So far, I’ve gotten really great feedback on my planned book trailer experiment. (And I’d like to give a special thanks to Sheila of Circle of Seven Productions for sending me some very helpful trailer advice!)

I’ve now decided that I’m not going to do just one trailer–I’m going to make two. One will be a “still-shot” teaser (showing photos, text, using music). The second will be a “live-action” trailer–complete with actors and real settings.

You see, I have a problem. I can’t decide which trailer type I like best. I’m currently leaning toward the still-shot version for a few reasons:

1. Cheaper (and easier!) to make. Yeah, this is especially important to me since I’m trying it on my own.
2. More is left to the reader’s/viewer’s imagination (ex. a character’s appearance or voice). Readers can still have the freedom to imagine the characters as they wish without having the he-doesn’t-look-a-thing-like-the-hero-I-pictured situation that often happens when books are made into movies (or in this case, trailers).
3. Faster download time.
4. The still-shot trailers that I’ve viewed so far have been emotionally stirring. Perhaps it’s the still images, perhaps its the dramatic text–either way, I’m left feeling drawn….drawn to the story, to the characters.

But, I like the live-action trailers because:

1. You just can’t beat real people. I feel like they inject fire and life into the trailer.
2. I may be able to show more scenes from the book and thus give readers a better idea of what’s going on.

Oh, decisions, decisions. So, like I said before, I think I’ll just make both. 🙂 Then, when they are up and ready, I’ll get folks to vote and tell me why they like one version over the other. (So next time, I can just chose one trailer type.)

Here are some REALLY good examples of still-shot trailers:

Sylvia Day–Ask For It
Allison Brennan–The Hunt

And here are some REALLY good examples of live-action trailers:

Susan Kearney–The Quest
Christine Feehan–She’s got a ton on her site–but you have to go to the Members’ Only Section.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.