Book Trailer: Christian Kracht’s New Book

Andrea Deppert and Agnieszka Kruczek hit us with this really well-made book trailer for Christian Kracht’s new book, ”Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten’ (Which roughly translates to “I will be here in the sunlight and in the shade.” Frauke Finsterwalder provided the concept and the script, while Kracht himself did the voice over. The seamless transitions, haunting voice over, and the simple yet powerfully evocative imagery all contribute to a very convincing “pick up this book, it’s a bloody good read” message.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured literary promo work here on Motionographer. Previously, we’ve covered Radium’s work for Sharp Teeth and Crush’s campaign for Douglas Coupland’s The Gum Thief. I am loving this new trend of publishers turning to animation and motion graphics to entice their audience.

I’ve been curious as to why this is happening—one does not normally associate book publishing with a lucrative line of work, and we know good animation would cost more (on average) than the “traditional” advertising methods of print ads.

When I asked them about this question, Agnieszka replied that in her opinion, funding a piece of animation simply means shifting the advertising money that otherwise would’ve gone to those more ‘traditional’ means of advertising. That, and book publishers are apparently quite savvy to the fact that they can reach a wider audience through cinema and television advertising. Most interestingly, she said, From the artistic point of view, animation has a different grade of abstraction that fits in with the poetry of the written and spoken word.”

Well put, I’d say. And I can only hope that this trend is on the increase!

Agnieszka has also kindly provided us with this English translation of the haunting VO:

It has been in September
A butterfly had come to rest on my eyelid
It had fallen in love to the motion of my eyelash
It flapped its wings simultaneously to the closing and opening of my eye.

It is just a brief visit to this place
Mountains and clouds
Birds come here
I don`t see them
My eyes are closed……closed
It is just a brief visit to this place

No eyelashes exist here
Mountains and clouds
Birds come here
I (can) hear them
At this place… I am lost

Tags:

About the author

Lilian Darmono

/ www.liliandarmono.com
Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lilian moved to Singapore and eventually Australia for her studies, eventually graduating from Swinburne NID in Prahran, Melbourne. She then worked in print design before deciding to switch to the field of Motion Design in late 2003. Her obsessions include travelling, illustrating, and cats. She is currently in the London leg of her 'Mograph Tour Around The World', and calls Melbourne home.

9 Comments

akabaka

“Der Neue Roman” isn’t the name of the book; it’s German for “The New Novel” (as in “the new novel by Christian Kracht”). The name of the book is “Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten,” which I think means “I will be here in the sunlight and in the shade.”

Lilian

thanks for the tip, akabaka. As you can see, i speak no German! :)
Post ammended.

akabaka

Aha! On further research, the title is from the lyrics of “Danny Boy”: “I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow.”

Kalone

The Lyrics were good, but the animations looked too muddy and simple to me.

guanabana

I liked it a lot. I like the idea of building a language from a book with images that everybody can interpretate. The problem I see is that if you havn´t read the book and you read it later you will probably imagine the principal character as it is in the video instead of recreating it in you head. But that is a challenge for us designers. But I have a question… Where are this animations transmited? via internet? wich channels? banners? have no idea but i would like to know

Lilian

I have forwarded your question to the ladies. We’ll see what they say..!

guanabana

Thank you very much¡¡¡ I am also investigating about this motions. As soon as I have something new I´ll let you know

Lilian

According to Agnieszka, ‘The booktrailer was transmitted via internet on the publishers and on the writer´s internet sites, and there are a few 35mm copies screened in cinemas as an ad. and youtube of course…’

giles

The title is a translated lyric from the Irish folk song ‘Danny Boy’

“…But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow
‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so”.

Comments are closed.