6 posts tagged “video”
Three things to note:
1) Whoa. Windows. I knew there was a reason I never film from this angle.
2) Toe hang. There is no toe hang. PROBLEMATIC.
3) That upside-down thing at 2:30? (I call it "kiki twist"--I don't know any of its real names.) That looks really good in this video, for some reason.
Also, if anyone knows where my costume is at this time, I will pay ransom money for it.
Three things to note:
1) Whoa. Windows. I knew there was a reason I never film from this angle.
2) Toe hang. There is no toe hang. PROBLEMATIC.
3) That upside-down thing at 2:30? (I call it "kiki twist"--I don't know any of its real names.) That looks really good in this video, for some reason.
Also, if anyone knows where my costume is at this time, I will pay ransom money for it.
I think I had a dream in which I posted this video to this blog. It's entirely possible, because I have really, intensely boring dreams. (Like, the whole dream will be packing a suitcase to go on a trip, for what feels like HOURS, but I never actually go on the trip.)
Anyway, I didn't post it, but here it is now. This is the dress rehearsal, since although there were a plethora of videographers/photographers around the Showcase, I've yet to see any of their footage. This was shot by the marvelous Marsha:
So, that was June 17th. In the almost-a-month since then, Marina and I have been plotting to make the act longer and fancier. The goal is to have four and a half minutes, and to throw in a bunch of new skills, some of which I have pining to learn for months (like extending your front leg in unicorn). Here's what I've got as of this weekend:
Not bad, for three weeks. I had thought that lengthening an act would take as much time as making it in the first place, especially if I'm lengthening it by 50%. I was wrong: as you can see, and as I was very surprised to learn, I am at the stated goal of 4 1/2 minutes.
But it's not like the act is done. What you see above is the
first time I ran it through from beginning to end with all the new
material--and even then, some of the new material is conspicuously
absent...like the toe hang. I still need to run it another 100,000
times before it's smooth and polished and I don't get my legs confused
when I'm standing on the bar (or at any other time, actually). And
that toe hang...lordy. Technically, I can do it without safety ropes, though I
still use them when I'm training on my own (in class with Marina, I use
her spotting reflexes, though so far I haven't had to use them). Now
it's more of a mental undertaking than a physical one: in spite of
repeated bashings, the tops of my feet still feel like toe hangs go
beyond the
call of duty. Whine, whine, whine, that's all I ever hear.
(Heh, get it? Plucky? Banjo...plucky...Okay, fine.)
As promised, here are some video clips from my most recent hoop class:
I have no particular comment, except that my friend Diane calls the skill at 0:20 "open for business." To which I say: some people should get their minds out of the gutter.
Although...she has a point. Most aerial skills aren't renowned for their modesty.
Also, the little drop which Marina spots (why does she look so nervous, I wonder?) is supposed to look that way. I mean, I didn't just fall off the top part of the hoop, in case you were wondering.
Oh! And! This was filmed with my very own camera. (It's ridiculously simple to use. I'm reasonably sure a chimpanzee could operate this thing. Or a dolphin, if it had thumbs.) No longer do I have to beg other people to film me! I've started filming myself while I train, which means that now I do my act over and over and over and then I go home and I watch it over and over and over. And take notes! Ahh, circus. Without you, I might be forced to go outside and interact with other people.
The semester is a week from being over! That went by fast. And that means that Daniela is leaving after next week, which is still very sad. The pain has been eased somewhat by knowing that my new teacher, Gretchen, is seven kinds of amazing. She came to my last lesson and co-taught/conspired with Daniela. I discovered that when your teachers are muttering about you just off to the side, it is virtually impossible to do a correct straddle-up. Daniela asked if they were making me nervous. No no, not at all...
We spent awhile on the swinging section of my act (you didn't know it had a swinging section? neither did I, until recently), and although Gretchen claimed that she had never swung on single point before, she proved her genius by hopping up and doing some brilliant with it, which was exactly what I needed to do (she swung sharply and powerfully, which I hadn't figured out how to do, but which happens to be just what the music and the mood of that section calls for). Gretchen appears to be the mistress of all the things I am not good at, such as:
-acting
-having straight legs (like, circus straight-- not regular-style, standing-up-on-them straight)
-being very flexible
"Do you have anyone stretching you?" she asked at the end of the lesson. Well, I do now. She assured me that we wouldn't just work on leg-straightening and backbends, but that is very much what I need: learning new skills is fun, but for the moment I'm actually quite satisfied with what's in my act. I'm still working on things that will someday be added-- heel hangs, for example-- as well as skin the cats and meat hooks and all of THAT fun-as-it-sounds stuff, but now it's becoming clear that there are other aesthetic areas that are lacking, such as the straightness of my legs. You're going to be able to roll dimes down these things, once Gretchen is done with them. Hopefully I will still also be able to walk.
These last few weeks in static, Diane and I have been working on some fun things: neck hangs, the neck being the only place a trapeze has not yet bruised or scraped me; also something called knee spin. Knee spin is one of these skills that require you to hang onto the rope, lift yourself from the bar, and wait for yourself to twist all the way around the rope, back to the bar. This works in theory because the rope is twisted in one direction, and you can turn yourself with it just by holding on and waiting for it to spin you (very slowly). In practice, one sometimes comes to a complete stop, for no known reason, 180 degrees into the revolution around the rope, when it is impossible to grab the bar. That's how I spent my Tuesday: upside down hanging by my knees and one hand from the rope, and wondering where the bar is.
Finally, hip circles:
Nothing will make you clean up your fly beats like watching yourself do dozens of them over a month's worth of video clips. Seriously.
[big ole' drum roll]
AND NOW, the moment you've all been waiting for: actual video of actual me actually on a trapeze-- not a convoluted explanation, or a picture of somebody else, or even a doodle, but a video.
[explosive fanfare!]
For this I have Diane, classmate and practice buddy extraordinaire, to thank for the use of her camera and steady hand. To return the favor, I shot a bunch of wobbly videos of her with the light right behind her so you can't see what she's doing. You're welcome!
Video number one is a static "demo reel," and, um, I went a little crazy in iMovie. Once I figured out how to make captions, it was all over. It's sort of educational, I guess: now you can see what I've been talking about when I say that I've learned bird's nest, or cheek, or whatever. I also threw in some music (Beirut, of course).
Et voilà:
That pretty much exhausted my video-editing patience, so the single-point trapeze video is a little more "as is":
I think Helene was the one who said, the other day, that video is the best teacher, and it's true: I have learned a few fundamental facts about how I look trapezing. Like: legs together! Less skootching around on the bar! Don't wear that purple shirt! That means you can probably look forward (or dread) more videos in the future.
