Happy: One Shot Dance Film

A one-shot dance film is shot in one long continuous take without ever cutting. A one-shot could take place in one room or space, but I was excited about the challenge of traveling across the campus and showcasing many different spaces, and felt this would also create a more interesting viewing experience for the audience. The biggest challenge for the dancers was running from one location to another behind the camera and staying out of frame, while making sure they were in their next spot in time for their music cue. For example, Dance II started below the Uplands building and on the ramp, and then had to sprint up to the second floor of the mansion for their balcony moment in the ballroom scene, then sprint down the stairs to get to places for the ending when everyone runs out onto the patio. 

 

On the production side, the biggest challenge was having no camera rehearsal with the full cast before the day of the shoot. The cinematography team, Peter Gould (Director of Photography), Riley Gantt (1st Assistant Camera), and Laurel Wong (2nd Assistant Camera), had their first walk-through of the entire shot with the full cast on the shoot day. It was pretty incredible witnessing Peter master the camera choreography and whip pans so quickly, while the assistant camera people were zooming, focusing, and changing exposure in real time, while following behind and staying out of the shot.

I have always enjoyed “oners” because of the immersive experience they give the audience–traveling through space with the performers in real time. One-shot films with dancers are particularly exciting because the camera becomes part of the choreography, and the viewer gets to experience being right in the action with the dancers. Peter (cinematographer/editor) and I created our first one-shot with middle and upper school student dancers in 2018, and it was a huge success. The moment I first set foot on the Crystal campus, I knew this would be a great setting for a one-shot film and started brainstorming how I could make it happen. The campus is so beautiful and unique, and really lends itself well to this style of filmmaking.

The process of making this film was very collaborative. The process began with the music edit, which Peter and I spent many days perfecting. All of the students in the film had the opportunity to nominate songs to be included, because it was important to me that the vibe and mood of the film, which starts with the music, felt like a representation of them and their interests. Once we narrowed down the song list, we started pulling stems and layering tracks to make it feel cohesive and dynamic. 

 

Once the music edit was locked, I started walking different paths around campus while listening to the track to see how much distance we could cover. I toured the campus with my phone camera, capturing different angles and locations to see what was playing well visually. I knew I wanted to go into the library and ballroom and end on the back patio, but we had a number of different possible tracks of how to get there. Once I had a general idea of locations and the start and end spots for each class, I started working with the dancers and brought them into the collaboration.

 

We had a brief lesson on site-specific choreography, which is choreography that is built around the architecture of a space and performed in that space rather than on a stage or proscenium (i.e. dancing on stairs, tables, pushing off walls, etc). I provided a rough structure for them, and then the dancers created a few 8-counts in small groups, focusing on making site-specific choreographic choices. I then made edits to their choreography, created transitions, tied it tightly to the music so they had clear sound cues, and created the camera choreography/path. I filmed all of the rehearsals on my phone and created an edit of the sections before the shoot day, so the production team and dancers had a sense of how it all was going to fit together.

 

I self-produced it leading up to the shoot date, so I was simultaneously coordinating with Lane, Natalie, Shab, Amy, and others to ensure that the spaces were going to be set the way we needed them on the shoot day and that we could rehearse in these spaces during classes when they were available. I had an on-set producer/AD on the shoot date, Chippy Wassung, who was helping manage talent and communicating to the dancers along the path when we were going for another take, making sure everyone was in places, and helping keep time so that the day ran smoothly.

 

Finally, we brought in Peter and his team on the shoot day to make the magic happen. They had viewed rehearsal videos, but bringing the whole thing to life with just a few hours of camera rehearsal was probably the biggest challenge. The crew was running behind Peter with the camera during every take, watching the monitors in real time and doing our best to stay out of the shot. I was holding the portable speaker that was playing the music on my belt, so I had to stay close to Peter in order for the dancers to hear their music cues, but I did ruin a few takes by accidentally getting into the shot.

 

The teamwork required from everyone involved made the process really exciting and created a strong bond across all ages and levels in the dance program. Every person had an equally important role, and the dancers had to be super focused for every take in order to execute the entire shot successfully.

I believe deeply in the essential nature and transformative power of art and performance, particularly in these challenging times we are living in. My hope is that audiences will feel the joy that the dancers exude in the film. The simple structure/story of groups in distinct colors starting isolated and then intermixing at the end is a metaphor for inclusion and the collective power of bringing diverse people together. This feeling of coming together wasn’t only happening in front of the camera, but behind it as well. The dancers out of frame, that the audience can’t see or hear in the final edit, were cheering each other on through every take, lifting each other up. While we can’t see and hear what is happening behind the scenes, I think this energy can be felt in the film. It was very inspiring to see all of these young dancers–with different backgrounds, levels of dance experience, friend groups, and ages–rooting for each other and working together to create this collaborative project.

 

The final song says, “You’ll never feel happy until you try,” and I think that is a good reminder for us all. Despite the challenges we may face, we can choose to find glimpses of joy in the world around us.