Claire Marshall

Mill Street Studios is an exciting new dance space I opened on the 24^th of January Mill Street, Goodna. Goodna is smack bang between Brisbane and Ipswich, and a few minutes walk from from the Goodna train station. Mill Street Studios came about very quickly in December last year. It wasn’t something I was planning to do, but in short, came about because:

1. I was at the right place at the right time.
2. I saw potential in the space, and
3. I had an existing connection with the local dance community.

This post is about renovating spaces at Mill Street Studios in late 2013.

Below: the white space at the end of renovations.

With lots of help from family and friends, Mill Street Studios was renovated between December 2013 and January 2014.  It was important to re-brand the space and make it my own.

December 2013:

Sanding the floors. The floors had been rebuit after the 2011 floods. But they were in need of a sanding and repairs.

Determined to find a solution, it was suggested that I use an exterior paint. And it looked spectacular with the semi-sheen!

There was just one problem: It didn’t dry! The paint remained tacky for over a week. Time was limited with a deadline to open the space in January.  But it was back to square one.

Sanding the second time took a lot longer than the first time… because the floor was essentially still damp.  The dramas with the floor meant getting a different sort of exterior paint and starting from scratch – this time using a different brand of paint and using a low sheen exterior decking paint. I made sure I did thing properly – which meant starting at the edges of each panel of wood.

Recruiting more help (thanks Fran & Will), once the floor was painted, we undercoated the walls. Hospital Grey undercoat wasn’t exactly inspiring. I couldn’t wait to see them painted black!

And black it was!

The last thing was the top coat on the floor.

Simon Cook rigged my lights that had been sitting in storage.

The White space before re-vampifications commenced (December 2013)

A freshly painted floor:

Like the black space, there were issues with the white space: the floor yellowed, and unfortunately it needed to be re-sanded and painted with a non-yellowing top coat. This was a massive set back, but we working long hours, had both spaces ready just in time for the launch.

The checkered space:Before:

After:

While all the floor sanding, painting, re-sanding, re-painting was occurring, in my realisation that time was slipping behind, I needed to call in some additional help. My Mum and Dad are DIY renovating legends.  Here’s outside before they started work:

My Dad and brother helped build the screen and Mum and Dad panted a lovely selection of plants.

Reception area: before

After:

Upstairs: I think that upstairs was formerly used for storage.

The floors were sanded and painted. Lights that were in storage were put to use.

At about 5am on the 24th of January I finished painting the foyer floor, and hoped it would be dry in time for the launch that night.

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Ward of State Post-Production to Premiere

Following the shooting of the film there’s a huge section of making a film which includes post production elements such as:

Editing, sound design, foley, composition of the score, recording the score, the sound mix, colour grading, conversion to DCP format, poser design, printing, distribution, promotion of the screening, ticketing the premiere, testing the DCP, and showing up with a few hours sleep to the premiere.

  Jane Wallace and the edit: 

Initially my plan was to edit the film myself, like Pulse, because editing dance is essentially another choreographic layer. The person who edited the film must understand dance. When I realised that I was going to be too busy with my live work SlowDive occurring at APAM, and that the scale of Ward of State was significantly greater than my little film “Pulse”, I decided to hand the project over to Jane Wallace.

Jane Wallace was a former full time Tanya Pearson classical ballet student, who later trained in Germany before going to QUT to pursue contemporary dance.  Jane eventually moved into editing and into graphic design. Jane edits a lot of commercial film, and she also mentored me when cutting Pulse (my first dance film development first project at the Brisbane Powerhouse).

The edit was a massive job – 250 hours plus. I would visit Jane weekly to see how things were progressing. We would make a few changes and Jane would keep going until our next meeting. I learnt a lot from watching Jane edit and the creative decisions she made in weighing up which shots to choose (eg, best cinematographic shots versus best choreographic/ movement shots)

 Susan Hawkins and the score:

In the beginning stages, Susan played me some of her work that she thought I might like the vibe of for the film. I worked with some of the compositions as background “vibe’ of choreography, but I deliberately did not want to choreograph to anything specific initially.

Jane and Susan worked in an interwoven way. There is no dialogue in Ward of State. Because it was not choreographed to any music, and because we were recording sound on set, all of the movement was performed in silence.

This meant that every take was slightly different in pace and Jane had to find a rhythm in her edit from the movement (another reason why the editor needed to be a dancer). At about the same time Susan started composing to Jane’s edit in progress, but not locking down the exact pace.

Where footage had not been edited, Susan would use the wide shot to take her music cues from, however it was more handy for her to work with the cut version so she could emphasise certain sounds in the score to match how closely the movement was cut.  Susan would sometimes then move into composing the next section and then Jane would actually cut to the music. It was a collaborative process that worked in both ways, and that is definitely unique to dance film.

Collusion Music Australia and Jonas Hill:

Collusion Music Australia played Susan’s composition, which was recorded and mixed by Jonas Hill and then handed over ready for the final found mix. But the Foley, and atmosphere had to also be added.

Sound Design: Sound design was an eye opener, but I learnt so much about sound in the final stages of Ward of State. Sound is essentially half of the film. The score was sounding great, but it’s a dance film, and it also required all the film aspects such as Foley, and atmosphere.

When you make a dance film (or even a regular film) it’s not just about marrying the dancing and cinematography. The other important ingredient is sound. Under the umbrella of sound there three very important things to include. I have to thank my brother (who is a film director) for his mentorship here.

1. The score We had that under control to a point, but as I mentioned above, as Jane’s edit changed (using sections from various takes), the score also needed to change. This worked both ways as Susan would compose a section, and Jane would try to cut to the score, but then a change in the edit would see a change to the score. It was  a collaboration between the editor, and composer in this regard.

2. Foley Sounds of actual things occurring such as the sound of the dancer hitting the floor when they fall, or the sound of the curtain dropping. This is a whole job on its own. Three weeks prior to the premiere of the film (the week of my show Flaunt), the person who was engaged to do the sound design decided it was not for him to do, and left me with a USB with just a hand full of recordings. I tried to find someone to pick the job, but there was not enough time, so I had to learn quickly!

Using sound from “in-camera” and from my iPhone! Every sound was layered into Final Cut Pro. The meant editing out the sounds of talking on set, and matching the live in-camera sound from camera 2. The main camera did not record sound. I also had to access the sounds recorded on my iPhone – which I recorded for reference of choreography! It was strange because at the time, I had a hunch that I would need to use these files for reference, but I certainly didn’t think it would be for doing the sound design myself. I ended up actually using some of the sounds I recorded on my phone because the quality of the microphone is better than in the film camera. However, there were still sections where I had no sound to reference. Rehearsal footage did not sound realistic, so that meant trying to re-create the sounds. I was out of my league here.

Re-creating the dance for Foley with Kara. I had been recommended to work with a Foley artist called Kara who came over to Mill Street Studios and recorded the dancers performing the movement. It had been many months since the shoot, and the dancers would have to re-learn the choreography. Furthermore, lead dancer Richard Causer had been back in London for many months at this point, so dancer Gabe Comerford kindly offered to learn Richard’s movements. Fortunately, Libby McDonnell was in Brisbane, and Libby and Gabe re-in enacted some scene while we recorded the sound in 5.1 digital and 2.1 with Kara. We had a few laughs over this process as Gabe did his best to impersonate Richard (even down to his voice).

3. Atmos: All films require atmosphere to enhance the mood in places. This is not left to the composer or to the Foley artists. It needs to be done by the sound designer. I had to be that person. I was able to access a database with lots of available atmos. From here these were layered into my timeline, and listened to it over and over again as I tweaked it. The project at this stage then looked like this:

Final Mix The final stage was the final mix which occurred at Cutting Edge in Brisbane as i needed to have the sound professionally mixed and mastered. That meant setting the levels of the score, Foley, and Atmos. At Cutting Edge, they also fixed the placement and treatment of some of the sounds I had layered in, and placed effects on certain sounds.

We re- recorded some of the sounds that didn’t sound right including the “slops” sounds of the meals the convent girls ate. Rosco’s left over curry was perfect to achieve these sounds.The final master was exported at 24fps and 25fps because I was going to need both frame rates for the film.

Colour grade:

Before the edit and sound could be put together, the final edit had to be colour graded. Colour grading is the process of altering and enhancing the colour of a motion picture, video image, or still image, electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. This is to ensure that the entire film has the right tones, and that shot colours and depths match up. For example, the range of depth of blacks might be increased, or a particular hue removed.  This is very involved process of colouring every shot selected. There was over 1000 edits in the 30-minute film and took about 3 or 4 days.

The DCP: A Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema audio, image, and data streams. A DCP is the digital equivalent of a 35mm film print.  It is what you give to a commercial theatre so that they can screen your movie on a digital (also known as “D-Cinema”) projector. Like a 35mm print, a DCP is a worldwide standard.  If you walk into any D-Cinema theatre, anywhere in the world, they can play your DCP without a problem.

Once the DCP is created, it takes time to be “ingested” into the cinema’s projector, so I had to take it to the cinemas a week before the screening because checking it is crucial. Things can go wrong. Fortunately, all was good for the Ward of State DCP.

Screening Ward of State: As expected, there was a lot to organise for the screening. It was much like inviting people to a live show, with a longer list of people to include on the complimentary list. Jane Wallace designed the posters and premiere screening special poster, and we had them printed and distributed. Tickets were sold through try booking. Most were free tickets, but the sales supported the cost of the hire of the theatre for the two screenings.

Adam Tucker hosted the event as well as a brief Q&A at the conclusion of the film. As always, he did an amazing job. Most of the cast was present, as were most of the crew and team.

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Over 300 people attended the premiere with 200 in the first screening at 7pm (capacity) and 100 people in the second screening at 8:30 on the 10th of December 2014 at the New Farm Cinemas. Some of my family members (who I had never met) but that who I had connected with through making the project surprised me by attending.  It was very exciting for everyone involved to see the final product.

Recently “CinéWomen” (made comments on Ward of State saying: We have been really impressed with your dance film, and we appreciate the way you capture subtle, unconscious emotional reactions, as well as your refined cinematography and choreography reminding us of Pina Bausch’s Die Klage der Kaiserin.”

The next step was to submit the film into some Dance film festivals and see how it would fare.

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Journey of making Ward of State

Part 3: Cast, Characters, & Rehearsals

After so much research came the planning and preproduction stage. That included location scouting, script development, creative development and sharing of visual references, costumes, finding the right people to shoot the project, not to mention casting of convent girls parts, scheduling rehearsals, finding studio space, and about a three page list of “to dos” in 8 point font! And last, but not least, there were rehearsals. For me, that is the most exciting part. Photo from day one of the shoot – photo by Bob Dobson.

Casting:

The dancers had to be convincing performers, have the right look and movement style for the part. As I had decided to focus more on the story of the parents, Richard Causer and Libby McDonnell were cast in this role.

The Ward of State story was evolving to be that the father character would be a stepfather of the girl (and there wasn’t a step father in my family story).  Some aspects of my Nan’s father were kept (being a performer and entertainer mostly, probably suave and creative), but his character was developed from other people stories, which were told to me in confidence. Because I don’t know what my great grandfather was really like, I needed to draw aspects of this character from elsewhere, and it was good to create a character from a mish-mash of stories.

Chafia Brooks and Mariana Paraizo were cast as the hero girl (daughter/ stepdaughter) and her best friend who becomes a protective mother figure in the convent.

These four dancers formed the four lead characters (Richard Causer, Chafia Brooks, Libby McDonnell, and Mariana Parizo). Their biogs are on the Pozible fund raising campaign http://www.pozible.com/project/28432/105044

Four photos below are from Bob Dobson’s behind the scenes photos:

Below: Richard Causer: Photo by Bob Dobson

Below: Libby McDonnell. Photo by Bob Dobson

Below: Chafia Brooks. Photo by Bob Dobson

Below: Mariana Paraizo. Photo by Bob Dobson

I first worked with Richard Causer and Chafia Brooks back in April 2002 when my brother Grant and I held an audition for Darren Hayes’ Crush Music Video, and I first worked with Libby McDonnell in 2005 in my “The Factory” Show. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve worked together since, but there have been numerous projects. Over the years Chafia, Lib and Richard have become close friends, and It’s been amazing to watch their careers develop as well as also see them grow as people.

It was such a great thing to reunite with these three to work together again. There are always lots of laughs in rehearsal (even despite the serious subject matter of the work). The only gloomy thing about working together is saying goodbye at the end of the project. This time, Richard flew back to London, Chafia flew back to Melbourne, and Libby went back to the numerous creative endeavors she’s working on. Mariana Paraizo was a wonderful new addition to the team, and was an absolute delight to work with.

There were also four part-timers on board: (below photos are by FenLan Photography)

The work being a narrative required a few diverse and colourful characters including:

Below: Head Nun Liz Whelan, photo by FenLan Photography

and doubling as Nuns, and older convent girls, were: Kirri Webb, (photo by FenLan Photography)

Sarah Fitzgerald in Nun fatigues (photo by FenLan Photography)

Below: Last but definitely not least, Frances Hannaway, who also doubled as Nun, convent girl, and as child’s services government authority figure. (photo by FenLan Photography

It was important to have a few parts understudies. Even Richard Causer jumped in as an understudy of the Nuns.  He called himself a “Nunderstudy”. More about the Nuns in another edition.

With all of the above dancers, sometimes I’d forget to tell them what a great rehearsal or take they have done… just because I assume they know. I’m used to giving a few more corrections I guess. Furthermore, this team was a genuinely lovely group to work with. They all helped out in ways beyond the call. They were aware of the limited time and workload I had. Most of them/ their families/ partners even contributed to the Pozible campaign. They worked ridiculously hard and long hours! They were spectacular!

Casting Convent Girls:

I’m sure some people were worried when I said I was casting children and teenagers, because it’s simply a given that a younger person (even a tertiary dance graduate) isn’t at the level of a professional dancer. However, the work is situated in a convent of girls, and it would have been very strange to have an entirely cast of professional adult dancers playing 7 year old girls.

The idea was to see the girls when they were younger, and take the audience on journey of the story – seeing them as younger girls and later as older girls.

A series of auditions were held for the convent girls. The girls were aged between 7 and 15 and were sourced from various training institutions in Brisbane. These girls formed two casts – a younger version and an older version of the girls.

The girls were cast based on variety of things. And this was based much more than on their dancing ability. The dancing wasn’t going to be hard core – that was for the leads. But they needed to be good dancers so that simple movement was done well. Secondly, the girls needed to have acting skills, and they had to speak to camera, and look suitable on camera. Thirdly, their suitability of their ‘look’ for the part. I wanted a variety of shapes and sizes and ages, from a mix of ethnic backgrounds (but they couldn’t be too tall either).

Two of the girls were cast as younger versions of the hero girl and her best friend because they (Chafia and Mariana) needed to be seen at a younger age.

Below: Savannah Foran-McDaniel and Kahlee Wadell.

I was more interested in matching their movement style and expression, gesture, body types, rather than having identical faces to their older selves. There’s no point having an identical face if they can’t dance.

Inspiration from images researched:

In so many photos that I researched from the 1930’s line and repetition were noticeable traits. Here’s some examples:

Photos are of St Vincent’s Nudgee in 1928 (http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/inside_life_in_childrens_homes_and_institutions/work)

Photo above – inspiration from images filtering into rehearsal by incoprorating the sense of  line, and repetition in the work, as well as including some simple canons. For the convent girl line cannons, I wanted to focus emotional content and and simplicity in the movement rather than pack it full of new-fangled moves.

Experience of the project for the younger girls:

Given the girls who were on board for ‘experience’ as the budget was far from a commercial budget and the girls were not paid (and keep in mind I didn’t paying myself either), I thought it would be more valuable for the girls to have a holistic experience of such a project. Rather than just spoon-feed them the movement (although things were locked down later), there was character development workshops, phrases learnt that I showed them how to convert to a simplified wall phrase, and gave them examples of how they might be put on the spot, or need to learn something quickly on the day. Much of what I developed with them was culled or simplified (which is always the case). I wanted them to experience the whole process of being on board such a project.

They experienced lots of waiting around and late nights, but hopefully enjoyed observing the professional dancers work and rehearse. I hope it was a unique and valuable experience for them. I was impressed with their decorum and enthusiasm.

Below is a photo by FenLan – rehearsing the girls prior to a take on day one (there’s some older girls in these photos too)

Below: Two of the youngest girls: Lucy Chin (6 years old) and Molly Neal (4 years old) who were super cute and also very professional for their years!

In terms of the cast, there were extras when we shot in Toowoomba, but I’ll mention them in a later blog.

Rehearsals:

Rehearsals occurred over a very short but intense period of 14 rehearsals prior to a 6-day shoot. We rehearsed at The Judith Wright Centre mostly, as well as at other 4 other rehearsal spaces in Brisbane, as well as on location. Rehearsing back at the Judith Wright Centre was fantastic, and Ausdance Queensland’s Making Space programme meant the rehearsal space was more affordable. Some of the rehearsal spaces were much more costly, so I was appreciative of the Judith Wright Centre and Ausdance Qld’s support.

Rehearsal time is valuable. It’s costly, and often there are other things that encroach on rehearsals. Sometimes people expect to do press, photographs, costume fittings; schedule various meetings, phone calls, or visits during this time.  Not only does this use up valuable rehearsal time, but also it can be hard to jump from ‘creative brain’ to ‘admin brain’. So aside from some necessary hair extension testing (which went in the creative brain category anyway), rehearsals were uninterrupted. We even had time to have discussions about character and intention too! I also allowed time for rehearsal on location, which was an important part of the choreographic process.

iphone snap rehearsing at the Judith Wright Centre:

Processes

In working with the leads, there was a lot of discussion of character. Brian Lucas also came in and cast his eye over the work and did some work shopping with the characters in context to the movement in mind. As most sections of movement were developed in context to the part, or manipulated in context to the characters and narrative, having Brian look over this was incredibly valuable.

Working with dancers that I’ve worked with numerous times before, meant that we could make the work over a shorter time frame. They all knew my style of movement, knew a few of my phrases were drawing from. The flip side was that I could trust them with tasks on these phrases, and that I could come back and continue to manipulate this or create a duet from this such was the case with the Chafia and Mariana dorm room duets. Some parts were redeveloped from other choreographic developments or work that I wanted to re-visit.

There was lots of manipulation of movement for the space. For example, a duet that was created for against two walls in a studio, had to later be translated to a room with two beds, and lots of bird poo. That was something I enjoyed most (translating the movement and working with the space)

Below: 7am rehearsal on set – translating the section from the above (in rehearsals). These three photos were snapped by director Sarah-Jane Woulahan. Given the amount of bird poo, I think Chafia and Mariana were thinking ‘you’ve got to be kidding’. But it was nothing compared to other projects in the past! Chafia and Mariana were good sports about it.

I also enjoyed choreographing with the camera, lens, and framing in mind, thinking about how it would look in the space and on camera. Rehearsal footage after most rehearsals was uploaded to Director Sarah-Jane Woulahan and DOP Kevin Holloway, who were not based in Brisbane.

Below are a few more behind the scenes photos from the first day of shooting – photos by FenLan:

In the next blog I’ll focus on the collaboration with the creative team  who work behind the scenes (producer, director, DOP, Production design, 3rd AD, Sound, hair make up, costumes etc etc) with more behind the scenes photos too.

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The journey of making Ward of State

PART 2 – Research and development of the idea.

In June 2012, I visited the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne.  It was suggested it as a potential location for the ‘next project’ by someone who knew I like old buildings.

I’m a terrible photographer, but here are photos I took on my phone when i visited… just to give a sense of the space.

Abbotsford Convent was definitely an eerie place. I was given a guided tour of various parts of the convent , which is now mostly in use by artists and community groups. I wasn’t interested in the newly refurbished spaces, but rather in the older parts that were decaying and that smelt old and musty.

I didn’t know that much about the history of the space when I visited. It wasn’t until I did more research that I became aware of some things that had happened to children at the Abbotsford Convent when it functioned as a convent and industrial school. You can read more about that here:

http://abbotsfordblog.com/memories-on-abbotsford-convent-on-an-ebay-discussion-forum/

“The Victorian Government estimates that more than 100,000 children were placed in institutional or foster care in Victoria between 1928 and 2003 and over half of these children were made wards of the State… A large number of Victorian State Wards have experienced ward-ship that has had a profound influence on their health, well-being and disconnection from their families”

 “Most were not orphans. They were removed from their families when poverty, parental separation or neglect resulted in family breakdown, or because their parents were not married, or because they were deemed by social workers and police to be in ”moral danger'”.   – Kate Gaffney – The Age October 29, 2009.

Strange timing:

Strangely timed, the week that I visited Abbotsford, my Mum and her cousin Judith, who have been doing research into our family genealogy, had learnt that my Nan’s Grandmother “Sarah” was a ward of the state in Victoria in the 1860’s and 1870’s. Judith had found the records of Sarah and her brother John. This is Sarah’s record which commenced from 1864 (when she was 8 years old) and details where she were stationed and information about her “sentence”:

Victoria had no legislation relating to the ‘care’ of ‘neglected’ children until 1864. Before this date, under the Criminal Law (Infants) Act 13 Vic., No.21 1849, children could be assigned by the Supreme Court to persons willing to undertake their ‘maintenance and education’. The Immigrants’ Aid Society was responsible for the ‘care’ of hundreds of ‘neglected’ children before the 1864 Neglected and Criminal Children Act came into being.

Sarah had spent her childhood in numerous convents and institutions in Victoria (including Princes Bridge mentioned below). Given the timing of this discovery and my visit, I became more interested in making work around this subject matter.

The Immigrants Home was the name early colonists gave to ramshackle buildings on either side of St Kilda Road at Princes Bridge. Over time, the Immigrants Home came to serve a similar function to an English workhouse, operating a night shelter, convalescent hospital and providing shelter for deserted wives, single mothers, and the disabled and ‘neglected’ children. In 1865, conditions at the buildings at Princes Bridge were very poor and unsuitable. An Inquiry described the buildings as ‘crumbling into decay, infested with bugs and so dried up that a single spark might execute a conflagration…’

http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000351b.htm

A lengthy sentence:

I didn’t realise how much like a prison sentence Sarah’s records read (and all children who were wards of the state for that matter). Although the children had nothing to be sentenced for, and had done nothing wrong (neither had their parents in so many cases too), but many were raised to feel as if they had done something wrong – like criminals. This was often reinforced by the institutions where they were placed. But in many of  the worst cases, it was the  institutions, and people who were supposed to care for the children who displayed the criminal behaviour toward the children. In my wider research, I looked at many stories and examples. This is one of the more disturbing stories that I read:   http://www.smh.com.au/national/come-clean-on-chambers-of-horrors-sufferers-plead-20120818-24fqx.html

For most children, the  social stigma of being a ward of the state had long lingering ramifications later in life. For a girl to want to become a nurse (in the case of my Nan’s sister), if you were a ward of the state, it was simply not permitted. And that is ridiculous.

In many ways being a ward of the state was similar to having a prison sentence or criminal record. Through my research I’ve learnt that things that a child could become a ward of the state were:

• Following the death of parents or guardian
• Following divorce and the mother could not afford to support to care for them
• On the advice of a local community member (or neighbor)
• Brought here against their will by extended family members
• As protection against a family member
• After having a child out of wedlock
• If parents were imprisoned
• For loitering
• For vagrancy (living in poverty without employment)
• Children of parents who failed to keep a tidy house
• For being too attractive and considered at risk of being taken advantage of
• If over developed for their age & considered at risk of being taken advantage of
• New migrants would leave their children in institutions whilst they got on their feet
• They were children of mixed race parents

 I wondered why Sarah was a ward of the state. I was somewhat surprised to learn that Sarah’s brother’s records stated that their mother was in Pentridge Prison, noting ‘a lengthy sentence’.

In February and March I made two visits to Melbourne. One was to continue my research into my family history at the Public Records Office in Victoria, and the other was to attend Dance Massive. I continued to do research while in Melbourne, and I spent a few days at the Public Records office of Victoria looking at the female prison records, trying to find out who Sarah’s mother was.  Some progress was made with that research, but that’s a whole blog in itself.

Old Maps

Maybe I have watched The Goonies too many times, but in wanting to know more about my Nan’s grandmother Sarah, I found an old map of Melbourne in the 1870’s and found the street where she had lived for a short while. The reason for the old map was that the cross section of streets no longer exists, so I had to find an older map. The first map I found was an 1850’s map, but it didn’t even have the street drawn in yet. However I found a map from 1871 that had the streets shown as existing (above). It was exciting to spend some time walking around Melbourne and trying to find the street where she was listed as living and to imagine life back then. I have to admit, it was all pretty hard to imagine. A DeLorean with a flux capacitor (fluxing) would have been much easier.

Photo above: the old 1971 map. Photo below: me on my expedition (yes, i used the old map to find the location, rather than an iphone).

Closer to home:

My experience of visiting Abbotsford Convent, and later researching Abbotsford played on my mind a lot. Initially I was interested in my Great Great Grandmother’s life as a starting point for the film, and Abbotsford Convent seemed like an ideal location, especially given the reaction I had to the space there. But as I mentioned in the previous blog, I wasn’t successful in any of the submissions to make the project happen, but I’d kept developing the Ward of State project (in my head anyway), and my research continued.

Closer to home, and not as far back in time, I knew that my grandmother (who I called Nan) had been raised as a ward of the state in Queensland in the 1930’s. It was quite strange that my Nan’s grandmother had been a ward of the state too. But my Abbotsford visit led me to wonder about my Nan’s time as a ward of the state. It was something she didn’t talk about. The ramifications for her and her sisters lasted a lifetime. I also researched the street when my Nan lived before she was a ward of the state. And that was in West End in Brisbane. So much closer to home, and very surreal to think about.

Paralleling this, my ideas for the dance film were evolving to be more about the story of the parents of the girl. I started considering why my Nan’s parents (Emily and Charles) were not able to look after their children/ and why my Nan and her two older sisters were taken. This significantly impacted on the development of the story. I also became interested looking at thing from both sides of the story –  from the children’s perspective, as well as questioning what must have been going on for the parents. I made a few interesting discoveries with researching my Nan’s father Charles Thyer, which I blogged about in an earlier post here: https://www.clairemarshall.com.au/278/.

Compared to my Nan’s father’s story, what I have learned of my Nan’s mother was definitely more tragic and ties in a lengthy struggle with mental illness after the event of her children being taken, which may have existed before that.  Sadly, Emily (my Nan’s mother, ie. my great grandmother) died in the late 1950’s in Toowoomba’s Baillie Henderson Hospital. My Mum recently shared the records she obtained a few years ago. It was a very surreal thing to read, and I felt very sad for Emily.

I wondered how differently things would have been for Emily today with so much more support and understanding of mental illness. To put things into perspective, this is an interesting link about Mental Health in the 1930’s. http://prezi.com/fcbq6xa4cdzi/mental-illness-in-the-1930s/

Secrets of the past can’t escape Google.

Even the deceased can’t escape the era of modern digitisation! A search on trove.nla.gov.au can produce some interesting results. I found some newspaper clippings detailing accidents reported of my Nan’s sisters. The clippings I found suggest that neglect may have been a factor.  But then again, the incidents may have been just typical childhood accidents. But maybe the fact that the two accidents reported had occurred quite close together, as well as the injuries being quite significant, suggests that neglect was the case. That was somewhat sad to contemplate.

I started creating character profiles for Emily and Charles, trying to understand what went wrong. But just like trying to imagine like in the 1870’s, I also found it hard to imagine life in the 1930’s. It’s not that far back. They were just like us, but society was different. There were different attitudes towards lots of things – particularly mental illness.

While I fail to understand the reasons that things happened in the case of my grandmother’s parents, research and other people’s personal stories infiltrated the development of the script. It didn’t seem right to base the entire story on people when I didn’t have the entire facts or know the full story. It’s a bit unfair on them. Below: discoveries of above mentioned news clippings on the trove.nla.gov.au site. It was quite an interesting but sad thing to read these because my family has never really had any conclusive information about why my Nan and her two sisters were taken. I wasn’t sure about posting these. But given things were never spoken about back in the day, and  that I’m making a film based on the subject matter, I think it’s an important discovery to mention.

Other peoples stories and additional research:

Adding to this was the continued research with some people sharing their stories. This continued to impact on the project right through to when we were shooting.  And there were also some really valuable resources on the internet and links that were recommended by people. Here are some that were particularly valuable in my research:

•  http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/qld/about.html
• http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/inside_life_in_childrens_homes_and_institutions/home
• http://www.forgottenaustralians.org.au/index.html
• http://www.clan.org.au/index.php

The time researching and developing the idea definitely resulted in richer story with greater depth of the characters than if I’d created the project in 2012. All the above research had been simmering away in my mind, and I put together a draft of a story (with lots of pictures and references) that I sent to director Sarah-Jane Woulahan, which she translated into a more  formal script, and helped develop it further.

In my next blog, I will share more about the making of the project!

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THE JOURNEY OF MAKING WARD OF STATE

 PART 1 – From funding rejections to a Pozible Campaign.

Jump back to the end of September/ beginning of October this time last year. I had just received 3 Arts funding rejections to make the Ward of State dance film. Back then the project focused on the story of the girl rather than considering the story of her parents, and I had planned to make it in Melbourne rather than Brisbane. Rather than doing the usual thing that I do – which is to do more funding applications to try to make the project, I decided I needed to address some health concerns.

Over the year, (2012) I’d been experiencing a lot of pain that had been increasing painful. I was taking a lot of painkillers to get though the day. I guess I was just trying to keep up the rat race of what I do. It has been said that dance training builds high pain thresholds. But by the time I took myself into hospital, my appendix had burst before they could remove it, and there was a few other nasty things found too. Needless to say, October to December was pretty much a write off with two hospital stays (6 days, and then back in for 10 days), and a few months recovery at home. As the doctor said, my case was the worst he’d seen in a surviving person. He said I was very lucky to still be alive. I wasn’t going to dispute that.

Here’s a photo of a drawing that I sketched at the hospital showing my perception of time there (sense of humor in tact). I used this drawing on a thank you card that I gave the doctor. It was probably the strangest card he’d ever received, but he had a sense of humor thankfully.

Pulse:

I was also allowed out of hospital in time to attend my showing of my Pulse Dance Film at the Brisbane Powerhouse in late November. I had joked that I’d be sporting my hospital gown, cannula, drip and doc martens if necessary. But thankfully that wasn’t the case. Pulse was nominated for an Australian Dance Award and made the final four shortlisted nominations in the dance film category. I attended the Awards in Canberra this year, which was a very exciting event to attend. For me, it was significant to have been shortlisted among some of the most respected people involved in dance in Australia.

Pulse was a creative development that I made at the Brisbane Powerhouse in May 2012 with support from a small grant from Ausdance Qld.  The idea sort of just sprung to life as we made it.

What started out as an idea to redevelop some movement and record it, grew into a artistically shot piece. My brother Grant Marshall and his partner Jane Wallace kindly came on board to help.  Grant and Jane watched the piece choreographed in the space, listened to my ideas and then made suggestions. It was shot it on their 5D and 7D cannons.

Informed by images of the Brisbane Powerhouse when it functioned as an industrial power station,  the dancers, movement and costuming were all inspired by these old images that I researched.  I particularly liked the photos of the  turbines, and the sleek mechanical look of  the powerstation.

Dancers were: Libby McDonnell, Miranda Zeller and Anthony Trojman.

Making Pulse was definitely was an interesting process and ignited my interest in making dance films inspired by history and/or from building with interesting history. I realised how much I enjoyed researching spaces, and how much of thrill it is to explore a building. I also learned how important it was to learn to edit my own work – as a part of the choreographic process. Jane Wallace and Grant Marshall encouraged me to do this, and gave me some pointers and tuition. My plan from here was to continue to edit my projects and to develop these skills on each subsequent project (with someone to mentor me or guide me if need be).

You can view a cut down of Pulse here: Pulse cut down

Vault:

In August 2012, I made Vault at the Old Museum building in Brisbane. Again, the project was a result of research into the building and its history. Vault was definitely a step up from Pulse in terms of time and planning, and looking at it from a short film development project rather than worked out on the day. However, it was still quite simple – being contained within the one location.

Dancers: Michelle Barnett, Jake Kuzma, Matthew Nguyen, Frances Hannaway, David Jimenez.

3^rd Dance Film:

After making Pulse and Vault, I knew that the 3^rd dance film was going to be a bigger step up. When I had the idea to make a dance film about a girls who were wards of the state, (after researching my family history and visiting Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne) Film director Sarah-Jane Woulahan was the first call. Sarah-Jane ‘s area of interest is narrative films, and she also very much like period pieces (particularly from the 1930’s and 1940’s).  But given the funding rejections in 2012, and my health, the Ward of State project was pretty much shelved. I thought it would be something that I would come back to in 2014 or 2015.

Deciding to focus on live work – Slowdive

I needed to reduce my workload for the sake of my health. So I decided to just focus on one major project for 2013 – to remount my Slowdive (immersive live dance work about nightclubs ). I planned to remount this in September 2013, and planned to time it with some other industry events occurring then. Unfortunately Slowdive was not successful in being included in the programs I’d hoped, but I was still determined to remount it because there was a demand for it.  I had also spent quite a lot of time editing footage of the original Slowdive footage – to use for promotional and remount purposes.

Initially Slowdive was going to be presented in a nightclub until the Brisbane Powerhouse became an option as a potential venue. My preference was the Powerhouse for many reasons. This was a bit of a waiting game, and unfortunately, the Brisbane Festival had first jibs on the Brisbane Powerhouse.  So when the Brisbane Festival decided they wanted the venue, it meant going back to the nightclub location options that I had originally penciled dates with. However, a long string of let downs continued and even the previously negotiated nightclub venues closed their doors to me. Despite my best efforts, every avenue failed. I was frustrated as time was running out. I had dancers flights booked and fees negotiated.  Was I worried? Yes!

Decisions:

My instinct was to hold off on the Slowdive show and bring the next project in the pipeline forward. And the next project was the Ward of State dance film.

Risks:

There was 3 major problems and risks with making the last minute decision of ceasing production on Slow Dive and moving into Ward of State:

1: The film was going to cost about twice the amount of remounting the live work SlowDive.

2: I had a very short time frame to fund raise it and

3. The development time would have to cross into the fundraising time. This is without a doubt the biggest “don’t” for anyone with any form of common sense. It was a huge risk to take. But I had to give it a go, and give it my best.

Pozible Campaign:

A lot of people told me I wouldn’t succeed in reaching the fundraising target. Some said I’d not be able make the project with such a short preproduction timeframe. But the dancers originally engaged to do SlowDive believed I’d be able to make it happen. As the Pozible campaign continued, it became evident that it wasn’t just the cast and crew who wanted to see the project happen. There was tremendous support from friends, family, industry, peers, audiences of my live work, and a few people I didn’t even know. The experience of the campaign had some  highs and lows. The suspense of reaching the target, some scary days with no contributions, some day some incredible surprises with large amounts of support from out of the blue were all a part of the rollercoaster ride. People would often share their personal stories. That was very special. I was elated that the Pozible target was met a week before the deadline, and that it even exceeded the amount.

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So I’ve finally got around to doing a blog. But what to blog about for the first time? One of my projects? That seems a bit naïf and self-focused for my first post at the least.

So I thought I’d blog about something that existed before my time, and that I believe was an important part of the history of dance in Brisbane and Queensland.  I believe that it is important to sometimes look back and learn a little from the past.

The Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company that existed in Brisbane from 1971 until approximately 1980. About two years ago, I decided to start casually researching the company in my spare time. Given such limited spare time, it has been a bit of a stop/start project, but worthwhile nonetheless. There is still much to learn, but I thought I’d share some of my findings.

As an artist I believe it is important to know about work created before your time (especially in your home town)  – not just so you don’t look like an idiot when you name a new work “Three Women”(as made in the past), to identity any lineage (in the form of ideas, movement, motivation) passed down, as well as to have an understanding about where your own work sits in context.

Unfortunately there is little documented about the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company. If you ask any tertiary dance student in Brisbane, (if they have listened in dance history 101), they would be able to recount the history of  the Queensland Ballet, Dance North and Expressions. But not the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company. Sadly, most know nothing of it. But that’s a fair call. Try googling it. Nothing right!

In a similar way to how it frustrates me that we’ve lost so many old buildings in Brisbane, it also frustrates me that there’s limited research/ information documented about this company. This has led me to want to know more about its work; it’s members, and their experiences.

For me, what makes the company particularly interesting is the cultural and political landscape  in which the company existed. A particularly conservative time in Queensland, I wondered how the company’s works were received by audiences, and I was particularly interest to know how they were supported financially.

One thing I was able to find was an article in Woman’s Day. Yes, that’s right, Woman’s Day! And with a double page spread on a contemporary dance company!

I found this documentary:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/08/08/3288475.htm

At 26:45 minutes into the story, the report speaks of Utah’s philanthropic endeavors, and says that: “Utah financed grants totaling 1.5 million that year” and that they “Financed grants totaling $50,000 Grant to the Australia Opera Company to which the Utah mining company itself added another $200, 000″. Furthermore, in the ABC Four Corners documentary, Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen faces pointed questions from reporter Paul Lyneham about his ownership of coal shares. Lyneham also provokes a fierce response from the mining company, Utah Development Corporation, by questioning its relationship with the Queensland government.

This article from 1976 (attached) features a photo of the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company and mentions that their support through the Utah mining company’s Utah Foundation set up in 1975 – just like in the documentary!

(from http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55477253)

The connection between the ABC Four Corners story and the article (below) not only gives insight into how the company was funded, but to the political landscape of the time.

Seeing a contemporary dance story in Woman’s Day (probably between recipe pages for chicken Kiev, and adverts for sun tanning oils) I quickly realised this ‘story’ was clearly also an advertisement for Utah – in their ‘feel good” advertising propaganda attempts (mentioned earlier in the Four Corners program).

Finally in context to current dance in Queensland, as I’ve started to track down members and research the company (slowly), I have learned that the company had an excellent reputation for making innovative dance work.  I have learned that had some very high profile guest choreographers make work on the company. It seemed there was a different resident choreographer per year.

Graeme Watson was the company choreographer in 1974. When I asked him about how the work of the company was received given conservative Brisbane in 1974 (think even pre punk times), I was surprised to learn that it was in fact very well received; because audiences were hungry to see dance, partially because they had little to compare it to, but mostly because the company was making some really great edgy work on par with other leading dance companies.

It’s quite shameful that I expected to hear otherwise. But I have to admit, that for as long as I can remember, Queensland has had a bit of a hard time proving itself on par with dance in other states. Yes, maybe there was some average dance work made in the 80′s and 90′s. But I don’t think this is the case anymore and in fact that the likes of Expressions Dance Co and Dance North are being so well received and making such successful work. It frustrates me that it is still such a battle for Queensland dance makers in many ways.

I can confidently say that Qld Modern & Contemporary Dance Company was a leader of dance in Brisbane and Queensland in the 1970′s, making innovative work with a strong audience base that toured internationally and regionally. What I have discovered so far about the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company has been very affirming – Learning that Queensland dance had very solid and reputable history and that Queensland was in fact a leader of innovative dance in previous years.

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Cutting a section from my dancefilm “Vault”, I found it interesting how differently dance reads on film in two different edits of the same duet.

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Superficially, Vault was Inspired by ‘progressive eclecticism’ of the architecture of the Old Museum Building. Vault is also drew inspiration from Patricia Mather’s “A Time for a Museum: The History of the Queensland Museum 1862 – 1886”, specifically some of the people/ characters who worked there. The cast themselves become relics of the space, passing by each other sharing memories of the space them inhabit.

In 1983 I remember my Dad dropping me to the Old Museum after a ballet exam to catch up with my primary school class excursion. I got lost finding my class, and the sense of exploring the building is layered into the abstract narrative of Vault. 

In 1983 I remember being fascinated a painting of a dinosaur on a wall. It wasn’t a graffiti job, but rather looked like a painting by child. I wondered why it was on the wall of the museum. Filming Vault in 2012, I was keen to see if the dinosaur painting was still there. It was!! Furthermore, I noticed that it was signed by M.Oakden. The name Margaret Oakden appeared in Mather’s “A Time for a Museum”. I was able to get in touch with Margaret Oakden and ask her about the painting. Margaret Oakden worked at the museum from 1972- 1980 as a staff artist who would prepare prints for marketing by the museum. Margaret informed that that in her son had won a drawing competition and was invited to do the dinosaur mural. Mystery solved.  

Some behind the scene images of the Vault shoot by Gemma Blake and Frances Hannaway:

Cast: Michelle Barnett, Jake Kuzma, Frances Hannaway, Matthew Overberg

Cinematographer: Kevin Holloway
Director: Piia Wirsu
Edit: Claire Marshall
Score: Jason Chin
Lighting: Simon Cool and Daniel Endicott

Some stills from frame:

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Ideas behind the development of “Pulse”

Short Montage of “Pulse”:

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Pulse was created at the Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse and was choreographed around concrete support beams, graffiti walls and open areas, rather than on a traditional stage. With an abstract narrative, Pulse also drew inspiration from images of bygone days when the Powerhouse functioned as an industrial power station.

At the time of making Pulse, I was interested in making short dancefilm projects that were inspired by the space, or informed by the history of the space where they were created. 

Pulse was a collaboration with my brother Director Grant Marshall, and his partner Jane Wallace who also mentored me with editing the film. The film was shown at the Brisbane Powerhouse in November 2012.

The creative development component of Pulse was created with financial support from an Ausdance Qld Creative Development Grant, & as a Brisbane Powerhouse Powerlab. 

*Australian Dance Award nominee 2013

Pulse choreography by Claire Marshall in collaboration with cast.

Cast: Libby McDonnell, Miranda Zeller & Anthony Trojman.

Cinematographer/ Director/ Mentors: Jane Wallace & Grant Marshall

Edit: Claire Marshall

Lighting: Simon Cook

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