Book Trailers 2013
Film trailers are a long-established form of advertising. They are often little movies in and of themselves and have developed into an art form of their own. It is only since the mid-1980s that book trailers have been used in advertising. In the U.S. especially, they are now employed in various ways in order to encourage reading as well as for promotional reasons in sales campaigns by publishing houses.
The department of Design/Audiovisual Media at the Hochschule Anhalt in Dessau offers a seminar solely dedicated to the creation of book trailers. On behalf of the Goethe-Institut New York, students in the class of Angela Zumpe designed trailers for selected works of contemporary German literature in the winter semester 2012/13 and provided them with English subtitles. The trailers draw attention to recent titles held in the Goethe-Institut New York Library and promote new releases on its website, in discussions with publishing houses, and at events. Two of the books have already been sold to Graywolf Press: “Meistens alles sehr schnell” by Christopher Kloeble and “In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts” by Eugen Ruge.
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NICHTS WEISSES by Ulf Erdmann Ziegler
Suhrkamp (2012)
Trailer: Kevin Rosenow
Kevin Rosenow: “What I liked about the book was the portrayal of the journey through life from the point of view of its main character, Marleen, whose life is depicted over a stretch of many years.
The greatest appeal, and at the same time the greatest challenge, in creating this book trailer was to present Marleen’s passion for and calling to typography without neglecting her private and emotional side.
The trailer deals with both the personal and the professional relationship between the two main protagonists, Marleen and Franz, which are characterized by warmth, conflict, intimacy and spontaneity. In this context, the typographic passages of construction are analogous to the couple who – like writing – develops little by little, in a constant state of mutual adjustment and change.
And this reveals both the fallibility and the considerate nature of their relationship.”
DER SCHIEBER by Cay Rademacher
DuMont (2012)
Trailer: Claudia Haase
Claudia Haase: “What this book offered me, apart from a thrilling crime story, was the unique opportunity to delve into the time after World War II. Rademacher has a very visual way of describing the living conditions of that time and the book thus conveys a sense of what life was like back then. I was very moved by their fates.
The difficult task in creating this trailer was to depict this particular time period. I dealt with this by using photographs from the time, which appear between the various film scenes. Another reference to the period was established through the choice of recording medium, as all recordings were made with an analog camera on black-and-white film.”
Dtv Premium (2012)
Trailer: Korinna Seidel
POLA by Daniela Dröscher
Berlin Verlag (2012)
Trailer: Steven Schwanz und Jenny Ehricht
Steven Schwanz und Jenny Ehricht: “During the 1920s and 30s, Negri was one of the best known silent movie divas in Germany and Hollywood. She celebrated her image as a mysterious femme fatale and moved in the best circles with actresses such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Her fiery affairs with Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino are legendary, as are her dramatic swoons. Even today people are fascinated by her personality, charisma and charm. But the greater one’s glory and triumph the harder the fall. Negri experienced the mercilessness of show business and fought relentlessly against the decline of her career. It is this particular combination of contrasting factors that makes up her appeal.
We wanted to learn more about this colorful silent movie star and immerse ourselves in her world in order to glance behind the scenes of the movie business. For this reason we wanted to create the book trailer as authentically as possible, including shots in black-and-white, typical film defects, such as a flickering screen or a blurred vignette, and a realistic set. Regarding the trailer’s content, we have shown three episodes from her life: her glory days, the turning point in her career, and the steep road leading to her comeback.
While working on and researching for our project, Negri managed to win our hearts with her adamant obstinacy, her pride, and her naïve truculence. She sacrificed her life to fame, even though she knew that it didn’t make her happy.”
IN ZEITEN DES ABNEHMENDEN LICHTS by Eugen Ruge
Rowohlt (2011)
Trailer: Christoph Liepach und Franziska Krause
Dtv Premium (2012)
Trailer: Korinna Seidel
Korinna Seidel: “In the case of „Meistens alles sehr schnell“ by Christopher Kloeble, it was a smart decision not to judge the book by its cover.
In the course of reading, one quickly realizes that the work is incredibly complex, with a good number of connections to be discovered, thrilling and stylistically interesting. Each narrative thread evokes a different atmosphere, one balancing out the other. For example, little droll yet heart-warming moments alternate with shocking pieces of information.
The greatest challenge was to filter a single narrative concept for the trailer from the wealth of encounters, comical episodes, great monologues and one hundred years of family history presented in the book. Eventually, I decided on the singular relationship between father and son, which demonstrates the book’s great writing style. I have excluded the background story almost completely. The intention is to induce viewers to accompany the protagonists on their search and only gradually to discover the rest of the story when reading the book. The trailer’s various styles mirror the book’s complexity as well as its mixture of genres. It ends at the point where the reader continues the journey, by purchasing the book and beginning to read.”
The greatest challenge was to filter a single narrative concept for the trailer from the wealth of encounters, comical episodes, great monologues and one hundred years of family history presented in the book. Eventually, I decided on the singular relationship between father and son, which demonstrates the book’s great writing style. I have excluded the background story almost completely. The intention is to induce viewers to accompany the protagonists on their search and only gradually to discover the rest of the story when reading the book. The trailer’s various styles mirror the book’s complexity as well as its mixture of genres. It ends at the point where the reader continues the journey, by purchasing the book and beginning to read.”
POLA by Daniela Dröscher
Berlin Verlag (2012)
Trailer: Steven Schwanz und Jenny Ehricht
Steven Schwanz und Jenny Ehricht: “During the 1920s and 30s, Negri was one of the best known silent movie divas in Germany and Hollywood. She celebrated her image as a mysterious femme fatale and moved in the best circles with actresses such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Her fiery affairs with Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino are legendary, as are her dramatic swoons. Even today people are fascinated by her personality, charisma and charm. But the greater one’s glory and triumph the harder the fall. Negri experienced the mercilessness of show business and fought relentlessly against the decline of her career. It is this particular combination of contrasting factors that makes up her appeal.
We wanted to learn more about this colorful silent movie star and immerse ourselves in her world in order to glance behind the scenes of the movie business. For this reason we wanted to create the book trailer as authentically as possible, including shots in black-and-white, typical film defects, such as a flickering screen or a blurred vignette, and a realistic set. Regarding the trailer’s content, we have shown three episodes from her life: her glory days, the turning point in her career, and the steep road leading to her comeback.
While working on and researching for our project, Negri managed to win our hearts with her adamant obstinacy, her pride, and her naïve truculence. She sacrificed her life to fame, even though she knew that it didn’t make her happy.”
IN ZEITEN DES ABNEHMENDEN LICHTS by Eugen Ruge
Rowohlt (2011)
Trailer: Christoph Liepach und Franziska Krause
Christoph Liepach und Franziska Krause: “This book made a deep impression on us. Images came to mind immediately, despite the fact that the story takes place mainly at a time the reader does not experience him- or herself. The novel conveys a very good overview of this time, as it is narrated from various points of view and gives one an understanding of a family and a society as a whole, without ever becoming either too emotional or too rational.
We had a lot of fun working on this book trailer. While working on the trailer, a clearly defined narrative line could be made out. We were able to follow this line throughout the process. This worked very well since the book evoked similar feelings in both of us and we also had similar ideas concerning stylistic devices and content and quickly agreed on how to put them into practice. We felt that our choice of using cinemagraphs for the family photo album, which is intended to convey a retrospective view of the time and family history, was the correct one. We learned a great deal during the project in terms of our creativity, our ability to work in a team, and our technical competence. It has shown what can be accomplished using seemingly simple devices if one follows a consistent line. The project had various aspects and truly spurred our enthusiasm.”
We had a lot of fun working on this book trailer. While working on the trailer, a clearly defined narrative line could be made out. We were able to follow this line throughout the process. This worked very well since the book evoked similar feelings in both of us and we also had similar ideas concerning stylistic devices and content and quickly agreed on how to put them into practice. We felt that our choice of using cinemagraphs for the family photo album, which is intended to convey a retrospective view of the time and family history, was the correct one. We learned a great deal during the project in terms of our creativity, our ability to work in a team, and our technical competence. It has shown what can be accomplished using seemingly simple devices if one follows a consistent line. The project had various aspects and truly spurred our enthusiasm.”
