[LM_NET] SHARE: Thoughts on Book Trailers as we Begin a New Year (Long, sorry....)

[Teresa Schauer <pettushs@GMAIL.COM>]

Greetings, Great Collective Brain!



There were a couple of posts about book trailers this morning when I logged
into my email, and I thought I’d weigh in with my views on the subject…



One of our members posted that she had planned on learning to create
trailers this summer, but after viewing so many great ones that are out
there, she’s decided not to—since it’s so easy to download and share what’s
already available with her students.  She made the comment, “Why reinvent
the wheel?”



She got a reply with all the reasons we should learn new things, and that if
no one tried anything new, we’d still be driving the Model T.



My view?  I agree with BOTH posts, wholeheartedly.  J



I created my first trailer (for *Crank*, by E. Hopkins) a few years back, as
part of an Independent Study I was doing with Dr. Teri Lesesne.  I quickly
realized that book trailers were going to become a passion of mine—I became
almost addicted to creating them—finding just the right hook to make a book
“sparkle” enough to whet even the most reluctant high school reader’s
interest.  (A HUGE shout-out to Naomi Bates here, for providing the steps
for getting started on book trailers, and access to all her great trailers
and the inspiration they provided)



After I had created a few, and saw that other teachers, students and
librarians were creating them as well, the mission shifted from creating
trailers, to creating a place where everyone could put their trailers so
they would be accessible to as many people as possible.  Thus, the group on
Teacher 
Tube<http://teachertube.com/members/groupHome.php?group_id=booktrailersforall&msg=1>was
created. (A shout-out the Camille Powell here—without her tenacity in
getting ‘er done regarding dealing with the tech people at TT, I probably
would have given up) There was obviously interest, because literally
hundreds of people signed up for membership each week.  (We currently have
1,554 members) TT is not the most user friendly site, though, so we
continued to search and finally found the 4shared site, and created BTFA on
4shared <https://www.4shared.com/u/vgpvszst/15eb7f4e/Book_Trailers_for_All>.
That’s when the sharing magic began to happen as downloads took off, and the
feedback from librarians started to come in.  BTFA currently has 146
trailers and there have been almost 21,000 downloads from the site since
March.  (We are still updating the TT group with new trailers since 4shared
is blocked by many districts.  We also have a YouTube channel as well as a
FB page—Excuse my shameless advertising here)



Now for my opinion about those who create, and those who don’t:



First, if you have a creative spark within you, are even a tiny bit savvy
with technology, then PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give trailer creation a try and
by all means, *share your work* with us!  The sites would not exist without
the creative genius of every single trailer creator we have.  (We are at
more than 30 creators currently)  You won’t know if trailer creation is for
you, unless you give it a try—believe me when I say, *you’ll know* right
away if it is.  I have found Animoto to be the easiest way to start—and have
also found that (overall) the trailers created with it are the ones that
students tend to like the best.  While there’s not as much “creative
control”, the effects and music are so darn awesome, it makes that loss
worth it. (To me, anyway) There are literally thousands of trailers out
there—many by the publishers themselves—that are professionally created
productions and truly awe-inspiring to those of us who have taken the time
to make one from scratch using MovieMaker.  In my experience, though—through
watching my own students react to trailers, the simplest
ones<https://www.4shared.com/video/LYTZA-sJ/Captain_Underpants.html>get
watched every bit as much as the more complex.
(That being said, the *amazing* trailers created by Analine
Johnson<https://www.4shared.com/video/xobso9pq/darkness.html>and
others are just that—amazing—and they get viewed and downloaded more
than any other on our site)



For those of you, who simply don’t have the time, desire, or creativity it
takes to create trailers, then PLEASE feel free download the trailers from
our sites—that’s why they are there!  There are directions for downloading
the trailers and getting them into an iTunes loop for sharing on a TV or
computer in the documents folder.  The creators of the trailers have placed
them at BTFA because they have a desire to get them into the hands (or eyes)
of as many kids as possible.  Not only that, while most of *us* are not
digital natives, our students ARE—and through watching trailers, you may
just have kids asking you if they can create them.  (I know it’s happening
in my own school)





The whole point of a book trailer, to me, is to make the match.  I have
found that if I can make the match, many times ONLY ONCE with a kid who has
never enjoyed a book, the road is paved for the next one…and the next one…



So, if one of your gifts is creativity—GET CRACKIN’ on book trailer
creation!  J  If you don’t have time, or are blessed with other gifts, then
share THOSE!  Remember, beautiful things happen when we share.



I hope everyone has a stellar school year!



~Teresa

-- 
Teresa Schauer
District Librarian/Pettus ISD
Pettus, Texas
tschauer@pettusisd.esc2.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
  You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
  by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST

 * To contact an LM_NET Moderator:  LM_NET-request@listserv.syr.edu
 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
 * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------