The Dawning of Power - Book Trailer of the Day



I promised some book trailers operating on more modest budgets, but which, I believe, still work to stir curiosity and interest in the book. This trailer uses One True Media, only a few images, and one "video" of the tornado and lightning which is done with digital animation. No use of actors or filming, which helps the pocket considerably.

The trailer has a few problems. The words go by too fast for me to read. I had to play it twice and pause on the words to catch the second sentence. The pictures are a bit dark and hard to make out. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is kickass, deep and powerful and driving. I liked the single word punches at the end. POWER. IS. BACK.

Cool.

Also, the trailer avoids the deadly mistake of dragging on too long or trying to say too much. With book trailers, less is usually more.

Overall, this worked for me. I enjoyed watching it, listening too it, and was willing to play it two or three times to make sure I caught the name of the author and the book and the publisher. So check out Brian Rathbone.

An observation. It's considered less classy to have a trailer with the media production company right up front, but I have to say that personally, I appreciate knowing how the video was made. Video production is an art as well, and I like artists to get credit for their work. I always like to know, who did the cover art, the book design, the book trailer? It if was a production company like One True Media, I like to know that too... maybe I would like to use their services, so why should I object to them advertising themselves? I don't!

Notice also that the publisher, White Wolf Press, is featured as prominently as the author. This comes back to what I've been saying about small publishers becoming a brand, a way for readers to identify good books.

Comments

SandyG said…
I agree with your observations about the trailer. I do have one other observation, though, and I hope you don't find me too critical.

The theme of the book appears to be very similar to a lot of other stories out there - I would need something to convince me that this was somehow a different story. (Notice, I never apply this criterion to my own stories - do as I say, not as I do...)

I do agree with your comments about the producer, publisher, etc. Giving credit is one way the beginning writer can reward help and support.
Brian Rathbone said…
Thank you to Tara and Aramelle for checking out my book trailer and for the constructive feedback.

I agree that the text goes by way too fast, which is a mistake I don't intend to make twice.

I produced this video myself using a combination of iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and Photoshop.

The cover art was a group effort. My Aunt Doreen sketched the "Lady of Light" as she is known. I combined this with some stock artwork from http://Folkvangar.com. I grabbed some cool fonts from http://www.dafont.com/ and some great Photoshop brushes from http://www.obsidiandawn.com/. After that, I spent hours in Photoshop tweaking, creating lightning, and getting it just the way I wanted it.

You can see the making of the cover art here:

http://jo-scrawls.blogspot.com/2009/05/author-guest-post-brian-rathebone.html

When it came time to make the trailer, I bought some additional stock photo and video elements from http://iStockPhoto.com and the audio track, which is called Dragon's Rage by http://www.ditroiaaudiocreations.com/. The Tornado and the dragon eye are videos from iStockphoto.

I can understand Aramelle's sentiment about needing more to distinguish the plot from other fantasy tales, but I was definitely subscribing to the "less is more" school of thought.

I'm hoping the trailer will get people to check out my work. I have made the first ebook free and the audio version of the story is also available free, which I'm hoping will give people the chance to check out more of the story to see if it something they would like.

Links to the free ebook and audiobooks can be found here:

http://brianrathbone.com/free-fantasy-ebook.html

Thanks again, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you or others may have.

All the best,
Brian Rathbone
Tara Maya said…
Thanks for stopping by, Brian! It looked interesting to me, and who can argue with that price? *grin*

Thank you so much for all the info on how you did the book trailer! This is an area of interest for me. I'm trying to make one now, and having a hard time.

If you would like to do a guest blog post sometime (next week?) on your book/s, and how you are promoting them, let me know. I'm curious to know how you did the ebook.