10 Oct Film in Progress—an event with DFA

Film in Progress—an event with DFA

By Jody Oberfelder (with Jason Bahling)

Notes on a work in progress are always helpful. What you see is not always what others see. Usually for me they are notes on a live dance,  we edit and it shifts, still breathing.  Film, on the other hand becomes fixed. Once it’s in the can, credits and titles attached, that’s how it will live. The meet and screen with The Physical TV Company, Wednesday, June 20, 2012, at Gibney Dance Center, started with a screening of a selection of screendances from two Sydney based film artists: Karen Perlman and Richard James Allen. I remembered the pair from back when they were a duo called ‘That was Fast’. Film has become their primary expression, with works ranging from semi-autobiographical to abstracted visions. My favorite is “A Dancer Dropped out of the Sky,”* a simple and luscious animated dance, short and sweet, reminding me of the whimsy of Jaques Tati. Later that evening came a work-in-progress from Sarah Dahnke, a barefoot solo in the desert, presented early in the post production stage featuring memorable imagery of solitude. Jason Bahling, cinematographer and editor, and I previewed “THROB” our work-in-progress that we are now calling “4Chambers.”  Having not been seen out of the editing room, the experience and charge of a live audience was exciting. It was great to hear audience and fellow artist responses—and everyone had something relevant from their own perspective to say.  I scribbled down notes—key words: patterns pace, music + image, hand on heart strong, interior exterior spaces, opened by the heart, feeling of heist, control idea, restatement, texture, emotional clarity, etc.  Sorting through the feedback, we went back to the editing room to make our screendance clear, to make it what we want it to be. We’ve now completed the film, and have been submitting it to festivals. The film will also be projected as a looping component of an installation called 4Chambers, an ambitions multimedia installation with live performance and audience participation.  We are looking for pre-existing spaces or galleries that can be somehow subdivided into four chambers. If you happen to have a tip, contact jody@jodyoberfelder.com   Thanks DFA for this chance to show our work in progress and hear feedback from a peer group. *A Dancer Dropped out of the Sky” can be viewed on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z-NKR683h0&feature=share&list=UUKm4u8CVZjpod64epOOv9Ow