Videos

The first trailer for Baz Luhrmann‘s highly anticipated adaptation of The Great Gatsby has arrived. We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan. There will be a 3D version. On YouTube, a few readers have been tough on the trailer. After 145,000 views, it has earned 91 dislikes and some bitter commentary.

 

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On the Sword & Laser book club this week, hosts Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt interviewed nearly all of the c0-authors of the epic book, The Mongoliad. Novelist Neal Stephenson joined the interview while working out on his treadmill.

Check it out: “Tom and Veronica sat down with 6 of the 7 authors of the Mongoliad, including Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, E.D deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Neal Stephenson, and Mark Teppo.”

The used Google+ Hangouts (video embedded above) to host and record the interview. Find out more about the new tool in our AppNewser feature: How to record & share video interviews on Google+.

As part of his campaign efforts, president Barack Obama was on The View, where he took a pop culture quiz. It turns out that the president has never heard of the top selling erotica book, 50 Shades of Grey.

When asked the question, “what is the controversial sex book that’s on millions of women’s bedside tables?” He says that he doesn’t know, but “I’ll ask Michelle when I get home.”

We’ve embedded the video above for you to see for yourself.

Have you ever used a Shakespearean insult? The TED-Ed animation video embedded above explores insults used in two popular Shakespeare plays, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet.

Teacher April Gudenrath designed the lesson and TEDtv executive Juliet Blake narrated the short video. What do you think?

Here’s more about the video: “‘You’re a fishmonger!’ By taking a closer look at Shakespeare’s words–specifically his insults–we see why he is known as a master playwright whose works transcend time and appeal to audiences all over the world.”

House of Leaves novelist Mark Z. Danielewski shared a 30-second bit of writing advice over at the Knopf Doubleday YouTube page. It is a deceptively simple tip and chance to meet the author.

The video series includes nearly 28 brief and useful interviews other writers, including: Wild author Cheryl Strayed, Gods Without Men novelist Hari Kunzru and The Vanishers author Heidi Julavits.

Who would you like to see interviewed next? (Via Reddit Lit Video)

Want to make a cool book trailer? Check out Chronicle Books’ YouTube page to get ideas. The company’s videos are so catchy that YouTube itself is featuring the publisher as part of its corporate video demo series.

In the “It’s Easy to Make Great YouTube Videos” video (embedded above) features Chronicle’s associate marketing director Albee Dalbotten. In the video, she explains Chronicle’s approach, “we don’t necessarily set out to make a video that’s going to go viral. Our goal is always to give someone some sense of intrigue, where they want to find out more.”

Still, the publisher has managed to have a number of videos that have caught on. For example, “Boo: The Life of the World’s Cutest Dog,” a video about a dog that writes books, has been viewed more than 800,000 times.

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Random House book designer Chip Kidd gave a TED talk called “Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.” The video embedded above features his entire talk.

Many publishing executives feel that the cover design is the number one marketing tool in their arsenal. Kidd drew on stories from his twenty-five year career working at Alfred A. Knopf where he creates book covers with “a wicked sense of humor.”

During the talk, Kidd discussed the conceptual processes behind the iconic book covers for Michael Crichton‘s hit novel Jurassic Park (1990), Augusten Burroughs‘s memoir Dry (2004) and the English translation of Haruki Murakami‘s 1Q84 (2011). He shared the following tips on book designing:

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The next time you need to research a book or a new writing project, you should use the YouTube Time Machine to explore the time period in your work.

The online tool will let you find videos that range from 1860 until the present, traveling back in time with over 10,000 videos discovered through YouTube’s vast archive. You can also email the founders (hello [at] yttm [dot] tv) a video to show how you used the tool.

AppNewser has more about the app version of the online tool: “the app lets you choose a year and play videos from that time period. It is a great way to find television commercial, sports videos or music videos from your childhood.”

In that new book trailer for The Family Corleone, mobsters visit Grand Central Publishing trying to get a galley copy of the Ed Falco novel. The book is a prequel to The Godfather, based on a screenplay by Mario Puzo.

Grand Central editor Mitch Hoffman assured his Twitter followers: “No editors were harmed in the filming of this video.” Indeed, even the highly believable editor in the book trailer was a well-cast actor.

Check it out: “New York, 1933. The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end. For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family’s future.”

Talk show host and author Ellen DeGeneres shared a short skit online, attempting to read the audiobook version of E. L. James‘ steamy erotica, Fifty Shades of Grey.

We’ve embedded the video above (Completely Safe for Work)–what do you think of her charming sound effects?

Last month, James landed a seven-figure book deal and a movie deal for her bestselling title. In another post, we explored the novel’s previous incarnation as sexy Twilight fan fiction.