2021 HS-A Division
First Place
"Boku wa Ieroo de Howaito de, Chotto Buruu"
『ぼくはイエローでホワイトで、ちょっとブルー』
Hiroshima International School
Lino Naruto (Gr. 11)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
This year, I started a little bit slower than last year. I used my new technologies such as ipad and apple pen, and apps like Clip Studio to do my best. I used most of the gaps between my school time to complete this trailer. I worked on it during the break, on the bus, before I went to sleep. The background of this trailer is constantly yellow from the book cover. This makes the illustration and animation unify in this trailer.
<Comment from the Judge>
The graphics that match the color of the book cover are very artistic and effective. Good balance between visual and voice.
This trailer makes us want to check the book to see how the main character and her son overcome the problems they faced. To further improve, you would benefit from paying attention to the unintentional volume changes.
Second Place
"Tenkuu no Hachi"
『天空の蜂』
Tsukuba International School
Len Kawata (Gr. 10)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
This year’s book trailer was a bit different from the past years as there was more diverse choice of books. I think I was able to choose the right choice of book for my style of editing. Every year, there weren’t a lot of action like books which I wanted to try. However, this year there was a suspense like book that I wanted to try and have experience of. All the experience I had from the past projects helped me with this piece. As a result, although I have a lot to improve, the result turned out great.
<Comment from the Judge>
This trailer seems to be especially attractive to young people. The text overlapped the background in some scenes, making it difficult to read.
"Tenkuu no Hachi"
『天空の蜂』
Hokkaido International School
Daisuke Yamakawa (Gr. 11)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
For this year's book trailer, I was planning to make it more interesting than the previous years. One aspect that I worked hard on this year was to make the scenes in the trailer very detailed. I spent a lot of time looking for sounds and music that fit the scenes perfectly. Another aspect that I worked on was the introduction. Since I started reading the book for my trailer, I was wondering what kind of opening will hook the audience. Instead of following the order of the story, I decided to twist things up a little bit. I started my trailer with the scene where a child was in a helicopter alone in the sky. Audience, first introduced to this scene, will want to know why the child is in that situation. By making the audience want to know more about the story from the get go, I am able to keep my audience's attention to my entire trailer.
<Comment from the Judge>
The trailer starts with texts from the perspective of a child left behind in a helicopter and succeeds in attracting audiences at the beginning.The text is very powerful, but there are some images that lack a matching punch.
"Boku wa Ieroo de Howaito de, Chotto Buruu"
『ぼくはイエローでホワイトで、
ちょっとブルー』
Hiroshima International School Yuta Fukushima Yuta Fukushima (Gr. 10)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
For this year's book trailer, I focused on animation since they address more than just words. In this book trailer, I focused on the primary color of blue, white, and yellow since they involve a lot and have a deep concept throughout the book. In the book, several keywords including identity, diversity, and empathy possess a profound meaning and play a significant role in driving the protagonist's feelings towards social issues that occur today. For the BGM, since I wasn't able to gain a suitable soundtrack, I decided to compose my own and play. This was significantly successful since it resembled the content of the whole story of this book a lot with the perfect timing on transition for animation.
<Comment from the Judge>
This trailer is very beautiful with swaying text, fashionable pictures, and original background music. It would be benefitl from adding narration to express the problems set by the book.
Third Place
"Aokute Itakute Moroi"
『青くて痛くて脆い』
Hiroshima International School
Mian Yukiyasu (Gr. 10)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
For this year I created animation by myself. The software I used was my first time using it so I didn’t know how the software worked. I had some difficulties during the creation but I succeeded in creating the animation. While creating my animation in my mind I tried to attract the audience to watch the animation by creating the animation in detail so the audience would get interested in the book.
<Comment from the Judge>
The original pictures are attractive, and the texts are effectively popping out. Before turning in the work, it is recommended to go over the work to check for careless mistakes.
"Tenkuu no Hachi"
『天空の蜂』
Tsukuba International School
Jotaro Uga(Gr. 10)
<Comment from the Award-Winner>
For this year's book trailer, I worked hard to create animations and stop motions based on my experiences from last year and two years ago. I was particularly creative about the pictures of the explosions and the helicopters drawn in the background. Thus, I was able to express the tense atmosphere and shocking story of the book by devising. In addition, CG was used to depict the scene of the helicopter and the criminal sitting. By doing so, the work became more realistic and powerful to the audience with the dramatic music.
<Comment from the Judge>
This trailer clearly shows that this is a very suspenseful and complicated story. By starting the trailer from a parents’ perspective, it has succeeded that it is not just a nuclear power plant crisis, but a matter of the life of a child. You might have wanted to express a dangerous situation, but some images are too blurry to see.