Photo A Research

A few inspiring photographs that I have collected from a blog about ballet http://theballetblog.tumblr.com/page/3

A simple image, of ballerinas holding the barre in a lesson

The angle of the ballerina adds to the position she is in

I find the silloutte interesting, as well as the tired body language of the dancer

a pile of worn out "dead" pointe shoe, quite shocking it feels like a waste

Interesting light and shadowing

I found this one interesting as they are all moving in unison

From the ballet Giselle. Its hauntingly beautiful

I found the position of the skirt interesting along with the position of the dancer

the body language is lovely and the tone of the photo is some what worn down

I love the symetry between the dancers especially their legs

The hight and positioning of the dancer is very powerful

I find this angle very unique, It gives an insight into a dancers movements before she goes on stage

I liked how the photographer has captured the young girl going through her routine before the show

Simple yet elegant, interesting camera angle

I found the dancers all together interesting and how weightless they look even though they have to use alot of power to come off the ground so high

Close up of the wear and tear of a pointe shoe

gives the viewer an idea of the size of the venues in which the dancers have to perform

Interesting photo, not sure entirely what is happening but it looks as if it is a time line of movements

Research

I found some useful youtube videos people have uploaded of them practicing pointe exercises and also videos uploaded from schools.

 

 

Premise, Synopsis and storyboard

Premise

A ballet dancer trains rigorously for her craft through drudgery, pain and fatigue in preparation for a brief moment of perfection in the spot light. 

Synopsis

The basis of my film is to represent the correlation between the life of a ballet dancer

and her pointe shoes. Both start off untrained and stiff and slowly soften to become

perfect until they are broken and thrown away as they cannot be used again.

   At the beginning of the film the dancer is very stiff as are her ballet shoes, she sews

ribbons onto them and tries them on. It is uncomfortable at first as she works into a

rhythm of practice with her teacher tapping a cane to give her beat to keep time to.

During her training the ballerina repeats the same movements while her stern teacher

 positions her harshly and uncomfortably. It is also during this period of drudgery and

 repetition the ballerina bashes her shoes to the same beat as the teachers cane to

 make them more comfortable.

   During a break from her training, the viewer gets an insight at the toll that training is

taking on the ballerina when her feet are shown bruised and bandaged and her face is

shown tired and slightly aged. The ballerina takes a moment to rest and then puts her

shoes back onto her battered feet, stands, takes a breath and then continues with her

training.

   The ballerina takes another moment to rest as she holds onto the practice barre whilst

squatting. The ballerina then prances back up and starts to pirouette across the room

practicing once more.

   The ballerina decides as a last resort to fully break in her shoes by bending them until

the supporting part of the sole snaps and proceeds to cut out the inner sole. It is then that

the ballerina gets ready for her performance, doing her hair, putting on her tutu and putting

on her make up. She looks into the mirror and it is shown that she looks even more tired and

 aged but that is covered up by make up. She pats out her tutu and readies herself for the

stage where she dances perfectly in the spot light. Her shoes are perfectly softened and

prepared and her training is complete. The film ends with her shoes being thrown away

as she limps away finished.

Story Board

I created a story board and after having a tutorial with Leonie was advised on what to change and this is the final result.(read from left to right). A few changes need to be made namely angles on certain shots need to be made more dynamic and the dance choreography at the end need more thought as it was slightly rushed and I'm quite simply not happy with it. At the end I have decided to have her shoes being thrown at a bin as it is not clear she is discarding them completely, it just looks like shes throwing them to the floor.

The ballerina takes her shoes from their box. Sews ribbons onto them, puts them on and goes onto pointe to test them out.

The ballerina goes straight down from being on pointe and it was clearly uncomfortable as she shakes her foot to rid her of the discomfort. She takes to the bar, positions herself, glances into the mirror showing her face to the viewer and starts her exercises. A certain *tap tap, tap tap* beat follows as she does her movements.

The ballerina carries on with her exercises and a shot of her stern teacher appears. He adds to the beat with a cane which he taps upon the floor in a steady pace to keep the dancer in a rythem.

She continues her training. She is shown in discomfort being pushed into the splits and adds to the beat with her bashing her shoe to get it more softened.

More awkward positioning from her tutor. She does pirouettes, the cane still taps.

More awkward positioning. More shoe bashing and more uncomfortable exercises. She slashes into the bottom of her ballet shoe.

She is shown slashing her ballet shoe and the camera shows her sat on the floor. Tired and her feet beaten and bruised. She looks in the mirror, shes aged and tired looking. She glances at her feet, puts her shoes back on and stands.

She stands, takes a deep breath and starts to dance again. She is shown tired again and is hanging onto the bar.

She hops up and begins to dance energetically again. The time has come for her to break the back of her shoes and to snap the support inside them. She then proceeds to yank it out.

Its show night and she is in her dressing room doing her hair. Her face in the mirror shows that she is more tired and aged and covers her face with make up. She stands, puffs up her tutu and the camera fades to her on stage.

She dances energetically and free.

The show ends

her shoes are unceremoniously thrown away.

Sketches and colour tests (late update)

Another Late update

Sketches

I created a few sketches as ideas for the drawing style I wish to use in my film, however I feel that my style needs to become more loose andabstract which is something that I shall be aiming for

  Degas' Ballerinas

 It was suggested that I look at the work of Degas who depicted many ballerinas in oil paints.  A few examples are as follows

 Chalk Pastel Tests

It was suggested that I try to colour is a similar way with chalk pastels, im not that familiar with chalk pastels and am having difficulty with them thus far. I believe a softer approach would be best with them and will try that next. If I find that chalk pastels are not a style I wish to use I will try water colour next.  

A late update

I havent updated my blog in a while, but this has been my progress during that time.

I created a few back ground tests of a dance studio in pencil

A ballet barre and mirror with wooden floor angle view

Original Back Grounds

I started with just plain pencil drawings of a ballet studio, taking into account the type of angles I will need for my film.

A ballet barre and mirror with wooden floor, head on view

birds eye view of wooden floor

Digital Colouring Tests

Next, I scanned my drawings into Photoshop and darkened the pencil lines. I went onto create a layer beneath the pencil lines and with a coloured brush with the opacity turned up I coloured the backgrounds with soft pastel colours.

I really like how these turned out but will have to see if they will suit the drawing style that I have chosen to use for my film

Chalk Pastel Tests 

For my chalk pastel tests I made them by again darkening the original pencil drawings and then creating a layer beneath them where I placed a scanned in piece of paper which I had a block of colour created with chalk pastels.

I originally wanted to use this colour test for my final film but upon scanning in the chalk I discovered that the pigments in the chalk are brought out too much during scanning and are too blunt for the style that I would like.

Inked versions of my Pencil Sketches

Next I inked them in a fine line marker and omitted certain parts of the lines as I wanted a hint of a background rather than a perfect depiction of them. I wanted a hint of the background as the backgrounds aren't a defining part of my story, the movement of the dancer and her journey is the integral part and I didn't want to distract from that.

Inked Versions of my Pencil Sketches With Digital Colouring

I tested how my inked versions would look with my colour tests are here is the result of the digitally coloured version. I still like the softness of the digital colour but feel that with the inked lines it looks incredibly cartoon like and feel that it is not the right look for my film

Chalk Pastel Version of my Inked Drawings


I still feel like the colour for the chalk is too vivid and will abandon using chalk in the future unless there is a way to tone down the hue in photoshop. I believe that it appears too cartoon like and will not fit in with my final film.