The lead-up to screening Pulse felt like a race against time due to a number of factors.
Firstly, I quickly learned that editing took much longer than I anticipated. I was not just selecting the shorts for the dancing sequences – this took long enough as it was with up to 20 takes of each section to work through, but I was also changing the order of the sections and considering what B-roll footage I might use. As mentioned in the previous blog, I initially set out to just document some of my movement material because the audience always impacted this with my immersive work where the audience and the dancers shared the same performance space. However, before I realised it, two things had happened: I had started researching the history of the location, drawing inspiration from it and applying that to the movement, and I had shot listed and storyboarded the project. My brother Grant and his partner, Jane, both accomplished filmmakers, arrived to ‘film some dance’ and took one look at my planning and identified that I was making a film. Previously, I had no intention of this, but from that moment, I decided to embrace the idea. Little did I know at the time that this would be a game-changer in my career.
Secondly, in addition to life and teaching and other choreographic work that is necessary to survive, I had become ill – my appendix was about to burst which resulted in surgery and then a lengthy return to hospital after later sepsis. I was very lucky to survive. Consequently, when I was well enough, Grant and Jane would come to visit me in hospital and help guide me with some simple colour grading aspects and how to finish the export of my film. Thankfully, I had been permitted out of hospital with the cannula still in my arm and I was able to screen my film, Pulse, at the Brisbane Powerhouse where I had filmed it earlier in 2012.
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. 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 dance film 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 in 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 and as a Brisbane Powerhouse Powerlab.
Pulse choreography by Claire Marshall in collaboration with the cast.
Cast: Libby McDonnell, Miranda Zeller, & Anthony Trojman.
Cinematographer/ Director/ Mentors: Jane Wallace & Grant Marshall
Edit: Claire Marshall.
Lighting: Simon Cook
Pulse later was shortlisted as one of the four finalists for the film/ new media category of the Australian Dance Awards in 2013.
Short trailer:
