19th June 2013
Sea Meadow: Directors Statement
25th January 2013
Please Upgrade Your Flash Player
Sea Meadow - A dance thriller : A genre bender : A fusion film
Sea Meadow seeks to create a new vernacular between the camera
and dance. My goal is to place dance and"choreographed gesture" at
the nucleus of the film narrative. Each dance sequence is a
distillation of the story that bypasses language.
The inherent structures of film - proximity of camera to subject,
variable time and alterable place - are conducive for such
explorations. In moving dance from the proscenium stage to the
camera, this hybrid communication generates a particular
relevance.
Can the camera's intimate view of a body tell a story that
actually reveals more complexity of character and plot than
straight dialogue and blocking?
With Sea Meadow I chose to work with the classic film tropes of
the thriller: fear and vulnerability. Successful suspense elicits a
visceral reaction from the viewer. It ignites the hair on the back
of one's neck. In this way the film becomes a choreography, with
the viewer as dancer and active participant. I use anticipation and
relief to literally shift the viewer in his seat. I refer to this
interplay as the "Front-Back" dance.
I have used this juxtaposition innate to the thriller format as a
model for Sea Meadow's structure. The plodding, darkly lit,
hand-held interior of the protagonist's world collides sharply with
stylized, candy-colored dance tableau. A scary, dramatic score
accompanies the plain young woman as she plods through the house in
real time.
Pop Mashups propel slow-motion dance sequences with a jump-cutting
narrative.
Sea Meadow's story co-mingles past and present:
the pedestrian body and the dancer body in sharp contrast to
deepen the suspense and draw a visceral response.
I bend genres in hopes of finding something common and therefore
universal.
We all have bodies that can't help but reveal themselves -
ourselves.
When fused together, film and dance propel a fresh language.
- Lily Baldwin