Many of you may have noticed that I have a book trailer on Youtube for my book: The Damnation Plays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHJQHrdOx68
Well, there were several stages in producing the book trailer. Since my camera wasn’t working I decided to use stock images for my book trailer. There were several sites where you can get free stock videos such as:
However, I wanted something a bit more polished and I found the range of stock videos limited. I had a particular vision for my book trailer and none of the free stock videos sites provided these. On the other hand, I knew that I was on a limited budget so I wanted something that wasn’t too expensive. I couldn’t afford http://www.shutterstock.com/ so I googled and looked for sites that offered quality stock videos for a reasonable price.
One of the sites that I decided upon was https://videohive.net/ . The price was attractive as each video clip worked out to be no more than £5 per footage. I also loved the fact that you can pay by PayPal, which for me meant extra security in the payment process. Hence, I paid for and downloaded four clips which I thought would be suitable for my book trailer.
The next step was a bit of a learning curve. This was deciding to find a video editing software for the trailer. I wanted to use a free video editing software due to my budget and also the fact that I was not going to be editing videos all the time. I just wanted something simple to fulfil my needs. In other words, I wanted something that was simple, would allow me to export files in suitable formats to Youtube, had a range of after effects which I can apply and hasn’t got a huge learning curve. This task turned out to be harder than I’d expected. Windows Movie maker would have been sufficient for my needs but with me being the technophile that I am, I researched more software. After deliberating for a while I went for a brilliant software called Da Vinci Resolve (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve). I loved its interface and it was pretty easy to use. It also offered more functionality that Windows Movie Maker. Also, Unlike Blender, another animating and video editing software, it didn’t have a steep learning curve.
So, I started to edit the clips, created a suitable transition between one clip and the next and added texts. After several hours with some hit and miss, I came up with the finished product.
There was just one thing missing and that was the sound. I knew that adding sound could be expensive so I opted for royalty free music site. I liked a site called http://www.bensound.com/ and it was there that I picked a music that had the right atmosphere that I wanted to convey.
I learned several things from my experience: Creating a book trailer doesn’t need to be daunting. Furthermore, it is something that you can create yourself. However, I would not discount the input of a professional. On the other hand, creating a book trailer can provide a fun and interesting experience.
Chantal Ravens 