Book trailer made with iMovie

[Zeke D]

I hired a graphic artist on Etsy to make a book trailer. She only charged $40. I was thinking of having another one done for a different book. Do you dig this one? Can you suggest someone else?

I'm not putting any links to the book or anything, I don't want a mod to complain that I'm advertising - I really want to know if you all think I should continue with this graphic designer, or recommend someone else, or try to do it myself.

 

[casperes1996]

I mean - books generally don't give much audio-visual material to work with for video trailers. What you showed us here was really generic. Not bad at all, just, not very unique. I just don't really think video trailers is a good way of advertising books in general. At least not in traditional ways like this.

 

[Zeke D]

I mean - books generally don't give much audio-visual material to work with for video trailers. What you showed us here was really generic. Not bad at all, just, not very unique. I just don't really think video trailers is a good way of advertising books in general. At least not in traditional ways like this.

I get you. I'm not sure if the trailer releasing on Saturday had anything to do with it, but I had my best sales day on Sunday.

A few years ago, I made my own trailer with screenflow and prezi, so I was wondering if I could reproduce this myself. I have iMovie and Final Cut, but I've never attempted to do the floaty words on smoky background before.

I had money left over from a Kickstarter campaign, so I figured the $40 I spent on this was worth it. I only need it to sell 30 ebooks to break even on my ROI.

 

[casperes1996]

A few years ago, I made my own trailer with screenflow and prezi, so I was wondering if I could reproduce this myself. I have iMovie and Final Cut, but I've never attempted to do the floaty words on smoky background before.

That bit is quite easy with Final Cut. There's a lot of 3D Titles in Final Cut where you can customise the text and whatnot, and manipulate its movement, and then you just need to get a generator flowing in the background - either you can nick something royalty free (loads of smoke effects available), or you can produce it yourself through blend modes (easiest with Motion)

 

[Zeke D]

I have the 1080p trailer from the graphic artist. I wanted the logo of her company to be orange instead of blue so it matches (like the WB logo in the Matrix movies) is that easy to do with Final Cut?

That bit is quite easy with Final Cut. There's a lot of 3D Titles in Final Cut where you can customise the text and whatnot, and manipulate its movement, and then you just need to get a generator flowing in the background - either you can nick something royalty free (loads of smoke effects available), or you can produce it yourself through blend modes (easiest with Motion)

 

[casperes1996]

I have the 1080p trailer from the graphic artist. I wanted the logo of her company to be orange instead of blue so it matches (like the WB logo in the Matrix movies) is that easy to do with Final Cut?

That Harman Graphics thing in the beginning? Well, depends exactly how you want it to look. I think I've spent so long with Final Cut at this point I think pretty much everything is easy. If you only have the finished file and not the project file however, it'll take a while to separate the text from the background to not change the colour of the text whilst changing the colour of the space stuff. It'd be going frame by frame with a masking tool basically. Unless you have Motion, then you might be able to motion track most of it. Alternatively you could just apply a massive green tint over all of it, but it might look a bit bunkers - try it with the colour board (colour correction effect in the effects pane). Can manipulate the mids, shadows and highlights individually to see if you can isolate some parts without masking that way.

If you have the original project file though it can be done in seconds, and I'm sure the graphics designer person is willing to change it for free if you ask. It's so little work.

 

[Zeke D]

I asked her, but it looks like it's a project default for iMovie. I'm still using FCE4, so I'm sure it's needlessly complicated.

 

[casperes1996]

I asked her, but it looks like it's a project default for iMovie. I'm still using FCE4, so I'm sure it's needlessly complicated.

Long time since I touched iMovie, but I'm pretty sure you should still be able to apply masks and manipulate colours with iMovie. Smack a vignette-mask in the middle (behind the text), make it small enough that it fits the circle thingy nicely, and feather the edges loads, then set the insides of the mask to be tinted green by loads. Should do the trick.

 

[Zeke D]

Thanks for the advice. I fear that without the original iMovie project files, this is beyond my skill set.

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks for the advice. I fear that without the original iMovie project files, this is beyond my skill set.

Without the project files, it isn't exactly a walk in the park either. I mean, I have an exact idea of how I'd do it in my head, but it would still take quite a long time to get it looking right.