Monday, December 10, 2012

Shit Burlesque Dancers Say!

I have an amazing amount of footage! The crazy thing is I can still think of little pieces I would like to add. My documentary can't end up being a 7 hour movie where they serve you breakfast and lunch soooo edit, trim, cut here we go!

As I have been cleaning up my hard drives (I confess they have become a little unorganized) I found a series of 4 shorts I created last winter with some of the cast of the Slutcracker: Sugar Dish, Femme Brûlée, Lolli Hoops and Abby Normal. The popular "Shit people say" videos were everywhere and so we created our own, here they are, 1,2,3 and 4.

Enjoy!





Saturday, December 1, 2012

A busy December...

It's snowing!

It's December and the Slutcracker is opening it's 5th season tonight with a sold out show!

This year has flown by faster then I can even comprehend. Last December I shot almost every Slutcracker show in so many different ways...slow motion, from the wings, mid shots, wide shots, evenings with 3 cameras shooting thanks to Sarah Paterson's camera resourcefulness and cameras shooting from the rain curtain overhead thanks to the ingenuity of Toby Chandler.

ABC nightline asked for some of the footage for a nutcracker special in which they were featuring Vanessa and the Slutcracker, a spectacular use of my footage! Happy to be shooting in HD!


My year has been busy, the biggest new adventure was having a baby! Julian Paul Pratt Van Daam was born on Monday, June 18th which also happened to be Paul McCartney's 70th birthday. Julian has already strummed his first guitar...just saying.




Learning to balance motherhood and filmmaking is my new challenge, I love a good puzzle and this one is constantly changing. I have started to edit again (I do have a documentary to finish!) and have found that if I can remain very sanguine I have no problem taking the moments I'm given and utilizing them.

This year my first Slutcracker promo was a petite parody on the book "50 shades of grey" - We called it "50 shades of Slutcracker". The idea was dreamed up by Femme Brûlée (Robyn Girgosian) and then taken down the torrid path of creativity by Sugar Dish (Vanessa White) and lastly I translated the idea to video. I utilized footage from the 2011 season and the "Arabian"music from the Filharmonie Bruno's recording of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (commissioned by Vanessa and John for the Slutcracker!). 

So far Julian has been on two shoots with me. 

The first was for Torrent Engine 18. Katrina (who has been in the slutcracker in years past) put a call out for assistance after the filmmaker who was going to make their kickstarter video had his footage erased at an airport by customs. Maya Landi, Julian and I went to meet Katrina and E. Stephen at the firehouse. I shot the video with Julian in the baby bjorn that Femme Brûlée gave me (Awesome gift! Thank you!). Maya shot video of me shooting video while wearing Julian. I figure it's important to have these things documented.  Here is a link to their kickstarter. It was a success! They received more then double the amount they were asking for.


The second shoot with Julian occurred on monday, Slutcracker load in. I finally caught the moment! Amy the giant candy cane penis getting unloaded from the truck and wheeled into the back of the Somerville theatre. Somehow I have missed it every year. A big thanks to Malice in Wonderland who filmed me filming -  I had Julian snug in the bjorn. This time wrapped and hatted up, it was chilly out!

I wanted to make one more Slutcracker promo before the show opened. I am thrilled to say it is up and live floating through the world wide web.This piece I wanted to have more of a documentary feel. A little behind the scenes, a few fantastic quotes and then the beautiful footage of the show itself. Footage of the provocative Amanda Palmer,  Jo Weldon,  Jonny Porkpie and It wouldn't have been complete without a Slutmas eve quote from Mehran who will be opening most of the shows this season. I find that editing is like putting a puzzle together and half of the time is spent finding pieces that might fit.  I found all kinds of beautiful moments that never made the cut, sometimes it's so hard to delete your little darlings. But, I'm happy with the end result. 
Here it is:



If you are in the Boston area and interested in seeing this brilliant burlesque parody of the nutcracker buy your tickets soon they will sell out. 


With batteries charged and lenses cleaned I'm off to film opening night. 
Cheers, Julia