Book trailer costs?

where did you get all the footage and the music. is it original or did you find it somewhere

Be careful - those images 'from all over' belong to someone.

Actually, here's an idea that maybe some of you can use. I work in a high school, which also happens to be where much of my YA novel, High School Heroes is set. So, I talked with a few other teachers in the building and we are going to make a school-wide project to create a book trailer for my book. I am going to have my English classes do a script, the drama teacher is going to have his kids act it out, and the media teacher is having her kids shoot and edit the thing. So, I am going to get a book trailer for free. Now, I know it's just done by high school kids, but still, it's more than I can do by myself, and I won't be paying for it. So, any other teachers out there might be able to do the same thing.

jmascia said:

Actually, here's an idea that maybe some of you can use. I work in a high school, which also happens to be where much of my YA novel, High School Heroes is set. So, I talked with a few other teachers in the building and we are going to make a school-wide project to create a book trailer for my book. I am going to have my English classes do a script, the drama teacher is going to have his kids act it out, and the media teacher is having her kids shoot and edit the thing. So, I am going to get a book trailer for free. Now, I know it's just done by high school kids, but still, it's more than I can do by myself, and I won't be paying for it. So, any other teachers out there might be able to do the same thing.

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I thought of something similar (with university students, who can do something like this for credit). I'm not sure I can figure out the logistics, if I were to approach college students. All of those involved read the novel? Or only the ones who do the script?

How long will such a project take, do you think?

I've seen many *amazing* book trailers done by highschool students.

If you search for Life of Pi Trailer on youtube, you will see many of them done by students (either highschool or university) for an assignment. Some are pretty good. This is my absolute favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFKS_JXF-D0

Well, I'm thinking this is going to be a month long thing. A few days for my English classes to go through my novel and adapt scenes to script, then give it to the drama teacher for casting and rehearsing, then go over to the media students for shooting. Then I figure they are going to need a week or more to edit the whole thing. But as I've never done this before, I am sure I am wrong.

I plan on giving my students only sections of my book, essentially the sections I would like to see in the trailer to sway the way it will be done.

Michael Murphy said:

The music came from www.shockwave-sound.com. The images from all over. I did very little. My niece put it all together. She's good, isn't she?

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She's BAD, legally and artistically.

She has one photo in there from AP (see the right margin of the FBI picture for the AP logo), and unless you are paying them for usage and have a signed clearance, you are infringing their copyright in that image. That may be the only one, but having that image from such a well-known source makes the provenance of the rest of them tainted. I'd set down with her and find out exactly where she got all those images, what the rights are, and make sure you aren't infringing on anyone else.

As for the artistic values, the photos are a hodge-podge of styles. The first shot of the heiress she's a redhead, in the final clinch she's a blonde. The blue background and oversized white Arial font looks like a bad business presentation, not like it's advertising a novel.

Most shockwave music must also be paid for "royalty free" does not mean "can be used for free".

The bottom end of payment for a trailer making legal use of music and pictures is about $50. About half of that is likey to be costs, the other half profit.

Here's two of many music hosting sites used by unsigned (non-famous) musical artists:

http://www.soundclick.com
http://garageband.com/

When you find something you want to use, you can contact the artist (you may have to sign up somewhere on the service), say what you want to use it for, and ask (permission to use it in your trailer video). You should of course have a credit at the end of your video, <song title> by <artist> (and also in the comments describing your video). If they say no, find something else you like.

think this could be a win-win. If your book hits it big, the trailer will bring attention to the musical artist, and likewise if they become popular, people will search their name on youtube and find your book trailer.

Circle of Seven is one book-trailer production company. They do really professional videos, but are on the expensive side.

As for the video your niece did for you, I thought it was nice. Some of the text was difficult to read because of the light background, but otherwise, the pacing was nice. You do have to be terribly careful about copyright on pictures and music; technically, someone could sue you if you misused those images. Wikipedia Commons usually has nice use-and-attribute images.

Hope that helps

-Feathers

There may be something wrong with my 'puter's display, but the website shows text layers on top of other text, which doesn't look good.

Checked the excerpt page. Same problem. Couldn't read a word because they were on top of each other. Tried enlarging and diminishing (ctrl +, ctrl - ) and it remained layered.

The video--and apologies to your niece--is static and slow to watch, but videos that are a series of still pictures just don't do it for me.

At one time I was a film major, and lesson one is that movies should move.

A good book trailer is nearly always going to cost a writer more than he will ever make back in sales.

A bad book trailer will cost the writer in book sales. Period.

If you don't know how to do a book trailer, then don't bother.

A book stands or falls by the words in it. No amount of video will compel anyone to buy it if the words don't grab people.

So it's a good idea that you fix the website's layered word problem, post the first chapter, and a clear link to where people can buy it.

Check how other writers have things laid out on their sites. It's what I do. I check out the ones who can afford a professional designer and use what works for me.


This is one of the best book videos I've ever seen. Danged funny all on its own. It got me to pick up the book at a store, which is all one can expect, but I didn't buy the book.

But it *did* get me to look.

Note that it is under two minutes in length.

Here's another that's both creepy and compelling.

And another, just over 30 seconds.

Short is better. Just because a song is three minutes long doesn't mean the trailer should match. It's a book trailer, not a music video.


As stated in above posts MAKE SURE ALL PICS/MUSIC IN YOUR TRAILER ARE PAID FOR OR PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Writers take a dim view of other writers who don't respect copyright.

You can get low cost images/video on this site:

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

Images are royalty free, just buy what you need and that's that.

Gettyimages.com is another one, but they're way more expensive.