Treatment--Jade Palmer

I'm not sure what to name my film yet, but for now we'll call it "Source of Emotions". In essence it is about where emotions come from, in relation to dance and music. It explores this quote from my past dance teacher: "Dancing to me is the physical manifestation of what I am feeling inside. Therefore, dance doesn't make me feel anything. Rather, it gives me an outlet to express whatever emotion I am experiencing." -- Mr. Patten. I would like to prove, through my film, that dance and music CAN invoke emotions, and also be a means for expressing emotions at the same time. I will begin the film with clips of dancers teaching/helping one another, and switch back and forth a few times between them and clips of musicians playing their instruments, showing their reactions and emotions. I may insert a few intertitles of quotes from Hans Richter's essay concerning feeling and movement. Next Mr. Patten's quote. Then clips of interviews of random people, speaking about where they believe emotions come from. To really illustrate my exploration, I will include silent shots of dancers performing, so that their emotions and expressions may be emphasized, and then I will transition to shots of them performing with sound, with verbal expression of emotion. I will fade in the audio file of an interview with a guitarist and fade out the sound of the dancers, with the dance scene still going. The interview clip will pertain to dance as well as the guitarist, to show the connection between dance and music. Cut to scene of interview with guitarist. Next, fade in audio file of interview with pianist over still shot of guitarist, and then cut to scene of interview with pianist, and flip back and forth between interview clips and clips of her playing piano. Cut to quickly changing clips of her expressions and emotions, placed over track of her playing piano. The film will finish out with the chorus of a song sung and played by the guitarist, while increasingly brief clips of dancers and musicians' expressions and emotions are flashed before audience's eyes. At the end of the chorus, the guitarist's face will appear on the screen and stay there, showing his reaction to the performance and allowing the audience to put a face with the performer. As far as my cinematographic approach goes, I hope to invoke emotion in my audience (you all) with the images and sound in the film to help prove my point, that dance and music invoke emotion, in addition to expressing it. I plan to use montage in order to overlap different sound files and images. With the interviews of random people, I will most likely use a 'talking heads' method and extract the sound of my questions as interviewer. With the musicians and dancers, I may leave the sound of me asking questions in as long as it is necessary. Transition will be important because I want the sound files to flow smootly together, and I want the film overall to be aesthetically pleasing, like a performance, and graduate in intensity from beginning to end, leaving the audience, hopefully, satisfied, or hungry for more!