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Drama Book Trailer Assignment

Book trailers are a fairly recent phenomenon in the publishing industry. They originated less than ten years ago, based on the venerable institution of the movie trailer, but have only really taken off since the development of video sharing sites such as Youtube.

Book trailers are a form of advertising for a book. Initially, they were literally sales pitches. Produced by publishers, and sometimes authors themselves, they were tools to pique interest in the novel. Their popularity has exploded, and many have gone viral, becoming a vital part of many publishers’ marketing strategies.

Book trailers can vary tremendously in how they are produced. Some are fully scripted mini-movies, and others are simply uploaded PowerPoint presentations. The one thing they all share in common is a desire to introduce the book, and convert viewers of the trailer into readers of the book.

In the last few years, the use of book trailers in education has become widespread. There is now a substantial body of research showing that book trailers are a useful form of pre-visualisation, and can help engage reluctant readers in a text. Students creating their own book trailer can be a powerful learning experience, combining learning goals from reading, writing, technology and the arts to produce a real product that they can share with others.

Where to find book trailers

YA Book Trailers is a collection of book trailers compiled by The Children's Book Council (US).

Comic Book Trailers does what it says – trailers for comics.

 

How-to guides

As mentioned above, there are many ways to produce a book trailer. These sites will provide assistance and examples on how to create book trailers with a range of software types.

These first sites offer guidance on producing a book trailer using two pieces of software almost universally available in schools: PowerPoint and Movie Maker.

Free Course - How to Make a Book Trailer (using PowerPoint)

Creating Book Trailers in Photo Story 3

 

These sites offer more general and wide ranging advice, moving on to other software types and techniques:

The Book Trailer Manual

Squidoo – Book Trailers

For more guides on video editing, see our Video page.

Examples – professional

These examples are a small selection of professionally produced book trailers. There are many thousands more a simple web-search away.

Leviathan

Graveyard Book

The Alchemist

Clockwork Angel

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

It’s a Book!

 

 

Examples – student


These book trailers were made by students either in class, or sometimes out of their own interest and passion for the books.

A student trailer for The Hunger Games:

An animated trailer for John Green’s Looking for Alaska:

This trailer for Bear and Chook by the Sea by a grade 5 student won him an award from the Children’s Book Council:

 

Lesson ideas

Make your own trailer
Students make a book trailer for a novel they have read. Use of technology will of course depend on access available at your school, but could include anything from a straightforward PowerPoint hosted online, to full-cast mini-dramas, with original soundtracks and special effects. If making the trailer itself is not possible, then it can be storyboarded.

Critiquing book trailers
Students view and critique book trailers. Were they professionally made, or amateur made? What format did they use? Did they entice you to read the book? What worked well and what did not work well? Are the most expensive trailers necessarily the most effective? Do book trailers add to the experience of a book?

It's the birthday of the avant-garde composer Igor Stravinsky (1882), born in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia. His first major success as a composer was a ballet based on a Russian folk tale, called The Firebird (1909). It was wildly popular, and he traveled all over Europe to conduct it. He then got an idea for a ballet about a pagan ritual in which a virgin would be sacrificed to the gods of spring by dancing herself to death. Stravinsky composed the piece on a piano in a rented cottage, and a boy working outside his window kept shouting up at him that the chords were all wrong. When Stravinsky played part of the piece for director of the theater where it would be performed, the director asked, "How much longer will it go on like that?" Stravinsky replied, "To the end, my dear." He titled the piece The Rite of Spring. At its premiere in 1913 in Paris, the audience broke out into a riot when the music and dancing turned harsh and dissonant. The police came to calm the chaos, and Stravinsky left his seat in disgust, but the performance continued for 33 minutes and he became one of the most famous composers in the world.

-- The Writer's Almanac
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