These are my top 7 tips that can help you create beautiful choreography and talking videos at home. And no, you don’t need any fancy equipments to do the same. Your skills and good old Google together will help you create the most amazing dance videos.
- Get a notebook and pen and start writing down everything that inspires you – Look around for inspiration at your house, maybe clothes, nature, background, your own life, anything that excites you. Write it all down. There is nothing more powerful than writing every idea down. Make an idea book. You can always refer to it whenever you are out of ideas. Write down everything, what the character should look like, what the outfit will be like, what the camera work will be like, write down everything that comes to mind. Don’t ignore any tiny detail.
- Create a Spotify Playlist – This one hack helped me always have music ideas through my #97DayChallenge videos. Mornings are best for this. Get a cup of ginger water, or ginger tea, sit in your balcony, put your earphones on and just browse through Spotify. Create an idea dance playlist with every piece of music that sparks inspiration. Do this for an hour everyday and along with the notebook and pen you will have at least 20 choreographic ideas in detail.
- Edit the audio on Audacity – Different people function differently on this one. Personally for me, I like editing my track beforehand because I like to use a lot of voiceovers, sound effects and various kinds of edits that helps me further with my performance. Plus it creates a feeling of being ready with a ready track from the beginning to the end. Audacity is a free software that is very easy to use and is Mac and Windows compatible.
- Plan Your Outfit – I know so many dancers who shy away from making dance videos because they never think through the character look they want to create. Dance afterall is a visual presentation and if you are creating a dance video, the outfit will make a huge difference. Of course you don’t need to spend a single penny on it but rather get smart about how to create outfits with whatever you have at home. Use DIY inspiration from Pinterest, pieces of cloth and existing clothes in your house and get creative.
- Plan Your Location – Another reason why a dance choreography video at home never gets executed is because the location is never thought of. There are obvious spatial limitations that need to be thought of before creating a choreography. And honestly, you can get very creative with limited spaces. They say that limitations can sometimes force you to be very creative and think out of the box. So even if it is your tiny balcony, you can create very interesting dance videos for yourself.
- Choreograph bits and record them in your phone – Start with tiny choreography bits and keep recording them in your camera. It is very easy to forget choreography, especially if you are only person choreographing and also performing. Take ars many rough videos as you can . You can delete these rough videos once your choreography video is fully made.
- Edit and upload your video – You can use apps like Inshot on the phone (Iphone and Android) or apps like Imovie or Final Cut Pro on Macbook or Filmora on Windows to edit your video. Video edits are much simpler than you might think. A quick 15 minute tutorial teaching you how to edit will make you ready to start editing your first video.
PRO TIP : Do not EVER worry if your work is good enough. SHOW YOUR WORK. Don’t shy away from it. This is a beautiful lesson I learnt from the book series Steal Your Work By Austin Kleon.
Hope these tips help you to start your journey into creating art. Dance is genuinely happiness inducing and this is the best way to do more of it.
Love,
Priya
You can follow my Spotify playlist link for #97DayChallenge by clicking here. I’m sure you will get some amazing songs here for your next choreography.
