Bellingham author debuts first-of-its-kind book video

| COURTESY PHOTO - NOT FOR SALE

• What: Bellingham author Clyde Ford reads from his suspense thriller "Precious Cargo," accompanied by the premier showing of a 20-minute book video narrated by Morgan Freeman and featuring Ruby Dee, Roscoe Orman and Swil Kanim.
  When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2.
  Where: Leopold Crystal Ballroom, 1224 Cornwall Ave.
  Tickets: $10, available at Pickford Film Center box office and Village Books. Proceeds benefit the film center.
  More: Admission includes wine and dessert. Ford will sign copies of his book, which will be available for sale.
  
  

Dee was complaining about young authors' lack of drama when they read from their works, then she grabbed some meeting minutes and read them aloud with passion, to show how it should be done.

Ford was transfixed.

"I realized I wanted to get her on tape," he said. "I wanted to get her on film."

He did.

A 20-minute video about his book premiers Tuesday in Bellingham. Freeman narrates the video, which features readings by Dee and by Roscoe Orman, another SonEdna board member who's best known as Gordon on "Sesame Street," and by Swil Kanim, the Lummi actor, storyteller and violinist who starred in Sherman Alexie's movie "The Business of Fancydancing."

But I'm getting ahead of the story. Go back a few years to when Ford issued "Precious Cargo" through a small press.

He has written several nautical mysteries. "Precious Cargo" follows the investigation that begins after a boat anchor snags the body of a young woman on the floor of Puget Sound.

When Ford first released the novel, he also floated the idea of a video to accompany it. Vanguard Press, a New York publisher exploring innovative ways to market books, took the bait.

At first Ford presumed the video would just have celebrity readings from the book. Then Freeman was brought in to narrate the video.

Hand Crank Films in Bellingham was hired to film Kanim and Ford and to shoot some background scenes. Max Kaiser, Hand Crank's founder, suggested the idea of filming scenes from the novel to accompany the readings. Everyone went for his idea.

Local actors appear in the scenes, local companies provided equipment and expertise, and local families loaned boats.

"It takes a village to create a project like this," Ford said. "It's like having a Hollywood studio in your backyard."

The video isn't a movie version of the book. The actors don't speak; the readings are from the novel, not a screenplay. Kaiser described the filmed scenes as "impressionistic."

"It's more a look of what it might look like," he said.

Why all the bother? Because many young people are more likely to watch a movie, video or computer game than to read a book, Ford said.

He plans to show the video when he promotes the novel at book events and boat shows. More important, he plans to show it to youngsters when he speaks at schools.

"We're in danger of losing a generation of potential readers," Ford said. "I wanted to show that a book was every bit as engaging as a film."

Recording artists got a boost when MTV began showcasing music videos, and movie trailers are a common feature online and in theaters.

Publishers, generally a traditional bunch, are just now exploring new ways to tell the world about their books.

A handful of publishers have issued "VidLits" - short, often-animated book trailers for Web audiences. Ford said his 20-minute video is the first of its kind in the book world.

"I knew we could do something a lot better," he said. "You've got to use the new media at its best, not at the entry-level."

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