Video Sunday: “If I hadn’t become an artist I probably would have become a serial killer.”

What you are witnessing here is the first trailer for Library of the Early Mind — a feature-length documentary film by Edward J. Delaney and Steven Withrow exploring children’s literature.  According to its website, “The film will have its first public screening at Harvard University in October and is now being submitted to film festivals worldwide. Music is by Jason K. Nitsch.”  The sheer number of talented speakers they found is impressive alone.  If you can’t view it on their site, it’s also available through YouTube.  Thanks to Steven Withrow for the info.

Book trailer time!  Here we see what a little talent with stop animation, a fellow with a voice straight out of movie trailers, and a well chosen oboe can do for your average book.  It’s Sophie Simon Solves Them All by Lisa Graff:

This one’s a little different.  I guess it’s a book trailer at its heart (for Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich’s 8th Grade Superzero) but it’s also just a take on what it is to be an author.  It also works as a lovely tribute to New York City (and my library makes one brief appearance, which is nice).

Selling your book is one thing.  Selling yourself, another.  I suppose that author/illustrators need to make a living, and school visits can be a lucrative part of that.  So Dan Yaccarino had the idea to create a kind of commercial for himself.  It works.  It might work for other author/illustrators too.  Mind you, few of us have three different television shows under our belts (three, Dan?  Really?) but with a bit of creativity it isn’t hard to make something like this:

I didn’t get around to interviewing or talking to anyone at BookExpo this year.  Interviews are hard.  You have to come up with some kind of burning question for folks to answer.  Katie Davis is better prepared than I.  She went about the conference asking folks, “If you could go to the yard sale of any fictional character, whose would it be and what would you buy?” It’s worth it just to hear Scieszka say, “Katherine Schmatterson.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK7WO6aYa-c&feature=player_embedded

These will keep you occupied for the better part of the day!  Over at NerdGirlBlogging, Jen writes that “Two of my favorite blooper reels come from the Narnia movies.  I love that they include the actors and the crew.  It also seems like everyone is having a really good time working on the movies.”  She makes the point that when people deliberately mess up shots it isn’t amusing.  These, on the other hand, are quite a bit of fun.  See for yourself.

There’s a different reel for Prince Caspian.  And in case you’re interested, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader appears to be slated for release December 10, 2010.  Thanks to NerdGirlBlogging for the videos

Woo-hoo!  The second Stunt Frog is out!  If you missed Part One, you can see it here.  And now, the sequel:

Thanks to picture book author/illustrator James Proimos for creating them!

Finally, the off-topic bit of goodness.  Well, the old off-topic bin is growing a bit paltry this week.  Time to roll out an oldie but a goodie.  This would be from a video I first saw on Educating Alice.  I think it’s fairly self-explanatory (and accurate!):

Filed under: Videos