The Exchange Project

For this project, we were asked to improve our skills from the Preliminary Exercise and produce a sequence where a package (e.g. microfilm, briefcase, envelope etc.) was exchanged between two characters. Unlike in the Preliminary Exercise, there was to be no talking, dialogue or voiceovers in this media product. I have learnt from the things I can do and the things which I cannot, and in this exercise how to portray feelings and represent characters without the use of dialogue, where a voiceover can very much help the progress of the story in a typical Film Noir.

I drew a storyboard, and coloured it in, to show that the location was an alley and that the exchange was deliberate but also accidental. Josh and Marc, my two friends in my group who had also drawn storyboards, agreed that my storyboard was a good plan, and after discussing it and making a few modifications we completed the pre-production process. There were a few concerns about my plot, but Josh made the decision that my plot, narrative and storyboards were more interesting, and his and Marc's looked quite bleak when compared to mine.

The location that we were going to use was a back alley near to Josh's primary school. He knew the location well, and surprisingly it was only a few minutes walk from the College Campus and was the right size and shape for filming our project. I had looked at a footpath around the back of the 6th Form building, but after looking at the photographs that Josh had taken of his chosen alley and my chosen footpath, we decided that the footpath I'd chosen just wasn't the correct choice. Mainly because there wasn't much space available for setting-up the camera and also shooting the sequence. Plus, the stretch of footpath I had chosen wasn't very long, so the Exchange would have taken less time, and there would have been less build-up to the main action, just like in the Preliminary Exercise when there wasn't enough build-up to the main action, and the audience were left dazed and confused.

The shooting went well, but just as we were about to film our final few shots we ran out of battery-power, and had forgotten to take with us a spare battery. We shot again on location about a week later, getting the footage that we needed, taking a spare battery in case we needed it, then we were ready for editing our piece. Next time, on the coursework project, this will NOT happen, and I will make sure it doesn't by first checking the equipment, then making sure that we have more than enough battery-supplies before we start the production of the opening sequence to a Noir-style thriller movie.

I thought Editing went as planned, although I had to do it myself on the first day since my group were all off ill. Nevertheless, I had finished the editing of our final piece by the end of the first day, and on the second day Marc came in and helped me to finalise the project, by adding titles to the beginning and end and by converting the whole sequence from colour to black and white. We wanted to give the feel of a Noir film, yet we shouldn't have coverted it to black and white since our task was to update the Noir genre, not replicate it, so my ideal coursework product will contain no black and white, except in flashbacks.

It didn't take as long as anticipated to complete the final edit because I was on my own, and there were no discussions, and I had a rough idea of what I wanted to create by referring back to my storyboards each time I edited the sequence. I changed a few bits along the way to improve the whole understanding of the sequence, so that it was easier for the audience to understand the plot.

To do this, we decided on selecting a clip from the end and adding this clip to the beginning of the sequence. Therefore, from this shot the screen would fade out to black. We also unintentionally created the main "Exchange" in true Noir-style as a flashback. Then we decided on adding a title to refer to the next shot, suggesting to the audience that the action to follow was a flashback. I typed-in "This is the full story". Then these titles could fade out to black, and the next shot could then fade in from black. This shot would then be the [initial] establishing shot, following the "This is the full story" titles, and would contain the selected background music for the first time in the project.

At the end of the lecture on the last day of editing, whilst I was putting the final touches to our sequence, a member of another group told another group (who were still editing), "If you think yours is good, then you want to check theirs out. It's much better than all the ones I've seen." I thanked the other group member for complimenting our sequence, and went into the next lecture, where all projects were to be screened, with a positive attitude.

The feedback we received, as from the previous lecture (editing), was all positive. The other group member (called Chris R.) went further with his compliments, making a gesture that we should be applauded for having made the best project. Our lecturer did, however, give us some pointers for the future:

There would be the use of one font or typeface only. Two many different fonts and typefaces can spoil the effect of the sequence on the audience. For instance, a blue "outline" is used on the opening title screen, and on the "this is the full story" title screen. Also, a big, orange,
Italicised and nursery-themed typeface was used on the opening title screen. On the final shot, the closing title screen, another typeface was used, this time adding the effect of an American Presidential Campaign. This was a stupid mistake which I didn't realise, and my intentions were to only be creative and imaginative. Next time, I shall have to control my creativity and imagination.

We had been asked, as part of the task set, to "update" the Noir genre, not replicate the black and white noir films, so he advised us to not film in black and white. This was true. We had a class discussion about the colour/black and white factor, and the results were that the majority of students in our lecture would prefer to watch a colour film over a black and white film. These will be useful points to consider when carrying out my coursework project.

On the last shot (of an empty alley), Marc and I decided that the background thriller-style music should stop as soon as the last shot began, to show that the character who had just given the package to the other person had vanished. A heartbeat, drum roll or percussion "bang" sound effect would have been nice on the last shot, to emphasise my character vanishing, but we couldn't find anything on the free internet libraries, and since we were running out of time we left the film as it was. The sequence, in my opinion, was as good as we could have made it, so we wouldn't have needed to add any more to it. Though I may have been wrong about the "colour/black and white" factor and the "titles" issues.

After watching it so many times, I have to admit that I'm not the best actor in the world! The establishing shot on me, when I am entering the alley (I'm the tall bloke with the hat and leather jacket, I'm the one who barges into the other guy!) , well it is clear that I'm laughing and trying not to smile, probably because I'm camera shy (though I am not admitting to that), and next time I shall make sure I am ready before the shot is taken of me, in the final coursework project.

Now, judge it for yourself! What do you think about it? Please post your comments, as this will help me to produce an even better piece, as my main Coursework Project (the 2-3 minute Film Noir Thriller opening sequence). You will need some speakers or headphones to listen to the sound, otherwise you're only seeing half of the final piece!!

The Preliminary Exercise

We were set a task, the Preliminary Exercise, a continuity task including filming and editing a short sequence: "a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue." And, we had to show that we knew the 180-degree line rule, a shot/reverse shot, and match on action - the continuity through the story. Continuity meant that if there was a chair on one side of the room that was very noticeable on-screen, it had to remain in the same position for the whole production. If it had moved we would have had to show the audience how it had moved.

We had a plot - a man had returned to his boss after killing someone, but the script did not make sense to the audience:

A: "Am I late?"
B: "No. Are you clean?"
A: "Yeah, he was easy."
B: "Good, now we can begin."

(You will need a set of headphones or speakers to listen to the sound. Otherwise, you are only experiencing half of the whole thing!)

If we had male actors, it probably would have gone okay, but because we had female actresses our production seemed to be out of context. The feedback we received was interesting because we learnt that other people interpret storylines in a different way. So to make them understand what you're trying to say, you have to explain your point clearly through the use of camera shots and angles, and editing. One key thing I have learnt from this exercise is what looks good on paper and on the storyboard looks a lot different on a big screen, projected to a wider audience than just Josh and myself.

We were told to KISS our work - Keep It Simple Stupid. This basically means we had to keep the plot and camera angles simple, and not to complicate things.

Also, handles was a big factor that did not go well in our first production. It was the first shot, of Person A walking down a corridor to a door, and opening it and walking through. I added enough handles but didn't make sure that the camera was recording, so when editing we found that we only had the bit where she is right beside the door and opens it. The beginning was therefore too sudden and the audience didn't have a chance to try to understand the storyline before the dialogue. Next time, I shall make sure that I leave at least a ten-second handle before each shot, since we've got 60 minutes of tape available.

Another factor that I failed to understand whilst filming was the microphone actually recording sound. It was half-way through, when playing-back our work, that we realised that I hadn't recorded any sound, so the dialogue (one of the most important aspects of the production) was missing. This meant we had to film everything again. Next time, I shall remember to check that the equipment is working properly before we start recording our footage.

Titles, or credits, is an area within the editing process which I really need to look at. Making them is fine, but I need to learn how to make the words fly and shoot across the screen, the basic title-transitions, using the provided editing software at the Editing Suite in College, "Adobe Premiere Pro". I know how to do screen animations and how to use transitions in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, so I now need to take those skills and use and develop them to a high standard in the editing of a moving sequence.