Preliminary exercise evaluation

Our preliminary exercise task was to produce  a short clip that involved filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In this task we also had to make sure that we demonstrated match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 
In my preliminary exercise I worked in a group with Sunny, Ladan and Mandev. Overall I think we worked well with planning and completing tasks. Sunny and I shared the storyboard between us, I did the first ten shots and he did the last ten. Mandev wrote the script and Ladan completed the shot list. When we did our planning I think our communication skills were quite good we would let each other know when we completed each task in order for the next person to complete their own one. However when it came to actually filming and editing not all of us had put in effort and some were doing the majority of the work. So to improve for next time when we do our real production I believe we should plan filming and editing tasks for each other so the work is split up equally.
The strengths of our production were that we had a good selection of shots and our editing was quite good. We used a number of close-ups and extreme close-ups in order for the audience to get a good glimpse of the character’s facial expressions and emotions. I also think our script was really good too as the dialogue fitted in really well with the concept of our short film. I think our production would fit into the genres: drama, action and comedy. Although it was an intense, gruesome scene there were some parts that were quite humorous for example when the security guard waited outside and listened to his headphones. The use of the non diegetic sound of the music playing in his headphones was contrapuntal to the clip which made it quite humorous for the audience.
I believe the weaknesses of our production again were that we could have split the filming and editing tasks more equally in our group. Also we did not do the 180 degree shot correctly. We noticed that our main character looked like he was speaking to himself, so we know how to edit and film this shot correctly for next time. Also I noticed that the lighting continuously changed in one scene. In one shot the lighting would be facing away from the main protagonist’s face and then in the next shot it would. So next time we would make sure that the lighting is the same continuously in these shots. Another weakness I noticed was that the sound echoed quite a lot in that particular room that we shot in. so next time we need to consider where we are shooting properly and do tests on filming sound to enable that it is correct. 
In terms of mise-en-scene i think we could do better with props. The use of blood and scissors was a good addition to our production as it helped the audience understand the concept which was heavily based on the concept of the film ‘reservoir dogs’. However I do think we could have done better with costumes for example the main protagonist could have worn a suite and maybe have a cigar in his hand to make him look more serious and superior. I also think the character being held for ransom should have had proper ropes around his hands and legs in order for the audience to take the production more seriously. Lastly I believe we could consider a change of location for our next production for it to fit with the concept better.