Category: Assignment

Assignment 4: Make A Film Trailer (FIND ME)

Synopsis:

“When everything falls apart and the light goes dark, love comes.”

“And truth is not the same as what it seems.”

Elijah is an aspiring photographer who is preparing for an exhibition. Unfortunately, he experiences a car crash and his parents passed away. His eyesight starts to deteriorate, believed to be caused by a severe form of depression: hysterical blindness. His conditions worsens as his world falls apart.

As a photographer, Elijah suffers even more. His photography skills are affected by his impaired vision, his exhibition is at stake. Janet, his assistant, noticed Elijah’s sufferings and is willing to help him through thick and thin. He develops a liking for Janet.

However, Janet starts to find out that something is not right regarding Elijah. His parents did not die due to a car accident. Elijah starts to remember something buried deep in his memory, a dark past that he has forgotten from that tragic day.

Who is Elijah?

 

Processed with VSCOcam with hb2 preset

Reflections

From this project of shooting a trailer, our group learnt the ups and downs of actually taking the time and filming one. Even with pre-preparation through watching trailers made by the professionals, going heads into the project and really doing it with our hands was a great experience that we feel could only be taught through this.

First and foremost, we changed our original plot due to the fact that the main character was not as relatable, nor strong. This created a sense of distance for the audience and changing it helped the story to flow better with better dynamics. We also thought that incorporating a mystery also adds a very interesting twist, making the trailer more compelling.

While filming for “Find Me”, there were definitely setbacks that held us with instances like how to plan our shots, how to tweak the story to make the character/story more appealing, deal with inconsistency with our story, or even locations that were not suitable and had to be changed at the last minute.

Overall, it was definitely a wonderful experience that was fulfilling and also very fun, mainly due to the ability for us to work so well as a team. Everyone was very co-operative and extremely supportive of each other, we are very thankful for having each other as teammates 🙂

 

Process – Story

The story is a combination of Find Me by Alfred and Clandestine by Gladys. By taking almost equal amount of elements from both stories, we crafted an interesting twist in the final story: Find Me.

Original Find Me by Alfred is about a young man who lost his family in a car crash. He was depressed because of the deaths of his parents and eventually developed hysterical blindness. Love seemingly rescued him from his depression and also his disabilities of losing his eyesight. In conclusion, the story is about his struggle and how he fought his hopelessness. (Genre: Tragedy, Drama)

In the other hand, Clandestine by Gladys is about corporate warfare in the modern setting. The story is about the wife of a businessman who is caught in a moral dilemma: to support her husband’s evil schemes or to expose him. (Genre: Psychological Thriller, Drama)

As a result, the final Find Me took the idea about a young man who lost his parents from the original Find Me and a woman who faces moral dilemma from Clandestine. To create a better flow of the story, we added the idea that the death of the parents are not because of an accident, but potentially a murder which is a mystery to unveil.

 

Process – Editing

An early trial edit of the first few footages taken.

The result felt more like a short film, we ought to make it more trailer-like by jumbling some of the sequence and changing the music.

 

Roles

We did most of the work together, planning the story sequence and art direction as a team.  

Gladys: Main editor and cameraman, actor

Alfred: Main actor and story writer, editor

Feli: Main Animator/effects and story writer, cameraman

 

Music

Trailer: “I Started A Joke” by Becky Hanson

Process: “The Last of Us” by Gustavo Santaolalla

 

Locations

Kranji memorial park

Shaw Tower

Gladys’ house

NTU’s Hive, ADM, Hall

Singapore Zoo

Bugis area

SAM

 

Bloopers

HAVE FUN LAUGHING!

 

Assignment 3: Re-telling Myths

FINDME3

SYNOPSIS:
ELIJAH is a young man who because of the death of his parents develops severe depression which triggered a rare psychological condition that causes him to slowly lose his eyesight, hysterical blindness. This said to be the purest form of distancing oneself from reality and was documented to be the mind trying to protect the person in some way or another.
Elijah doesn’t talk and stays in bed all day, his aunt and uncle who took over him after the incident agrees together that he needs to see a therapist. Elijah not happy about their decision snuck out of the house despite his failing eyesight. He goes to a coffee house and tries to read a book, it goes to no avail and that’s when his eyesight completely shuts off. Panic-stricken over this sudden occurrence he appears overly agitated but remained conscious of his surrounding to make a ruckus. A man notices this happening and swipes Elijah’s phone and wallet that was on the table away. Elijah tried to leave the place and was accused of feigning blindness to avoid paying for his food, a woman, JANET, came to his rescue.
Janet is a psychology student and after learning Elijah’s story wants to help him regain his vision. She brings him home despite his refusal and starts on her little project. She found out that his parents did not die from an accident but rather a joint suicide which Elijah was supposed to partake. Overcame by the memory of his parents he grew extremely agitated and throws a tantrum, Janet realizes she took more than she could swallow.
After a few days, Janet sets up her mind to continue on what she has started and decided to do things that Elijah have enjoyed in the past in hopes of triggering a happy emotion. Elijah does not respond to anything from the experiment but slowly grew affectionate towards Janet. The more he spends time together with Janet, the better his eyesight becomes. He chokes up his confidence to ask for a date with Janet one day only to find out that she is engaged.
Trying to act like it doesn’t affect him, he demands to return back to his aunt’s home. His eye starts to deteriorate again. Janet faced with the sudden confession realizes that she actually does love Elijah and calls off the engagement with her fiancé. She goes to find Elijah to tell him of her decision but was hit by the news that he has tried to kill himself. She decides that avoiding him would be the best for him and left his house with tears.
Elijah survives his suicide but has returned to being completely blind, this went on for 2 years with no improvement physically or mentally. One day, he finally decides to take up the suggestion of seeing a therapist. His aunt, instructed by him dropped him off to the clinic alone and left. He registers his name and waits patiently at the tiny room lighted by a fluorescent tube. His name is called and he enters the room, a hand leads him towards a sofa and whispers, “I found you”. Elijah recognizes that voice to be Janet’s and smiles.
END.