DANCE FILMS
ICARUS
Set & Lighting
For the Icarus dance film I created in collaboration with students from The University of Alabama Dance Department, and my live production interns, we decided to shoot in the Journalism and Creative Media studio, which does not have an appealing floor or set. We decided to utilize fog and sheer white fabric to make the studio look more interesting and have abstract representation of clouds.
The JCM studio does not have scrollers, LED or moving lights. As a result, I purchased mylar and we utilized butterfly scrims, mylar and fans, to create moving highlights during the water scenes of the dance film. I taught my students how to utilize our lighting board and allowed them to design some of the lighting for the film, while still offering advice and recommendations on lighting, like adding a fading sunset at the end to signify his death, or where to point the lights and how to adjust the barn doors.
We also utilized navy tulle over three of the dancers, one sun, one angel and Icarus, to signify his struggle in the water and with his decision to stay an angel or fly close to the sun.
ICARUS
Makeup, Hair and Costumes
Although I did not apply the makeup, I purchased it as well as disposable applicators and came up with the makeup and hair ideas for each of the female characters.
The angels all had tight braids with all of their hair up, to signify the rigidness and rules that the angels had to follow. The sun dancers had some braids in their hair, but majority of their hair was loose and had golden tinsel and gold beads or ribbon in it.
I hand cut each piece of organza and sewed it on to various feathers, and hand beaded the feathers without the organza, with clear beads that would sparkle and catch the light in a subtle, yet interesting way. I sewed ostrich feathers onto the back of the wings and utilized a latch hook to pull the ostrich feathers through the wings.
I have never made a dance costume like this or done this much hand sewing or beading before. I made sure to not sew down all of the three various laces that I hand cut out, so that they would be able to move like feathers when the dancers were in motion.
I had to utilize a pillow and $1 pool noodles and a clamp on my shop table. It made the process slower, but later I was able to purchase cheap mannequins on Facebook Market place, which made the last bit of sewing go by much quicker.
ANGEL COSTUME PROCESS & FINAL PHOTOS
