Filming a dance scene for ViValores

Yesterday we shot a film scene for ViValores, the values foundation. The scene was to film a dancer in front of a big audience, who was clapping and cheering as she finished dancing.

I had a few alternatives, we could shoot the scene in front of a green screen, and then add the stage and the audience silhouettes in post, or shoot it in a real theatre. I chose to shoot it in a theatre, because the city of Medellin lends out a theatre for things like this.

So we put the dancer on the stage and I filmed her from behind, toward the "audience", using two strong back lights to make the background completely black.

Then we shot from the front, lighting the stage background with an "orange party gelled" fresnel lamp.

And finally I did a wide shot from the audience, using a couple of extras as silhouettes.

I used dolly in all the shots. In the audience shot, I put the dolly on top of the theatre seating, using two lateral bars to fix the dolly tubes, and a couple of half apple boxes and a bean bag to find the right height and angle.

We shot "MOS", that is, without sound. The audience cheering will be added in post.

I was director, producer and director of photography for this shoot, plus in this particular shoot I was working with several people that had little or no experience with filming, so it was a challenge, but we got all he shots in the can and all things considered it was a good experience.