Hi Folks and welcome to the Who Is Fitzy Fox Blog tour.
I am so delighted to bring this to you in reading land, as this book has been delighting us for a few weeks now.
We highly recommend it for ages 4-8, especially with Christmas coming up. Fitzy Fox's search for his identity, takes him through some truly wonderful places in Melbourne and beyond, and we absolutely loved reading it. The illustrations were so fantastic we want them in print form. Amelia and Jennifer have stopped by to give us the skinny on how they made their wonderful book trailer.
Until next time folks, enjoy.
The Making of a Book Trailer
I am so delighted to bring this to you in reading land, as this book has been delighting us for a few weeks now.
We highly recommend it for ages 4-8, especially with Christmas coming up. Fitzy Fox's search for his identity, takes him through some truly wonderful places in Melbourne and beyond, and we absolutely loved reading it. The illustrations were so fantastic we want them in print form. Amelia and Jennifer have stopped by to give us the skinny on how they made their wonderful book trailer.
Until next time folks, enjoy.
The Making of a Book Trailer
Who is Fitzy Fox?
is a newly released debut picture book written by Amelia Trompf and illustrated by Jennifer Bruce. When Amelia started researching ways to help promote her
book, she discovered the wonderful world of book trailers and decided she would like one for her book! Here Amelia and Simon Cottee (the book trailer’s
animator) talk about how the book trailer came into being.
Amelia, can you tell us how about your book trailer first came about?
With the release of my debut picture book Who is Fitzy Fox? being imminent, I have been frantically trying to do a crash course in picture book
marketing and for me, one very pleasant discovery was the existence of book trailers. Of course I knew about movie trailers but not book trailers!
I decided that I would have a go at creating one for Who is Fitzy Fox? so I started searching the Internet for ideas.
I did an online video-making
course and put together a fairly simply slideshow video with a few whizz (but definitely amateur) bang animations. I then started to think about the
soundtrack. Sitting in my son’s toddler music class listening to the teacher, Erynne Binns, soothing the crazy little folk at the end of the class by
beautifully singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, I suddenly though how brilliant it would be if she could write a song for the trailer. She produced a
song way beyond my expectations that added another dimension and perspective to the story. I was thrilled; I love it when creative people get inspired and
take a project to a different level.
After I heard the song, however, I was in a quandary. The song Erynne had written was too beautiful for my simple little slideshow video and trying to get
the slides to fit the timing of the song was doing my head in. So I started asking around for anyone who could make simple animations. I considered online
animators who are very cheap but didn’t want to send the illustrations to someone overseas that I didn’t know. Then one night as I lay awake listening to
the snores of my husband, I suddenly remembered that he had a cousin who was an animator in Canada. I had only met my husband’s cousin once when he was a
teenager and conscious that my project was very small, I was a little tentative about asking him but thankfully he agreed. I sent him the video I had
already made to give him some ideas but just like Erynne, he created something way beyond my expectations and again added his own perspective.
Simon, can you tell us a bit about the creative process of making a book trailer?
G'day Guys! My names Simon Cottee and I put together the animated trailer for the beautiful book Who is Fitzy Fox?. Here is a brief rundown of the
creative process that went into it.
First, Amelia provided me with her story and the beautiful illustrations along with the song What Floats for You by Erynn Brinns. The trailer came
together easily because of Erynn's song! It has a great underlying rhythm to it, so I found the editing just needed to hit that rhythm and it would feel
good. I'll admit I came to that conclusion much later than I should of, as on reflection it's so obvious (a good learning moment for me)!
It was one of those rare projects where it all came together without a struggle and left me feeling relaxed and calm. What a pleasure!
Besides writing, Amelia Trompf teaches part-time and spends the rest of the time with her young son who luckily loves reading as much as she does. They
spend many hours at the local libraries reading books together. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for Amelia’s son to discover mummy wrote a picture book on the
library shelf next time they go!
Jennifer Bruce grew up in Dunblane in Scotland. She loved reading and drawing when she was young and particularly liked drawing animals. After finishing
school, she went to Art College and then worked as a jeweller and a creative skills instructor in a hospital as well as a drawing tutor. Who is Fitzy Fox? is the first book Jennifer has illustrated and she had great fun creating the character of Fitzy Fox and drawing the places in
Melbourne and London that he visits.
MEET THE BOOK
Title:
Who is Fitzy Fox?
Publisher:
Little Steps Publishing
Author:
Amelia Trompf
Illustrator:
Jennifer Bruce
Available:
Now
Grayson Smith was born in Alberta, but attended a boarding school in Germany for 11 years. After high school, he attended SFU, where he obtained a degree in Criminology and met his beautiful wife, Linda. Throughout university, Grayson wrote stories when he should have been paying attention in class. After completing his degree, he became a police officer, and still enjoys that job thoroughly. As of 2012, Grayson gets to re-envision the world through the eyes of his baby son, Josiah. Writing is a wonderful way for Grayson to express the silliness and vagary that simmers beneath his well-practiced outer layer of respectability and professionalism.
Alana Kyle was born and raised in the Lower Mainland. As a small child, she was sweet, quiet, and frequently lost inside her own head. Ever since she was young, she was motivated by her love of artistic creativity and attention to detail, and remains captivated by storybooks and imagination. Alana attended and graduated from Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and also obtained a three-year diploma of Illustration and Design from Capilano University. She works as an illustrator and graphic designer, and lives in Coquitlam.
Jourden Cleghorn, who writes and illustrates children’s books under the pen name Teddy O' Malley, was born in in Saint Louis, Missouri. She has traveled all over the United States and enjoys learning about new things and other cultures. She dreams of visiting a foreign country. She has enjoyed studying Spanish, German, and now Italian as well. Jourden paired her language skills with pictures of puppies to write Tell Me How You Say Good Night, a bedtime story. And a childhood friendship with a biracial girl named Hope influenced Jourden to make the Destiny and Faith characters biracial in her series about twins. Many of her books include a thread about friendship and acceptance of others. Jourden previously worked part time as a nurse assistant helping the disabled and elderly.
