For the task The Exchange students were required to work in groups of 3-4 to shoot the exchange of something between two characters. There was a maximum limit of 12 shots for the sequence which was required to be no more than two minutes long. The item could be anything such as an envelope or package etc. The sequence is to then be shot and edited to add music and titles to fit the style of a thriller. Additionally the exchange setting was required to be around the proximity of the college campus. In addition the equipment required was a camera and tripod. The microphone on the camera was to be used to record sound but the shot required there to be no dialogue from the characters involved.
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We were all still a bit new to the cameras and project planning but we still gave it our best shot. Our roles were immediately decided when this project was assigned to the whole class. Seb & Caroline were the Cinematographers, Matt leit and caroline were Actors and me and matt were the main editors for our new short sequence. We decided to have more depth with the detail this time as the Preliminary Exercise was very plain and basic. The actions and shots were planned out only as we decided not to add any dialogue to make it more of a classic film noir to the audience. The sound we added in the mix related a lot to the situation and the theme which we used during planning of the storyline. Costumes & Lighting were not touched this time as we did not have enough time or did not have the clothes to go with the theme.
Characters (Leit Matt and Caroline) were quickly established into the scene. Matt and Leit was introduced as a shifty, up-to-no-good kind of guys and Caroline was introduced as the mysterious, dangerous person these were the types of characters that were found in a classic film noir with a criminal genre.
The location we used was located on the burned out, rough looking area at the a public park. This was the perfect setup for our characters to meet and the ideal place for an illegal activity to take place. A very rare amount of mistakes were found which was a major improvement from last time and I believe that I will be much better prepared for future filming projects. Overall a very good exercise and as a group we were very pleased with the way it turned out.
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.
As we were not told specific roles, it gave us all a chance to familiar ourselves with the camera equipment and the editing software. This is the time where we could all understand everything and not make mistakes in the future.
Handles was a big factor that we did not use. And as a group we realized you do really need them, without handles it made it 10x harder to edit in the software and were lucky that we got every shot, just about! This didn't give the audience as a viewer any chance to understand the storyline because it was so fast-paced. Next time, I shall make sure that I leave at least a ten-second handle before each shot, since we've have an hour of tape available anyway.
One other factor that didn't go to plan was the recording of the conversation between person A and B, we filmed the characters whilst the other character was talking, so it made it look really unusual, but luckily we filmed the whole of the conversation either end, and it just meant we swapped it around so the person talking was on-screen. So we got a positive out of a negative and i feel we worked well to overcome the issue.
Titles i felt worked fine, we were told to keep it simple and i did just that, as i edited first, because i am keen in editing and have my own software at home, Sony Vegas Pro 9, i stepped up and made the title and introduction, i felt i did a fair job, adding the ghostly white underneath the first layer of text really made it feel like a Film Noir thriller.
Overall, and in conclusion, i felt myself and the group did a very good standard of work and we will move onwards from this and learn from the mistakes, having the characters talking on screen and leaving enough handles.
