Sound
Throughout the whole extract we used non-diegetic sound at different volumes which we were able to control on the editing software. We used two or three tracks which we overlapped at different points to make the sound out of beat and therefore intense and dark. For the diegetic sound we had the dialogue of the characters and also some background noises such as a crow which symbolised death and showed that something was wrong. We used special sound effects such as the gun shot which we found on the internet.

Editing
When capturing the clips we had filmed we went onto Adobe Premiere and recorded the whole clip onto the computer. Therefore when going through the film we could cut out any clips we did not need using the cut button on the editing keyboard.
Due to the different clips we had incorporated we did not stick solely to the pre production storyboard and in fact used a variety of different shots that had not been included at first. Therefore we improved our fiction film based on our filming which we pieced together when editing. There were some bits of the storyboard we left out whilst editing. This is because the shots did not go well together and we wanted our clips to flow easily together.



Special Effects
We changed the tone and lighting of the picture to make the pictures more in depth and rich in colour. This made a major difference to the atmosphere portrayed in the film as shown bellow.

This is the original picture before we edited the tone and colouring...



This is the picture after editing...



We added different effects to the film using the file ‘video transitions’. One of these effects we used was the cross dissolve. This was used in order make our cuts from one scene to another a lot smoother. We could choose whether we wanted the scenes to overlap a lot or not at all using the A and B icons shown in the picture below.



Another effect used was the ‘dip to black’ effect. We used this when zooming in from our establishing shot to the scene of the detective within the room. This was used to represent to the audience that the scene to come (the detective in the room) is occurring in that house. We believed that this cut was very smooth as the dip to black makes it possible to switch from the window to the swinging of the bag in the room. As we did in the cross dissolve we can similarly fade in and out using the A and B icons.



A final effect used was the slow motion clip at the end. This effect was used by reducing the time span on the clip; this therefore produced the slow motion effect. This effect went very well will the non-diegetic music which was slow and intense. This slow motion clip occurs just after Letch kills the detective. This makes the scene daunting and lets the audience take in what has just occurred as they hesitantly watch the well built mobster walk away in slow motion.



Titles
During the opening scene we were meant to include titles such as the film companies, the producer and the director. We used a bold, rough font to portray the rough crime genre of our film. The font used was called Adobe Garamond. We named the film Brief Case, this is a play on words and is a double entendre as the prop of concern is the briefcase, however the killing was done so brutally and quickly it could be called a ‘brief case’. We put the title all in caps lock so that the audience know that is the title of the movie. Due to the fact that we included a lot of walking in our opening sequence we decided to put the titles over the picture rather than on a black screen. I thought this worked really well as the titles were readable and you could still seeing what is going on in the picture. This also meant that we had to colour the titles white in order for the audience to be able to read them. The process in which we edited and applied the titles is shown below.

Filming
Our fiction film was meant to portray an eerie and mysterious atmosphere and therefore when searching for our site to film we needed a space where it was desolate and possibly enclosed. We found a forest which was perfect due to the shadows cast by the trees and the lack of people within the scene.

Actors
When choosing our actors we needed two well built male actors who could be made to look like members of a mob, therefore when choosing their ‘costumes’, we made sure they were in suits to have a ‘mob or gangster’ members stereotypical appearance.
We did not want our actors to use a lot of dialogue so that our scenes could seem mysterious and therefore keep the audience ‘on the edge of their seats’ and keep them guessing at most points in the opening minutes we produced.
The only makeup needed when filming was when we had the close up shot on the character’s face who had been shot. For this we just used fake blood which we ran down the characters face to show that there had been blood gushing out his head.
We used two actors, one of which was one of my group member’s older brother (Daniel), and the other being the brother’s friend (Robert) who had a background of acting which was very helpful.

Props
The main props used within our fiction film were the dark briefcase, the brown bag filled with money, the gun and a mobile phone. The briefcase and brown bag were owned by one of my group members and the mobile phone seen in one of the close up shots was owned by the actor himself. We bought the gun in a random shop and then painted it black, this gun was good because it was big and bulky and therefore on screen it could easily be identified as a weapon. The brown bag filled which was meant to be filled with money was in fact stuffed with a pillow and then we scattered eight to ten, twenty pound notes on top to make it look like the bag was filled with money.

Filming and Ideas
We wanted to keep the order in which we filmed roughly in the same order we would have the final video. This was in order for us to not back track on what we had filmed and to have the same lighting in every scene. However when filming we filmed lots of different angles and points of view to ensure that we had every single shot possible when it came to editing and the scenes could therefore cut from one to another smoothly. Also when filming we tried to include a variety of different shots to show the scene clearly and to also use the camerawork to portray different ideas. For example we had a low angle shot looking up at one of our characters to portray that he was strong and superior compared to the other character.
When we originally came up with the idea of having a gangster themed thriller we wanted to use three characters. However we discovered that this was not realistic due to the fact that the storyline was too complex and our third actor that we would have used dropped out. As a result of this we had to change our idea for the ending of our opening scene. We thought that the killing off of one our characters at the end of our opening scene would shock the audience and get them prepared for a thrilling and suspenseful film. The main basis of the story we first came up with was still used, for instance putting some ‘evidence’, i.e. the gun, into the briefcase at the start to show that some sort of dangerous or dodgy deal was about to occur in the opening scene. We did not want to make the opening scene too complicated and therefore just the simple walking of our character out of his house towards the other character would be a good opportunity to put some non-diegetic music in the background to create a solemn and ‘spooky’ tone. It would also be a good opportunity to put some titles on screen which is very important when making our opening scene to our fiction film.
There were some unexpected good moments when we filmed the last minute or so of the opening scene. We filmed on a sunny day and therefore the shadows cast by the trees in the little walkway/forest area we used were very effective. Therefore when our character pulled out the gun to shoot, the shadow of the gun was cast perfectly onto a tree within the scene. This therefore highlighted the importance and threat of the gun in that scene. Some more unexpected good moments that occurred was when we decided to keep the ambient sound to show the atmosphere of the forest area. There was a sound of a crow which symbolises evil and therefore in this scene it helped us portray the fact that something bad was about to occur.

Health and Safety Issues
There were not many health and safety issues, we filmed part of our film in a secure house and the other part in a desolate area so therefore there was not a lot of people who could pose any possible threat. However when filming a high angle shot that we were very impressed with and in fact used in our film there was a little bit of a safety risk. One of our group members went on one of the actors shoulders on a high ledge and filmed. However this did not go wrong and no health or safety threat occurred.

Lighting
Within the house when the character was putting the gun into the briefcase and making a call we dimmed the lights in the room. We turned on a lamp which was placed on the desk next to the character which perfectly showed what was occurring within the scene and cast some effective shadows which made it look daunting and therefore would create a suspenseful atmosphere.
When filming outside and in the forest area we used the natural light from the sun. There was a lot of shade due to the trees which ensured that the scene was not too bright. The shadows cast by the trees also gave us an opportunity to highlight the key props within a scene, for instance the gun.

Sound
Diegetic sound used within the scenes was the dialogue said by the characters and the clicking of the briefcase closing. There was also ambient sound used when the two characters had a discussion outside and settled the deal. This was used instead of a backing track to produce an outdoor atmosphere. There was a lot of non-diegetic sound used such as the soundtrack which raised its tempo as the character was getting closer and closer to making the deal. We used some sound effects such as the gun shots when one of the characters shot the other character.

Camera
The camera (Canon XL1S) we used to film the opening scene was easy to carry around. We also used a tripod and some attachable wheels in order for our shots to be still and for our skewing to go across or up or downwards in a perfect line.

Changes
The final title sequence to our film was produced; however there were issues with the sound which affected the atmosphere we wanted to portray and also the audience’s interpretation of the narrative. Therefore we changed around the timings of the music so it corresponded with the picture and made it more affective. For instance we made it so the end of the high pitched intense music ended when the detective closed the zip of the bag of money. Contrasting booming music started to play to suggest that there was no going back and something bad was about to occur. We also had to turn the volume of the dialogue up so that the audience could hear clearly what the characters were saying in order for them to understand the narrative. A final change we made was adding a cross dissolve in just after the title ‘Brief Case’ appeared on the screen.
The previous title sequence before these changes were introduced is shown below, you therefore compare the contrast between this clip and the finalised clip at the top.

Post Production Questionnaire
This questionnaire was produced after our finalised version of ‘Brief Case’. We showed our screening to an audience and then gave them a questionnaire which we have generalised in the pie charts below.



I was very pleased with the positive feedback received. We had certainly represented the conventions of a crime thriller due to the fact that we received a 100% response confirming the thriller contained the conventions of a crime thriller. I was also pleased to note that our filming and editing skills had paid off due to the fact that a high percentage of people said that the action flowed well within our thriller.

Script
We told the actors what type of role they needed to play and prepared them for how they should come across to the camera. We also produced a script which was mainly stuck to but at the time of filming we also found ourselves improvising, however always keeping the script as a baseline. There is little dialogue due to the fact that we wanted create an eerie atmosphere and more therefore there are more directions on the script shown below.

Locations
I chose this location for my thriller sequence, because I decided that it was going to be hard to get permission to film in a public place. This location was attractive for us because there were no members of the public around and the shadows cast by the trees proved to be the perfect lighting for our film. The location was local to where we were originally filming. There were high ledges at the edges of the walk way, so this therefore made it easier for us to film long shots and high angled shots.

Pre Production Storyboard
After gaining all our ideas together from different sources such as the questionnaire and our different movie influences we all had a main idea as to how we would construct our open sequence to our thriller. We therefore drew this out on a storyboard as shown:




Background knowledge on the storyline is that there is a detective who has evidence to bring down a top criminal who is being held in custody. If this evidence is presented in court the criminal will go to jail for life. However the detective has another option and can take the ‘bent copper’ path if he chooses. The detective chooses this path and arranges to meet with a representative of the criminal in custody where he will therefore swap the evidence for a large amount of money. In this pre production title sequence the following is therefore shown. There is the establishing shot of the house and it then shows the detective within the house sorting out all the different pieces of evidence. He then receives a call from a criminal contact he has been tracking who tells him where to meet so they can make a swap between the evidence and substantial amount of money. The detective therefore leaves the house and walks towards the road he is meant to meet the contact on. When meeting the contact they exchange words and hope to make the swap without any interruptions. However when the detective goes to take the bag of money the criminal contact pulls out a gun and kills him. This therefore results in the detective lying dead on the road whilst the criminal walks off with the evidence and the money.

Pre Production Questionnaire
The use of the questionnaire was to determine what different conventions and different aspects of a movie an audience would want to see in our thriller. We had a main idea that we wanted to incorporate the genre of crime and violence, but we did not know what way to go about it. Therefore we created this questionnaire online to guide us to our final film.
The target audience for our film was teenagers and we therefore issued out the questionnaire to people of ages 16-18. However we did not have a gender specific idea for this movie and therefore to gain a fair amount of results we issued the questionnaire out to 40 people, 20 males and 20 females. Within our questionnaire we wanted a variety of different styled questions so we could gain as much information as we can where needed. We therefore included multiple choice questions and open questions where the audience could write a more detailed answer.



The Questionnaire



After recieving all the results back from our questionnaires we were able to represent this in a pie chart where it would be easier to determine what we should include in our thriller.



I can therefore conclude from the results gained that we now have a much better image of which path we would like to take when producing our thriller. The results tell us that the unique character is the most preferred and although suspense is rather important within a thriller, it must not be too complex.

Preliminary Task
Over the course of two weeks I worked in a group of three people where we produced our preliminary task. When engaging in this task I learnt how to use a camera first hand. I learnt what all the different functions on the camera did and how they manipulated the outcome of the final video, for example how to white balance. I also learnt how to edit the video on the computers.

When filming in this task we used a variety of basic shots such as:

Establishing shot
Panning (following the character in a scene)
Over the shoulder shot
Close up
Long shot
Medium shot

When filming you still have to keep editing very much in mind. For instance when beginning and ending a scene you have to wait three seconds before the character can start moving. As a result of this when one comes to edit it is easy to make quick and accurate cuts between shots.

Within the Preliminary I filmed the opening scene and the cuts from when the first door is opened. When doing this I had to pan the camera whilst following the character and use a long shot to establish the scene and the identity of the character. I also edited most of the opening scene; this included the opening of both doors where we used quick cuts to and from different points of view to show the character opening the door.

Editing the preliminary task was very helpful because it meant I could become aware of the different editing software on the computer. Therefore when editing my opening sequence to the thriller I can use special affects to enhance the quality of the final video produced.



The preliminary task also helped our group ponder different ideas for our opening to our thriller. We liked the idea of using the lighting to make shadows on a wall or floor which we could film; this therefore would make a scene feel tense and suspicious which is what our group is aiming for in our thriller.