Four videos for two books, an opera and a film

by Genni Gunn

If I had another lifetime, I'd devote it to making film, with its rich metaphoric visual imagery, its sound and emotional language, its dialogue and voice-overs - such a rich tapestry to work with.

We live in a very visual society, so a book trailer is a perfect extension of a book, to help draw an audience into the reading experience. After all, if film trailers seduce audiences into going to movies or buying videos, why not book trailers to seduce readers into reading books?

The person behind my two book trailers, Solitaria and TRACKS is Karen Haughian, the publisher of Signature Editions, who saw the value of book trailers early on. She has been producing them for her authors for four years now.
I'm fascinated by the whole idea of the book trailer which, with its incredible brevity - just over a minute - must convey a narrative, or at least suggest one, through the use of images and sound.

1. Alternate Visions (2007) was done by Chants Libres after the production of the opera in May 2007 in Montreal. They used parts of the production to produce the trailer. On the link attached, you'll see their page, with comments from me and the composer.

The videos for the opera, Alternate Visions, was produced in a studio, using images and sound from the live performances in Montreal in 2007. I was there for a week of rehearsals, and a week of performances. Given the elusive quality of live performance, I am thrilled that they filmed and produced a DVD. When I view the trailer, I am instantly transported to that theatre in Montreal, where my characters were interacting on stage as I had imagined, singing the words I'd written.

2. Solitaria (2010) was done by Vanessa Mancini, a videographer working for Signature Editions (my publisher) at that time. I supplied some of the photographs, taken in Italy. She read the book and created the video from that.

Other than supplying some of the photos, I had no idea what to expect from the book trailer. When I saw it, I was fascinated by how Vanessa was able to capture the essence of the book in subtle imagery, with layers of sound that suggested information not visible in the video. It's a lovely example of narrative storytelling in under one minute.

3. The Riverbank (2011) is the film trailer for the movie made of my novel, Tracing Iris. So this is made from the film, which is available on MovieCentral. You can see the credits for that at the end of the video itself.

When viewing The Riverbank trailer, I have a similar reaction to the Alternate Visions trailer, seeing my characters come to life. Though I didn't write the screenplay for the film, I found the actors perfectly portrayed the people I had envisioned. During the filming, I went to Sudbury, Ontario, and spent two days on set, watching, listening, and it's this experience that comes to mind when I see the trailer - the dressing rooms, the cameras, the actors, the conversations - all that is not shown on the trailer.

4. TRACKS: Journeys in Time and Place (2014). For this one I supplied all the photos for, taken in the places that occur in the book. The video was put together by my publisher, Signature Editions, and the sound was done by John Oliver, who is the composer of our opera, Alternate Visions. I sent him some bird sounds and a vocal of mine, which he incorporated at the end of the video.

TRACKS: Journeys in Time and Place is the trailer I was most involved in - simply by supplying all the photos and videos that appear in the trailer. These are places I've visited and written about in the book, so each of the photos have a particular significance for me, and evoke strong emotions. I was thrilled to have composer John Oliver do the sound and music for it, because he understands the multi-layering of sound, which perfectly fits the multi-layering of time and travel and experiences within the personal essays in the collection.

[BCBW 2014]