...and I do hope to both make more films starring Myster Odd as well as other short films (this was my first full-on animation). Many thanks for the kind words.
I should point out that Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, myself, and Danny Fontaine (who did the fantastic song) did not set out to make a trailer or advertisement for the book per se. I have been doing the One Minute Weird Tales with Ann, and Jeff pretty much said "hey, do you want to do something wacky with this ODD? anthology?" He and Danny came up with the song, and I had the cool bookcover by Jeremy Zerfoss, and then I went off and did the animation with no further input, goals, or demands. The feel was much more "lets all do some fun creative stuff" and not "let's advertise this book so people will buy it."
Like opalblack says below, if there is an effect on sales of the anthology, it's not so much that the video inspires the desire to buy the book -- they have very little in common but oddness -- but rather that the video cuts over some genre/media boundaries that might have prevented readers from finding the book at all. And likewise, my video is, I hope, finding some viewers from the literary side who don't normally seek out short experimental animations.
The trick is, I suspect, to not have a goal of making money or selling books, but of doing something interesting (at least to oneself). It's the mentality I have when writing fiction, and now the technology lets me make a short film all on my own on my own home equipment, I can use the same approach for animation as well.
i'm glad you liked "Myster Odd!"
I should point out that Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, myself, and Danny Fontaine (who did the fantastic song) did not set out to make a trailer or advertisement for the book per se. I have been doing the One Minute Weird Tales with Ann, and Jeff pretty much said "hey, do you want to do something wacky with this ODD? anthology?" He and Danny came up with the song, and I had the cool bookcover by Jeremy Zerfoss, and then I went off and did the animation with no further input, goals, or demands. The feel was much more "lets all do some fun creative stuff" and not "let's advertise this book so people will buy it."
Like opalblack says below, if there is an effect on sales of the anthology, it's not so much that the video inspires the desire to buy the book -- they have very little in common but oddness -- but rather that the video cuts over some genre/media boundaries that might have prevented readers from finding the book at all. And likewise, my video is, I hope, finding some viewers from the literary side who don't normally seek out short experimental animations.
The trick is, I suspect, to not have a goal of making money or selling books, but of doing something interesting (at least to oneself). It's the mentality I have when writing fiction, and now the technology lets me make a short film all on my own on my own home equipment, I can use the same approach for animation as well.
Cheers!