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Synopsis:

Sleeping With Frank shows a slice of a morning in Queens, NY. A couple readies for the day. Wake-up, get dressed, eat breakfast. The tableaus are familiar: cozy, rote, intimate and distant.
Dance and choreographed gestures reveal a potent underbelly to the lacquer of a domestic normalcy.

Director's Statement:

Sleeping with Frank seeks to create a new vernacular between the camera and dance. My goal is to place dance and "choreographed gesture" at the nucleus of the film narrative, rather than use dance as a surreal, hyper-real sequence most common in musicals that is a beat removed from the storyline. I am using the proximity of the camera, the structure of film, and editing to explore the ways in which dance can be integral to a narrative trajectory.

I chose to suggest the scope of a relationship in less than 5 minutes of everyday action. I decided that in embarking on something seemingly unconventional (can you believably use dance to put your clothes on?), a predictable, "normal" scenario would be the best kind of story to corrupt. My task as choreographer/director was to rearrange something common and only use dance and dialogue when absolutely necessary. The relevant questions I am asking are: Can dance be used seamlessly to execute tasks like cooking breakfast? Can dance be just as functional as dialogue and staging for the camera but perhaps even more articulate? Can dance dislodge and realize a subterranean narrative - the feelings between the words? At what point in the story does the narrative and the viewer need dance? How can I include the viewer without making them feel like a voyeur?

Prior to the camera, the dance was subtle and nuanced. However now it becomes magnified. The camera's intimacy turns every detail loud and brings the viewer right next to the body. As a result all the choreography needed to be distilled and suggested - executed with the utmost casualness - rather than actually done "all out." The transition between pedestrian movement and dance is key. This moment can not be rushed, otherwise the dance will easily slip into irrelevance. Every inch of this transition needs be lucid and palpable - every choice a conscious one - in order to bring the viewer into a space where dance is plausible and essential in a given moment of the narrative.

This film turns the commonplace visceral, infusing the rote tasks of day-to-day with a splashy relevance. It paves ground for further inquisitions into such dismantling: how to reinvent the anatomy of storytelling.

Sincerely,

Lily Baldwin

Tags

• Lily
• Baldwin
• Dance
• Fashion
• NY
• Music
• Video
• Domestic
• Couple
• Ratatat

Credits

Starring : Lily Baldwin and Lawrence Cassella

Director : Lily Baldwin

Director of Photography : Ben Wolf

Theme and Sound Design : Mark degli Antoni

Featuring music by Ratatat and clothes by Todd Thomas