So, this past weekend, Matt and I headed off to Salem, MA to film my book trailer for Life's a Witch. We'd taken a look at a few other author's book trailers (check out one of Meg Cabot's below) and sat down to try and brainstorm what we wanted to accomplish with mine. Being that Matt's expertise is video, I left a lot of the planning up to him in terms of exactly how he wanted to execute the video. But we talked out the general storyline for the trailer and then planned our trip.
Like I mentioned in a past blog, I knew I was using my friend, Alicia Chouinard, as Hadley in the trailer. She's been offering to star in the movie or TV show of one of my books for years and since she's an actress/model/all-around cool chick, I knew if anyone was going to play Hadley, it'd be her. And I've gotta say...the girl didn't disappoint!
So we went up to stay with Alicia and her family for the weekend, since they live less than a half hour away from Salem (Alicia's dad even grew up in Danvers, the actual town where a lot of the trials happened), and then woke up early Saturday morning to go shopping! I had to buy a wig...one that would help transform cute, caramel colored Alicia into the brunette bombshell that Hadley is (check out a pic of Alicia trying on wigs; this isn't the one we ended up going with since it was more Betty Boop than Hadley Bishop, but it was fun trying them on!). I also had to pick out an outfit that was fitting of Hadley's personal style. And of course, we had to find the right shoes. We settled on a fierce pair of bright red patent leather stilettos. Seriously hot.
Anyways, once we had the whole outfit together, we traveled to Salem and went to our first location. We'd decided that our first shot would be at The Witch House, which was the house that Judge Jonathan Corwin, the man who sentenced Bridget Bishop (and over a dozen others) to death because of witchcraft, used to live. The house itself is now a museum with guided tours and is painted a creepy gray/black color. As soon as we saw it, we knew it would make the perfect backdrop for the trailer. And the owners were so nice to let us film in front of it!
Our next location was the Salem Witch Trials Memorial Cemetery. Now, Saturday was drizzly and gray out—the perfect setting for the filming we wanted to do. And when we were all set up at the cemetery, among the headstones, we were able to get a few shots that were nothing short of incredible. We even found a stone bench that paid its respects to Bridget Bishop.
While we were at the graveyard, Alicia's mom, Sue (who should get some serious stylist and momager credits...we never would've found Hadley's outfit if it wasn't for her! Thanks Sue! Your 10% is coming!) got to talking to a few other people who were walking around the graves and made friends with a girl who said she was a practicing witch! We almost asked if we could interview her, but we were losing light and didn't want to stay too long in the cemetery with all our camera equipment (did I mention it was raining and pretty chilly?). Alas, we decided interviews would have to be left for another trip.All in all, the shoot went awesome and I can't wait to see the finished product! I just hope you all like it as much as I had fun making it!
5x5,
B.
1 comments:
Awesome!! Can't wait to see the trailer!! :)
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