Hello, figured we might as well start out this blog with a bang!
So today we have a look at the behind the scenes of making a book trailer...
Working on the book trailer for "From the Dust" has been in my mind and worked on for months, though the filming is the main point you aim for, leading up to it are many smaller actions that make up what the trailer can become.
When I started thinking about making a video I questioned where I wanted my character to be and or how I wanted to show her for people to be interested in the book in a small amount of time as a book trailer is on average around a minute to a minute and a half.
Above you can see the thought of how I wanted to capture the shots.
(In reality I did very few of these once we filmed but it honed my idea of what I wanted to see when filming.)
Next on the list was costume:
Alayna's costume was both easy and hard to accomplish all at the same time, when thinking of what I wanted I went for her simplest look but still keeping it with a feel of magic too the details of her shawl.
Then a test run for location:
Living so close to three canyons made my decision easy on where I wanted to film, big cottonwood canyon has a great rock outcropping that works perfectly to simulate a really nice otherworldly feel.
Scouting locations as well as a test trailer was done with my best friend and it worked out great to get a feel for what was the best way to do shots and where I needed them to be.
Months later meaning just a few days ago we filmed the real trailer with the fantastic and amazingly talented Summer Lambourne playing Alayna.
Upon getting up the mountain it was easier knowing where we needed the shots but as nature has it's own mind we dealt with some different conditions then the tester/scouting as we got dark skies that threatened rain, but did we let that stop us? No sir we did not and it turned out to be a great shoot.
The top of that rock edge is mainly where we filmed.
Summer/Alayna looking awesome.
In case your wondering this looks super not that high up but we were both quite far up and I was leaning into a rock to keep from falling. Yep danger was involved but it was worth the shot.
Like you would expect for filming it was moving from location to location with a few takes and before hand practice of the path I needed Summer/Alayna to take.
If you can find my grey shirt up in the brush we filmed next to that tree and the trek to get to up to it took longer to get too then filming and getting down was a nightmare compared to getting up to it but we did it!
All in all the shoot was great working with such a fantastic crew consisting of my father/shofar and behind the filming picture taker as well as the wonderful Summer who captured Alayna perfectly. On the ride back home I admitted it was startling how close Summer resembled my character Alayna and how strange it felt to sit in a car with your character.
So with that said I'm off to edit which is the last part of the process and will take some time but it will all be worth it once finished.
(This is a rough color of the cover by Ben Simonsen, finished look coming soon!)
For more information on the books release date, Kickstarter and a look at the trailer once completed stay tuned to this blog by following via email and keep dreaming and believing people.
Anastasia out~
