The next day, I asked him what was his favorite part of the wedding, and guess what it was?

Yep.

“Being the ring bearer.”

“See?” I said. “Sometimes the things that “terrify” you are the things that are the most rewarding.”

Which made me pause. As I’ve mentioned, Youngest and I are a lot alike socially. I tend to duck out of things if the spotlight gets too near me. And lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m going to promote my first novel, MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT. The whole idea of it makes me squirm. But I do think what I told Youngest is true. So I’m going to try to get through being “terrified,” so that I don’t end up feeling regretful–which, I didn’t share with Youngest, but I know from experience, is how you feel when you don’t stretch yourself to try something that you know you should have.

A longer post to come on my thoughts on book promotion.

Authors–how about using it as a book trailer? Here’s one I pulled together for my Follow That Food Chain series from Lerner. 

Photos used under Flickr Creative Commons from dpape, Stephen Barnett, chem7, belgianchocolate, kento.ikeda, and antaean.

Granted, it’s not as flashy as some and I didn’t have complete creative control over it.  If I had my life-long-dream book coming out from a big publisher, I’d probably do something a little fancier. But–on the other hand? This was scary easy to do. And it was free. So for my little school/library series, this works just fine.

How To

Animoto walks you through making a video in just three steps. Well, four, if you count going to their site and logging in.

1.  Images

I searched for Creative Commons licensed photos in Flickr and uploaded them to a new video in Animoto. You can also upload your own. (Having not been to Borneo, sadly, my collection was lacking.) The librarian in me reminds you to note the photos’ sources for later credit in the video.

I also added some text slides.

2.  Music

I picked music from Animoto’s free tunes. Again, you can also upload your own. Again, librarian-me says makes sure your sources are legal and that you credit them.

3.  Finalize Your Video

Add your description and your credits here. Let the rendering process begin.

Animoto analyzes the music and the photos and matches them up with tempo and transitions, so you don’t have to worry about that. So voila! It’s done.

Want Something a Notch Above This?

Courtney Summers wrote a great guest post on Danette Haworth’s blog on how she used Movie Maker to make her book trailer (heck, that’s where I first learned about the Flickr Creative Commons licensing!).

Really Gung-ho Over Book Trailers?

Read this post by Darcy Pattison. It’ll probably take you three days, but everything you could ever want to know–well, it’s all there. It’s amazing.

First up from the AASL Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning (remember, I warned you about this?), Animoto.

Do you know Animoto? I confess: I did not. But it’s been a lot of fun to play around with. Basically, Animoto is a web-based tool that allows you to plunk in your photos, add some music (yours or theirs), and text to create mini “movie” slideshows. How’s it different from something you’d make in Powerpoint? Well, it’s just plain snazzier. Animoto times out your music for you and automatically adds transitions between pictures. The results is much more sophisticated (and quicker to do) than anything in Powerpoint. Here are those same photos from my ALA session, all Animoto’d up:

Wasn’t that a lot more fun? And honestly, it probably took me less time than uploading those photos to my blog post originally. Now, the downside is you lose a little creativity. I didn’t get to pick how those photos came in or what font I wanted. Also, the free videos are limited to 30 seconds–about 10-12 photos/slides. Want longer or better quality?–it’ll cost you. These sounds like drawbacks, and if you’re a video editor, they are, but if you’ve ever been in a room with indecisive, click-happy ten-year-olds, sometimes less choice is better. Instead, students have to focus on their message and their content.

Other Pros

The videos are housed on Animoto’s site. So, no grumping from your tech people about taking up too much space on the schools’ servers.

You can email or embed the videos as needed. Great for sharing with classmates, other teachers, and parents at home!

Some Negatives

I had to compress some of my pictures to get them to upload. So if you’re doing a project with a class, you’ll want to check that you’re taking/using pictures that’ll work ahead of time. Having to shrink your pictures would definitely suck up valuable class time.

And the biggest issue is: it’s cool, I’d use it, but can I get to it from school? Unfortunately, a LOT of the great Web 2.0 stuff is blocked with our Internet filters at school. Frustrating, but true. I’ll have to head into work in the next few days to see.

Animoto for Education

I’ve applied for an education account, which I’m crossing my fingers about. I ‘m hoping that it has an easy way for students to log on–without giving up too much personal information. And I suspect that the 30-second time limit isn’t in place, which makes Animoto a possibility for even more projects. Finally, I’m not sure, but with the paid account you can download the videos and burn them (not so with the free one)–maybe the education account will have this, too?

So What Would You Use It For?

You tell me! I’m itching to share with the teachers I know who do book reports–what a fun way to share a book! How about some public service announcements? Or using photos of students’ own artwork to tell a story?

As far as my own applications, I could see using it to make promo videos for our Open House or to launch our Battle of the Books and our Golden Archer student-choice book award programs.

I’d love to hear how you’d use Animoto. Comment and let me know!