My stated goal last year was to make a new book trailer. It didn’t happen. Looking at book trailers these days, most appear to have been professionally crafted; definitely not your standard home-grown variety. I tried creating a book trailer four years ago and had a great time with it–writing about it on this blog.
But things have changed a bit since I made that first book trailer. Even in that short span of time, the technology has gotten better, sources for free video clips have widened, and the bar has been raised considerably.
Video Editing Software
Back when I tried that first book trailer, I used Windows Movie Maker, the default Windows video editing software, to create “Cocos Island Treasure.” It’s a fairly basic program, keeping it simple from font choice to video to photo clips to audio. (I experimented with introducing a voice over in addition to music clip in “Lucky Joe.”) Other popular programs are Sony Vegas and iMovie. Sony Vegas was sold in May 2016 and now may be more expensive than before extended into Sony Pro and certainly more sophisticated than my level of expertise. iMovie was created by Apple and is the default video editing program for the Mac. The iMovie alternative for (PC) Windows 10 (and older) is the Movavi Video Editor. The latter currently runs $39.99. Yes, there are free trials.
Rosepoint Publishing 