Making Dance Films in a Pandemic: Erin Lum

I’m Erin Lum, and you may know me as the Community Activator of Danse Bloom. I’m a dancer, writer, and filmmaker based out of Vancouver. Since 2018, I have been curating and interviewing Canadian dance artists for our online blog. For this month’s Story Bloom, I’m stepping out of my usual position as the interviewer to share my experience Making a Dance Film During a Pandemic. COVID-19 has pushed the arts sector to find new spaces to innovate in challenging times. This year, I was selected as a 2020 F-O-R-M (the Festival of Recorded Movement) Commissioned Artist. My collaborator Corinne Langmuir and I directed and produced our first short film, Zì Jǐ, where I also choreographed and danced in the piece. The film was presented as a part of F-O-R-M’s 2020 digital film festival and was voted Honourable Mention in the Most Memorable Youth Film category. The landscape of a global pandemic certainly provided an interesting backdrop to my process as a first-time filmmaker. I’m honoured to have the space to answer some questions I have been frequently asked about this gratifying experience.

Watch Zì Jǐ and read about how it was created below. 

Behind the Scenes of Zì Jǐ - Photo by Alanna Alves

How did you get commissioned by F-O-R-M to make a dance short film?

I have always loved film (just ask me how I feel about La La Land) and it is for similar reasons that I love dance. Storytelling is so impactful, especially when there are no limitations of expression through movement or visual media. I was introduced to all of the forms that dance can take through working at Danse Bloom. Attending film festivals and watching motion capture dance performances inspired me to explore the ways in which creative practices can intertwine. The Festival of Recorded Movement (F-O-R-M) is an amazing non-profit organization and film festival that supports youth artists through their Commissioning Fund. Corinne and I figured we had nothing to lose and pitched an early idealization of Zì Jǐ to F-O-R-M in our application. From May to September, we developed our project with mentorship support from interdisciplinary creator Nancy Lee, virtual workshops and feedback from fellow commissioned artists, and community-backed partnerships. I’m especially grateful for F-O-R-M’s support of our artistic endeavors and growth.

Explain the process of creating this project. What obstacles or learning curves did you encounter?

Creating a film is the best type of crazy. Zì Jǐ started as a spontaneous idea to create a project on human emotions, and naturally evolved into an introspective film where movement embodies the solitude of searching for self identity. I learned very quickly that there isn’t a cut and dry formula on how to make a film. As a team of first-time filmmakers, this created some insecurity because I was always wondering if we were “doing this right”. We were forced to just ask a lot of questions and learn as we go. An obvious limitation to this project was the uncertainty that COVID created. Most of our original plan was flipped on its head—we switched the shoot location from an indoor studio to an outdoor rooftop within a week of filming, had to limit our shoot to a single day, and learned to navigate the editing process through Zoom calls. Corinne and I meticulously planned for production with our small crew, and yet there are always unexpected obstacles that come reality on shoot day. The learning curves throughout this process tested my ability to prioritize, stay motivated, and be adaptable. Regardless of the gruelling hours spent editing and staring at myself on a screen, the 4 minutes when the final cut of our film premiered at F-O-R-M’s festival made the process entirely worth it.  

How did collaboration and networking inform your creative process?

Zì Jǐ is a passion project that wouldn’t have been made without the collaboration of some amazing professionals and my close friends. Corinne and I quickly became acquainted with a generally seamless professional partnership, switching between directing and producing the project to best fit our strengths. However, there were still many areas of the project that I knew we couldn’t do on our own. I took a moment to analyze who in my network would be open to collaboration, and this led to two of my favourite aspects of the final film—the music and cinematography. The original track in Zì Jǐ was composed by our talented close friend Mark Tan. An engineering student by day and GarageBand genius by night, Mark spent hours creating a stunning piece of music that perfectly encapsulates the feelings of uncertainty, emptiness, and resilience of searching for self identity. Through reaching out to the Vancouver film community on Facebook, I met the amazing Belén Garcia who became Director of Photography (DOP) on the project. Belén translated our ambitious ideas into the beautifully shot visuals of the film and provided her knowledge as an established cinematographer. The importance of reaching out to the community could not be made clearer than the time, energy, and feedback that our team invested in Zì Jǐ.

What is the best thing that has come out of making Zì Jǐ?

This question is a really nice way for me to reflect on how far I’ve come. Almost two years ago, our founder Valérie encouraged me to do a goal setting session with her. Val had me sit with my eyes closed and answer questions about life, dance, and my future career without internal judgement or expectations. One of the questions was: “What is something that you want to accomplish outside of school or work in the next two years?”. I answered that I wanted to create a project of my own (like a short film), not expecting to ever see this goal to come into fruition in two short years. Zì Jǐ gave me hands-on experience in the film world that I’m excited to build on, and the opportunity to create something I’m truly proud of with my close friends. Aside from this though, the best part of this process is being able to say that I pursued a creative dream of mine from start to finish. Finding a mentor that believes in you can really inspire you. Even if you don’t have a ton of experience, know that there are opportunities out there for aspiring young creatives. I know that there is a community to support me in this ever-changing pursuit of exploration, and that is an amazing realization to have.

You can find Erin on Instagram @erinlum3.