Alright people; right off the cuff I gotta tell you, as creative as I think I am or want to be, I really found out how much work goes into formatting the content, book covers, and video trailers. Okay, I have to admit something here, (just don’t tell anyone that I was so naive), creating a video story in a short allotted period of time, and watching the mesmerizing steps my graphic designer had to take because I wanted a little change to my book cover, was beyond me.
There is no such thing as click and drag in the real world of designing. I was under the impression she could just click and drag an image to move it. WRONG. I have to say, now I totally understand the tedium that can occur with designers or the exhaustion at the uncertainty of their clients. It took a good chunk of her time to make a change some people would feel was insignificant. But to her, she got what I wanted and smiled as she tapped her keyboard, clicked her mouse, and directed a magic symphony of commands to make the change perfect. She is amazing and soon, because of her magic I will be posting the cover soon.
Now, let me carry on to the task of making a teaser book trailer for the release of Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen. After spending numerous hours for several days listening to royalty free music blasting through my ear buds, I finally found the perfect song. I didn’t realize picking a song and downloading it was going to be the easiest part of the process.
It was finding the right pictures I wanted that was a lot of work. I gotta tell you, not just any royalty free photo of Max will do. Wilson had to be just right, and well... once you see the trailer you’ll understand that not just any old pictures would work. So many hours and numerous days later, I had a collection of example photos for the video.
Okay so most of us might not know that all those great pictures of our favorite gorgeous actors and actresses are not public domain. We really don’t have a right to just right click download it, only then to upload it to YouTube with our favorite Santana song whining in the back ground.
Don’t get me wrong, I love creating videos with my favorite actor’s pictures to some of my favorite bands; but creating a teaser video for my book, well that is a different beast.
I had to make sure I could get the rights to use the pictures to go with the perfect music (I bought just for the trailer). Hours upon hours scrutinizing the smile of one, the hair of another. He’s too dark, too light, hairy; not hairy enough, his hair is too short…the list goes on forever.
Once I started to master the navigation of photo sites, I knew I would be real close to finding the right “Max” for my video. Funny, some of the less exciting pictures were the hardest to find.
Even as I type this post, I am not completely done with the video. I have the right words flowing, the right transitions chosen, and the right placement of the pictures done.
So now I have a semi-complete video of sample pictures and even though Max and Wilson have watermarks over their faces, I think we might have a winner…Now I better get buying my licenses so I can recreate a watermark-less video.
Did I hear you mumble something about formatting my content? Don’t even get me started…that’s for another post.
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