In on fifty second short ad, our protagonist “thief”, lock picks the front door of a luxurious Philadelphia apartment. After entering the foyer, he roams the home, looking for potential items to steal and sell when he comes across the jewelry stored in the master bedroom closet. After he finds a watch he’s been looking for for ages, he replaces it in it’s case with his much smaller watch.

For several months, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to shoot a project in black & white noir style. It’s always been a side of cinematography that has interested me, especially since its far outside of my comfort zone of what I already shot previously. This project game me this opportunity, as well as many others. For “EXCHANGE”, I wanted to replicate the cinematography techniques of many mid-century, noir films, while using music and editing techniques of the twenty-first century to mix the two periods for a refreshing take on this style of filmmaking.

Securing our picture home was a lengthy and time-consuming process that led to less preparation time. Learning to communicate my ideas effectively to our actor was challenging and informative. Finally, certain specialty equipment items were needed for this production, which were difficult to secure via external equipment rental houses.