Are you doing a book trailer?

Today I had a very exciting meeting with a friend about doing a book trailer for Magic High. Although we're still in the very early stages of the process, I figured I'd share a bit about what kind of steps I have to go through in order for this to become a reality.

The first thing I really needed to think about was what kind of a trailer I wanted. There are two major types that are popular right now. I could have chosen to go the animated or the filmed route. Animated is very popular now for several reason, not the least of which is it doesn't require a lot of film experience to create. Anyone who has Flash or a similar program on their computer can create a workable trailer. Generally they focus on the book cover and some sort of short written description that flashes across the screen in an appealing manner.

Another route is to create a short film. This is a little more like something you'd see for a movie and it includes real people acting as characters from the book. This style can be a bit more exciting, but if it's done poorly, it can be much worse than an animated trailer. Since I'm always up for a challenge (and luckily my wonderful friend is as well) I chose to go with this route.

So what has been the process so far? Well, I've written a script, we've done some story boarding, my friend has done some scene breakdowns, and now it's time to move on to finding locations and actors. This is not something that can be done in a day, and it really helps that I have a friend who is a videographer or else I would have no idea where to even begin.

Have I mentioned how awesome my friends are? Because they are pretty awesome.

Although today we only our first face to face meeting, I'm already really pumped for how awesome this is going to turn out. No pressure though. I'll definitely be posting more on the process of this project as it unfolds.