The ChaNGEMAKERS Blog
Latest Posts
What Makes Something Go Viral?
I’ve been wondering what makes something go viral, so within a day or two everyone knows about it and is talking about it. Often this seems like is one of today’s modern mysteries.
Sometimes the reason is obvious, since an individual or company with plenty of money has pumped millions of dollars into a particular brand or meme, so it appears everywhere, and influencers pick up the item from there. So for awhile it becomes the latest new thing.
Victims of Book to Film Con start GoFundMe Campaign, Book, Film to Compensate Losses
It’s a cruel scam that dashes the hopes of thousands of writers and self-publishers to see their book turned into a film. But now there is a GoFundMe campaign and soon a book and film that tell the story of ten writers who lost over $150,000 – up to $20,000-40,000 each, and some really did have potential blockbusters. Instead, the scammers entrapped them into spending money for an offer that turned out to be fake.
New Personality System Using Dog Types for Better Self-Understanding & Improved Relationships
Now there’s a whole new way to understand your personality and that of others — by knowing your Dog Type. The system helps you understand your personality type and apply it to better understand and relate to others in your family, with friends, and in your work.
The Dog Type personality system builds on widely recognized ways of characterizing the four main personality types – like Myers-Briggs, the DISC system, and color profiling – but it features some popular dogs that make personality typing even more relatable and fun.
Is modern life in America becoming like Medieval times? The New American Middle Ages
In today’s tumultuous times, life in America and the rest of the world is becoming more and more like life in medieval times, as described in The New American Middle Ages by Gini Graham Scott, PhD, just published by Waterside Press.
The book is based on the premise that today’s growing split between rich and poor is like the divide between royalty, nobles, and rich merchants versus the medieval peasants and artisans. The book makes comparisons between the rise of the medieval kingdoms and the battles between the high tech titans, the division of labor then and now, the parallels between different institutions and lifestyles.
COMPLETING YOUR SIZZLE REEL
Once you have all of the elements for your sizzle reel in a file format, you are ready to create the sizzle reel. These four elements, as previously noted, include the following:
– the narration as a mp3 or wav file
– a music file (highly recommended) as mp3 or wav file
– the photos or images in a jpg., jpeg., .png, or other accepted format
– the video clips if any in an mp4 or other accepted video format.
ADDING CREDITS, CONTACT INFORMATION, AND MUSIC IN YOUR SIZZLE REEL
The next step is adding in a slide with any credits and information on where viewers can get your book or contact you. Additionally, you want to create some background music for a more professional touch.
Commonly, a sizzle reel includes one or two final slides with the credits and contact information. This can include a website for the book, film, or author if there is one, as well as an email and phone number. If you don’t already have this information in a .JPEG or video format, an easy way to create these slides is as PowerPoint presentation with one or two slides.
GETTING PHOTOS AND VIDEO CLIPS FOR YOUR SIZZLE REEL
Once you set up the script for the narrative and corresponding photos and video clips, you can select these from those you already have. Or you or your video editor can select them from any of the free or paid stock photo and video sources. To save money in creating the sizzle reel, select the photos or clips from your collection or obtain them yourself from one of the stock photo and video sources. This will save the video editor time in searching for the photos and clips and then getting your approval before buying them.
SETTING UP A SCRIPT FOR NARRATION
Once you finalize the script, the next step is to set it up for the narration by breaking it down into sentences or phrases which correspond to the images or video...
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A SIZZLE REEL AND WRITING THE SCRIPT
Once you decide to create a sizzle reel, which can be a book or script trailer or promotional video for any kind of product or service, you need the following major elements to create it. You can do this yourself, though if you are not experienced with video editing or don’t want to learn how to use a video platform, you can hire a video editor to create the sizzle reel for you.
A typical sizzle reel is about 2 minutes, ranging from about 90 seconds to 3 minutes, and is composed of these major elements:
1) A voice-over narration (and/or text, though not recommended)
2) Photos or video clips
3) One or more slides with text, usually for your website and contact information
4) Some background music to accompany the narration and contact information
Ghostwriting
We can help you with different types of writing, working from your rough draft, notes, transcripts of talks or workshops, or interviews with you by phone or in person.
We can also help you strategize what to write about and use your writing to brand and promote yourself or your company to become a thought leader or expert in your niche.
Types of writing and ghostwriting include:
Find out more about:
Contact Us
Changemakers
Publishing & Writing
2415 San Ramon Valley Blvd., Suite #4-366
San Ramon, CA 94583