New Book Teasers, Special Effects, and more

I've posted several new Book Teasers on the right column. One (Dawn of Ages) is based on an interesting Sci-Fi story and the other (Then Like The Blind Man) tells about a young boy's turbulent times with his troubled stepfather. Two good books worth checking out.

The book about the boy is deftly narrated by its author, Freddie Owens, but if you're ever in the market for good Voiceover talent, check out VoiceJungle.com. Their site is easy to use and they offer fair prices.

I've got another trailer coming up, actually a series of 5 trailers I'm working on so I've been busy with those. I'll post some of those here later to give you a sense of more approaches for what your own trailers might include by way of special effects.

As you know, I use special effects sparingly and focus on your story and weave a snapshot of its metaphor in your trailer. That's the juicy part without giving away crucial events. It is a tease, after all. Check them out.

You might have noticed my new logo for Starship Grafix. This is still part of Book Teasers Pub(licity) or vice versa since it's an expansion of graphic design services and not just book trailers. Now all I need is more than 24 hours a day to make it all work. Actually 24 hours are plenty as long as I sleep only 4 and "work" the 20.

Hey, it beats giving someone else 8 to 12 hours of your day for measly benefits and long commutes.

Okay folks ...I'm due for a nap.

SIDE EFFECTS Movie Trailer

Here's a great example of a trailer that meets all the criteria you need to check-off and implement for your own book trailers. (What's the difference between a movie trailer and a book trailer? None really. As long as you have dramatic tension to show and tell in your stories, the process is basically the same, although the approach can be different.)

Watch the Side Effects Trailer:

Notice something very interesting about the opening of this trailer. Soderbergh (the director), or whomever was in charge of marketing, chose a bit of misdirection here. The drug in question (Ablixa) has nothing to do with sexual performance in the movie, but the trailer gives the impression here that this drug is prescribed for enhancing sexual performance. That's an additional hook, albeit somewhat misleading (that's called artistic license folks) it doesn't hurt to include this bit of misinformation.

Those sexually enticing scenes are followed by more sinister scenes of bloody footprints, a murder and a 911 call, but not before the trailer opens in earnest with a bit of the couple's "happy life" (before everything went horribly wrong) scenes.

Those initial scenes are like a prologue, which add context and meaning to the story. From there, it all goes downhill. This is only one approach to opening a trailer. Some trailers open with blood and guts right out of the gate, but that's more suited for a horror films since you already know what to expect from that genre.

This film, this story, is more of a psychological thriller and therefore it's a bit more subtle in how it's presented, but the hook and the effect they're after is certainly effective.

I'll be breaking this one down, deconstructing it scene by scene so you can see how masterful it really is in hooking the viewer and drawing you in, one salient scene at a time.

This is how you want to approach your book trailers. Remember, a story is a story is a story, regardless of the media that delivers it. Movies, books, plays, etc.

A brilliant trailer. Check back soon (or subscribe to this Blog) to see how this story and this trailer dispense the perfect prescription for trailer success.

You just might get hooked, addicted, or both.