I’m not going to be able to pack everything we need to know about setting up to produce video readings and trailers into a single blog post, so if there are topics within this topic you’d like me to explore and expand on, get in touch and let me know.
And if you’re really interested in the subject, don’t take my word for it, go online and get other perspectives. My take on what makes an effective video reading or trailer for websites and social media is unique; there are plenty of other variations on the theme you’ll be able to find, conferring with Dr. Google.
That said, let’s get underway. Before you actually do anything in the physical realm, play and replay an imaginary version of your video in your head, and view each showing from a different seat in your mind’s-eye theatre.
Take one: an artist’s POV. Ask what you want people to take away from your video? And what you want them to do? Buy your book? Attend a reading? Absorb a philosophical perspective and share it? Change their attitude about something? Know who your viewer is, and what you want to say to him before you set out producing your video.
Take two: put yourself in the ‘average viewer’s’ seat. What’s going keep her there? What is it about your story you want to emphasize? Do you want to make her laugh? Arouse her sense of curiosity? Send chills up and down her spine? Disgust her? Get her to like you? Wax philosophical? Wonder what comes next?
Take three: now you’re sitting in the producer/director’s chair. You have to figure out what’s possible and how to make what’s possible happen in the final cut. As you play through the video, ask yourself what kind of equipment you’ll need to make each scene happen? What skills you might have to acquire? How long it’s going to take to produce your masterpiece? Who you’ll need to involve in the production?
Take four: You’re the Production Manager. Your job is to figure out who and what you will need to bring together, when and where in order to get the video trailer or reading done. Once your assessment is finished, you should have a pretty detailed, step-by-step chart of how to get from scene-one to your finished video.
Now you know what you want to do, it’s time to set your ‘system’ up so you can keep track of how you’re doing. Even a simple video project can generate dozens of files, sticky notes, emails, and so on. Having all that data stored in accessible, navigable locations is absolutely essential.
I use three Adobe programs to generate elements of a video production: Photoshop (composite photos and slides), Premier Pro (assembling the video), and Audition (sound production). I also use stock sound and image services to get material I can’t photograph or record myself. Most productions require dozens of photos, videos and sound clips. All those elements have to be organized and coordinated, if you don’t to lose your way.
Typically, I open a folder for the entire project in File Manager on my Mac. It will contain sub-folders, the Premier Pro project file; and the final MP4 video. The sub-folders will be labelled: Photos-Images, Video, Audio, Slides, Elements, Correspondence, Text, and so on. You get the idea.
Once I start assembling and editing the video in Premier Pro, I will create a similar set of folders for Photos-Images, Video, Slides, Elements and Audio. As I need materials, I import them into the mirrored Premier Pro project folders, and when they are placed in the video, I colour code them, so I’ll know what’s been used and what’s on deck.
Although Premier Pro lets you import whole folders from File Manager into a project, I don’t do that. I prefer to transfer them one at a time. If it’s a larger production, I will also colour code imported files in my Mac’s File Manager, so I can ignore them when I’m looking for materials later.
All this may sound bureaucratic and tedious, and if you’re among those who can keep a dozen balls in the air at the same time and grab them on the fly, you may be able to do without the bother. I’m not. I find a structured process for gathering, storing and retrieving materials during a video production allows me to focus on the aspects of a project I really enjoy, the creative activity of transcribing a vision from my imagination into the mind-space of an audience.
Why might you, as a writer, want to consider posting online readings and book trailers? The obvious answer: the Internet is where more and more people are going these days to browse and buy. One need only mention Amazon.com to appreciate how book sales and distribution have been affected by the global transition to eCommerce.
Still, many are reluctant to give up the Underwood typewriter and weighty, leather-bound volumes as iconic symbols of true literature; and many more are prepared to blame technology – and especially the Internet – for the serious declines in writers’ incomes over the last couple of decades.
Are they right?
Yes and no, I think. But as a writer I can’t afford to overlook online options for getting my stories into the hands and minds of readers. So online readings and book trailers, as part of a self and direct-to-web publishing strategy, are approaches whose time has come. The conventional route of finding a publisher, who will get my book printed, then distributed to to bookstores, is still appealing, but exploring other possibilities makes sense.
And even if I do get my manuscript accepted by a publishing house, I still have to promote it on my own, and sell as many copies as I can, if I hope to supplement my income in any meaningful way. So ipso facto, I need to feature my books on my own web site or Facebook page. An online presence is essential for writers – especially little known writers – and it has to be done-up in genres a tech-savvy population demands: which translates into easy, quick, graphic, and catchy, which narrows down to video readings and book trailers.
The secret to producing a good online reading or book trailer is inspiration. You have to see it as a creative work in its own right – as art.
What equipment and skills do you need to do video promo of your books? A mobile phone and Rick Mercer demeanour are all you really need. But since most of us don’t have Mercer’s gift for gabbing; and jiggly, poorly lit, echoey recordings of halting speakers aren’t likely to impress audiences; an investment in equipment and training might pay off.
I do almost all my production on Adobe’s integrated photo, video and audio suite (costs about $50 per month). I use my iPhone quite a bit – and its video quality is more than adequate for most web and social media productions – but I also use a Cannon T7i, digital camera, and have an inexpensive studio set up that includes diffused lighting, green screen, tripods and so on. I’d say the whole kit and caboodle cost me under $3,000.
That’s a significant expense in my case, but the ability to create readings and trailers that are a cut above jiggly, poorly lit and echoey makes the investment worthwhile.
Training is another matter. Some younger, tech-savvy authors will also have the skills and equipment needed to do catchy video trailers and readings. Most will not. I’ve acquired my skills haphazardly, during a 30 year career as a journalist and communications manager. I’m not saying it’s an impossible undertaking, but the learning curve for most writers would be awfully steep, and would only be surmountable if they were energized by a passion for the process.
So for most the only realistic option would be to hire someone to produce their readings and book trailers, these days in a manner that observes all the COVID-19 protocols required. Professional video production can be prohibitively expensive, but quality video for authors’ web sites and social media channels can be reasonably priced, especially if some aspects of the production can be done by the authors themselves. A price of $100 per minute is possible, and three to four minutes is usually plenty of time to capture and deliver the essence of your message.
Another option could be a recorded reading workshop or circle – conducted totally online in the COVID-19 era. As well as ending up with a video reading or trailer that could be used to promote your books, you would get the support and encouragement of a group of like minded participants, who want to improve their story-reading skills and delivery. A three session workshop, with five participants, might cost $200 per person.
Thanks for joining me in this blog post. Next up: Online Readings & Trailers – Creative Steps
How do you define that precise moment when habit becomes ritual? It’s like pressing the button on a camera: first you frame the shot, then you focus, then – almost without your expecting it – the shutter opens and the effulgence is etched onto digital sensors, where it will reside forever… or as forever as we can possibly make anything in the neural network, where all our images and imaginings truly reside.
I can’t re-conjure the precise moment when I decided to make the bed with Cerberus lying on top of the tussled blankets and sheets, but there must have been a tipping point when that morning rite was sanctified, became official, obligatory, so fixed that Cerby won’t get up now until we’ve done our thing.
As for Mel, she doesn’t think it’s funny anymore. If she thinks about it at all it’s with annoyance.
There’s a trick to making the bed with your dog lying on it. Psychically, you have to place the canine at the very centre of the activity… think of her weight, depressing the mattress, as the locus of gravity in your suburban universe. Then you have to animate that gravity with consciousness – sanctify it as more than a mindless force, pulling everything downward, bending the universe toward a dark place from which nothing, not even an essence as ephemeral as light, can escape.
You have to imagine the warp as part of a continuum, like the yellow centre of a daisy, that holds the petals in place and draws your picture together in time and space… but with petals that aren’t sharply defined, that bleed into infinity by imperceptible gradations of awareness… memories shading off, one into another.
What is memory, after all, if not the whole of our past and entirety of our future, the infinitely large and small coalescing in the exact epicenter of mind? Once you’ve got that right, you tug, and smooth, and straighten, and – magically – everything works out… the bed gets made and the dog’s still lying there on top of the coverlet when you’re finished.
Mel and I used to share the bed-making duties. Some days she’d do it, some days me, sometimes we’d each take a side and work together. I suppose if we’d continued in that vein, Cerby would never have become so central to the process. Melanie wouldn’t have allowed it.
“It’s ridiculous,” she says. “The dog shouldn’t even be on the bed in the first place.” But she leaves it at that, lets the sleeping dog lie, while she busies herself getting ready for work on weekdays… for shopping, gardening, visiting friends and relations, or whatever on weekends and holidays. With Mel, there’s a ‘look’ for every occasion, and she’s meticulous about getting things just so. I’m sure people think her a bit too elegantly coiffed and dressed, but they don’t understand how hard it is for her to hold things together without breaking down, flinging papers about, smashing dishes.
Some days, when I remember, I compliment her on how good she looks. She appreciates that. If we didn’t have a past, it would be like flirting again and falling in love. “Beautiful” describes her best, but I have trouble using that word – it makes me feel unworthy, like I’m complimenting a goddess, who can see right through me.
For authors who want to accompany their online stories with reasonably good quality audio, but who don’t want to go through the expense or bother of building an in-home sound studio, or learning the intricacies of complicated recording equipment and programs, this simple, very portable sound studio can be a workable alternative.
All you need is: a mobile phone that can display text and and do audio recordings at the same time; a blanket, and a comfy chair.
For most, this idea will cost nothing to implement, and will only take a few minutes to learn. So Click the play button above, and watch this six minute how-to video. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me.