The Unexpected

You can’t expect the unexpected. There are definitely ways you can plan ahead, but sometimes problems don’t cross your mind until they become a problem. Throughout this film process, my co-director and choreographer, Taylor Hnatek, and I ran into a few issues.

1. The mirror frame. We knew we wanted to use a frame without a mirror inside of it to accurately portray the message we wanted to convey, and so we choreographed with this idea in mind. Firstly, how do you even purchase a frame without a mirror inside of it? What we found online was definitely not in our budget. I noticed a portable costume rack outside of the dance studio hallway, which was the perfect size for our film. We initially decided to use that for rehearsal purposes and realized this was our best bet for the actual film. We just needed to disguise it. So, after contacting some professors in the scenic design department, we decided to trek over to Lowe’s Home Improvement and see what we could find. Everything we came across was not going to work, but instead of giving up, I walked up to 2 employees and explained our project and what we hoped to construct. They pointed us to exactly what we needed. We grabbed wooden frames and took them to get cut. Luckily, Taylor took measurements of the costume rack’s dimensions so we knew exactly what to tell them. However, when we assembled the mirror frame the day of the shoot, we realized two of the pieces were not long enough, but at that point, there was not much we could do except leave them there with some silver rack showing. We communicated with our cinematographer to try his best not to showcase this mistake.

2. The location. It was... much smaller than we planned. And the walls were not identical, which made our plan of filming with a mirror effect impossible. Darn. We stood there for about 30 minutes trying to figure out how we could adjust the placement of the frame to create this mirror effect. It wasn’t going to work. So instead, we filmed with the intention of creating a slightly different storyline. As far as the space went, we had to adjust the choreography to fit the location, which typically happens in dance films.

3. Editing. The day after the shoot, I realized we forgot to film a specific movement sequence from a different angle. Shoot, okay. This was unfortunate, but luckily, the magic of film could hide this. We used the footage that we had in the best way that we could. Although it was not what we had originally planned, it still came out pretty good.

So, we did what we did best. We improvised on the spot and creatively problem-solved. For future dance filmmakers, I would highly suggest having a scenic designer create your prop if budget allows, visit the location prior to shooting, and map out what angles you want to film from. Also, take a deep breath, and trust that you will create the best film that you can.