many say this type of music is dark and is closely associated with death. This point is arguable, as I personally don’t think so; it’s a person personal preference. The same is with Hip Hop, that it is violent music with no constructive meaning, whereas I think it is poetry, true Hip Hop that is. There are many other genres such as, Classical, Country, Rock, Pop, R’n’B and Soul, Rap and Hip Hop, Reggae, Jazz and Latino to name a few. The few I mentioned are the most popular type of genres of this century, and can also be categorized as mainstream. This point again, is arguable. Mainstream music is overrated songs or albums that receive mass popularity and it is music that you normally listen to on the radio or on the charts, well known by the general public. Mainstream music is often said to be ‘not real music’.
When planning and creating a dance film, the production company hires a specialist in music who will be able to provide the appropriate music for the scenes which will need music or any form of sound. When dance movies are in the production process, majority of them use mainstream music or popular music, as others prefer to call it. Most of the ‘popular music’ is ‘Hip-Hop-y’ or ‘Pop-y’, all of which are dance music genres. This music is appealing to most social group. For example the US and UK hit number one song ‘Low by the US rapper ‘Flo Rida’, was made popular by the hit movie ‘Step Up 2 The Streets’.
This was the first idea we came up with, and we actually really liked it and decided to keep it. The idea was inspired by our characters.
