TangoForge ICC Sessions

Vio's editings

TangoForge ICC sessions #1 - Vio & Roberto #1

TangoForge ICC sessions - TC's experimental mixes

Experimental mixes are completely unplanned freestyle video mixes.

TangoForge ICC sessions #2 - TC's experimental mix #1

Probably one of the most WTF tango video I can think of for now. Not exactly a tango "dance" video as the timeline is not meant to fit to any reality. I would rather call it a tango patchwork made of tango (legs) movements arranged on some legendary French punk music. Well the band is legendary, the track is not one of the overrated ones as most bands have. Actually I mixed two versions of the same song to compose the soundtrack. If you have a hard time getting the lyrics, because you don't speak French or because even in French they may sound like they lack some glue (artistic license), consider it some type of anti-militarist/pacifist song. Soundtrack/samples by "Bérurier Noir" and "Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs".

Multiple edition combinations explained:

Different dance sequence: I first made two versions of this video: "TangoForge ICC sessions #2A - TC's experimental mix #1A" (2A-1A) and "TangoForge ICC sessions #2B - TC's experimental mix #1B" (2B-1B) there differ by different dancing arrangement of approximately 10 seconds around the middle of the video.
Video noise component: When I first released this video, I noticed that, quality-wise, it was more acceptable on Facebook, then Vimeo and was a mess on YouTube. I understood later, while working on the "No strobe edition" that that problem did not come from the strobe effect or contrast or overall speed as I expected but from the use of a video noise component that looked great when rendering local files.
No/strobe effect: But YouTube is not the reason why I published a "No strobe edition", after first release, some people also mentionned that the video may deserve an epilepsy warning because of the use of strobe.
With strobe I preferred version 1A-2A but it was very close. Without strobe I clearly prefer verse 1B-2B.

TangoForge ICC sessions #3 - TC's experimental mix #2

This took forever ... If I remember well, this was the very first video project I started after I came back from Berlin in January 2015. But then I got the idea for "TangoForge ICC sessions #2 - TC's experimental mix #1" and wanted to finish it first, then it has been delayed due to "Brussels Tango Festival", Antwerpen Tango Festival" and a few other events with plenty of maestro videos to which I had to give priority because they are a lot less complex to edit. That and photography.

This is again an unplanned tango patchwork arranged on unusual music with a lot of accelerations. The concept here is very close to that of "TangoForge ICC sessions #2 - TC's experimental mix #1", except that it is not made of close-ups, and there is no "strobe trick" this time. Movements fit to music in some way, but there was no real intention to synchronise steps with beats ... Personally I still think rhythm is the most boring part of music!

This is also the first video in which I used the "Star Wars effects" that gave birth to the first version of "24/04/2015 Brussels Tango Festival - Marisa van Andel & Oliver Koch #2", though that one was ready approximatly two months earlier. (I say "Star Wars effects" because that is how the software editor annouced them in the upgrade note and some parts of them are dedicated to the production of lightsabers clash.)

The introduction sample is from, a band I think Vio has got some friend(s) in. It was part of the first soundtracks she suggested when we first talked of the idea of shooting video(s), though nothing was definitively set. I thought of doing a full video with it or something else from that band, but in the end I only used a sample that I think fits well to the main soundtrack.

Soundtrack/samples by "Matson Jones", "Anti-Flag" and "String Quart tribute to Bad Religion".

TangoForge ICC sessions #4-5? - TC's experimental mix #3-4?

There may be a #4-3, possibly a #5-4 some day, but I'm not sure for now.

"Making"

While I was finishing editing this editing of 17/5/2014 Marisa van Andel & Oliver Koch / "Babel Tango", in November 2014, I felt kind of inspired in making videos and suggested Vio from TangoForge that it would be nice if we got a chance to do some video(s) while I would be in Berlin in January 2015. Here is something I wrote just after the shooting sessions.

Video recording sessions did not go exactly as planned. Long story short, it was because of some guys playing organ at the location, which was a kind of large bus/metro station square corridor ... and orange ...
When I suggested that it would be nice to do a video while I'm in Berlin, I did not expect that organising things with Vio could go as crazy, in a very positive sense.
We shot Vio and Aurélie dancing to the organ around 1pm. Then we went to Boris and Aurélie's appartment where we got homemade burritos better than those you can eat in restaurants. Everybody who can play chess lost at least a game versus Boris' son ... I had not played for a very long time! And using a wall projector, we watched my whole video play-list from Brussels Tango Festival 2014, and also 'Marisa van Andel & Oliver Koch at the European Commission', some of 'Miriam Copello/Cristian Correa at La Tangueria' and 'Celeste Rey/Sebastián Nieva at milonga de Estar bien', maybe some others... I almost fell asleep, kind of hypnotised, watching Vio leading Maren on a very chilling music. But Expandalonga kept me awake.
We then went back to the shooting place at 9pm where some skaters magically moved from our spot to the other side of the place and cops magically went away with guys they had just arrested just at the moment everyone arrived and we shot the rest of the dancers in different combinations until midnight in the freezing cold. All performances were strictly improvised.
I decided not to go to Tangoloft after midnight because Sunday and Monday already sound like busy days ... and Thursday is dentist day, I don't want to :-(

As we live in different cities, we agreed that it would be difficult, though not excluded, to work on some video(s) together, but that we could also work on different video separately. As I am writing, we expect to have one video of Vio & and Roberto and one video with all dancers edited by Vio and from 2 to 4 experimental mixes edited by me. When they are ready.