My idea for my final major project is to show that dance is considered a piece of art.
I am proposing to make a film involving 2 dancers with different stories but the same passion. They both love to dance, however life always offers us obstacles and for them, the obstacle is people surrounding them.
These 2 dancers go to the same college, but they’ve never met. I am planning to let them be strangers, just so both of them have the chance to tell their own story without being linked in some way. Dance may be a passion, but it is also a competition in life because people are looking for dancers to play in a film, for example, they are looking for the best ones so it makes them competitive.
My film is going to have 1 contemporary dancer and 1 ballet dancer. To be able to have these 2 dancers play in the film, I am going to ask the dance teacher in my college to let them know that I am looking for some dancers and if they are interested to contact me.
If I’m not going to find the dancers, I will probably change the theme to painting and I will try to get 2 drama students from my college to play in the film.
I am going to be researching about dance in general and how it can have its perks, but I also want to go in more details for both contemporary and ballet. I want to research on how dance made people’s lives better and if it also put them down, as if they ever feel tired and if they can keep up because sometimes I think it can be exhausting. To find out these things, I will interview some of the dance students in my college.
The Plot:
The film is about 2 dancers: one contemporary dancer and one ballet dancer. The film will start with both of them in the same time, but not in the same place. I will film both of them walking and I will try to show the audience how two different people share a passion for dance.
The girl is a contemporary dancer. She struggles to keep her passion for dance as her mother does not let her have free time. Having some free time for herself, she is headed to the dance studio and on her way there she receives a text from her mother saying that after school she needs to head back home as soon as possible. The girl is once again disappointed that her mother tries to control her life by telling her what to do all the time and she decides that is time for her to do one thing that will make her happy, and that is dancing.
When she gets there she turns her phone on the silent mode and she goes to the middle of the dance studio, where she looks in the mirror and thinks about what her life would be like if she would dance as much as she would want to.
The music gets louder and she starts dancing. I will film from different angles to get the moves from a different point of view, for example I will film her dancing and seeing herself in the middle, both in the same time.
When she finishes her choreography, she breaths deeply and looks one more time in the mirror. She then gathers her things and leaves the dance studio.
At this very moment, the boy heads to the dance studio and the girl comes out and this is where the story changes as in it’s his turn to share his story. They come from different directions and that’s when the story switches.
The boy is a ballet dancer. He know he wants to do ballet, however he’s afraid his parents are not going to support him so he’s hiding the passion for ballet. When he goes inside the dance studio, he starts doing his choreography and after he finishes he has a moment of silence and then he leaves.
Then I’m going to show both of them walking. An example of what I mean is:
Instead of these 2 faces, I’m going to have the 2 dancers walking and thinking. Then they stop to take their phones out of their pockets. They will start texting, more precisely to their parents telling what they’ve been up to, as in they will tell them their passion for dance and they will keep dancing whether they have their support or not.
While I’m filming, I will add more ideas and scenes if something does not look right in the film or if anythings needs to be done in a different way.
Feedback:
Munevver Sila Gurcan: I really like the way you are going to show two different stories in one short film. I think that it will be good ending it when they see each other outside, but I think that this idea is good as well. Also, I think that you should show more bits showing their struggles, along with the texts.
You know you said that you will go to the drama students if you can’t find dancers, I would not suggest going to them as I had a bad experience with them. They are not reliable.
Overall, I think that your idea is good. I like the way you are showing that they can still dance even though they have problems in their lives.