HLP Day Three :: Bowden Creative Space

Another late night! In trying to stay on top of the documentation and daily relection, I find I am working really late to get through the day's material and then work on this blog. 1am isn't an optimal time to reflect and consider, so I'll just note a few point and then add more later..

Carol & Lisa planning the movement idea for "Horse Hair'After reflecting on the Isadora piece (lots of notes about re-working this to make it more efficient and finesse it - to be tried tomorrow), we launched straight into planning 'Horse Hair'. The ideas that Carol was playing with yesterday (using the watering can as a horse head etc) were extended and a 'metamorphosis' idea started developing. Lisa likes the structural planning of the movement to give her direction, and she worked really well on this piece, at a pace that allowed us to shoot each new development of the 'character' using flash. The background ighting outside does has an impact on a timelapse shoot, with the density changing over time! Carol's flair for fashion and the absurd found a perfect expression in her arrangement of objects and nuances of positioning Lisa for the frame. We tried a straight shoot with a single camera, playing with the progression of the movement for the camera. Here is an edited sequence of the outcomes, followed by an alternative edit using a character metamorphosis in suspension. Why? Why not? (just playing):

And here are some stills from this piece:

Next we worked on 'Toilet Lady', based on a variety of Muybridge's women at various stages of 'toilet' (I guess it means 'ablutions' and in this day & age, 'cleansing'. This was fascinating to watch in terms of how Carol and Lisa work together. We used the stool from the Horse piece and a wash basin Carol lugged over from NSW (little detail). Her styling extended to a hair towel, which gave the tableau a Vermeer quality. The choreographic details were then a matter of improvisation, with Carol responding to the compositions of Lisa's body in the space, and to the possibilities that the props and character offer. We shot a rough sequence, played it back and then fune tuned the details for another run. This is the result.

On reflection: I think the space is developing quite an interesting aesthetic. Still considering extending the black grid up to the next set of windows - but I do like the way they look like bathroom tiles in the Vermeer piece. We shot the Metamorphosis against white which worked well, so it is now starting to lend itself to changing across the various pieces..

Lots more to consider and reflect on. But a good day of play.