On entering the sound studio at Mind’s Eye Productions you are confronted with a pile of shoes (as producer and narrator Bill Dufris welcomes only those that tiptoe into the sound booth on stocking feet).
Cowboy boots kicked off, striped tights hiked up, and my script in hand, I was ready to work on another book trailer audio with Bill and his merry band of voice actors. Actor Brent Askari followed me in with his copy of the script (marked with all the inflections taught to him by his Italian friends and from hours spent watching interviews with Italian director, Roberto Benigni).
Voice Actors Brent Askari & Kate Davis
Brent was intrigued by the idea of book trailers both as an actor and as the author of the well received novel, Not Ready for Prime Time, that was thrown into the murky assignment of self promotion. That a YouTube about a book is easier to encounter than the book itself, made perfect sense to him.
One hour later and much hilarity consumed, I walked out (NOT in another man’s shoes) with a MP3 ready to merge with artist Lois Rosio Sprague’s illustrations from The Sandal Artist.
With the storyboard I had laid out, my partner Mark Mattos (wearing Doc Martins) took over weaving sound and image until he exported the trailer you see above.
Curious City may not have “walked a mile in another man’s shoes” for a production, but many pairs of fine shoe-clad and fashionable folks from author Kathleen T. Pelley who approved our script based on her picture book to the art director at Pelican Publishing who exported Lois Rosio Sprague’s fine illustration to producer Willaim Dufris to actor Brent Askari to Curious City’s wizard Mark Mattos to my scribblings and storyboard’s in knee-high Vegan motorcycle boots…all walked and worked to get this small piece happily shod.
