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