The One Minute Film Challenge (Annabelle remake)
Initially, my group (Me, Nana, Ohm, and Micky who joined later on) decided to do a remake of Annabelle trailer as it is suitable/uncomplicated with an interesting plot, and also special props/effects are not necessary to create this. After selecting our film, we looked at the trailer and analysed it thoroughly by considering the different micro-elements (especially camerawork) to know which specific parts we might be able to include in our trailer (as shown, these snapshots of frames shows parts of the trailer that we have chosen to imitate). During the discussion we decided on which job who was going to be in charge of; Nana as the director, Ohm who was the cameraman and Me being the actor(playing the victim). These first few stages didn't take us long as we were all on board with the idea and everyone agreed with everything in this process.
The most difficult part of this project was particularly the process of filming the trailer as we were only allowed to film within the school campus. This made it hard for us to choose the right area and angle to make it seem like the real trailer as much as possible as the actual setting is in a house. However, it was fun trying to come up with ideas to help solve problems creatively for example for the scene when I had to run through a dark corridor, we went to film in the science block and turned off the lights. This included having to create our own sound effects to match the trailer i.e: door creak, turning of doll's head. In the time of filming, we applied our knowledge of the 180° rule, which is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another when a conversation is taking place. Another is the idea of holding the camera with unsteady hands to film a scene to suggest danger/conflict.
When we were done with filming, we started editing which was quite hard for us as well since we all weren't used to the software premier pro so we had trouble with applying effects and editing the sound effects (fade in fade out). Despite the complexity we were able to work as a team and manage this by watching online tutorials and doing research to help each other out (i.e: 0:31 where we added the title "Annabelle" with the enlarging effect) . This is why i really enjoy working as a team as it encourages teamwork and communication, making the project more fun to carry out. I was able to learn many other skills other than just acting and editing which made the experience more enjoyable.
Overall, I am pleased with the trailer considering this is our first time using this software and also working together as a team. I really like the sound effects and some of the editing especially at 0:39-0:46 and 1:02-1:07 as it matches perfectly together. Other than that, I am happy with the feedback as my friend commented that "This is really cool, I like the sound effects and your acting as well." However, I think we could improve on making our transitions sharper in the right time to create a more scary trailer (a particular scene being the one with me running away and tripping over). It would also be better if we didn't forgot to apple the dark effects to every scene as it makes the trailer seem unfinished.
