A group of 8 CNLR students decided to make a book trailer to enter in an international competition. From the more than 300 short videos sent, 24 finalists were chosen. Among them, their book trailer.
For the 17th consecutive year, the Scientific High School “A. Calini” from Brescia, Italy, organized the Booktrailer Film Festival competition. In the competition, high school students send a short video promoting a book to be read.
A group of 8 students from the “Liviu Rebreanu” National College also entered this year’s competition.
“We found out about the competition a month before the deadline. Being a group of passionate friends who have an inclination towards this field we definitely wanted to sign up. After proposing several books, we decided that “Why the child boils in the pole” by Aglaja Veteranyi was the most suitable for what we wanted to do. Comparing it to the other options, the book shows a lot of vulnerability and it was a different option than what we usually do” the 8 students explained for Bistrițeanul.ro.
They worked intensively, self-coordinated and guided, being a strict project of the 8 students. Once everything was completed, they sent the video.
According to the competition’s official website, there were 308 trailers submitted from 9 countries. 39 book trailers were sent from Romania alone. Following the judging, 24 trailers were chosen for the final stage, including that of Bistrita students. This was the best book trailer sent by the teams from Romania, taking first place in the country and thus securing their place in the finals.
“Even though we only had one book, we all read it in 3 days and got to work on the script. I worked on it every day after school for a week and started filming, which took longer since it was the first time we worked together, without high-performance equipment and outside help. We used our houses and public places in the city, the scenery and music were improvised by us. I had a week left until the deadline when I edited the video and posted it” explained Mihnea Groze, one of the students.
To participate in the final, the students also needed a teacher to coordinate them, so they asked teacher Dan Coman to be with them in the next stage, with him also carrying out other projects over time.
“The next stage (the international one) involves the participation of the first 3 winning teams from each country in an online premiere together with the jury in Brescia, Italy. The effort and work done helped us to perform and get closer to each other” the 8 students sent.
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