FMP - Week 2 Overview

In week two I carried looking at more film trailers as there is an endless amount of them available to me through the internet. I then went on to choose a handful of films that I especially liked and could take features from for my project. They were quite diverse in genres and narratives however each related to my project in some way.

I had realised my now that concept of file sharing isn't very exciting to watch so wanted to focus on more of the break down and building of new relationships due to this power the characters gain. So the majority of these films had extremely good narratives in conjunction with how our actions can have strain and effect others around us. This gave me a list of ideas and scenarios I could try and put my character into, increasing the drama and tension within the movie taking it further than the original idea. Ideas from car crashes to drug overdoses, generic crisis' that can be linked into the story well. However this will involve careful planning and set up, these scenes cannot just be randomly thrown in the mix otherwise the audience will be wondering where they have come from and what is happening.

I then created a mind-map of the most important features that I personally think make up a good trailer. These were quite broad editing styles/scenes but useful because for every trailer that I have throughly enjoyed they tick the majority of the boxes for this mind map. This helped me establish shots that I have to include in the trailer and allows me to craft the story of the trailer more to fit in these points. From reaction shots of characters to well edited montages with a highly recognisable sound track to engage the audience. 

FMP - Week 1 Overview

For the start of our FMP it was the research stage, and there are many areas I need to look into to allow to understand the foundations of how to sculpt my story and produce a movie trailer. Firstly I looked into the factual history behind file-sharing and Napster. I wanted to make sure that all the things I knew made up file sharing was true and wanted to understand the realities of where file-sharing spawned from. From here I learnt the true stories of Sean Fanning and Sean Parker. Originally I was lead to believe that

Parker was the pioneer of Napster but actually through research and documentaries I learnt that it was actually Sean Fanning who dropped out of school with the idea first. 

He had quite an interesting story of how he used to sleep at his uncles business with a sleeping bag next to his computer because he was so obsessed with getting this idea off the ground. This is a good foundation that I can progress my narrative around. Now understanding what file sharing spawned from it also allows to more to choose how to condense and mould the boring facts around file sharing into something easy to interpret and make visually enticing to the audience, preventing them to just skip the trailer at the start. 

I also looked into other case stories of other file sharing websites and there owners such as Megashare, to see I can cross the stories together to get an overall more thrilling experience. Looking at these showed me how serious the area is with a guy called Kim Schmitz who was sentenced to 80+ years in a US prison due to mass copywriter infringement. I can use this to vamp up the tension and risk between the characters actions during the story. 

I then started looking at the basics of a movie trailer, and what makes the foundations of trailers. The rough guide that people follow to show the story of a trailer; Theory of Equilibrium. From this I learnt the basic do's and don't of movie trailer which allowed me when analysing other trailers to see the similarities and understand why the included certain clips. Therefore from this I started to look at numerous trailers to start getting some inspiration and ideas behind what I can base mine on. From these trailers I started to pick out features that I liked and that influence me.

Watching numerous trailers made me distinguish between a successful and boring trailer, and the different effects a trailer can have on the viewer depending on the way it was edited and understand. For example the trailer to The Wolf of Wall Street was very seat gripping and made me want to go out and have a big party, however watching the trailer to Lone Survivor made me want to go out and explore the world/join the military. This effect on me shows the power of a movie trailer and how it can influence someone. After watching both these trailers I instantly wanted more and had to watch the films, if I can come to understand how they did this then it will help me in creating a successful and enjoyable project. 

FMP - Starting Idea

To create a short (teaser) trailer for a fictional film around a group of friends inventing file sharing. The film will be based on factual information and true events that may be viewed as exciting, through research. The style of the trailer is going to be determined on the scenes filmed from the story and ideas that I come across in research. 

I will write the rough narrative for the feature film and then construct the trailer around that. I want the store to be about a group of friends at college/university who invest in a server to share owned materials such as games/music. Then discover a way ti make it public and create the first file sharing website, similar to how Napster was created. The foundations of the story will be about the journey of Sean Fanning and Sean Parker (who created Napster). However I will base it around filesharing more than just music.

The most relatable film is the social network which is about the creation of Facebook, and the struggles he has with his friends during his rise to fame. I want my film to be about the problems and clashes the main character goes through similar to the social network but more family based. However I need to find ideas that are visually stimulating unlike money and power which in theory should belong in court and board rooms, while being on a non existent budget. I do not know the genre of the film and need to research styles that I can replicate/expand upon.