arterialwitness

American Fever: A Tale of Romance & Pestilence

The winner of Arterial Witness’ $1,000 contest to make the best video about American Fever: A Tale of Romance & Pestilence will be announced in New York City in September.  (We are still welcoming videos and will be delighted to post them and consider them for non-cash honors.) Each of the contending videos (watch them here) is set to an exciting 70‐second soundtrack created by Gang of Four’s legendary guitarist, composer, and producer Andy Gill. (Listen to his American Fever Track and read what Filmmaker Magazine says about the contest.) Honors will be accorded all distinguished entries, as explained below. Some will frighten; others might amuse.

Andy Gill

Andy Gill is a founding member and guitarist for British rock group Gang of Four, considered one of the most influential bands since the mid‐1970s. (Entertainment!, the band’s first album, lists at No. 490 in Rolling Stone‘s 500 greatest albums of all time.) Gill produced much of Gang of Four’s output, as well as albums for such artists as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Jesus Lizard, the Stranglers, the Futureheads, Michael Hutchence and Bono, Killing Joke,Therapy?, and the Young Knives. His songs have appeared in The Karate Kid, Dogs in Space, The Manchurian Candidate, and Marie Antoinette, and he has written movie scores for Derek Jarman and Peter Christian Hall (Delinquent), plus music for BBC politics programs, Channel 4’s current‐affairs programs, and BBC’s multi-award-winning documentary series, Pandora’s Box. You will be moved by his composition, American Fever.

Peter Christian Hall

The winner of this global contest will be unveiled in September 2012 and will receive US $1,000, a copy of American Fever signed by composer Gill and author Peter Christian Hall, and professional credit for having created American Fever’s official video, which will circulate widely.

Arterial Witness is still accepting videos that can no longer win the grand cash prize but stand out in a distinctive and welcome fashion. Such categories might include scariest video, funniest video, most P.K. Dick‐like video, most‐viewed entry, and so forth. We could feature these works in various ways, always giving credit to the creators. Surprise us!

How do you make a video for a book? Start by reading it. While American Fever is commercially available in print and ebook versions, you needn’t pay. A fully linked, illustrated version is posted online at AmericanFeverBook.com. We suggest you become familiar with this East Village blogger’s vivid view of an H5N1 avian flu pandemic that rocks America and unleashes chaos and repression—even as his personal life explodes with promise. Enjoy!

Entries could present something so simple as an evolving motif or something as complex as animation that hits the plot’s key points, as presented in American Fever‘s synopsis. The book review texts provided on the download page can help make the novel seem like a compelling read. There is no single way to present a book visually. Contestants who need more time to present images can pause the music, perhaps even repeat a section. A passage or two of text from the blog novel might come in handy. We think the book trailer is a strange, hybrid form that needs fresh approaches. We don’t wish to tell you what will work because we expect that some of you will think of things we haven’t thought of. We encourage this!

You may enter as many videos as you like. To participate, you need to download three items from this site:

• An MP3 of Andy Gill’s fierce, 70‐second track, American Fever
• Four sets of review quotes that must appear somewhere in the video—however and wherever you prefer to place them. (We have shortened several, but the originals are fine.)
• An image of American Fever’s cover

Once you have finalized your project, please post it on YouTube as an “American Fever Book Video Trailer.” Be sure to link to American Fever‘s website on the top line of your description. (http://www.americanfeverbook.com/synopsis/) Kindly credit author Peter Christian Hall, composer Andy Gill, and yourself in your post, which should also list the novel’s complete title: American Fever: A Tale of Romance & Pestilence.

Then please visit our Video Submission Page to notify us, including the URL of your YouTube post. You will need to fill out a form that identifies you, assures us that you have the rights to the images you present, assigns us rights to the material, and provides contact information so that we may communicate with the winner.

Each video should include 3 seconds of silence at the end, for a personal message from Peter Christian Hall.

Have questions? We welcome them—and have already consented to accept videos in which the music is interrupted once. Essentially, you may break our rules if you create a video that amazes and compels us. Please contact aw (at) ArterialWitness (dot) com.

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