Some How-To’s
Your final project is a book trailer. As we discussed, a book trailer is a 2-3 minute re-enactment of the main storyline of the book. You are not talking about the book or trying to sell a movie made out of a book. Nor is this a commercial in the strict sense. Yes, you want to motivate potential readers but you need to be honest to the book’s content. What the site (http://digitalbooktalk.net) is all about is to entice readers to read and complete books. As such, you do not want to trick a reader into reading the book by intimating or implying that something is in the book that is not… nor can you make anything up, like what some movie makers do when they make movies out of books. A complete description about what book trailers are can be found on the digital booktalk site .
A couple of things to keep in mind…
- The best trailers have some type of re-enactment in them in which the talent re-enacts a main scene that demonstrates the main “cause and effect’ scenario / transformation that the main character is pushed to go through.
- While the ’cause’ is almost always present, the ‘effect’ (moral of the story) does not have to be, but is almost always alluded to..
- Don’t be ‘cheesy’ with the ending.. i.e., do not use the over-used ending “READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT”.. or “COMING TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU” remember.. this is NOT a commercial.. we do not care WHICH book a student reads as long as He or SHE picks one and COMPLETES IT. we are after wise choices in selecting books so as to encourage BOOK COMPLETION
Good luck and have fun!!!!
Your objective is to create a trailer that will actually be posted to the site. As such all content, including imagery, video clips, and music must be original or copy right free.
Here is a place to secure images and video:
http://www.sxc.hu/
As far as music is concerned, I have made arrangements to get access to lots of good usable music from soundzabounds.
To get access to this music:
log in using rkenny as the user name and rfk123456 as the password
Building your 2-minute Trailer
Which elements do we need to include?
- Introduce setting/character (short form)
- Identify source of conflict/disruption & possible alternative(s)
- Have an epic finish without giving resolution
You may invert the order by giving result and then begging the question as to how this all came about.
In other words, have a beginning-middle-end, but they do not necessarily have to be presented in that order.
Hints
- Use the recipe (4 C’s) !!!!from the storytelling lesson
- Tell your story visually… use text as a crutch to make efficient
- Use transitions and colors for a purpose
- Vary your tempo: dramatic beats
- Coordinate your music – an important addition to the visual
- Credits – where did the music, images etc, come from?
- Have an epic finish
Final Specs
Now that you have an idea about what book trailers are, you need to make a selection from the selections posted on the drop box found in canvas. You may select another book but it needs to be negotiated beforehand. Post your first and second choice in the Drop Box on Canvas. In case of ties first come first served.
Some Do’s and DON’TS
- IF YOU SHOOT YOUR LIVE FOOTAGE USING A CELL PHONE BE SURE TO TURN THE CAMERA ON ITS SIDE.
- DO NOT Begin with a tile or slate that says “this video approved for all audiences”
- MAKE an epic ending .. DO NOT create a slate that says: “what happens next??? read the book and find out!!”
- DO NOT ONLY make your video using a simple slide show with text set to music… have some live action… try some live action shots with real people in them.
- DO NOT use an ending slate with a book cover saying “in a book store near you”.. this is not a commercial for a specific book or a trailer for a movie about the book…
- The trailer should contain some scenes in which you (or your chosen on-screen ‘talent’ re-enact a part of the plot. Many examples of the so-called ‘book trailers’ you find on the Web are simply videos in which folks talk about the book and/or tell the story using pictures with voice overs and music tracks. While it is ok to have SOME of this, the best trailers (and those that we place on the digital booktalk site) need to have some ‘live action’ … The on-screen talent does not necessarily have to speak, voice-overs are ok but live action and re-enactment are a crucial part of our concept of digital booktalks that we are looking for to be placed on the site. The ultimate goal is for you to produce a video that warrants placement on the DBT site.
- As for speaking parts, one trick to get good audio is to have the on screen person be situated facing away from the camera when he or she speaks. The you can go into the video editor and record the voice-over using a good mic. That way you won’t have to use a wide area/ambient mic such as the one that comes with the camera./iPad/phone. One of the other things that detract from a professional looking shoot is having bad audio.
- The trailer needs to contain at least the four elements of story invention as we discussed:
- Time passes and against visual setting/backdrop (the set up)
- An incident occurs that causes the main character to react/transform somehow.. He (or she) must decide whether react.. to reject, or change (this is supremely important.. it is the ‘nut’ of the cause and effect principle… this is the point of conflict)
- The main character makes a judgment… i.e. he or she recognizes the disruption (i.e., what they are up against and decide whether to change (or fight against ).. as a minimum, this change in the course of action may need to be done to PREVENT something from happening.
- All of this must be communicated to the audience in clear and certain terms.. both visually and verbally.
- The video must be submitted in .mp4 format (the only one I will accept)
- DO NOT SUBMIT THE PROJECT FILE .. as you know, all video editing programs work off of projects files .. you must complete the final step to RENDER the project into a single file. You need to make the video no larger than 480 x 320 aspect ratio and no longer than 2.5 +/- minutes long .
Naming and posting instructions
- Upload the video using the uploader below
- The max file size for this project is 300 megs . Your editor will indicate the file size when you render/export it. If it is too large, you can reduce the file size by lowering the quality (from Best to Good), and changing the aspect ratio to a smaller size.
- Name your file ‘lastname-trailer’ .
- be sure to enter your name and check the box indicating that you have followed the naming and file size requirements.
- Like with all our project activities, you need to confirm on Canvas that the upload was successful.
- The output file format for the book trailer video MUST be .mp4 . Points will be deducted for files uploaded in any other format.
Here is the rubric we will be using is Live text as the critical task for this course. It should give you an idea as to what we are looking for. More details to follow:
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