Ascension To The Stage
Ascension To The Stage
UTS Capstone Project 2022
Directed by Narmi DeLillo.
Crew Roles: Director of Photography and Camera Operator.
Synopsis: Only a few Bharatanatyam dancers undertake an Arangetram as it is a physically and emotionally taxing endeavour.
In Ascension To The Stage, the beauty of this ancient form in uncovered as we learn about the years of preparation and demands necessary to complete such a momentous achievement.
Pre-Production and Production
Throughout pre-production, I worked closely with Narmi to ensure that the visual presentation of her documentary was in alignment with her vision for the project. I began this by creating a mood board that allowed me to get a clearer understanding of the type of performance I would be filming as well as the dominant colours I would likely be working with.
A significant amount of planning, preparation, and problem solving had to go into this project during pre-production as I was filming the Director who would likely be unable to liaise with me while she was rehearsing. It was established prior to our rehearsal filming days that handheld shots would be the main way footage on the URSA would be filmed while our DSLR would remain on a tripod supervised by our camera assistant.
Lighting Plans
Mood Board
I was able to get an abundance of footage from the rehearsals and so, for that reason, I was really happy with the coverage and also the quality of the shots. My camera assistant did an incredible job swapping in an out of filming handheld shots with the URSA as it is a very heavy camera. I did find the location very tricky to work with, especially given the scenario in which we were filming in. I found it difficult to not get too much of the same shots as my camera assistant and I were limited to a very small space we were able to film in.
The interview footage was much more straightforward to prepare for as I was able to view the space before our shoot. I had two possible lighting set-ups planned out (left), but only required the minimal lighting set-up as there was plenty natural light that came from behind our interview subjects. While shooting this, we had significant trouble aligning the DSLR and URSA as the footage from each camera looked drastically different, which was expected on my end given that they are two very different cameras. However, and understandably so, it took a significant portion of time adjusting the lighting and individual camera technicalities before we could begin the interviews.
