Promoting My Book with a Video

Well, we can always send the hounds of war next door to Megan's for a few hours. (Because our dogs are not at all the reserved and aloof type.)
 
Alas I live no where near you mate. Would be good fun working on that project too. Not that I have skills. :(
 
Justin, that is a very kind offer. I will keep it in mind if we decide to go with contemporary music rather than classical or medieval (which is the way we are leaning now, but that could change).

*****

Meanwhile, after sounding just a bit lukewarm about the project in the beginning, John is getting enthusiastic. I thought he would, because he spends so much time editing together things he tapes at RenFaire and tournaments, and on vacation, and this will give him a chance to use some of the techniques he's been wanting to try out.

This morning he was going through some of his video software, and he actually has what he needs for some pretty nifty effects.

(Carolyn, the next time you come over you can see what we have available. Knowing what's already at your disposal could help in planning out your own trailer.)
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
Well, we can always send the hounds of war next door to Megan's for a few hours. (Because our dogs are not at all the reserved and aloof type.)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Teresa. That's very kind of you. I've always wished my mother was easier with dogs, because I love them. But, apparently, she was bitten or almost bitten when she was young, and she's been shy of them ever since.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
(Carolyn, the next time you come over you can see what we have available. Knowing what's already at your disposal could help in planning out your own trailer.)
Click to expand...

Yes! That would help, thanks.

One of my colleagues who is part of a chorale group is going to ask the teenage women in her group if one of them will sing a noncopyrighted song, pretending to be Lorelei, for my video. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll start fussing with test images and sound tomorrow, to see how Final Cut Express works. If you hear screaming, you'll know that I need help (in more ways than one).
 
Yes, that's the article that alerted me to possibility. Then Carolyn and I checked out the other book trailers at YouTube, and that's how we ended up discussing whether it was something we could do or not.

Except I think we're going to be able to do ours without spending a lot of money.
 
Well, we've had two meetings -- different people attending each one -- and they seemed to be very productive. Everyone seems quite keen on the project. We've cast five of the important roles, had many offers of costumes and armor, and we have some leads on possible locations. Two of the people who volunteered to help are stage magicians, so it looks like we might be able to come up with some interesting effects without CGI (which is naturally beyond us). John bought a plug-in so that he can do blue-screen effects with his video editing software, and he's been experimenting with that.

Megan and I have been all over the East Bay (OK, not really the entire East Bay, but it felt that way) searching for red fabric and we finally came up with 52 yards in the exact same shade. She's done a prototype for a costume worn by the Furiádhin (Ouriána's warrior/magician/priests). We dressed up her dressmaker's form with one of the costumes, a stuffed pillow case to fill out the hood, a Halloween mask, and a wig, just to get the general effect. It was apparently convincing enough to fool the two smaller dogs, who growled whenever we adjusted a sleeve or a fold and the figure seemed to move. (The big dogs simply looked at the thing with a cynical eye and refused to be impressed by our amateur efforts.)

Megan made an adorable costume for Jack, who is going to play the baby princess in the close-ups. We chose Jack for the role because he has the more expressive face.
 
Things are beginning to fall into place and it's getting exciting. We have people to play all of the major roles, various people with various talents and resources are also involved -- and weather permitting we're scheduled to film the first scenes this weekend.

I don't know if I am going to watch the film or not. I'd probably be a nervous wreck and drive everyone crazy. Probably I'll just help set things up and then gracefully retire to let John do his stuff.
 
What problems are you having? (We may have plenty once we have the scenes in the camera and start getting fancy with them. Right now it's all pre-production.)
 
This really is exciting. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the finished product. Film is something I've never had anything to do with. Just the thought of a camera pointing in my general direction is enough to give me the willies, let alone the idea that someone might be producing something based on stuff I've written. It seems you have the resources to produce something really worth watching, Teresa - I hope it generates the interest you're looking for.
 
Teresa, I would love to help out in any way. I'm not an actress but I have done voice dubs (I think it's what they are called) for educational videos. Just let me know... It's the only skill I might have but I'm willing to give it to you freely. :)
 
This is so exciting it's almost worth going to California for. Don't suppose your budget would stretch to shooting in England would it?
 
Our budget is miniscule, Jack. And if I could afford to go to England, you all would have seen me there long ago. I've always wanted to visit the British Isles.

Despite which disclaimer, we actually have a sort of "second unit" filming in England and Normandy. Some friends who were going anyway for the Battle of Hasting recreation have promised to film some backgrounds we can (possibly) green screen in.

Alia, thank you for the offer! When it comes time to dub in voices, if we need more people I will definitely keep you in mind.

And Mark, I'm sure the end result is going to look far more like a home movie than something by a movie studio -- I'm just hoping it will be one of the best home movies ever. We have a lot of talented people involved, but then we still come up against the fact that John has a one chip video camera (whatever that means) and we would need something far more expensive to make the effects really ... effective.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
What problems are you having? (We may have plenty once we have the scenes in the camera and start getting fancy with them. Right now it's all pre-production.)
Click to expand...
Everything looks too abstract and spacey--sort of like a bad acid trip. The current bashed-together mess bears almost no relation to the book.

I've learned quite a lot about how to use Final Cut Express, and I've created some fairly tolerable "music" in Garage Band. But I feel like I need faces (perhaps the red-garbed solaratti would do) to humanize the otherwise hallucinatory effect of the footage I've shot and the filters I've used. I was going to use some of my students' faces . . . but they just look like students, which doesn't convey science fiction coolness.

Paul is having trouble producing a model of the Anarchy. Other objects relevant to the book are too mundane (sandwiches, pickles, Bead's nametag) or too difficult (Jaime's blisterjewel jacket, Casey's earlobes).

And the ghost, well, that's just not working out!

Sometime in the next two weeks, I hope to have time to stop by your house for a visit, and I'll bring my laptop to show you what is and what isn't working. Maybe John will have suggestions.
 
We can show each other what is and what isn't working.

John went out and bought a better camera (there went the Christmas money), Megan and I made many costumes (in between the writing in my case), Daisy came on board as our producer, and we are supposed to film two scenes tomorrow.

Unfortunately, since some of the people involved agreed to come we've heard no more from them, so I'm a little apprehensive ...
 
Is John using a bluescreen for any of the shots? If so, what material is he using for the screen, and how is he lighting it? Final Cut Express will filter out a blue screen, so that I can superimpose spaceships and whatnot over a star field (and throw chowder on the starscreen) for my video, but I need to have a consistent blue (in hue, light, etc.) or it won't work well. The blue towel I used in a test shot isn't consistent enough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Cosmic Geoff Promoting books on Facebook Publishing 7
Westie Promoting my work Publishing 28
L Advice for promoting a blog Writing Discussion 15
James Coote Promoting sci-fi game Game Discussions 6
Michael01 Promoting Published Work - Help! Publishing 10

Similar threads


Back
Top