Elizabeth, I was just now watching your film again - after several views you can get a feel for the overall cohesiveness of a piece, just like with an album after several listens - and what stands out for me, in addition to the beauty of the location, is just how well matched your dancer is to the music. Every move of hers seems to flow with the melody, and both dancer and music convey the feeling of the poem you are portraying.
You know how sometimes I say of a movie that has a well-written script and good direction, that every scene moves the story forward, and that the movie has no excess, nothing extraneous? This is what you guys have done. You start with the recitation of the poem, matched onscreen by English text, and then you go directly into the dance interpretation matched with the music. So, the body of the film parallels the opening in that way, and every element fits in place. I am guessing (and it is probably obvious) that the music was written first, and that the dancer is interpreting it. She did an excellent job as you say, and your music is very expressive, in addition to being the basis for the dance, as also being an interpretation of both the landscape of flowers, and the subject material itself : the dream of being a butterfly.
So everything fits together exceptionally well! The narration into the dream and dance, and the rise and fall of the dancer at the beginning and end, signalling the duration of the dream. The beautiful music.
And the real live butterfly at the end.
How long did you have to wait to get that shot, and how many takes? Maybe there are lots of butterflies in that field, but if not, it may have been a stroke of real luck, and quick shooting skill, to get that final shot. A perfect ending. :)
What can I say but Great Job (as usual), and congratulations, but also that, after several views as I said earler, it is clear that the feeling of what you are conveying through poetry, dance, music and nature, really comes through, and I think it's because all three of you were in sync as to the artistic goal.
You guys (I mean gals, sorry) nailed it. I hope you get a chance once again to screen it for festivals because it's a knockout. ////
You know, one of the books I am currently reading is a biography of the physicist Paul Dirac ("The Strangest Man" by Graham Farmelo). Dirac was one of the originators of Quantum Mechanics and also the discoverer of anti-matter, among other things. In his time (and probably now as well), he was considered to be second only to Einstein, and perhaps his equal in a different way, because Relativity and Quantum Theory were two different things. Anyway, I am loving this book because Dirac was such a character, such a unique person, very withdrawn yet brilliant, and he is fun to read about, but I mention him because he spent time in Madison in the 1930s, just like another genius - David Lynch - would do five decades later. Paul Dirac won the Nobel Prize for his discoveries and became famous and was invited to lecture all over the world, which he did in spite of his extreme shyness. One of the places he lectured at was the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and while there, he became enamored of the landscape and took up hiking. Just like David Lynch, who took up boating around Lake Mendota.
I only had a vague awareness of Paul Dirac until a few years ago when I saw this biography on the shelf at Northridge Libe, probably 2014 or so. I knew his name and that he was a physicist but not much else. But something about his name, or the title of the book or it's cover struck me, and I thought, "I've got to read it someday". It took me about four years to get around to it, but it has turned out to be one of my favorite life stories of any that I've read.
Once again this points to connection and the use (and trust) of intuition.
Sometimes, something (a connection) just reaches out and grabs you. And if it stays with you over time, that is your intuition telling you that you need to investigate that connection.
It could be anything; a poem, a photograph, a phrase, a book title, a dream....
But your intuition knows, and you have to trust it. That is how you make your connections. ////
I am writing from home tonight, off work until Monday. See you in the morning.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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