Video Sunday: Feast or Famine
Yup. Had me bawling like a wee babe, this one. A little disappointing to realize that no matter what the actual movie does, this fan film of a scene from The Hunger Games will probably be more moving than anything Hollywood could produce. After all, I can’t imagine that the actual film will spend this appropriate amount of time on Rue’s death. I could do without the Linkin Park song, but even that sort of works. Of course, I never would have found this without the Huffington Post’s piece on Book Videos: 19 of the Best and the Worst. They’ve a fair amount of children’s stuff, but also some amazing pieces like this one from Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From:
I could call this next video A Bunch of White Guys Making Origami, but I’ll restrain myself. In any case, it is rather neat. Particularly when you get into the medical applications of the form.
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Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.
Truth be told, I just like how that one fellow says the word “elephant”. Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.
Authors get fan mail. It’s a thing. And they have a variety of different ways of dealing with it. They can respond to each letter individually, which is cute but time consuming. They can post images from some of the mail on their blogs (Mr. Mo is a fan of that method). But James Preller has taken it in a different direction entirely. Why not read the letters along with his responses via a video?
Speaking of Mr. Mo, I’m fairly certain I never posted this little video of him making a mural alongside Lane Smith back in 2006. I want to commend whoever came up with the music for this. Manifique!
Now here’s something you don’t see everyday. We’ve book trailers galore. Lots of pretty book trailers. Some of them even use computer graphics. The thing is, not all of them deserve computer graphics. CGI can only really be justified if there’s no better way of conveying the material. And flame throwing dapper skeletons? That counts.
For the final off-topic video, I’m feeling a bit sniffly after that Hunger Games video. Let us do a little Bird then. Andrew Bird. Ain’t nobody who can whistle like that fellow. Enjoy.
Thanks to Mike Citarella for the link.
Filed under: Videos

About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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The Hunger Games trailer was incredible. Thanks very much for sharing! Except–now I’m wondering if I can really make it through a movie, it will be so visceral.
But Bets, they stuck that terrible awful no good very bad rock song over the beginning of that faux Hunger Games thing.
*sigh* Well, yes Dan. But for a homemade video I ain’t complainin’.
Aw man, made me cry too. And I’m with Kate – the entire movie – like that – would just tear me up!
I loved the girl playing Katniss – I thought she was perfect!
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Absolutely sobbing. That was a very well done scene. One of the hardest parts of the book for me to get through, and I thought that the video did a fine job of telling the story.