Michael Verdi

3 Comments

1. Anonymous
   Posted November 24, 2004 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

   Michael,

   I’ve read your comments on the project and sense a lot of self-doubt about being successful (I struggle with the same feelings). What I have found is that success usually occurs in a location where you are not looking. When I first met you, I saw a very talented person with great potential. Your knowledge of MAC is outstanding and your commitment to projects is wonderful.

   There is a psychological theory that what you think – you become. So, if you think you won’t succeed – you’re correct and you set yourself up and give yourself permission – making it ok to throw negative rocks in the basket that you have to carry in your mind. I would (and I’m preaching to myself as well) suggest is that all of your writing on the web chronicle, in your journal, and in your screen plays be from a positive “I can” perspective. In other words, as Bambi’s mom said, “If you can’t say anything nice – don’t say anything at all.” I say, “If you can’t think anything nice about yourself – don’t think or write anything at all.” It’s hard to do. You can say: I encountered this challenge and developed this solution …

   Now for the video.

   1. Opening is a little rough. It doesn’t tell us (from the speech model of tell’m what you’re going to tell’m, tell’m, and tell’m what you told’m) what the STORY is about and where we are going – it just starts. What does “What time is it” do for the rest of the story – goes no where. “What time is it?” – could have become the theme – how she spends her time. Segments: Time with … Dad in the morning, Time with …her favorite stuff, Time with … Bears, Time with… , etc. This would form a picture frame around what looks like a documentary personality profile but is just floats along like a raft on a stream with out any particular direction than going with the flow. The piece could then have ended with Time to go …

   2. Today’s style uses a lot of jump cuts – the brain sees a jump cut and has to reposition or regroup itself. This is a valuable loss of time and I question the validity of that style except when one is trying to portray a fractured visual representation of a program with lots of flash backs, forwards, around present time. Is the loss of brain processing time vs. the loss of continuity with the message worth it?

   3. On teddy bears, she talks of special bears to her – but split shows a general pan. More powerful if the split captures the essence of the bear – what it means to her so the audience sees and feels her love for the bear. What shots could you have used that express the special feelings for each unique bear?

   4. The edits are rough – since dissolves are difficult on streaming – try cut away shots that relate to the subject. Jump cuts denote or tell the audience that something harsh or cold is in the personality of the subject on the screen. She is the opposite of harsh and cold – so what can be done to soften the transitions and support her personality.

   5. How much did you script on this project? Looks like you semi-scripted the segment ideas and constructed some trigger questions. If you did this – this is really good. It’s the foundation of doing more in-depth story telling. Writing a screenplay is a monumental undertaking – hard to start writing ‘cause you have to keep so much in your head. Writing semi-scripts (Major storyboard segments) lets you play with the story concept and move the elements around until you have a skeleton that can be fleshed out with more details.

   6. Where are your credits? copyright notice? Contact information? If someone sees this and likes it – how do they contact you. I know it’s on the web site – but you need to always credit incase someone ships just the movie to someone else.

   7. I like the piece and thought you did a good job of capturing her personality.

   8. When one of the executive producers was here on campus several years ago, she said if you want to get discovered, enter lots of competitions. Get your name out on your work. You want to be exploited by a producer. When they go to competitions, they are looking for that person who can fill a story-line void in their writing staff – someone who can complement their team. Sometimes it’s a full time hire, sometimes it’s for one or two shows.

   Keep positive.

   Our job is to TELL A STORY. What is the story? What talent is in you that makes you unique from all others puts a personal touch on your storytelling.

   Bruce Davis

2. Verdi
   Posted November 25, 2004 at 6:11 pm | Permalink

   Hey Bruce,
   First, thanks for watching the film and taking the time to give me your suggestions. I agree that I should probably put some credits and contact info on the video itself – I’ll start doing that. Also, it may have been better to have close up shots of the bears she was specifically talking about the way I did with her artwork. I didn’t get those shots though.

   Here are my thoughts about why I put it together the way I did. It’s not a narrative piece. There is no plot and I didn’t feel any obligation to edit it like a traditional narrative piece. I feel that if I’d attempted to have her continually change locations and/or repeat answers for a different camera setup I’d lose the sense of her and it would become a piece about the production. For me the thinking behind the jump-cuts is twofold. First, I interviewed her in her room for 40 minutes and needed a way to cut it down to something watchable. Secondly, and for me the really important reason is, it’s a reflection of how I experience her – a comment over breakfast, a glimpse in my rearview mirror, and a flash as poke my head in her room. These are little fragments that reveal her personality to me. I think that’s the way it’s edited and when watched as a whole I think you are left with a good sense of who she is.

   And about the self-doubt. I think I agree with you but my take on it is a little different. My thinking here is to write about how it is for me. Maybe I didn’t get it across but what I’m trying to portray is that, as a human being, I’m always having these thoughts and I make progress and open up the possibility of something out of the ordinary happening when I do what I’m committed to. So it’s like there are thoughts and they pop into my head and then there’s what I do. These two things are separate from one another. I think what is more important is the conversations you have with the people around you which is the idea behind this website. When I was in the Navy, all we did was talk about Navy stuff and my creative output was zero. When I worked at a grocery store we talked about grocery store stuff and I felt like I was going nowhere. Part of this project, besides doing the 5 things, is to change the conversation happening around me. I want a conversation for filmmaking happening all the time.

   So thanks again for your support and for being part of the conversation.

3. Chuck Olsen
   Posted November 29, 2004 at 6:21 pm | Permalink

   You are jumping off a cliff like me… delving into the creative, the need to create and become more of who we are. or something. it’s awesome.