Brief: you are shoot and edit a short sequence in the style of a film thriller involving THE EXCHANGE of an important item (envelope, tape, microfilm) from one character to another. This sequence must be shot in no more than 12 shots. You can film in any location of your choosing on the college campus and use just the camera top microphone to record the sound no dialogue is to be used. The footage will then be edited and you will need to choose some appropriate music and titles will be added to complete a short sequence.
The brief for the exchange was we had to film a small sequence of something being exchanged. This task had to done to look, feel and sound like a film noir. We were not allowed any dialogue. Unlike the preliminary, for this one we had to complete pre-production work, such as, location finders, risk assessments, call sheets, plans of the location etc,In my opinion the exchange was of better quality than my preliminary exercise. I felt a lot more confident and comfortable with the camera and the filming itself. Also we had more of an idea of what camera angles were suitable. However there were still problems with the exchange.
Something that could of gone better was the costumes for the femme fatale which was played by me there was a costume available to me but because of the cold weather it was decided that I didn’t wear it, however now looking at the video I would of preferred to bare the cold for the look and feel of our exchange.
There was a slight problem with match on action in this exercise, when Kamal is looking around at the top of the steps his eye line does not meet with Laura's as she is walking around the bush.
We decided to have two exchanges in our sequence which made more work, but gave a better feel to the film. Giving the audience the idea that what the main exchange was shouldn’t be made in public.
I think that we adhered to the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule line. I think that our sequence flowed and was easy to follow.
Our sequence had film noir qualities such as a femme fatale, the setting of a bar, the location we used in the alley way, the costume and the music.
We thought this was a good song because of the beat of the music and the tone. Also, because we thought the lyrics fitted with the action on screen with the lyrics playing at certain parts of the film. The best example of this is at the point when the lyrics say “I’ve been a temptress too long” it gives the audience the idea that the woman is a bit dark.
Portishead - Glory Box lyrics used in our sequence
I'm so tired of playing, Playing with this bow and arrow, Gonna give my heart away, Leave it to the other girls to play, For I've been a temptress too long.
Hmm just, Give me a reason to love you, Give me a reason to be,
Over all in my opinion i believe that the exchange went very well for our group, we thought about all of the different rules and made sure that we had plenty of handles to help us when we got to editing. I am very pleased with our Exchange.
Audience feedback
Our short sequence entitled the exchanged was shown to our media class. Our class was a good audience to show to because there is about 20 people with an even ratio of female and male. Also, because all of our class are studying the same thing everyone understood what we were aiming our presentation to be like and the ability to understand shot types, editing, cinematography which meant they were able to give our group in depth criticism. This means we now know what went wrong and how to fix it in our final main piece.
Most of our audience enjoyed our sequence but were still able to give us feedback.
Good feedback
1. The choice of music- the audience liked our choice of music because the lyrics and the beat fitted well with the action on screen.
2. The choice to have to exchanges- the audience liked this because it instantly gave the main exchange more enigma because its something they couldn’t exchange in public.
3. Keeping the female’s identity secret- they liked the fact that you only see her back apart from the shot when she puts her hood up and goes round a corner.
4. The female look but shot- when the female turns back as she puts her hood up, which our audience thought that it gave the female more mystery.
Bad feedback
1. The cut on the scene in the bar when the man is putting on his coat. Most of our audience said it made it look unreal and made them feel uneasy. We decided to cut at that point on advice from a teacher even though we didn’t think that the cut would look right so we now know that even though peoples advice should be taken into consideration we don’t necessarily have to act on that advice.
2. When the man comes out of the bar he looks at camera. We tried to edit the look out of the scene but did not think that the scene would have looked as good.
3. Match on action when the man looks then cuts to shot of female walking. These shots make it look like he’s looking in a different direction from where she’s walking. This also doesn’t have the right eye level and also meant that we crossed the 180° line.
4. The lack of different shot types. The audience gave us a recommendation to us different shot types and angles such as the Dutch tilt.
