Well, this March is quite different from past years, isn’t it?
Our initial plan for this post was to connect it with two events occurring during the month of March: World Book Day (3/2) and World Poetry Day (3/21), but now there is a much more pertinent topic for most of us: spending extended periods of time at home. Whether that means working remotely, caring for our kids and family members, or just figuring out ways to pass the time, it can be quite the challenge.
Of course, we don’t have all the answers for what to do (for that, keep checking in with medical experts and trustworthy local sources) but we can at least recommend one activity: reading! Most of us have built up long lists of books to read, but with the pace of modern life it can be hard to make the time. Currently, it’s important to stay informed, but equally important to spend time disconnecting from social media and giving yourself mental breaks, and reading is a perfect activity for that.
Since the start of Nine Lions, we’ve worked with many publishers and authors to create book trailers: short promotional videos created to generate excitement and interest in upcoming books. The tone and style of these trailers can vary greatly, to better match those aspects of the upcoming book. We also utilize a diverse array of types of media when creating these videos– ranging from interviews with authors, new footage that replicates parts of the story, and even fully animating artwork to illustrator’s drawings to life. Each book is unique, so we make sure that each trailer is, too.
This was our first trailer for one of Quirk Books’ “Pop Classics” books— an ongoing series that adapts popular movies and TV shows into illustrated children’s novels that are fun for the whole family! (We will dive into the process of turning Kim Smith’s beautiful illustrations into animated scenes in a future blog post!)
Translated from their original French versions, these fantasy-focused stories are part of the Comic Quest series: illustrated variants of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books. The alternate storylines and numerous endings make these an especially great source of entertainment for kids right now.
On the topic of Choose Your Own Adventure stories, Neil Patrick Harris liked them so much that he wrote his entire autobiography in the format! For this project, we had to carefully plan out the entire video in preproduction- each square needed to be timed out precisely so they would all line up together in the end–fortunately for us, Neil is a pro and nailed it.
The first time we worked with Quirk Books was to create a trio of spots for this book. The main goal was to showcase a central concept in the story: what if magical spells and potions functioned the same way as drink recipes? We cast a flair bartender to show off some fancy tricks, and with the some effects added in post-production, ended up with some enchanted cocktails!