Levin’s Untraditional Book Trailer
The trailer for God, The Universe and Where I Fit In stands out from traditional promotional book videos
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 9/8/2009 7:39:00 AM
A trailer for God, the Universe and Where I Fit In: A Psychic's Reflections on Figuring Out the Rest of Your Life (HCI) by Laurie Ann Levin, wife of former AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, is making the rounds on YouTube—and seems to be standing out from the pack of more traditional book trailers.
Instead of what has become the usual formula, which adapts the typical movie trailer to a book, the trailer for Levin’s book is a hand-drawn, animated video created by former Disney animator Dave Spafford and his team. Over the course of the 30-second film, Levin breathlessly recounts her life story, from babyhood to the present day. Levin explains how she wanted to be a dancer, but became a Hollywood agent instead; married another agent; had children; became a producer; got divorced; quit showbiz; ran away to Bora Bora; was “taken in” by a cult; asked her mother for advice (“something I never did when she was alive”); and then her life “really started getting strange.” Cut to the book title and the tag “available at booksellers everywhere.”
Kim Weiss, director of communications for HCI, said there are plans to use another video for a TV commercial campaign.
Levin was an agent with CAA and a film producer, and later became a psychological and spiritual healer. Her memoir covers her life and quest for “spiritual truth and authentic living.” Her husband, Gerald Levin, wrote the foreword. Weiss said the $15.95 paperback started shipping this week.
