Artifact #1: Book Trailer (EEND677)

In this course, I am most proud of the video book trailer from Module 4. Although I have used iMovie to create videos for the classroom, I have never used its trailer feature. In all honesty, I didn’t even know this feature existed until I started looking into various applications in order to complete the assignment. When I learned that iTunes had existing movie-trailer templates, I thought it would be fun to give it a try. When you create a new trailer project in iMovie, you get to choose between ten or so templates from various genres. I chose the “narrative” template as the music and overall tone seemed to best support the theme of my book. Once the template is selected, putting the trailer together is really easy. The hardest part is finding the video and images that sell a book the way the right film clips sell a movie. My biggest challenge was the time element. According to assignment parameters, the trailer had to be a minimum of two minutes, but most of the trailer templates are 1-1:30 minutes. To extend the length of the trailer, I had to change the duration of some of the clips, but to do that I had to convert the trailer to a movie. Once converted to a movie, the content is editable but I couldn’t go back to my original trailer. I know. Complicated, right? Really, it was not as bad as it sounds. My biggest challenge was editing the music provided within the template so it extended the duration of my new trailer. If you listen closely, you will notice a spot where there is a slight jump in the music. That’s where I couldn’t get a copied and inserted piece of the music to line up exactly right. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely passable.

Overall, I am thrilled with the finished product, but I do wish I would have had the foresight to give attribution to some of the sites I used like archive.org for the video clips. For those of you who don’t know, archive.org offers video that is in the public domain, so no worries about copyright violation. At the end of an iMovie trailer, there are credits and iMovie allows you to fill in the fields that make up the credits. This is where I wish I would have thought to put in archive.org or sites where I grabbed pictures. I didn’t really have to attribute the music because that is already built into the trailer template, and iMovie gives itself full attribution within the ending credits.

What I like so much about these classes is that I'm able to create materials I will use in the classroom, and my book trailer is no exception. I can't wait to "tease" students by playing the trailer prior to reading the book.