Exchange Evaluation

After we had finished filming the Exchange, we had the opportunity to present our final piece to the class. Here they gave us critique and feed back, this gave us an idea to what areas worked, and where needed improvement.

The initial impressions (good areas) were that the chosen music created a good effect and worked well with the sequence, however, they were not too keen on the second song - explaining that the lyrics did not work. The use of the helicopter was approved by the class, who agreed it created a sense of sketchy action and urgency. Feedback of the location we used, which was down by the docks, was also positive.Good areas of camera work included the high angle shot, when we were first introduced to the location, and the dutch tilt at the beggining.

The Exchange

Our next task was called the Exchange, which was a short video production that tested our proficiency with using the cameras. Unlike our preliminary production, The Exchange was to have no dialogue or voice-overs, this meant we had to do storytelling through cinematography - it also emphisises the importance of music. So instead we had to agree upon a sound track that complemented what was happening on screen. The brief was to shoot and edit a short sequence in the style of film noir - the main focus was to be an Exchange of some sort (eg. Envelope, tape, drugs etc..) We also had to chose an appropriate location to give the production a believable, dodgy film noir feel. As a group, we decided upon an abandoned alley on the docks - in between two dilapidated buildings.

Before we could start filming, we each had to work on an idea for a sequence, make a storyboard and then select the best elements from each idea to make an overall group production. We then had to complete a synopsis and treatment so it was clear on what we wanted to achieve, although we often referred to our pre-production tasks, we did not follow them exactly because when we where physically out and filming we came up with new ideas that worked better for us.

When we were out filming, we used a wide range of shots so when we went back to the editing suite, we had enough tape to chose from. As this was to be a contemporary noir, we remembered to add in the normal conventions, such as dutch tilts, smoke and sketchy looking characters. We also decided to make drugs the point of the Exchange as this sometimes came up in classic noir, but also adds a modern twist.

When we had finished filming we had to take our footage into the editing suite and log the shots onto the computer, and also on a log-in sheet. We then chose the various shots that worked best, encountering a few problems, put them together and added titles, here we also uploaded our chosen music and tried to make it fit nicely with our edit.