Gong for West trailer

The New Zealand Book Council’s two-minute stop-motion animated trailer for Whakatane-born Maurice Gee’s 1993 novel Going West has won the Best Big Budget/Big Book House Trailer in the inaugural Moby Awards held by US publisher Melville House in New York on May 2. The “wonderfully animated trailer”, created for the Council by Colenso BBDO, was launched on YouTube in November last year. Auckland-based actor Craig Walsh-Wrightson is the film’s narrator. Melville House publisher and blogger for their accompanying literary site MobyLives, Dennis Johnson founded the awards. Johnson claims he ordered the book almost immediately upon seeing the “surprisingly artful and creative” trailer. It was viewed online more than 725, times, inspired more than 34 tweets on Twitter or blog posts worldwide, and reached number 8 in the Viral Video Chart compiled by Unruly Media. Gee’s most recent publication is The Limping Man (Penguin, 21), the third in the Salt trilogy.