Submarine Channel

Animated e-book trailer for Den Tex’ thriller ‘Friend’

Submarine Channel produces 4 animated trailers for e-books by the acclaimed Dutch thriller author Charles Den Tex. Each trailer explores a different animation style or technique, and is made by a young and up-and-coming Dutch illustrator.

Watch it here: devriend.submarinechannel.com

Third in the series of four book trailers was illustrated and animated by Aimee de Jongh for Charles den Tex’ action thriller De Vriend (Friend). De Jongh’s dark and atmospheric trailer perfectly captures the confusion and paranoia of the main character, Emma’s predicament. Den Tex wrote the script for the trailer. Creative coding was done by Sub’s dev Gijs Kattenberg. Like De Erfgenaam (the Heir) before it, this book trailer uses the Skrollr technique. (Scroll down for bios of the artists).

Premise of ‘Friend’ (2012)
Emma is a Croatian interpretor who works for the Amsterdam criminal investigation office, spending many lonely nights listening in on a group of shady men who are suspected of planning a terrorist attack. When a new guy enters the group, Emma instantly recognizes the voice of her Croatian boyfriend. Confused and bewildered, Emmy attempts to conceal her discovery from the police. But they find out and soon after Emma’s entire world is turned upside down. The plot thickens in this paranoia-inducing page turner as the hunter becomes the hunted.
Order the e-book

The fourth and last e-book trailer will be made by 21-y.o. illustrator Mickey Cohen. Check back for that in June.

Book trailer event @ EYE
We’re shining the Super Trouper spotlight on the book trailer phenomenon some more during a special book trailer event/screening at the EYE film museum in Amsterdam on July 27 (buying tickets online is not enabled yet. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed, or email us).

Aimée de Jongh (1988)
A Dutch animator and illustrator who draws inspiration from Japanese and European comics. Aimée studied animation at the Willem de Kooning art academy in Rotterdam. She only graduated in 2011, but has already made a lasting impression with her work in the Low Countries. Her debut animated short ‘Aurora’ [Vimeo: teaser] –a beautiful and dark animated folk tale– screened countrywide at Pathé theaters before the main feature as part of the Ultrakort! project. Aimée created animations for SchoolTV, and made a animated book trailer for the popular Dutch daily talk show DWDD. Most Dutchies will know her from ‘Snippers‘ – her daily cartoon in Metro (circulation: 500+K). Her work was exhibited in Oslo, Leuven and Amsterdam.

Charles den Tex (1952)
Holland’s most acclaimed and most awarded thriller writer (critics have called him the Dutch John Grisham), studied film and photography in London in the 1970s before moving to Paris, where he tried to teach the French some English. He finally settled down in The Hague, where he started working as a copywriter and a communication expert. Charles’ true calling didn’t find him until the mid 1990s, when his first novel was published. Since then he has published twelve thrillers, creating the sub genre of the corporate thriller. Eight of Den Tex’ novels were nominated for a Gouden Strop –the award for best thriller in the Dutch language– winning in 2002, 2006, and again in 2008 with CEL (e-book trailer). CEL was also released as a feature film in 2012. Den Tex is involved in a new and, as of yet undisclosed transmedia project by Submarine. More to be revealed about that some other time, Batman.

Related
e-book trailer CEL
e-book trailer De Erfgenaam
Top 5: Animated Book Trailers
Top 5: Hilarious Book Trailers

Submarine Channel
Submarine Channel is a media lab that explores new technologies to tell stories in visually exciting, multiple format-friendly ways. So what does that mean, in practise? Means we create narrative projects, such as motion comics, online narrative games, web documentaries, and editorial projects for the web and mobile platforms. Smaller projects that are relatively quick to produce, like these trailers, are a great way for us to play around with the possibilities of new animation techniques and software. And working with talented newcomers is what makes these little projects a lot of fun!