Step 2: Figure out Which Program You Will Use

Book Trailers 101

·  Step 1: The first step is to recognize that making a book trailer can be time-intensive. Keep in mind as you start the process that it takes time to do it right. The advantage of a book trailer is that once it’s done, you can play it as many times as you like for as many people as you like, and you don’t even have to be in the room!

·  Step 2: Figure out which program you will use:

o  PCs come pre-loaded with Windows Movie Maker

§  Pros: User-friendly, lots of effects and transitions, movies play with a variety of media players, likely to be available on most or all school computers

§  Cons: Only one audio track can be used at a time, sometimes prone to crashing

o  Macs come with iMovie

§  Pros: Less prone to crashing, fairly user-friendly if you’re used to Macs

§  Cons: Not as many effects / transitions, must have Quicktime to play movie on other computers or must convert to another file type

o  Several other open-source options (search “open source video editor”)

·  Step 3: Think about this question - if your book was a movie, what type of movie would it be – sci-fi, romance, drama, action and adventure, comedy, film noire? Watch movie trailers in that genre on YouTube to get ideas.

·  Step 4: Write a brief, simple script.

o  Keep in mind that you don’t have to have spoken narration. It can be very effective to have only written words.

o  Shorter is better - again, think movie trailers.

o  Poor sound quality for narration is really noticeable, so if you are going to use narration, use a high-quality microphone.

·  Step 5: Storyboard your trailer:

o  Alongside your script, draw or write down ideas for images, video, and/or sounds that you want for each trailer segment.

·  Step 6: Find your media:

o  This can easily be the most time-consuming piece of the project.

o  Save all your media files in the same folder.

o  Check open-source and public-domain media archives first.

§  Wikimedia Commons (my favorite for images): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

§  Internet Archive (my favorite for video): http://www.archive.org/index.php

§  Incompetech (my favorite for music): http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

§  The Free Sound Project (my favorite for sound effects): http://www.freesound.org

o  Since these videos are being used for educational purposes, you have the ability to use some copyrighted material. In general, you can use short clips of videos and songs (no more than 10%) and image files you have found online. If you do this, be careful about where you post your trailer, and consider crediting your sources at the end.

o  Sources for non-public-domain media include:

§  YouTube (You can download these videos by going to http://keepvid.com/)

·  Note: If you are using Windows Movie Maker, you will have to convert YouTube videos to .avi format before using them. You can do this with a freeware video converter like QuickMedia (available at http://www.cocoonsoftware.com/).

§  Google Images or other image search engines

·  Step 7: Start piecing together your trailer:

o  Import your media files into your video editor.

o  Drag them down to the timeline to add them to your movie.

§  In the timeline view, you can make each clip shorter or longer.

o  Add text slides by accessing the tools menu (Titles and Credits).

o  Effects and slide transitions can also be accessed from the tools menu.

§  Slide transitions will alter the length of your clips, so add them in before perfecting the timing.

§  More than one effect can be added to each clip. Play around with the effects until you are happy with the look of each clip. Effects can also be added to text slides.

o  If you are going to narrate your trailer, you can record your narration by clicking on the arrow next to “Timeline” or by going into the tools menu.

o  Don’t be concerned if the video seems to run slowly or has glitches in the preview window. Once you compile the video, these glitches should disappear.

o  Movie Maker can only handle two tracks of audio: one from the video clips you have imported (you will probably want to mute these), and one other (either narration or background music). To add more tracks (if you want music and narration, for example), you need to trick the program. First, save your video as a movie file (hit “publish movie” to do this), then start a new WMM file and import the video you just made. At that point you will be able to add an additional audio track. Before you do that, make sure that your video is completely finished except for the additional audio – you won’t be able to change anything in the original project when you’re working with it as a video file.

·  Step 8: When you are completely finished, click on “publish movie” to save your project as a movie file. After this is completed, you will be able to upload the file to YouTube or another video site if you want to, or play it on any computer running Windows. If you use iMovie, you will need Quicktime to play your videos.

Book Trailer Do’s / Book Trailer Don’ts
·  DO keep your book trailer script short and use lots of images / videos.
·  DO pick an appropriate tone or genre for your book trailer and stick to it.
·  DO think about traditional book talks as you design your trailer: the same rules apply.
·  DO use movie trailers to help you brainstorm.
·  DO write down your script and visual ideas: this makes it MUCH easier to find materials.
·  DO start early and recognize that a quality book trailer takes time to prepare.
·  DO use effects, transitions, and text slides to make your trailer visually appealing.
·  DO think creatively when finding media: if you can’t find exactly what you want, use the next best thing and apply effects to make it work.
·  DO consider letting students make trailers of their own – you would be surprised what they can do!
·  DO contact me with any questions or technical difficulties – I’m happy to help. / ·  DON’T give away too much of the story with your script.
·  DON’T settle for poor audio quality. If in doubt, use text only or find a better microphone (but also recognize that book trailers can be edited later).
·  DON’T have a single picture or text slide stay on the screen for too long.
·  DON’T put too much text on a single slide, especially when preparing a trailer for young audiences.
·  If you use copyrighted material, DON’T put the video up on the internet as your own work. Credit all sources where possible.
·  In general, DON’T use a full copyrighted song as your background music. Instead, choose a public domain song that fits the mood of your trailer.
·  DON’T assume your video will play on all computers – test it first.