Helen Downing recently posted her video and asked her fellowship to comment. here’s what I gave to them after watching the clip
Greetings everyone. A voice over such as a related poem or even some dramatic acting (in audio only) would be a nice additive for this video. Remember to lower the music where you add your voice over. Audacity is a great software to do this as well as Premier Pro if you’re really skilled. Also, and this goes for everyone, don’t be limited by what Anna Moto and or shutter fly give you. Use those platforms, take the results of what they render for you, and import them into your video editor. One quick effective video editor is Windows movie maker, and for the Mac screenflow. Sidenote, my first publishing deal was a 14 book deal with St.Martin’s Press. But I would never have landed that deal without this sage advice: Part of my success was the amount of video testimonials that I accomplished prior to the deal. I had dozens upon dozens of video testimonials. Some from my neighborhood, some from my region, some from book conventions around the country, and some from our massive Street sale campaigns in New Orleans, Baltimore and Atlanta. Building that audience, taking those photos and using my Casio exslim camera to record testimonials all over the country was priceless. In fact it was worth a quarter of $1 million upfront from one of the worlds biggest book publishers. You just cannot deny your readership’s testimonials about your work. One other thing; this is only your first video for this book, where you should likely have 5 or 10 more relevant videos from varying perspectives. There should be videos from interviews that are done with you/work out a deal with your local public access TV show. Make sure they’re good at what they do. Use the footage on social networking and your website etc. Make sure that they won’t mind you cutting the fat from the interview. Slice that interview with some of this video that you posted. And the interview I’m speaking of is simply another perspective on your book. An additional perspective would be to dramatize a little bit of your book. Use the filming template of CSI or Gray’s anatomy he; look at the camera shots and angles and close-ups and wide shots. Try to fit your dramatic role/acting/filming into what you see on TV. It’s what the world is accustomed to seeing so “when in Rome…” and I’m not asking you to be a TV producer but, I am asking you to be a TV producer. You are a visionary and you have a voice and the most relevant way to project that voice today is through video. Thank you and good night.
