Monday, October 8, 2007

Publishing houses are not fit to be movie producers. Discuss.

Too good to keep to myself: the two 'book trailers' for The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Obviously, Michael Chabon is a terrifically talented man. And I have no doubt that the good people at Fourth Estate (British publisher) and HarperCollins are also fantastically talented.

So why do these trailer suck so hard? I mean, they're not terrible, as in, unwatchable. But they are terrible as in, why on earth would anyone not affiliated with the book already watch them?

This seems to be the main problem affecting book trailers nowadays. We're trying to be like the movies, when we don't have the money or experience or savvy to reach that level at all. There are a couple I've enjoyed: notably, Miranda July's latest, although she obviously has some expertise in the movie-making department, which may have helped.

Anyway, the two trailers for your "enjoyment":

British:


Canadian:
http://www.harpercollins.ca/trailers/trailer0007149824.html

4 comments:

Megan said...

Ew! That was horrible. I couldn't watch more than half of it. I am wary of clicking on the Candian one.

Megan said...

Okay, the Canadian one is SO much better!!!

Shek Baker said...

I have to agree with Megan. The British one was a snore, but I found the Canadian one oddly soothing.

Ami said...

I totally agree--there is something nice about the Canadian one. But I stick by my original hypothesis: there's no reason anyone not already affiliated with this book would watch either of these. Which makes them feel like a waste of energy to me.