The Exchange & Evaluation

Evaluation

In my opinion, this exercise went pretty well and I think the aim of the task was definitely met. I'm not saying the final product was perfect though; there were a few flaws.

First of all, the location we chose felt really noir and others definitely agreed on that point. They felt the tunnel was a really good place to shoot and liked the darkness and mysterious elements it provided to the opening giving it a definite noir feel. To further the noir look and feel of our piece, others thought we needed to include more obscurities such as dutch tilts and depth of focuses to add to the noir stylistics.

A few other problem areas in the cinematography were picked up on by our test audience. The tilt up on Kira, they felt, was over exposed and thought a close-up would have been a much better approach. The camera was also rather wobbly at times, especially leading into the close up of myself at the end. I do agree with this points and if I were to re-create the piece I'd definitely change these factors with the audience's views in mind.

The editing of the piece was overall done well but the opening titles ran for a bit too long and were slow - something I definitely agree on. Some said the editing could be tighter too but were vague on their reasons... We agreed that the music definitely fitted the piece and the way there's different music to reflect the characters was recognised almost instantly. Some thought that the way the music was put together in the edit changes too much and sometimes doesn't really flow which I agree with in places. A tighter edit on music would make the piece flow more smoothly and I'd look into finding a way to do this next time.

The characters and narrative received no criticism at all. The characters were easily identifiable as typically noir and some commented that the character in the blazer looked shady and the size of the holdall made them wonder what was in it. The connotations of the red dress were also identified in Kira's character and it was thought to have worked well.

Overall, the negative points made about this piece were fair and I definitely agree changing them would make it much stronger. The audience thought the work definitely met the brief and was suitable for the target audience. Also, the narrative was commented on as being typically noir and really worked towards the overall look and feel of the work. I'm happy with the piece. Obviously, from the feedback of others and myself, I understand there are a few imperfections that would need tightening and how to overcome them. This only makes my understanding stronger for the next piece and hopefully I can track down flaws and tackle them before they even occur for a good piece.

Preliminary Exercise & Evaluation...

Largely, considering this was our first introduction to using the cameras, microphones, tripods and other equipment, we did quite well. Here, we put to use what we'd learnt about shots, framing, sound and editing. It's far from perfect, there are some unmissable mistakes but they're mistakes we will learn from and hopefully never repeat.

I, and others, agree that we have a really nice range of shots in here. The close ups of Emily's feet, the framing, rule of thirds, two-shots, over-the-shoulder shots etc. I think the diversity of these shots is what keeps it interesting as opposed to the entire thing being shot using one basic framing technique. There are a few things I would improve on if I were to re-shoot this though, and a few other people have commented on. First of all, I would have really liked to put a shot-reverse-shot in during the dialogue as it would have given the conversation a much better flow and would have been better aesthetically and easier to follow. I also noticed that when I was filming, I got the microphone in shot which is always a big mistake. This could have been overcome with cropping but for a preliminary exercise, I don't think that was necessary. The cinematography, in my opinion was also good, we had a few nice horizontal pans which changed the shots up a little bit, but when Emily sits down, the pan down is jerky, too slow and doesn't go down far enough. It's also a slight high angle and ideally I would have liked to shoot her at eye level which is much more comfortable for an audience to view.

Editing-wise, I think I definitely learnt the importance of having enough footage. The continuity in this at times is questionable. When the shot of Emily walking cuts to a close up of her pushing the door, there is a noticeable pause which could be overcome with tighter editing. This would have just made the action match a bit smoother and more believable. Another thing is, when Emily enters the room, suddenly, her hands are up to her face although they weren't when she entered the room which I think is the most obvious problem and definitely one of the more noticeable mistakes we made. I would have liked to get more takes of Emily entering the room to get the perfect shot to edit together, but unfortunately, we thought we had it, later to discover that we were wrong. A smaller, less noticeable edit, but one I believe is important, is the way we matched Emily's steps when cutting to a close-up of her feet, keeping in mind which foot she was putting down and making sure it was the same when it cut. It just made the edit less noticeable and the continuity flow a lot nicer. The sound in our piece, isn't bad either in my opinion. We did have to edit sound levels though, as in the dialogue it was quite hard to hear some of the things they were saying. I'm really glad we managed to capture the sound of Emily's footsteps though, following her with a microphone by her shoes. I just think it really adds something to the short sequence.

Overall, this piece has it's flaws but for a first try, I'm quite proud of it. The mistakes we made weren't too large but they are certainly ones we'll know not to make again. It's taught us a lot about editing, to stop, think, and check everything before we start and stop shooting and to always keep continuity in mind as well as getting a wide variety of shot types and styles.

The Exchange Treatment

Storyline
A male is walking towards a darkened tunnel to meet up with another male to exchange some money for drugs. He starts by walking along the park by himself looking shady. He walks around the corner towards the tunnel. You then the second male emerge from the dark tunnel looking twice as shady. The first male walks towards him and they exchange an approving nod. They then exchange the money and drugs over. And then they nod once more to seal the deal. The second male disappears into the shadows of the tunnel. The first male walks off in to the distance. He goes to meet a girl waiting for him at the gazebo just uphill from the tunnel. He shows her the ‘goods’ and she smiles and kisses him on the cheek, then walks away leaving him alone feeling hard done by. His motive was to get the girl via the drugs.

Characters & Representation

Male one: Ben Halliday
He is the antagonist. He is getting into dodgy dealings for reasons we don’t really know until the end of the film when we see him meeting the female at the end. He is the modern day antagonist, but with underlying noir ethics.

Male two: Cameron Mears
He is the modern day anti hero of the film. He is the drug dealer of the production. In noir terms he would be the man who gets the antagonist into trouble, even without knowing it.

Female: Kira Knight
She is the femme fatale. Even though she’s not in the scenes till right at the end, you can tell that she’s done the typical job of getting the male to do whatever she wants for her. He has got the drugs for her, to impress her, and all he gets in return is a peck on the cheek. Typical femme fatale.

Cinematography
Because we are using a modern story line to make it have the classic noir feel we will use things like camera angles, music and costume to bring it into the film. The camera angles will be askew to make the scene seem more awkward and hard to take in, like Dutch tilt, like in classic noir films. We shall use loads of high and low angle shots to make characters look superior and inferior. Also the depth of focus to create the illusion of confusion.

Mise-En-Scene
The performance of the actors has to be very blunt yet subtle. It has to be obvious what they’re doing for the audience but secretive enough to be dodgy dealings going on. The location will be quite open, it’s as if you don’t know what’s happening, just seems like a normal day with normal people. But the tunnel gives away the shadiness of the operation. It looks like a dodgy area and that’s where the exchange happens. Sort of like an alley way in a noir classic. As it’s modern we have the location and the acting of the characters to rely on to give it the noir feel. Plus the camera shots (explained above).9-

Props, Costume & Make Up
The only props we need are, a small clear re-sealable bag containing sugar/flour, money and cigarettes. The small bag will represent cocaine for the “drug-exchange” and the money is to be given when the cocaine is handed to the character. Using drugs as the exchange in this sequence, much like film noir, touches on contemporary issues (in this instance drugs) as do the cigarettes and how the people who smoke are perceived.

The costumes we will use in this sequence will have elements of modern-day fashion mixed with the noir styles, colours and fit. The “femme fatale” of the sequence will be wearing a red dress with flat, black, patent leather boots; a smart-casual, yet mysterious look. The character buying the “cocaine” will wear darker colours, a blazer, dark jeans etc and lastly, the drug-”dealer” will be wearing similar clothing to the cocaine recipient.

Make-up in the sequence isn’t really the main focus. The usual powder will be used for the camera but the make-up style on the femme fatale is the main focus. Foundation and powder will be used but simplistic dramatic black eye-liner and mascara will also create the image of power and mystery. She’ll also wear red lipstick with is representative of women during the noir era too and widely used in the films shot back then.

Music
For our sequence we’ll need to track down some noir-type music with a modern twist. Lyrics in the music would need to be really specific so ideally, we’d need an instrumental piece… At first thought, an instrumental Amy Winehouse song would have been a great contemporary noir feel though without lyrics, the music sounds too up-beat and happy so we needed to explore other options or go for a quite angular, less noir piece of music that still sets the mood.



(Written by: Ben Halliday (Myself) and Kira Knight)

The Exchange: What was this exercise about?

After completing the preliminary exercise, this task was to further explore our understanding of the camera and use all of the techniques we’ve learned through that. Aside furthering our understanding and proficiency, this was a chance execute and really put the noir characteristics and styles into play. We were encouraged to give this short production a definite noir feel through dutch tilts, low-key lighting, irregular angles etc.

The brief of The Exchange was to shoot and edit a short sequence in the style of a modernised film noir thriller. The title of the piece comes from the exchange in the video; we were instructed to devise an exchange of important information, a package etc. from one character to another. Unlike our previous exercise, dialogue was unimportant therefor unused as the theory was to let our shots speak for themselves to sell the story.

The length of the piece was unspecified, though 12 shots was suggested to be the maximum so we could really concentrate on shooting them all to our highest ability. By learning from previous mistakes and strengthening our skillfulness, we were able to identify where to place the camera, what to include in each shot, which shot types and sizes to use, produce stable continuity and explore focuses, lighting and framing.

Pre-production was slightly more strenuous on this occasion but it helped understanding and definitely ensured we all knew what we were doing and our roles in creating this piece. In our group, we elaborated on the title and brainstormed the possibilities for our sequence. When the the idea was finalised, we produced individual annotated storyboards with notes on shot sizes and brief descriptions before extracting the best points of each into a final idea. Costumes, props, make-up, a synopsis, treatment and storyboard also needed to be completed. A shooting location as well as health and safety paperwork and call sheets were also to be completed so we had every organisational aspect of our production covered in terms of safety and productivity.

Much like the pre-production, the post production of the exchange was to be completed with greater detail. Log sheets had to be completed which helped us choose which shots to use (especially when we had multiple shots of the same scene), EDLs (edit decision lists) needed to be done and finally, we had to decide on a piece of music to accompany our piece. The music preferably needed to be lyric-less and not only have a really noir feel, but match up with the styles and tone of our piece in the right places.

Once the post-production was addressed, editing was the only thing left. This time, the purpose of editing was to produce a final piece with good continuity, clear shots and a storyline that flows. This time though, music had to be added in. To make it fit, editing the music was required either by carefully cutting pieces out and merging them beat-by-beat or adding cross-fades between them.