Let's make a movie!

Let’s make a movie!

Well, not that movie. Not the feature length flick that we are all hoping for, but something on a smaller scale, quite a bit shorter, and with a slightly smaller budget. And by “quite a bit shorter”, we’re talking sixty seconds, and by “slightly smaller budget,” we’re talking, um, zero. Which, to the penny, was my budget for the Vital Deception book trailer.

Many of the “real” publishers do book trailers for their new releases, and I thought it would be cool to bring Ben to the screen—except that I had no clue how to actually do the work. An idea is one thing; bringing that idea to production was a bigger challenge than I expected. (As usual, I tend to underestimate these things…)

As I was wrapping Vital Deception in order to send the script off to my awesome audiobook narration team, the book trailer began to take shape in my head. Christopher Boucher—the voice of Ben Porter—could kick the trailer off with the opening lines from the story. Then, Jessica Threet—who voices part of the narration and most of the female cast—could make the pitch. We’d close with Chris saying the book title in a deep, theatrical voice.

I wrote a short screenplay and rehearsed it at my desk, hoping that no one was looking in through the glass door at me presumably talking to myself. After a few edits, I timed it to just under sixty seconds. Chris and Jess graciously agreed to add this to their studio workload, and a week or two later, they sent me the audio file. It was perfect!

Then I started downloading royalty-free and license-free images from the vastness of the internet. That’s quite a rabbit hole, I assure you.

Then I learned how to use iMovie. Yep, the app that’s preinstalled on my MacBook Air and which really sends home the idea of this thing having a zero-dollar budget. You do what you can with what you’ve got!

After way too many hours of editing (actually, goofing around with iMovie; let’s call it what it is), I realized I had not factored in opening or closing titles, amateur that I am. The voice over track was too long for my self-imposed sixty second limit, so… the deep voice saying the book title at the end was cut—sorry, Chris. Part of the opening was cut. Part of Jess’ bit was sped up. Backing music tracks were tried and rejected. And, slowly, it all came together. In the end, I freely admit that it’s not quite Hollywood quality—but that’s okay, because I still had a lot of fun making my sixty-second, zero-dollar video!

I am proud to present my home movie, er, book trailer for Vital Deception. I hope you enjoy it!

CREDITS:

Voice Over: Christopher Boucher, Jessica Threet

Images: Pixabay (American Flag stock); Federal Bureau of Investigation; Pexels, Louis Quintero; Pexels, Rodnae Productions; Apple Inc.; Pexels, Berke Can; Pexels, Kelly Lacey; Pexels, Angel Hernandez; Quadrant Publishing, LLC

Music: Pixabay, ZakharValaha, “Victory”; ZakharValaha, “Out of Time”; Anton Vlasov, “Again”; LiteSaturation, “Modern Trailer – Short Version”