Book+Trailer+Project

Once you've finished reading __The Giver__, you'll be creating a trailer in iMovie that advertises the novel. It should be dramatic, and interesting, but more than anything else, it will need to communicate one of the book's main THEMES.

Watch a sample book trailer for the novel Gone by Michael Grant.

or Wonder by RJ Palacio media type="custom" key="25005434" The **first** thing to decide when making your trailer is what **THEME** you want to communicate.

a universal idea or big idea about life that an author wants you to think about, or one of the many repeated ideas about human nature that an author wants you to consider
 * Theme** can be **defined** as:

Theme is not stated directly, but it is revealed slowly through the plot and struggles the characters face. There can be more than one theme in any literary work. In order to discover a theme, ask yourself what big idea about life the author wants you to think about long after putting the book down. Consider the Outsiders by S.E. Hinton as an example. Now that its been a year since you've read that book, what is one idea about life that Hinton was trying to get across?

Possible themes in __The Giver__: (we'll list them as a class as we read)


 * a strict focus on sameness or absolute equality is dangerous
 * differences are good and necessary
 * individuality and creativity make life worth living
 * without bad feelings, we can't recognize or appreciate good feelings
 * without memories or history, we are doomed to repeat mistakes of the past
 * love/connection is a human need
 * nothing is perfect
 * authoritarian governments that have complete control over their citizens give people a false sense of security and are really imprisoning them
 * nothing is perfect / utopian experiments fail and can lead to danger


 * Next**, you want to **plan out your ideas in a storyboard.**

When creating any video presentation, storyboarding is key! You need to plan out your trailer before you begin looking for photos, clips, etc. Watch this clip to learn the importance of storyboarding.

Trailers with at least a few seconds of original video in them will be earn extra points! Some good places to search for photos are:
 * Then**, begin **taking photos or video clips and/or gathering photos or video clips** from websites.


 * Pics4learning.com (Photos from and by students and teachers that are free to use)
 * Pixabay (public domain photos)
 * [|Behold]-- (Photos from Creative Commons)
 * Flickr -- (Photos from Creative Commons)
 * @http://edudemic.com/2011/09/free-premium-stock-images/ (stock photos)
 * Photo Pin -- (Photos from Creative Commons with a link to correctly cite source for a Works Cited page)
 * [|Compfight] – Search Flickr photos for your videos.
 * [|MorgueFile] – Find free pictures for your videos.
 * vimeo (as long as you do an "advanced search" to look for videos that are free to use

Try here for music that is not protected by copyright:


 * soundcloud.com
 * ccmixter.org
 * royaltyfreemusic

(A guide to copyright-friendly content)

SAVE all images with names that make sense to you, and save them to a folder where you can find them.

**AND BE SURE to copy and paste URLs of your photo info, so you can cite your sources in a "Works Cited List"!** That means you need to save the URL of the site where you got each photo. Copy each URL and paste it into a stickie or Word doc.

These URLs will be added to** a "Works Cited List"! **

Here's an example:

Stay organized!

See how NOT to cite an image

A not so wonderful sample trailer: media type="youtube" key="7byEnbvXohA" height="243" width="322"

another sample: media type="custom" key="25239344"

Rubrics, or how you will be graded:

__**THE WRITE-UP** or artist's statement should:__ -be printed and handed-in with the final trailer -be double spaced -be 10 or 12 pt. font -be 1/2 a page to a page in length -be for the entire group, if you are working with a partner -explain and describe your goal and how you went about achieving it. In other words, what theme were you trying to communicate and how did you communicate it. Why did you choose the images you chose? Why did you choose the text you chose? Why did you include the music you have? etc.

Sample beginning of a typed write-up for a book trailer: