Behind the Magic

In order to be able to remove background from original footage, you need state-of-the-art camera technology, a lot of lighting and as much green as you can get, but for our process the magic is definitely not all in the equipment but the brilliant people operating it!

[photo description: two images of Hugh in black lying down with shredded paper scattered on and around him. The left, slightly bigger, has a background of blue sky with clouds. The right, a green floor and back wall]

A huge thank you to Alex Small and Dave Cartwright at South Devon College for their time, expertise and creativity. We were fortunate enough to have a day in the green screen studio at the relatively new tech centre adjoining the old faithful SDC. It felt something like a homecoming as I spent four inspiring, sometimes stressful but ultimately hugely rewarding years at the college – completing a BTEC in creative media and studying two years of my performance degree. Worryingly, the performance arts at the college has all but vanished and the creative media seem to be merging with engineering rather than being a vital, standalone department. The heart of the college was really the creative department – the pulse is still detectable yet is faint. It is quite obvious how fundamental these subjects are and it is difficult to comprehend the lack of opportunity that local young people have in performance and the arts as a whole. It is definitely worth fighting for and I hope Squeeze Box and my collaborative practice plays a small role in reminding the college and community that culture needs to be cherished, invested in and supported!

The lead up to the day was frantic and the time spent in the studio was tiring but so worth it. I felt a bit like a kid in a candy shop with wide eyes at all the shiny tech and possibilities open to us. Tim Dollimore was part of the creative team on the day and after setting up a Jib (a kind of seesaw thing where you put weights on one end and the camera on the other – together they allow the camera to hover exactly where you need it. This sits on a tripod on wheels) we were ready to record.

Most of the morning was spent putting my performance practice to the test. I performed a combination of dance/physical theatre and direct-to-camera work. We explored the idea of breath, rhythm and repetitive movement. I transitioned between large full-body abstract set pieces to more story-lead, face expression work. It’s really interesting having my spasms part of the overall effect – I think a cyclical expression of movement broken by ‘imperfect’ movement speaks to individuality within a more refined, stricter pattern. Imagining these recordings on a large-scale projection sees the incomplete moment when a bit of film repeats – you get that kind of sharp cut that reminds you that the film is on repeat. My take of repetitive movement will see the repetitive movement different every time – I do not need to perfectly control the build-up of the movement, it happens naturally.

In the afternoon I gracefully transferred to the floor (a beautiful combination of control and gravity taking over – let’s hope a physio isn’t reading this blog), where I continued more repetitive movement in front of camera, this time squeezing my body in different awkward positions that will speak to the way disabled bodies are often forced into boxes, equipment or narratives which leads to exclusion and discrimination.

Then we did some really fun work, gathering more technical shots.

[photo description: birds-eye view of Hugh in black lying on a green floor, on his right side, smirking, surrounded by scattered playing cards and poker chips.]

I laid on the green floor having a combination of cards, poker chips and shredded paper sprinkled over me from various heights. At one point we had the whole studio covered in props. The climax was definitely when a rather intense fan was brought out and the shredded paper blown over me in a gale force wind – I was informed that this shot looked like I’m flying away from the paper. Really looking forward to seeing the final footage in our projection as part of Squeeze Box!

It was fascinating to compare recording in my wheelchair and on the floor – the support my wheelchair gives me is inherent to my narrative versus my ability to perform without the support of the chair is also a crucial part. Additionally, there was a couple of shots where I have support from another body – also crucial to my lived experience and what I want to get across in my practice, that we all rely on each other. Yet, if the green cloth worked, the end viewer will not be able to see Jen and it will look like my chair is tipping by itself or I’m sitting up looking at the camera from the floor on my own.

[Photo description: Hugh in black, side-on focusing on his hannd which is positioned over his chair control panel. The chair itself, blue seat and black/silver tilted onto it’s rear wheels, the front wheels are in the air. Behind the chair is a green piece of fabric obscuring someone who is standing on the rear of the chair to lift the front wheels - they are both against a green background]

Dipping a centimetre of toenail into the ocean of post-humanism, I reflect that all these performances in front of the green screen tell narratives of support – my body as a central ‘object’ yet everything around it is facilitating the day’s capture and enabling my creative expression. The wheelchair, the cameras, the editing software, the lighting rig, and yes indeed fellow humans!