{"id":795,"date":"2019-10-02T19:54:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T19:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/the-motion-dance-collective-screendance-interview-omari-carter\/"},"modified":"2023-12-26T17:43:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T17:43:44","slug":"the-motion-dance-collective-screendance-interview-omari-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dancedispatches.com\/blog\/the-motion-dance-collective-screendance-interview-omari-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Motion Dance Collective: Screendance Interview with Omari Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Director and choreographer Omari Carter founded The Motion Dance Collective (The MDC), a screendance production company, in 2011. Carter\u2019s award-winning company creates innovative, thought-provoking narratives and has shown work at more than 40 film festivals in the UK and abroad. In addition to producing screendance pieces, The MDC<\/a> also focuses on educating artists about capturing dance on film. In this interview, Omari Carter discusses his career as a screendance producer and shares tips on how to film dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve seen screendance on YouTube and as TV ads, but have you ever seen it on an airplane? This innovative EVA Air in-flight video<\/a> features dance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo credit: Robin Jade Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Omari \u2018Motion\u2019 Carter Interview on Dance Film<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hello Omari. Can you tell us what experiences prompted you to bridge the gap between the dance and film industries when you founded The Motion Dance Collective (The MDC) in 2011?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started off working as a dancer\/choreographer for music videos. Unfortunately, during this time I saw that there was a gap in the language between the two industries of dance and film. Little things were happening \u2013 like dancers not being fed and dancers getting injuries due to poor shoot scheduling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Then] one day, I got to be in a music video where the dancers were the\nmain focus of the video. We were treated like royalty for the day, as we became\nthe main characters in the story. The filmmakers ensured we were adequately\nwarmed up, they let us into their plans for the shots and storyboarding, and we\nwere no longer treated as background-artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew that this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life and from that point forward, I began creating short videos – where dancers were are the foreground of the piece’s creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s incredible that such a positive experience on a music video set helped you to see a future in the dance film industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You graduated with a first class honours degree in BA Performing Arts \u2013 studying hip-hop, dance theatre and contemporary dance. Do you feel that understanding dance from the perspective of multiple genres helps you to better choreograph and capture dance on film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not merely about understanding how dance works; [screendance producers need to have] a basic understanding of how film works, too. That’s where bridging the gap is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experience in dance does help me make better dance for film because I know what I am looking for in a choreographic aspect from the performer \u2013 but without my knowledge of film, I wouldn’t know the best way to capture that dancer in a way that honours (or even enhances) the movement material. So it’s always been a mission of mine to find a common language between the two art forms \u2013 and, essentially, this is what the hybrid of screendance is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for explaining why it\u2019s necessary to understand both dance and film to create best dance on film content. It seems so obvious now!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MDC has been holding workshops since 2016 \u2013 and you most recently you ran a two-day Film Skills Workshop for Dance East for dance teachers and youth dance leaders. Why did you choose this particular audience for your workshop?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the amazing organisation DanceEast<\/a> commissioned us to run this two-day extravaganza. The target participants had [already been selected by DanceEast], so it became our job to create a bespoke workshop that fitted that target market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, it’s very important to help dance teachers and youth dance leaders to feel empowered by learning the basics of film language so that they can create the best video content possible with their groups\/companies. It was exciting to not only offer our experiences in screendance practice, but also how to teach these principles to younger people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds like an\nincredibly useful screendance workshop \u2013 especially since you wanted workshop\nparticipants to gain \u201cthe skills and confidence to use [their smartphones] to\nfilm and edit dance.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What equipment, programs or apps would you suggest beginning filmmakers to invest in?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each phone is very different, but [can] be unlocked to open up the\npossibilities of more manual options. So my first piece of advice is to find an\napp that works with your phone model \u2013 one that allows you to turn the phone\noff of its automatic settings and allow you to change things like ISO, aperture\nand shutter speed information. This will allow you to have full control over\nyour phones settings instead of allowing your phone to make changes for you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editing is another factor. Phones are a very hard to edit on, especially if you want to make small intricate changes to your footage. So I would suggest finding a system you\u2019re comfortable with on a laptop to [assemble the footage].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s really practical information. Is there a specific place that you recommend artists source music or sound to avoid copyright infringement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to music, the first thing that comes to mind is YouTube’s fee audio library. It offers over 100,000 pieces of copyright free music for you to use in your videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n