Closed Door, Open Window

This is a dance paper that I had to write for one of my classes and had a blast writing so I wanted to share. I had to come up with some sort of dance for film short story line and write the paper in the view point of the Director, Editor, or Choreographer... I chose to be the Director! :)

I know it's forever long but it is a lot of fun to read!

-If you are sitting at work bored (Ally)

-or your children are taking a nap and you aren't cleaning the house and have a few minutes (Deanna and Dawn)

please read it and give me your feed back. I think it would be a lot of fun to figure out and to actually make into a movie! :) enjoy!

(since I know you are the only ones that even look at my blog anymore. haha)

I am the director in this filming project. I have wanted to pull together a great team and make this whole dream of mine come to life for a while now. I have recently been given this amazing opportunity to have half of our production funded. Finding who I have wanted as my choreographer and editor has been a breeze. The individuals I have selected are not only available, they are on board and totally stoked for this project. In my opinion, I have chosen two of the finest artists to work with on this wonderful film. I am meeting with them later to collaborate with them and let them know the ideas that have been going on in my head. I am really excited for the process this will take and being able to watch it bloom.

My first order of business is familiarizing them with my story and ideas, and then getting started on the first scene. This show will be called “Closed Door, Open Window” The story is this:

A young girl named Brooke is trying to pursue her dream as an artist. She didn’t come to this conclusion until she was older. While expressing her new found ambition to others, she began to notice their hesitation in supporting her. They told her she would not be able to catch up or succeed since she had started so late. With this, she decided to try anyway, determined that she would be the one to change the stereotypes and to change the way people thought. She began training very hard, taking classes any chance she could. Teaching her mind the way of the brush and the way of the art. As she continued she realized that she had a hidden talent that was in her all along. She fell in love with her new found hobby. She was able to sit and paint for hours, looking at the blank canvas and having her mind create the picture for her. With each brush stoke it was as if the brush knew where to go, which color to use, and where to finish. As she aged she had become very well known and her work was wanted all over. Her story inspired people not to let anyone tell them what they could not do. Her last work of art she ever created was of herself as a young adult beginning to discover herself and the person she would become.

This is not a typical dance film. I wanted to go at it with a different eye. I wanted to bring together two different forms of art and combine them. The whole story will be told through the dancing and camera angles rather than people talking and conversing with one another. The one scene I would like to start with is when Brooke actually realizes she is an artist at heart.

She will be standing in a studio staring at a blank canvas (wide angle shot, making her seem as if the room and task at hand are bigger than she will ever be). At first she is timid stepping away from the canvas (begin to slowly zoom in). She has no idea what to create, and she worries that she is not good enough. She’s also concerned that people will judge her work, and their preconceptions about her not having any talent will be right (at this point it should just be Brooke and the canvas shooting from the left side as she is feeling this torment). She feels it would be better for her not to try at all, thinking that the blank canvas (shot of just canvas) itself would be better off blank than full of scribbles. (Back to wide angle shot of the whole room and her in it as she walks away) As she starts to walk away she remembers all the times people told her she couldn’t do it (Front angle of her with the canvas out of focus in the background). This reminds her of her childhood, and the memories she has tried to force out of her head. One’s of her mother telling her she was no good. Her father reminding her of her faults. She remembers the promise she made to herself that she would be the boss of her life and no one could stop her from achieving her goals. She takes a deep breath. Turns back to the canvas (canvas is now in focus and the back of her head is out of focus). (Both her and the canvas are in focus and angle is shot behind her right shoulder). She sits on the studio chair, picks up the brush (Frontal view just of her torso and face), and as she is about to dip her spotless brush in the bright yellow paint, she hesitates and closes her eyes. She tries to envision exactly what her picture will look like.

As if in her mind I want the first shot to be black and then as you can tell she is imagining the canvas I want it to go white. At first just a drip of yellow is visible on the plain white canvas. Then as she is letting her guard down she begins to work her magic.

Rather than having it be actual paint I want the colors and figures she is drawing to be the dancers. So the movement will be timid in the beginning just one dancer with all white and just a yellow speck on the costume (mostly just the yellow in the shot, not letting anyone know that it is an actual person, just paint). With each stoke of that same color it will transform the costume into a bright yellow dress (revealing the dancer). There will also be other dancers added as well, as she gets more gutsy with the strokes. The choreography will be fluid and connected, with the dancers all doing the same movements; very safe not dynamic. (following them and their movement, very plain not a lot of angles. Every once in a while the camera will do a side view of just one dancer who has broken out of the formation to initiate a new movement.) As this is going you realize that Brooke is beginning to break loose. More colors will be added. The choreography will begin to have dimension and more colors, as if they are now carrying the work forward and it is no longer a trouble for Brooke to think. (Zoom into just the feet of the dancers as the combination becomes technical and complicated. Every once in a while zooming down from above to get the over view of how the painting is turning out. More angles and zooms to certain dancers again who are moving the painting along with a certain movement.) The choreography at this point is very loud and exciting as Brooke is reaching the high point in her painting. Sharp movements, levels, different costumes (with the help of the editing to make them seem a little more harsh at some points). Then as the painting is beginning to wind down the movement will soften again and there will be a picture made by the dancers bodies and placements of groups of bodies, along with the costumes as the dancers begin to pause their movement and stand or lay still. The camera will then move through the bodies finding the last few that are still in movement putting the “finishing touches” on what is now art. As they finish their movements the camera will slowly zoom out and you will see the picture that has been created by the dancers. As it continues to zoom out, it will black out and we will see Brooke open her eyes to the masterpiece that has been created, sitting in front of her on her no longer colorless canvas.