MISCHA BAKA: Mishka Beckmann

Showing posts with label Mishka Beckmann. Show all posts

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Dandenong Dance Film

Rebekah Stuart May 26, 2018 0

A visit to the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden with Mishka and Rebekah to make a dance film.

We explored a high angle view looking down on bodies rolling down hills. The rolling body picking up leaves and sticks as they cling to the dress was beautiful. The colours of autumn leaves were beautiful.

Some modern twerking dance moves made for an intriguing juxtaposition with the old English dresses and English style gardens.

Mishka's enthusiasm and glee when creating art is infectious and powerful. Her excitement can feel overwhelming and volatile, but it is a feeling that often arises in the excitement of making art, and it is good to become comfortable in its presence, allowing the work to flow with it, rather than against it.

Two people one swimsuit.

Rebekah Stuart May 26, 2018 0

After a big shoot in the hills we returned home to review rushes and explore a new idea. Mishka and Rebekah wearing one swimsuit. This is part of an ongoing project that uses the same swim suit as the consistent element in a series of movement explorations.

The concept: Products collect people.

This concept questions the idea that a consumer collects products in a unique process of cultivation and choice. The concept suggests that products are mass produced and exactly alike, and it is in fact a product that gathers unique and individual people into a collection to be claimed by a company, or the product itself. The swimsuit representing a singular product that varied individuals try to fit into and conform to.

Mishka and Rebekah in one swim suit, Mischa Baka

The swim suit inspired a dance that had Rebekah and Mishka appear as one body moving. The swim suit and their individuality vanished in this respect, the strangeness became normalised. They became a creature in their own right.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Saltbush Story telling and story listening.

Saltbush May 24, 2018 0

Mishka attended our 2^nd rehearsal to share stories with the teenage actors.
This was to model the type of personal stories we will have the characters in the film tell and set a tone for how they may be delivered. Mishka always tells her stories with heart and vulnerability.

Story telling and story listening.

Mishka is a great story teller, either stories form her life, or fantastical ones. She tells them with emotion and captivating vulnerability.

It feels like being chosen to hear a special secret when she tells a story. Our actors were enthralled by her stories.

I used the camera to film the actors listening, discussing how they can surrender to being watched by the camera. We could see that listening to a story opens you up and makes you vulnerable. This is what we captured, their vulnerability. The same vulnerability to be made available to the camera, the audience, and other actors when making our film.