Dance Videographers: how can I see your work?

[David Manley]

I've recently joined DVINFO, listed as a tourist, which is no doubt what I am, and don't spend nearly enough time on the forums. Every time I do, I'm richly rewarded and I learn something new and useful as I read the discussions But I'd love to see some footage. On a recent thread (6.18.10) re: filming dance recitals, one of the respondents had a link to his website directing us to a sample clip which was addressing the subject under discussion. It was beautiful. I'm not a total virgin; I've done a lot of shooting, and new as I am to dance, I've certainly shot my share of Nutcrackers over the past two years. But I love watching other shooter's work. I've checked out "show your work" under the Video column - 1 music video from 2009. I've looked at "Wedding & Event Video Sample Clips, 5 sample clips, all weddings. Where do you guys and gals show your demos, your clips? Do you use some video sharing site, or is it all on your own server? I just like seeing other people's work.

[Kren Barnes]

David

Its a site called Vimeo.

Kren
www.verticalvideoworks.ca

[David Manley]

Yes, Vimeo. and Blip, and Open film. I've joined them all, and have scoured them to look at work that represents what we do, which is to faithfully record the dance without intruding too much. I've seen a lot of brilliant work; interesting cuts, quirky angles, extreme close ups. It's all artistic and beautiful, but it's not what my clientele wants; choreographers want to see the full choreography, dancers want to see themselves within the group, parents (particularly of young dancers) want to see the adorable faces. I guess I want to see work that is simpler, cleaner, clearer. I want to see the work you do for your own clients. I've read some of the comments posted by the major players, the the inner circle, the regular crew, and have been made all the wiser; now I'd like to see samples of your work.

[Chris Hurd]

We had talked about doing our own video gallery, and there might still be some development on a specialized one for certain high-end applications, but Vimeo already does it right and we saw no real reason to re-invent the wheel. So we're partnered with Vimeo to the extent that your clips hosted with them will be presented here in their own player directly on the forum, so you don't have to leave DV Info. It's good for Vimeo, and good for DV Info.

Having shot dance and theater for a living myself once, I too would like to see more examples and we might need to fire up a dedicated clips gallery separate from weddings and other events. And David -- you won't be a Tourist much longer. But don't put too much emphasis on those titles, they really don't mean very much around here.

[Tom Sessions]

David, thanks for your kind comments on my blog. I was just thinking, you don't have to spend another 4k for the second camera to shoot these things....just rent it for now until you have some demo's to show with the look the second camera can provide. Once you get a rep, you can make a killing on dance recitals if you use my method. As far as finding samples of work in this field, I don't personally use vimeo, my clips are served up from my host server, but Chris's suggestion is probably the best one to go to, to improve your chances of finding more samples. Maybe someone on this forum can pinpoint a better source.

Good luck in your endeavors.
Tom

[David Manley]

Thank you for all your help. I'll gladly go back to Vimeo.

[Gabe Strong]

Well, I've got some real low budget dance work on my facebook fan page here:

G-Force Productions video, multimedia & creative services | Facebook

I shoot performances for a local dance studio. I haven't posted the most recent one
which is a performance by Weber Dance (These guys: WELCOME TO WEBER DANCE)
....it should be going up in a couple days. But there are a couple of them on the page
if you are interested, definitely no great artistic work or anything but feel free to check it out.

[Garrett Low]

Hi David,

I'm just a stone's throw from you over in Novato.

I don't post finished videos of the recitals but usually put up a couple of teaser numbers. I usually post on YouTube so that the studio can link to it and easily spread the word. Here are a few that I did recently. The first one I shot really as a test as this was the first shoot with a new camera. This literally was 2 hours after unboxing it so I was still learning the camera, hence the exposure isn't quite right.

YouTube - RDC Farmers Market 2009

These two are from a recent recital for the same dance studio. This venue poses a lot of problems as the stage is very unevenly lit and there is absolutely no lighting on the back black curtain. Makes it really hard to get any depth and separation of the dancers from the background. This is pretty much the raw footage of the master cam.

YouTube - RDC 2010 Spring Recital - Proud Mary
YouTube - RDC 2010 Spring Recital - Senior Dance.mp4

Garrett

[David Manley]

Thank you Gabe, Garrett and Tom for sharing your good work with me.