FMP - Final Statement/Review

REVIEW OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (FMP)

Student Name: Matt Dickinson         Pathway:Media Production

Final Major Project Title: Hardships

You will need to submit this evaluation with your full project hand in 

1. Briefly describe the final outcome of your project and the progress you have made, and if applicable how it differs from your original Project Proposal:

For my FMP I have a made a teaser and extended look trailer for a fictional film which I have written. The trailers can be used as an insite into what I imagine the film to look like and used a pitch to secure funding to complete and create the full length feature. My original plan was to make a single trailer on the concept of a few friends coming up with first file sharing business however this has progressed ultimately into both a love story between three characters while the business is under police investigation for child porn distribution. The film completely expands above the original idea into a number of different spirelling problems that the characters are forced to deal with. 

The first idea was include but used it as a platform to excell the real story off. Allowing the characters to rise what they dreamt and fixated is fun to watch but not exciting, it isnt until they are thrown obstacles that threaten to put them in a worse position than they originally started do we really start to enjoy a story. This is what mine progressed from and too.  

2. What methods have you used to show how your learning has effected your project eg FMP Blog/ FMP Plan/ sketchbooks etc, and how has this helped with development of your work:

One of the most important things that aided me in the creation of this project was my notebook, not sketchbook. I kept this on me almost at all times because of its small size and already messyness meaning I wasnt scared of worsening it. This acted as my physical mind, containing multiple on line scribbles that to anyone else means nothing but allowed to keep document of any new information and remind at later dates. 

It allowed me to be 100x more organised and creative as if I was unsure about anything at a moment in time, flicking through my notebook usually sorted the problem. Once I was sure of ideas, certain of information, it then found its way into my sketchbook. This meant everything in my sketchbook was directly linked to my actual project and there was no "waffle" or waste of space (something I hate). As a perfectionist I then found myself proud of my sketchbook. 

My blog was great to reflect upon my work so far. I found that once actually writing out what I was working on into a post, that things really started to set in. It gives you a chance to think about certain things again that you may not consider at first and helped me remind what stuck out a significant/potential lead versus a page filler. 

3. List the targets met (from the original FMP Plan and any that were added later):

Create a trailer and understand the fundamentals of a film trailer
Successful manage and direct a team of people on set
Learn what makes a successful script/narrative
Create an engaging storyline based on primary and secondary research

4. Reflecting on your overall final major project, please discuss any developments which have contributed to the final outcome:

The biggest development of the story was defintely during the development of the script, changing the storyline to based more around a love story and the downfall of a business rather than the rise of a group of college kidsd doing things they were never able to do. I should say it was a hard decision to make to completely change the dyanamic and flow of the story hwoever it wasnt. As soon as it hit me I instantly knew that it was actively going to make a more interesting 'ride' for the audition. It allowed me to look into so different scenes improving the variety of actions I could write to the story, opening more doors. It did set me back as I spent a longer period of time writing the scenes but resulted in a better film, and better trailer. The trailer wasnt all about parties and success but no had tension, paranoia, hate and love; all emotions that can keep the audience on the edge of the chair the whole film. 

5. Please state what advice you received from others during your FMP, and discuss what you found particularly useful: you should refer to group reviews, one-to-one tutorials and feedback from evaluation groups

Get as many opinions as possible. This completely changed my project for the better. If I hadnt seeked feedback from my tutors and peers not only would I have never found the new storyline but trailer would still be my cut. WIth every new cut that I showed it improved and still could improve if I was to keep showing it to new people. Narrowed minded is not a state of mind to put yourself into especially in the creative industry, its through networking and bouncing off other people do we find the greatest pieces of work. 

6. Key points to take away – things to change about my approach (give at least 2) eg improve time management, what skills you have developed and how this will affect your future course/career and things to continue doing and to build on (give at least 2). What are you going to do next year?
(NOTE – you may find it useful to refer to this document at the beginning of your next self managed project.)

From this project i can definitely say that I found what I thoroughly enjoy doing, and what I want to carry on doing in the future. I have finally learn the importance of time management and how much of difference planning can do to maximise the amount done in a single day. I have also learnt successful how to record sound with a Boom for dialogue and how much of an improvement it is from mounting the mic on the camera like I usually have. My FMP has taught me alot that I can now take forward into my Film Production degree that I am planning on studying at Arts University of Bournemouth

FMP - Bibliography

Bibliography 

Websites/Online Articles 

Sean Parker. (Internet). 2014. The Biography.com website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/sean-parker-20906371 (Accessed 2014).

Shawn Fanning. (internet). 2014. fundinguniverse.com website. Available from:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/napster-inc-history/ (Accessed 2014).

Chris Grant (Internet). 1998. pintday.org website. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20100601181412/http://pintday.org/whitepapers/ftp-review.shtml (Accessed 2014)

Stuart Dredge. (Internet) 2014. theguardian.com website. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/11/riaa-mpaa-megaupload-kim-dotcom-piracy-lawsuits (Accessed 2014)

Stephen Garret (Internet) Jan 2012. Filmmakermagazine.com. Available at: http://filmmakermagazine.com/37093-first-impressions/#.U4IyTvldV8E Accessed 2014. 

Jonny Elwyn. (Internet) Feb 2013. premiumbeat.com website. Available at: http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/editing-a-film-trailer/ Accessed 2014. 

Shan Carter (Internet) Feb 2013. nytimes.com website. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/19/movies/awardsseason/oscar-trailers.html?_r=0 Accessed 2014. 

Dan Schoenbrun (Internet) Jan 2012. Filmmakermagazine.com. Available at: http://filmmakermagazine.com/37093-first-impressions/#.U4IyTvldV8E Accessed 2014. Bottom of page.

Lynsey Macdonal (Internet) Sept 2011. roobla.com website. Available at: http://roobla.com/2011/09/16/what-makes-a-good-movie-trailer/ Accessed 2014. 

Visits

Tate Modern 8:04:14

Haward Gallery 8:04:14

British Film Institute 9:04:14

Books 

Ante, Spencer (May 2001) "Shawn Fanning's Struggle," Business Week. p. 197.

Mckee, Robert (Jan 2006) Story. UK. Regan Books. 

Vogler, Christopher (Dec 2007). The Writers Journey. UK. Michael Wiese Production. 

John C. Harsanyi & Reinhard Selten, 1988. A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games. MIT Press Books. The MIT Press. Edition 1, volume 1, number 0262582384.

Mercado, Gustavo (2013) The Film Maker's Eye. New York. Focal Press. 

Bond, Simon (2012) Simple Scene Sensational Shot. East sussex. Ilex Publishers. 

Youtube Videos

Danow1955 (Jan 18, 2014) What makes a good trailer? (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whxyC5NT0uQ

Overturefilms (Dec 8th, 2009) The Crazies - Trailer. (youtube video). Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7w9uWFIMBs

Paramount movies (May 1st, 2012) Cloverfield - Trailer. (youtube video). Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1XEriXzNik

Paramount pictures (June 16, 2013) The Wolf of Wall Street Official Trailer. (youtube video). Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iszwuX1AK6A

Don Jon Movie (May 23rd, 2013) Don Jon Official Trailer. (youtube video). Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A63Ly0Pvpk

Hollywoodstreams (May 10th, 2010) Inception Trailer HD. (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM

Movieclips (Sept 2nd, 2011) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Official Trailer. (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5X-hFf6Bwo

Movieclips Trailers (Jul 31, 2013) Lone Survivor Official Trailer (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoLFk4JK_RM

ENTV (Jul 31, 2013) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Trailer (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGWO2w0H2V8

MOVIECLIPS Trailers (Dec 19th 2012) Pain and Gain Official Trailer (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQ8jyvmYtw

VISO Trailer (Aug 12, 2010) Enter the Void - Official Trailer (youtube video) Accessed 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRxDP--e-Y

Documentares

Downloaded (Documentary) 2013. Directed/Produced by Alex Winter. VH1. US

Free to Play (Documentary) 2014. Produced by Valve Corporation. Online. US

Films

Filth (2013). Directed by Jon S. Baird (Motion Picture). UK. Lionsgate. 

The Social Network (2010). Directed by David Fincher (Motion Picture). US. Columbia Pictures

The Spectacular Now (2013). Directed by James Ponsoldt (Motion Picture). US. A24

Warrior (2011). Directed by Gavin O'Connor (Motion Picture). US. Lionsgate.

Project X (2012). Directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Motion Picture). US. Warner Bros Pictures.

The Prestige (2006) Directed by Christopher Nolan (Motion Picture). US Buena Vista Pictures and Warner Bros Pictures.

The Place Beyond The Pines (2012) Directed by Derek Cianfirance (Motion Picture). US. Focus Features

The Bang Bang Club (2010) Directed by Steven Silver (Motion Picture). South Africa. Paramount Pictures.

12 Years A Slave (2013) Directed by Steve McQueen (Motion Picture). UK. Fox Searchlight Pictures and Entertainment One

Dallas Buyers Club (2013) Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (Motion Picture). US. Focus Features.

Body of Lies (2008) Directed by Ridley Scott (Motion Picture). US. Warner Bros Pictures. 

Inglorious Basterds (2009) Directed by Quentin Tarantino (Motion Picture).  Germany. The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures. 

+

Short Term 12
Charlie St Cloud
The Kids are all Right
Ip In The Air
Only God Forgives
Coach Carter
50/50
Perks of Being A Wallflower
Limitless
Looper
The Great Gatsby 
Captain Phillips
Into The Wild
Gravity
Escape Plan
Welcome to the Rileys
Thank You For Smoking
Anchorman 2
The Proposal
500 Dyas of Summer
The Lucky One
Disconnect
Out of The Furnace
Now You See Me
Chronicle
Warm Bodies

FMP - Personal Evaluation

At the end of the seven weeks I am very pleased with the outcome. It exceeded my expectations I had when I started the project because realistically I thought I was setting myself up for a massive fall, but wanted to prove not only everyone around wrong but also myself that I could do it. The final outcome is a lot different from the original ideas I had, but better. I think the the seven weeks show the progression of a basic idea into a blossoming project that could be taken a lot further in the future. Film is one my deep passions and my ultimate aim in life, this project is just one stepping stone to getting there. 

Making this trailer and writing this story has been a huge learning experience. I now have a much deeper appreciation for the fundamentals of story writing and the whole production tasks that intertwine to create a finished film. Doing this project on my own has made me do things I never considered when making a film, from drawing very basic on the spot concept arts to show the actors the picture for the film I had in my head to drawing it out a time schedule to the shot list to maximise the efficiency of the shoot days. I struggled most with the planning because of the sheer size of the project (number of people, shots, scenes, locations etc) but it has taught me many lessons which I take with me whenever diving into a new project.

The filming was a great experience. It felt great to have a large portion on set all looking for your guidance on what they should do. In theory it should feel pressured but honestly I felt the opposite as it was one of the few times in the project where I could completely determine the fate of the product. Audio is something I usually stay well clear of and let other people take care of it but this project forced me to take control of it. This was good because it forced me to look into recording audio properly, teaching me a number of new things to maximise my output. It resulted in me recording the audio both directly into the camera via a shotgun mic mounted on the top of the camera and separately using a another shotgun mic on a boom connected to a H4N zoom to get a crisper sound for dialogue. 

Editing was a struggle in places. Usually I enjoy editing because for all my past projects I worked with linear straight cut scenes which allows me to get large portions of footage sorted in short amounts of time. With the trailer though it was extremely frustrating in places, I found myself constantly re positioning things and spent hours deciding over the length a shots against the importance of them. I have a new found respect for trailer editors because for a whole film, I can imagine having to shave my head to avoid me ripping my hair out over frustration. On the other hand it was overly rewarding in places. There were many times I found myself running around where I am living in excitement because something finally clicked just as I wanted it too. If there was anything I could take away from trailer editing, it is that patience is key and playing safe doesn't work; take a risk and it could pay off dramatically. 

If was given a few more weeks for the project, I think I would look into filming some more scenes/re-filming some bits with the actors. There are some shots that I feel I didn't get the best out of what was available. This would allow me a greater diversity in the trailer amongst shots, on top of what was already there. I would also look into some visual effects that I could add to maybe hint at a more high budget films, playing with the concepts of fire/car crashes all that shot from certain angles could make it look realistic without out me doing any actual damage. 

Overall I have thoughly enjoyed making this project, and it has been my favourite video that I have worked on to date. I owe a lot of thanks to everyone who gave inspiration to kick start ideas around the film and that provided me with favours in the actual production. This project has provided me with skills and confidence I can take into further projects allowing me to a lot more than before. 

FINAL PIECES

Teaser Trailer 

Extended Trailer

FMP - Post Production

Post production was across a few different programs; Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Prelude. I avoided using Adobe Speed grade for colour grading because of the unnecessary lengths of time it takes to use the software for a very similar final result. Adobe Premier Pro was used to base edit all the footage, all of the other softwares were 'extras' to this. 

I prefer to use Adobe Premier Pro (PP) because of its interactivity with a lot of the other Adobe software. For example you can render compositions straight from After Effects (AE) into PP's timeline instead of having to render a separate file and import like you would if you were using another 3rd party software. This saves a lot of time in longer projects. The layout may not as user friendly as Avid or Final Cut but compared to final cut it allows you to do so much more, it is a more industry standard piece of software in comparison. When working premier pro I used 4 video and audio channels which I layered different clips upon each other. The audio channels made use of the layering more effectively as I can manipulate the sound to blend in more effectively this way. (above)

I used Photoshop to produce all the titles which were then animated in premier pro. Photoshop wasn't used a great deal as titles can easily can created in after effects itself however there are a much wider range of options for things to do in photoshop visually for still images. However I wanted to keep the graphics very simple and bold to make it easy for the audience to read as they wont be on screen to long. It would be pointless if I spent a lot time making the graphics look nice but at the detriment of it taking that extra second to read. 

After effects was then used to animate these or any other special effects. For all of the titles I wanted some movement to make it look natural to the trailer but not enough to make it distracting from the actual text so all the graphics were animated to scale up slowly and enter with flare. 

I then also animated some different effects for the opening titles, such as the mountain drawing itself out or the magnified glass focussing in and out. Al these small features are barely noticeable in the actual cut but without them it can make a big difference. Its these small features that people don't consciously pick upon that make the difference between amateur and professional. 

I finally used after effects for a few other small things such as further stabilising any shaky footage to be dead still when I didn't use a tripod or steadi-cam. I can track small features each frame and rotate/position the rest of the footage around that point in the composition so it appears stationary. (above)

Prelude was used to transcode the footage. Using a C100 it films in AVCHD which means that the audio and sound gets produced separately and transcoded together. I colour graded all the footage in Premier pro as well. Colour grading can make a huge difference for something that doesnt take a long period of time. The great thing about premier pro is it gives you access to alot of different options. I mainly use a three way colour corrector, this allows me to change the colours in different layers of the picture. The shadows, mid tones, highlights can all be extended or compressed or tinted etc. This allows me to whiten lights and correct complexions. I then can also alter the levels to brighten or darken areas of the photo. There are a few other effects I can take advantage of, but below is just an example of the power of colour grading. 

Ungraded

Graded

FMP - Equipment

The equipment for my final major project was a massive element I had to consider. As I filming a trailer for the audience to believe what they are seeing in front of them is potentially real they will expect a certain quality, and there is only so much someone can do in post production. It is better to as much when filming so the quality doesn't get reduced when in editing. 

For the main camera used to film the trailer I used a Canon EOS C100, one of the entry level broadcasting cameras. It films no where near the quality of some of the broadcasting cameras, still filming at 1080p at only 30fps, however has a full frame sensor and a handful of other features that make it notably better than my SLR (Canon 60D). For example it also films in a cinema mode which flaten the image to allow for cleaner, more versatile, grading in post production. It also has an in built Natural density filter allowing me to always use the lowest possible F-stops when filming, reducing grain in my image which was something I was so keen to remove.

I then had a handful of lenses to use to film, however found myself only using a few. I wanted to use a lense with an incredible wide aperture to reduce grain so the majority of the trailer was filmed on a 50mm F/1.4 or a 20mm F/2.8. This allowed me to always keep the grain to as little as possible something that watching a film, you would not expect to see. I also had access to more wide angle lenses and some telephoto lenses, however both of these lenses are full frame lenses. This means I would be able to film on the full frame sensor of the C100, something that not all lenses are able to do. 

















For sound I used a few things. Firstly I used a Rode Shotgun Mic directly attached the to the top of the C100 which recorded audio directly in the audio channels of the footage, so all the footage had a good level of sound. 

I then had a separate Sennheiser 416 Rife Mic, mounted on a boom and though an XLR cable recorded sound into a H4N Zoom recorder. On the shoot days Ryan helped me with holding the boom. The boom allowed me to get the Mic as close the actors as possible to record a crisp clean dialogue while still being out of shot. This meant I didn't have to worry about being close to the actors when filming. 


When filming the camera was usually mounted to a Glide-cam, for stability. I used a Flycam 5000 which is a lightweight glide-cam for SLR's and any camera/combinations weighing under 12KG. This was perfect for the equipment we were using as it was easy to detach and shoot without quickly and when set up correctly completely stabilised the footage. 

The scenes that involved me having to sprint after characters or lean out of a moving car would usually be unusable but due the steadicam it removed all shake and when held stably produced extremely similar shots to dolly or fully automated steadicams.  I added a quick release plate to the top to allow me quickly detach the camera and film completely hand held or mount to a tripod in a matter of seconds. 

I also had a few other things to help me on the shoots such as a paglite C6 kit which are portable flights. I also had my SLR flood light. But these were rarely used unless we were indoors and needed a little more foreground light. I tried to film all the scenes as light as possible because it is easy to darken an image in post and keep the quality constant but lighting an image successfully is hard in post. I then also had a fluid tripod with a fluid head and head phones etc to hear the channels correctly preventing peaking. The majority of the kit was borrowed the CLR. 

FMP - Film Narrative

After a lot of research and experimentation I started to develop on my idea and create the film narrative. I already knew I wanted to create a story around a group of teenagers that discover the first file sharing website, as I wanted to capture the roller-coaster someone goes through from having nothing to having everything. However when talking to my tutors, Tom said that it is too nice and reminded me that needs to be obstacles for this character to overcome. I needed to discover what the character was and what he wanted to get too and then make him come across things that make it difficult to get there. The books 'Story' by Robert Mckee and 'The Writer's Journey' By Christopher Vogler reinforced this.

There I got to work. I wanted the character to be no one incredible special but no one too under privileged to make him relate-able to the mass majority of the audience, as there are times in all our lives where we just fit in. I wanted him to be the "crowd of the hallway". One of the things my tutors told me was to harness from past experiences to make the work and subject more authentic. Therefore I based the story around One boy in a group of closely knitted friends. He wasnt the most popular person at school, wasn't overly rich, didn't have a cinema worthy social life and like most teenage boys is unlucky with girls. This gave him plenty of things that he could improve upon. Things he would naturally aim for then; increased popularity, wealth, partying and obviously a beautiful girlfriend. These were all my end things that I wanted my character to have, and the way he would get there is through the development of this online business. The story was rapidly growing at this point and I had all the foundations to build the structure of my story. 

All I had to do then is link in characters to these objectives, build a chronological path for these objectives and then add in obstacles or 'oh fuck' situations to make the film entertaining. The hardest thing was creating the obstacles. After talking to my tutor the idea sparked of having something threaten to not only bring down his business and chances of the 'high life' but actually reduce him to having a worse life than previously. I didn't want him to die so something unlawful that could leave him in prison.

I started to experiment with ideas and situations that would mess about with his chances, but none stuck out as being thrilling and dramatic enough to shock the audience and produce that 'oh fuck' situation. I then started looking at taboo subjects that really pushed the boundaries of morality and hit a light bulb (metaphorically). As the business is built around file sharing, what if a file was to go trending that was so sick and shocking it would attract the attention of the police and force them to do something about it; child porn. Child porn is not a popular topic to speak of, even when mentioning in public to friends involving this project I could physically see them cringe. There have been cases of child porn on social networks such as Facebook and twitter and caused a debate on the whether the site should remain circulating. So imagine what would happen to the owners of a site already pushing the law by breaking copyright agreements and making money off that.

Not only was this a big obstacle to overcome but it could potentially spark other problems within the film/obstacles to overcome. Characters getting in accidents etc over the paranoia of thinking everyone knows they own the site such as car crashes or fights. I then wanted to mess up the relationship that the main character so desperately wants. Looking back at the friendship interviews I conducted with people one of the main things that repeated said to push the boundaries of a friendship is cheating. A friend going or getting with a another friends 'partner'. This was easy obstacle then, have character A's girl cheating on him with one of character A's friends. 

This causes were disruption with the storyline and the relationship strings that are built between people. Once I had the ideas fully developed, I began to produce a flow chart of scenes and ideas. After several attempts I managed to complete one, which I went to draw a timeline from. 

FMP - Shortened Version Final Piece

I took what people said into account and redid the end of this trailer. I added the final sequence of the extended trailer because it both received very positive reviews and I personally feel it the strongest part of all cuts I've done so far. This contained the finished title sequence with the changed name. I decided to keep the MGMT song and just split the two songs by adding in the shot where two of main characters recognise the significance of their idea. This allowed me to fade in songs to and from dialogue instead of each, which I knew I wouldn't be able to do because of completely different styles. 

I then tidied up some bits around the editing to make sure it was all completely in time with the sound. I showed this to a few people and it was greeted with a sea of "wow's". This grabbed peoples attention effectively leaving people wanting more. Exactly what a teaser trailer should do.  

FMP - Shortened Version Rough Cut

For the shortened version I decided to bring back the MGMT song because it is a very upbeat high tempo and enthusiastic song. It is a good song to edit footage to because of its stable and impulsive beat which has fluxes to allow for variations. This mean I could have montage of shots across one of the narrations from the main character. I decided to keep the start scene the same, the one of them discovering the file, because it does exactly what I want it to do and drag the audience in. Therefore I can then hit them with this montage. I wanted to keep it as short as possible so with the end of the narration I just through the title of the trailer in there face. This was before I changed the name of the trailer.

It received mixed reviews. People liked the change of pace and the montage of shots drew them into to wanting to find out what the film is about, so a lot of them did consider watching the extended trailer. However some had no clue what the film is about and said that the ending with it just dumping the title in there face just didn't feel natural. It needed to be more 'trailer' like. Therefore for the next cut I think I would include the final sequence of the trailer to make it seem more like an actual trailer not just a snapshot.  

FMP - Extended Version - Final Piece

The final piece has definitely come along way from the original rough cut. I redid some of the start credits and corrected all editing mistakes throughout the trailer to make sure every scene was perfectly in term with either the dialogue, the flow or the music behind the trailer. I solved the title probably that had been brought up before and come up with the name 'Harships'. I think this suited the film perfects because the film is about the roller coaster friendships can go through, the strains that relationships have on people and the problems they face with what they love; they're hardships. This name also suits that of a tragic drama and instills and insight into the audience about the substance of the film. I also finished the small other changes such as removing the teacher in the accreditation and adding in another motion graphic throughout the film to reinforce that trailer feeling throughout.

 

FMP - Extended Version Rough Cut

Now that I was making two final cuts; an extended version and rough version it relieved a lot of pressure of my back over the time of the final piece. This meant I would necessary have to cut scenes I thought were important in the extended version. I therefore decided to do all the other comments and corrections advised from different people on my final piece. I first added in all the footage from the final re-shoot to finally complete my timeline for the first time! I then added in some cross fades between scenes to flow the start of new parts of the film together but still allow people to differentiate between them. I finally trimmed a few scenes to cut any 'waffle' as described and re-added a scene to enhance the severity of the actions from certain characters. 

I also colour graded the this cut and fully mastered all the sound to make sure there was no peaking or muffled sound. One of the most important bits of trailers is to make sure that the dialogue is very clear and isolated from any ambience but yet still sits in with the music.

After showing this I received and shocked more than anything response. People were blown away and there were very few things they could find that they would change. One of my tutors stated that I should remove the cross fades and the geometrics of some of the shots clash as they fade onto one another making it distracting for the viewers. I wanted to keep fades in these scenes as it was something i previously had been picked up upon so will replace this with pitch to blacks. 

There were a few other things that I was told to change like in the actors accreditation at the end I should remove the teacher, as he not a main character in the film. The other big area I was told to research was the name of the film. "Blooming Ideas" is more of a comedy than the tragedy drama, that this film is. I need to look into what the film is ultimately about and harvest a title that reflect that quickly and instantly. This was a great point as the name never struck me as being as significant the representation of the film. 

FMP - Rough Cut 2

The second Rough cut was a massive step up compared to the original cut. I had spent a few more days editing this and been extremely harsh experimenting by throwing different scenes from the narrative all over the timeline to see how they would play out. 

The first thing I did was change the start to do what people wanted and grab there attention. The most tense and serious scene I have from the footage is the one of Ali and Dom first coming across the Taboo file. Therefore I decided to take a leap of faith and throw that at the beginning. This grabs the attention of the audience as they want to find out what the file is, and then when it is mentions want to find out what the story/film has to do with such a sensitive topic; child porn. This propels them into the trailer and into the next few scenes, allowing me to lay down the foundations of the story. 

Then edited all the scenes to correlate with a song. I removed the MGMT song as I could find a way of including two 'blockbuster' songs in the trailer effectively. I re-matched a lot of the sound so it flows and is all in time with the actors as we were recording sound into an external zoom instead of directly into the C100.

There were still some blanks that were needed to be filled in and some of the centre sequence was out of time to the music. So that needs to be fixed. Overall this received a much better response than the first cut and watching this made me see the potential it could have. 

After talking to tutors and looking at the feedback given, I was told that it is best for me to try to cut down some of the scenes a little further as some drag longer than needed. Some of the scenes need to fade into each other to made the trailer flow better and some of the sound peaks in areas. Main thing I was told to focus on was to fill all the gaps as the cut can no where be looked at properly until it was full. Finally one of the things I spoke with my tutors was the length of the trailer. it was clear that for it to successfully show the narrative the trailer would have to be around 4 minutes which is more like the length of an extended trailer. Therefore I should maybe look into making a shortened quick teaser trailer as well.

FMP - Rough Cut 1

This is the first rough cut produced from the majority of the footage taken over the two day shoot. There are a lot of blanks still because I have thought of shots I want to re-shoot and include. Chronologically it makes sense and flows naturally with the storyline. From all the people that watched it, they understood what the story was about. However it doesn't look like a trailer, it looks more like a short film. 

It criticised for the lack of excitement throughout the trailer, the first two minutes are gripping. If they aren't dragged in at the beginning there is a very high chance they wont make it to the second half of the trailer, which means the trailer has failed as a salesmen to promote the film. 

After the first song was introduced along with the narrative from the main character, it picked up a more positive response. The editing was praised more and when the serious scene of the two characters coming across the dreaded file that shuts there sight down, people wanted to see more. The second song by One republic was enjoyed and said was a good song to make the trailer to and the final sequence was praised at looking very realistic. 

The main points I took from this preliminary cut was to grab the attention of the audience from the beginning and secondly to finish a fully music/sound edited cut. 

FMP - Week 7 Overview

Going into the final week I showed the rough cut to some people get there feedback and any ideas of what they would change. I already had a lot of ideas that had yet to put in place but after showing them it was clear that was a few scenes missing that I need to film to have all the footage for a potential final cut. I carried on creating new cuts each day of the week and gaining feedback.

Mid week I met with the main actors to finish of some final shots. After some conversing with my tutors and watching more trailers I decided to produce to final pieces. One shortened trailer which would be close to two minutes which was very harsh with the cutting of scenes to not lose the audiences attention during the video, as this was one of my main problems. 

The middle part was quite slow but needed to explain the direction of the trailer so I then produced an extended trailer just under four minutes which allowed me to include these vital scenes. 

Although I had spent a lot of time of some scenes and getting actors to practise for some shots, there were a load of footage and parts that I had to cut out from the final pieces. This was purely because they were not directly important enough to warrant the time they were taking out. 

One of the things tom said was not to be protective over your footage, if it unneeded then remove it, as it can provide a distraction to the foundations of the film or lose the audiences interest. Every second is vital.

After much stress, many edits and a lot of opinions being thrown around I am proud with my final piece. There are multiple things that I would improve upon in the future if I find the time/money, and ultimately I would like to take the foundations of the narrative and make an actual full length feature from it. 

FMP - Week 6 Overview

Through out the last five weeks I was roughly gathering actors and willing friends to be in my film trailer which was helpful going into this week. This week I was planning on filming the whole sequence to allow for editing. 

This meant I had to plan actors, script, locations, equipment, shot list's time-schedule and a hand ful of other things like props etc. The shot list was already finished as I wrote it at the same time of drawing the timeline. This allowed me to draw up a second shot list quickly splitting it into different locations, so when I was filming at that location I could film all the necessary films.

From this I found I needed a house, three individual unique bedrooms, a school, a field, a flat, a work place and some streets. I stuck to what I knew and contacted friends who had access to each to try and secure the places. 

Luckily after a handful of phone calls I managed to secure all of the places from my old secondary school, on a teacher training day meaning it would be empty, to a chemist who was closing for cleaning one day for an hour. 

Then I moved on to actors. There were a handful of significant characters I wanted to get to increase the believability of the trailer. If the trailer was filled with actors my age it doesn't look realistic so a comfortable age range was key. 

All the main characters were my age and then I used family like my mum, dad, little brother and his friends to play insignificant roles to the film but there inclusion just made more engaging. In total I managed to get 19 people to act for the film, all out of good will and a non existent budget (minus food and some expenses here and there). 

The trailer was filmed over the space of two very long days, towards the end of the week to allow plenty of time for editing and any reshoots that was needed. From all the footage at the end of the week, I honestly thought I had made a big mistake as the raw rushes just didnt seem to click. But after I chronologically cut all the scenes to fit the length of the movie, producing an extremely rough cut, I began to believe that the piece could be pulled off.