Storyboard pg4

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Exchange Evaluation

My responsibility on this project was the cinematography, I controlled the camera and after consulting the group I made the final decisions on shot types and angles, the contributions I made while being in charge of cinematography provided the production with high quality visuals. The establishing shot was criticized for being too long and the shot ended with a bit of a jerk but location was widely liked and reflected the film noir genre as a dark and dingy looking piece of ground. A lot of the shots were unintentionally in soft focus, although it is a characteristic of noir films it made the visual experience slightly uncomfortable for some but the soundtrack was highly praised as it fitted well with the actions on screen.

The editing was quite neat, only the establishing shot let us down all other cuts and transitions were good. The close-ups on the characters were admired and the actors were dressed appropriately in dark colours representing the typical noir characters. There was a wide variety of shots; long shots, close-ups, body shots and two shots and this helped to keep the action interesting while seeing things take place from different points of view. The rule of thirds was not followed in one shot but purposefully so to give a better view of the location and to put the character in a different perspective in relation to the surroundings. Very few things went wrong in this production like the focus and establishing shot but just about everything else went to plan and the only things I would have changed would have been the adjusting of the focus and maybe longer close-us but the overall production was a success. The Exchange was suitably up to date with the stylistics of film noir, followed a clear narrative, met the brief and was suitable for our target audience.

my contribution to the proposal

Cinematography:

There will be close ups on main character’s faces when they are talking and on any action that needs to be shown in greater detail, subtle Dutch angles on long shots to make the audience feel uncomfortable and high or low angle shots on certain characters to signify dominance or inferiority. Camera focus will be adjusted in certain shots to reflect the action in the scene, like in a shot of a main character loosing consciousness.

Shot sizes will vary depending on the situation, over shoulder and two shots will be used when characters are interacting and delivering dialogue. The framing of shots will follow the conventional grid reference and tracking shots will be avoided as it can look clumsy and unprofessional when attempted by amateurs without the proper equipment. We have no funds or equipment for technically complicated shots like craning shots or ariel shots.

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

The purpose of the preliminary exercise was to practice taking shots, editing and operating sound equipment, we were to use the experience gained in this exercise to streangthen our quality of other assignments. Overall the sequences were relatively smooth and the action was easy to follow, there was good continuality and the sound was clear. A few things needed to be improved though, the establishing shots of actors walking down the corridor were too long and drawn out, I should have kept action in the grid as there was too much space above actor’s heads and bodies sometimes and it could have done with a greater variety of shot angles and sizes also a few small background noises were not edited out.

The Exchange

this was an exercise to further familiarise ouselves with the filming process and practice handling the equipment. The aim of the exercise was to produce a short sequence that showed an exchange of a letter in a noir thriller style in any way we saw fit as long as it was to a noir-esque genre.