The TreatmentPER007-1 Applied Choreography: Dance and Innovation

Dr Louise Douse

Stream-of-consciousness writing task

• Keep your hand moving. (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.)

• Don’t cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.)

• Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)

• Lose control.

• Don’t think. Don’t get logical.

• Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.)

(Goldberg, 2005, pp. 10-11)

University of Bedfordshire 2

Have a clear intention

• Starting points

• Another work of art

• Movement idea

• Camera/editing technique

• Location

• Issues/concerns

• Theme/narrative/formal/visual/aural

University of Bedfordshire 3

Ideas

• Themes• Emotional• Experiential (speed/transformation/flight)• Symbolic (love/one against many)• Physical (water/earth/gravity)• Action (gesture/climbing/running/falling)

• Stories• From the world around you• Fairy tales• Historical events/lives• Own experience• Imagination

• Formal/Abstract• Technical framework (camera in motion/speed on screen)• Restrictions (body parts/continuous zoom/looping and repetition)

University of Bedfordshire 4

Ideas

• Visual• Location• Object• Clothing• Colours

• Aural• Music/narrative• Sound/image

University of Bedfordshire 5

Suggestions

• Ideas

• A twisted shoulder, a head thrown back, a look to the side

• If my footsteps follow yours, do we make a path?

• Titles

• The body as landscape

• “A series of coincidences”

• Reflection/refraction

• Collision course

• ‘The life of objects

• Fractured view

University of Bedfordshire 6

Developing your idea

• Who/what are the people/objects on screen?

• What are they doing?

• Why are they doing it?

• Where are they?

• What are they wearing?

University of Bedfordshire 7

Treatment

• Writing down your ideas for clarity

• Audience

• Research – historical events/accuracy

• Original

• Honest – don’t be afraid to be different

• Intelligent not obscure

• Succinct

• Who, what, why, where, clothing

• Approach to soundtrack?

University of Bedfordshire 8

Treatment

• A concise expression of the core idea

• A description of the look and atmosphere of the work

• Idea of structure

• Description of soundtrack

• 200-400 words

University of Bedfordshire 9

Task

• Collect visual stimuli

• Pinterest pin board

• Look through the lens

• Use your camera phone!

University of Bedfordshire 10

Next Workshop

University of Bedfordshire 11

Teaching week 6Calendar week 46Week beginning Monday 10th November

Workshop 1:Constructing the Frame & Choreographing the Camera

McPherson, K. (2006) ‘Dance and the camera,’ in Making video dance: a step-by-step guide to creating dance for the screen. London: Routledge, pp. 23-40.