In the last two years since Sun Night was released, the book has received numerous reviews that I felt were important to share with my audience. While the full reviews are available on the web site at sunnightbook.com, I also wanted to share the reviews in a short video format using imagery inspired by the book. I partnered with award-winning filmmaker Iain Carson to put these three book review videos together. I knew that Iain would take my storyboard ideas to a higher level of quality than I could ever imagine in film. After all, he is an expert in film storytelling.
Each video starts the way Sun Night begins. There is a background of gray clouds and the first words of the book appear on the screen: “When I was a child, I saw clouds in the bedroom ceiling. I saw them. I did.”
The next scene is of two boys running on a beach while award recognition laurels appear below them. That scene in particular is very special to me because it represents my brother and I playing at the beach in Santa Clara, Panama, where we would go on summer vacations, and part of the story in the book. Next, comes the individual review which appears next to the book cover art which is then followed by the call to action. While all the videos start the same way, each one shows a different book review in the second half.
My wish was for the videos to feel like a preview for an upcoming film accompanied with an uplifting score appropriately called “Sunset Hues” by Swan Productions. The magic is in the details and Iain enhanced the moving visuals with unique and special touches that included fade transitions, breeze, seagulls and ocean wave sound effects, and magic dust visual effects as seen on the second half of the video. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to see the videos put together at last, a dream I had since the book was released in 2018. I have deployed the videos on social media platforms as a way to bring awareness of the book availability in different languages and online stores globally. Enjoy.
