Booktrailers and Sizzle Reels

Prepping for Banff has become all consuming. Daily there's a new major task added to our list of shit to do. And we already had loads on that list. But we're keen, krazy, and ready to kick ass in the mountains.

Or we will be by Sunday.

I was a little freaked out last week when I noticed an announcement on the Banff Media Fest Facebook page, indicating that if you were doing face-to-face meetings with executives, agents, producers - you need this fancy thing called a "sizzle reel".

I'd never heard of them.

But a quick Google search and I got it. Ah...they're like booktrailers! Mini movies or visual presentations that sum up a project in a hip, visual way. Perfect, it just so happens that my writing partner and I also recently launched Bridge Social Media - we make trailers for authors.

I quickly set to work choosing images from the talent pool known as Flickr and requesting permission to use photos (the BEST way to obtain amazing graphics on a limited budget). Then it was a matter of working some Final Cut and Motion magic. I found this reel challenging as we have not one, but five separate projects to feature. Here's hoping we pulled it off: