The video blog Watch the Video features the clip I made for the second of my Palestinian crime novels A Grave in Gaza (UK title: The Saladin Murders). The rest of my videos feature on my Youtube channel.

Many writers make promotional videos for their books these days, as you'll see from the Watch the Video site. Most of them are made up largely of still photos and have quite a lot in common with the narrative voice-over of movie trailers ("In a time of wearing boxers, one man wore briefs..." etc.)

I've tried to give each of my videos for each book a different flavor. For A Grave in Gaza, videographer David Blumenfeld and I chose to imitate the great noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s. We watched Carol Reid's "The Third Man" to study the angles and lighting. I wrote a brief script in which I aimed to deliver my lines in the rasping, hardboiled tone of that period.

We figured the contrast of a style associated with Los Angeles or post-war Vienna with the backdrop of Jerusalem's Old City would be thought-provoking.

I also wanted to show that the book, while based on my factual research and years of reporting in Gaza, was fiction. So I took a less journalistic approach the video than I had with the clip for my first novel The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title: The Bethlehem Murders).

Next week, David and I will be shooting a video for my next novel THE FOURTH ASSASSIN. The book won't be out until January, but we'll be loading the video onto Youtube within a couple of weeks. We're taking a different approach to this book. I'll keep you posted on its progress and, having seen some of David's early footage, I'm sure you'll like it. Meanwhile enjoy the existing videos, which I hope will give you some insights into the locations of the books.

Views: 6

Comment

You need to be a member of CrimeSpace to add comments!

CrimeSpace Google Search

© 2024   Created by Daniel Hatadi.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service