The Exchange Preperation

The Exchange Preperation-

During the last weeks of college, before the Christmas Holidays, as groups in the class we were too film a short video sequence of something called 'The Exchange', which was 1-2 minutes long.
We were put into groups of 4 and it was up to us to think of everything we could possibly do to make it appear as a film noir,such as Mis en scene- location,props, costumes. The lighting, sounds etc. As there was no narrative, we just used a music track.

At first it seemed like an easy task, drawing up the storyboards, completing a call sheet, synopsis, treatment,video risk evaluation sheets (for the location). As we were having no narrative in these, it made them easier to complete in a short amount of time.

Storyboard link- http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h105/suzioi/SB_exchange.jpg

My group was composed of Jess, Charlie, Maya and I. For what we thought was an easy task we hadn't put enough planning into it. We ended up trying to film it in an hour outside the college, when we had uploaded the video onto the computer, we realised how dreadful it was and had turned out like a drug exchange on crime watch. We were thoroughly disappointed with the outcome but not surprised. During our own time at college we decided to re-film it as we couldn't be showing the previous video in front of the whole class.
We then re-drew the story board and relocated.


Synopsis- A girl walks alone, ever since a member of her family had been in a tragic accident she senses she’s being followed by a silhouette… When she can feel that she is being followed, there is woman following her yet this girl cannot see her.

The girl stops and looks around only too see no body near her. She sits on a bench by herself waiting for her friend’s arrival, when a woman appears beside her, dressed in black. She whispers something in her ear, then hands over a piece of paper. The young girl opens the note anxiously, and reads. She then looks around too see if she can spot the woman again, but there is no sign of her.


Costume- For the outfits we used for the characters, Jess was the femme fatal, she wore, a long black trench coat, with heels, it gave her the look of a woman who was in control and knew what she was doing, yet at the same time she was able to portray herself in a mysterious and intimidating way.

We wanted the girl (Charlie) too look innocent, in the film she is wearing a floral print dress, and leggings and dainty shoes, it presented her as a young adolescent, who would look overwhelmed by what she received with a look of fear.

With the editing there were many shots which we couldn’t end up using because they didn’t fit or flow with the rest of them, after we had finished the edits we realised we hadn’t got enough shots to even make the film flow properly, as one scene Charlie just appears on a bench, without walking over too it.

Props- We only had one prop for the whole video, which was the letter than Jess had to pass to Charlie. When Jess hands the note to Charlie which was pristine, we have a close up, in which before we filmed it, Charlie had crumpled the paper, so in one shot the paper was perfect and the next it had been screwed up, which then wasn’t a shot which made perfect sense.

Location - Principally a marine leisure and property management company, providing a high quality client focussed service to customers, both water and land based. Ipswich Waterfront is a hub of activity with a mix of vibrant restaurants, cafes, interesting shops, apartments and awesome views of the water, overlooking yachts and powerboats, both traditional and modern. The entire wet dock regeneration area is rapidly developing with an ever changing skyline and growth.

The location we found was perfect, we had what we needed. We weren’t going to use much furniture at all, so it was functional for our needs. There was that sense of eerie-ness too it, compared to our last exchange, which was just at college.

The dock was easily accessible, but the disadvantages were the public who kept walking through our shots as we were filming which became frustrating. By the docks, there was such strong wind, which made it difficult to shoot at times, and if anything we were just too cold.

Performance- as actors expressions can be used to tell the story, we were glad we had chosen the people we did in the roles they were assigned too.

Charlie was able to portray that look of fear while Jessica was lurking around her, and with Jess she had a cold face on for the filming which meant she looked threatening.

We had no narrative in it which helped emphasise the expressions of the characters.

Lighting and Colour-The lighting was, just normal daylight, and we had no additions too it as there was no way we could use electrical appliances.

The lightening was decent, yet at some times the sun would come through the clouds and would be on the lens of the camera, making the shot overly bright. Too such an extent that you couldn’t see the characters face.
We couldn’t portray shadows as it as far too difficult being fairly dark day.
The end result of our video was put in black and white so the lighting did not affect it as much as it could have.