APRIL 24, 2018

"unknown to me"

"unknown to me" is an modern/contemporary dance choreography piece by Marie Lloyd Paspe exploring the duality of Self. It spotlights the dynamics of one's complex and fluctuating relationship to oneself, noticing the rhythms between harmony and conflict, separation and unity, questions and answers.

Choreography: Marie Lloyd Paspe
Performed by: Elise Pacicco & Eric Parra
Video Production: Justin Taesong Kim


 

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Learnings on learnings

The project was a challenge for layers of reasons.

  • This was my first time using my new lighting system and slide rail. 
  • There wasn't going to be much room for directing. Rehearsal time needed to be spent rehearsing, so I'd just have to get my shots without getting in the dancers' way.
  • Since this was marketing material for a show coming up soon, all media needed to be shared and published ASAP. This meant editing the photos the night after each rehearsal. This also meant editing the videos in the same time frame.
 
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Synchronicities Align

After months of being an Equinox gym member, I started really getting inspired to create a visual piece around body movement. The digital content playing in their facilities is typically composed of montages of beautiful models performing impressive athletic feats in usually outrageous settings (yoga in deserts, cycling in what looks like a futuristic ice sauna... etc.). Honestly it's a little excessive, but I can't hold back credit for how gorgeous the videos turned out.

As I started to brainstorm ideas for how I could work on a similar project, my friend Marie sent me a message asking if I could help her create marketing material for a piece she was choreographing.

Didn't need two seconds to decide.

This was one of those rare perfect storms of projects where all of my biggest passions converged. The careful introspection of one's own internal landscape, the marvel of the human body's capabilities not only in athleticism but in beauty of form and movement, all packaged together in a creative form that allowed me to frame, color, and sound-design a piece through which I could broadcast the artists' intentions.

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Takeaways

Pressure creates diamonds. One thing I've learned in the last few months is that any time I've committed to a project where 1) people are depending on me and 2) the deadline is tight, I'll figure out a way to make things happen. My workflow became focused, and my mind kept watching out for ways to systemize and reduce backtracking on decisions. 

I've also learned that photography and videography projects are the rare kind of work that I'll pull all-nighters for if I'm not careful. As a 27-year-old who's still working on identifying my passion, that was a really meaningful discovery.