A real video
maker will probably collapse into horrified giggles at both the product and the
method but if you can’t afford to hire a pro and like my trailer for Dark
Hunter, here’s how I did it.
First, the video
Overview:
Basically,
you’re going to create a bunch of slides and then add fancy animations to them.
When you have your slideshow, you’ll use your PC to save it into movie format.
Then, you add music on top of that.
You need:
·
A
PC and internet connection
·
PowerPoint
and Photo (both programmes come with Windows)
·
Your
book covers
·
A
collection of images to use - royalty free from Deposit Photos or Pixabay
·
A
piece of music
#1 Plan
The first
step is to plan how many slides you’re going to make and what information will
be on each. If you have teasers, you can think of it as flipping through them to
make a flip-book.
Avoid my screw-ups!
I started
with way too much information. Keep the number of slides low and the text on
them lean.
IMPORTANT: You’ll
need about 5 to 7 seconds per slide and people won’t watch more than 90 seconds.
So when you do your layout, guesstimate
how long the finished product might be.
Then trim,
trim, trim.
#2 Make your
slide show but only do the backgrounds for each slide
Pick a blank
slide and add in all the images to make your basic slide.
I made my
first slide, added the text, fiddled with clever stuff and then moved on. BIG
MISTAKE. Make all the backdrops for your slides (I had 12) and save the lot.
Adding text and clever stuff comes after.
Think of
what stays the same for each slide and use that to build a basic proto type. Then
use copies of that to make ‘new’ slides.
My backgrounds
all have my book cover and the words Free on Kindle Unlimited. What is
different for every slide is the background image.Like this:
So, I made
the first slide and saved it as slide 1. I then copied that, changed the
background, saved it as slide 2, and so on.
#3 Save
your basic slideshow and make a copy
When you
have all your basic slides ready, stop and save them. Make a copy and work on
that. Then, when you mess up, you can ditch what you have and not lose your
basic outline.
#4 Add
basic text to every slide
Just get
the words onto the slides. Read it through, make sure it’s not too long or
complicated. Then save.
Avoid my screw-ups!
I had text
on the bottom of some slides and at the top of others. When I watched my first slideshow, I
practically gave myself an eyeball hernia.
Make sure
every slide has the same size text in the same place. That way, when you
animate everything, your readers’ eyes will be trained in the same space each
time.
#5 Add sexy
transitions
Go to your
first slide. Click just before the first letter of the first line of text. Then
select Animation and click Show Animation pane. Like this:
Go through
each line of instruction and work through the menu to figure out whether you
want it to appear as a block, by the word, by the letter, how fast it should
all happen, whether you want to add glow, pulse etc.
Avoid my screw-ups!
The
possibilities are huge. I went at it with 12 slides and almost killed myself
with endless edits and learning. I suggest you take three slides and fiddle
with those until they’re perfect and you know your way around the menus. When
you’ve got it down, go big.
#6 Drive yourself
into insanity by watching the slideshow over and over and over
Pick up
every little mistake from a comma that’s the wrong colour to a transition that’s
too slow.
#7 Save your
slideshow and make a copy
Hide the finished
product in a folder and make a copy. Then, when you mess up, you won’t lose
everything.
Now, save
the whole thing as an MP4. Then, open that
MP4 in Photo.
#8 Watch
your soundless film
Does it
look okay? Good, now to add music.
You need to
buy a piece of music so that you don’t get into trouble about rights. Here are
three places to buy music: https://www.bensound.com,
https://www.purple-planet.com/,
https://www.hooksounds.com and https://www.premiumbeat.com
(Are you a
musician who wants to sell music? Leave me a comment and I’ll add you to this
list)
Avoid my screw-ups!
Search for
music by time. You need a bit of music that last a second or two longer than
your complete video.
#9 Let
Photo add the music to your video
It will do
magic things like make sure it fits and it will cut it off when it needs to be
cut. God knows how, but I think we need to find the people who made this magic
and hug them.
#10 Get at
least six people to give you feedback
Having watched
my video fifty thousand times, I couldn’t see it anymore. The first round of
feedback had me redo the whole thing and the quality went up by ten thousand percent.
HUGE THANK YOU to Lili and Gail who held my hand every step of the way and to Stephanie, Robin and Cheri who volunteered to give more feedback.
Then I took
the new thing past everyone again, and some new eyes and that feedback helped
me root out a background image that had two enormous nipples and picked out a
full stop that had vanished during editing.
What you
see now, is the result of about two days work. Was it worth it in terms of
return on investment? I will let you know.
"A beautifully twisted love story"
Damn, I just finished this book. It was unlike any other romance I've ever read. I mean after that first chapter I thought no way is this a romance novel? Read Charles M. Smith II's review of The Bonus here.
From the opening page I was hooked, this is in no way a typical love story it was dark and dangerous and held me completely captivated! Read Tracey's review of The Bonus here
There is a twisted romantic relationship, a great story line, but the main characters are so intelligent that they are always trying to outcome each other, it's so entertaining and simply delicious, the girl is so strong and so feisty a really refreshing change in the common formula of a dark romance. Read MATY's review of The Degas Girl here.
"Wow!"
It's always great to find an erotica book where the sex takes a backseat to the plot. Read VLL's review of The Degas Girl here.
This book was SO FECKIN’ GOOD!!!! Wowza, wowza, wowza! Read Bookaholic Mama's review of Deliverance here.
"I think this is a 5-star fantasy read. Fantasy is not really my preferred genre so I only chose this book because I knew from experience that I love what A.J. Adams writes." Read Helen's review of Beast here.
I could not resist commenting. Well written!
ReplyDeleteGood post. I am dealing with many of these issues as well..
ReplyDelete