BEHIND THE SCENES OF "CHRYSALIS"

Creating Chrysalis took a lot of consideration. From securing the tree that I used to create the prayer flag staffs, to filming movement tests to prepare the dancer and the editor for the visua effects look of the film, alot of careful planning ahead of time. Finding the location was a key and difficult factor as well.

These images were taken in the Photo Lab at Cal Arts. Until this moment I did not know how perfect Weng-Chu, the Dance artist, would be to play this role in the film. I did know that the style of the performance was going to be inspired by Butoh. Weng Chu was mesmerizing when asked to interpret the peice. It was very informative this pre-test, not only because we were going to use in camera effects to achieve the wrapping of the fabric, but also to picture ahead of time what the tone of the film could be.

Butoh

Butoh (舞踏 Butō?) is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo. The art form is known to "resist fixity"[1] and be difficult to define; notably, founder Hijikata Tatsumi viewed the formalisation of butoh with "distress".[2] Common features of the art form include playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion. However, with time butoh groups are increasingly being formed around the world, with their various aesthetic ideals and intentions.