REPORT ON EXCHANGE EXERCISE

In a group of 4 we were asked to create a exercise to be called the exchange where we would use our current  knowledge of filming and editing to develop and learn new techniques and stylistics so that when we came to make our final piece we would have more experience editing and filming . This project further increased knowledge of group work and also got us familiarised with the group we would be in for our final project.

Our task was to create a minute long clip with a minimum of two characters that would exchange an item in our case it was a envelope of money. The scene wasn’t allowed any dialogue but non diegetic music over the top, in order to set the mood for the action. We needed around 8-12 shots to create this scene, in our clip we had 11 different shots . In this exercise we used a wide variety of angles including, close ups long shots cut away shots and also shots through objects such as a fence, which creates effects which are similar to those which are used in classic noirs, this shot also made the character look much more menacing almost giving the effect you get when you see a criminal in a film walking though or up to prison bars.

In our piece we kept to the 180 degree line rule, so our piece made sense and kept continuity. Even though we kept to this rule our group we did have a slight problem with continuity where the held object switched hands, we realised this as we edited and that shot was eventually cut from our final piece as it caused too many problems.

overall I would say our exchange exercise was a good learning curve helping us to bring in a wider variety of skills to our final piece, it also fit the brief very well keeping to the restraints that were set and I am pleased with the final outcome as i believe it was a good attempt at making something feel like a thriller. 

If I could re-film this piece  without the restraints I would film a larger number of shots so we had plenty to create our piece out of also to act as a safe guard to any clips that did not have good continuity so they could easily be replaced with another, I would also keep track of shot continuity throughout filming, which would have prevented the lack in continuity which we experienced in one of our shots when we came round to editing.