Video collaborations with choreographers and theater directors punctuate Sarah Venkatesh’s body of work. Each project integrates the lens and editing techniques to enhance an original work.
Stage to Screen: Theaterical Collaborations
High School Musical Jr.
The Movie (2021)
Due to restrictions on large gatherings in the spring of 2020, this stage production was reinterpreted for film so audiences could enjoy the story remotely. Conversion to the screen came with many silver linings, such as the ability to use multiple campus locations and enhance narrative details with camera angles and framing. Rehearsals were conducted with masks and strict social distance protocols and actors wore face shields for the final shots. Productions aids, such as a video storyboard and strict shooting schedule were essential for completing this 30-actor project on a tight timeline.
The production was directed by Sarah Stuart, music directed and engineered by Thomas Shaw, choreographed by Victoria Camargo, and produced, filmed, and edited by Sarah Venkatesh.
created by Trinity Episcopal School, 2021 (53 min)
Tortoise and Hare
(2020)
Tortoise and Hare was a musical production written for the stage and adapted to the screen by Trinity Episcopal School’s middle school theater department in the spring of 2020, due to pandemic-related school closures.
Based on the story by Aesop, book by Allen Robertson and Damon Brown, and music and lyrics by Allen Robertson.
This film rendition was created for Trinity Episcopal School under the theater direction of Sarah Stuart and music direction of Thomas Shaw. It was edited and composited by Sarah Venkatesh, with audio recording and mixing by Arun Venkatesh of Rebirth Music.
Full-length film, 48 min
Created in Final Cut and Logic Pro, this project integrated hundreds of layers of video and audio, all recorded remotely. Graphics performed the job of set design in lieu of a physical stage and were used to nest the disparate elements into a cohesive scene.
Trevor Day Theater Productions
(2002-2009)
Multi-Camera Video Crew and Choices to Make
(narrated, 2009)
Sarah led a student Video Crew in her years at Trevor Day School and reflects on the decisions a camera needs to make to enhance action. The communication between a show’s Creative Director and the Video Crew Director is paramount.
Trevor Day School (narrated, 2009)
Drama Productions Reel
A compilation of stage moments under the direction of Emmett Smith, Trevor Day School’s drama teacher. The camera uses subtle panning and reframing to focus attention.
2002-2009
Movement on Camera: Dance Collaborations
Video Direction for Brian Brooks Moving Company
(2001-2004)
Much of Sarah’s digital motion graphics work in the early 2000s was inspired by the analog movements of dancers. She partnered with the Brian Brooks Moving Company dance troupe for several seasons as their Video Director. She projected pre-animated video content onto surfaces in the performance space, creating the appearance of dancers interacting with zero gravity versions of themselves, ethereal hand-drawn strokes, and other dynamic textures.
“Video Installation and Dance Reel” contains excerpts from Brian Brooks Moving Company performances and video studies.
(Narrated by Sarah Venkatesh in 2009 to discuss the process.)
2001-2004
A Motion Capture Study
(c. 2003)
Motion capture experiments with choreographer Brian Brooks of the Brian Brooks Moving Company used photography and 2D image manipulation and tracking in After Effects to pixelize his dancing form.
“Motion Capture Study”
with colored tape and After Effects
Dancer: Brian Brooks
Studio: WAX (Williamsburg Art Exchange)
Camera + Image Processing: Sarah Venkatesh
using duct tape and After Effects
The X and Y coordinate data for key points on the dancer’s moving body were used as the input for particle generating effects, creating moving strokes undeniably reminiscent of birds in flight or fireworks. I continue to be compelled by the transformation of energy and how a single source (for example, the path of your fingertip or the trickling stream of traffic headlights) can mutate through different visual states, with the assistance of digital tools, while not losing the defining characteristics of its movement, call it peppy, cautious, fluid, or spastic.
This curiosity has extended in recent years to the study of power transmission in robotics with my current students (see Ideas in Motion).
“Bridge,” a site specific dance installation
(2003)
Choreographer Emma Hogarth developed a site-specific dance installation in celebration of the Williamsburg Bridge turning 100 years old. Dancers slowly traverse the bridge from the Manhattan side to the Brooklyn side. Sarah enlisted a second camera operator and together, they captured the passage on screen, which Sarah edited over an unaltered soundtrack of the modern-day bridge.
“Bridge,” 2003
Choreographer: Emma Hogarth
Camera: Sarah Venkatesh and Erik German
Editor: Sarah Venkatesh