Living with geeks really lives…really!

Wow! There’s tons of new stuff going on for the project! in work! in life!

…like:
CEO of a regionally top-3 tech firm just confirmed to interview along with her hub; we’ve been talking about that since December;

I’m a contractor for a great education association which in the next few months may include video production (a surprise opportunity)!

SMU honors a very good friend this weekend in Dallas. Friends will converge there this week to celebrate with her. Can’t wait!

I can’t wait to post more footage for Living with Geeks! Tremendous stories await their day!

‘Sup with you?

To you: a valentine & Pink Martini (just press play)

HAPPY VALENTINES.

Video online: think DC Media Makers & think you!

Join us this Thursday for an all out production soiree.

For the bold, the beautiful, & the video-obsessed — click here.

McDreamy & McSteamy interview for ‘Living with Geeks’ ! ! !

HA!

Good pal Sebastian, smart but still a loser for not blogging, makes fun of his wife & me for our almost dignified crushes on the Grey’s Anatomy cast. With his geeked-out wit in stellar form, he wrote this sketch with our crushes & recent ‘geek’ interviewee – Scobleizer – in mind:

-FADE IN-

Jill: So tell me Dr. Scoble

Scoble: Actually, I’m not a doctor. I used to be a Microsoft Technical Evangelist, and now am Vice Pres…

Jill: Just shut up, please. You’re so interrupting my McDreamy sequence right now.

Scoble: Not certain what that refers to, but I thought we were here to talk about serious issues like…

Jill: No, I don’t suppose a geek like you would know about McSteamy and his fantastic abs, would you Scooby? And this is important, thank you very much….[starts humming loudly]

Jill, still humming & ignoring Scoble completely: You’re not here only McDreamy and McSteamy and me…

-FADE OUT-

That’s called mccrushing the mccrush!

Geeks & non-geeks welcome: Podtech to honor vlogosphere with Vloggies

Richard Hall just might win…

at Podtech’s event next week: THE VLOGGIES!

Check out this year’s nominees (& Richard Hall’s competition). -Great ideas & diversity as deep as the web itself.

PROJECT UPDATE:
This past week, I’ve been forcing the Scoble interview to be an independent segment for the project — when there’s just not enough there to do the Scobles or the storyline justice. So instead, some of the footage will be cut into a promo piece (…to better explain the project to prospective interviewees).

Using the web enables your documentary

I so love my project blog even if only my husband & folks read it. …Ok maaaaaybe a wider audience would trip my trigger.

But this blog helps focus & refine direction. Updating it pushes me to conquer that sense of idea-possessiveness e.g. that suffocating angst where ‘no one can have my idea therefore no one can criticize it’. This blog helps move past that self absorption and onto – ideally – gaining useful feedback from readership.

…a way to exchange ideas & grow the project.

Docs Interactive, apart of GWU’s Documentary Center, makes a good point on how a web presence can help spark buzz and awareness for a film project or concept.

I think ‘blog’ is a more current, applicable term for this article’s premise; but I say ‘web’ for this post since the article’s authors rely on that usage. I found the documentary sites referenced in it useful (as well as the emphasis on filmmaker responsibility when finding an audience).

UPDATE:
I interview both Kelly & her geek-spouse early November. The footage should be more well-rounded by portraying spouses independent from and together with their mates.

Reviewing interview footage, rush logs, & Tiger Woods

To documentary fans or golf fans or life fans…: Has anyone seen this documentary on Tiger Woods?

…still making rush logs & treatment ideas for the project’s three un-cut interviews for the project e.g. second one for Kelly (spouse of network engineer), first of Kerry (wife of IT manager), & Maryam (the wife of Scobleizer…who joined his wife for the interview too).

Short-term goals to achieve pre-Thanksgiving are set: make 3 more trailers, cut the Scoble interview as a self-contained segment, & schedule at least 3 to 5 more interviews.

Filmmaker Andy Coon’s tips for film interviews

Thanks Andy for taking time to send these:

1) Never ask a yes or no question
2) Try not to answer your own question when asking it.
3) Best way to get someone to talk is using these…”Tell me ____” “Explain how that made you feel.”
4) Always be silent… You’d be amazed how much information will be revealed in silence. Not too much of course, but never interrupt.

…onward, upward!

Maryam & Robert Scoble interview: the boss, budget, & third character in their marriage

…a symbol for the Scoble interview.

And possibly I’ve reached overkill on ConvergeSouth’s banana pudding served so yummily, divinely, graciously at David Hoggard’s home.

I’m a new gal ‘cuz of it.

But here’s the thing: when making the rush log for the Scobles’ interview this week, it’s clear how much joy, and I mean joy, that stuff brought Robert Scoble. And Maryam. And me.

Despite the Scoble interview being a blast, in auditing it these few days — it’s also revealed how I could better handle my next interview (either with them or anyone else).

APPROACH FOR NEXT INTERVIEW

-Keep questions short; suppress prefacing
-make the interviewees feel at ease & natural but don’t over affiliate to the point your (my) remarks interfere with the continuity of their replies.
-don’t interrupt
-fearlessly ask ‘why’

SCOBLE SEGMENT: SUBJECTS THUS FAR
Despite the imperfect direction during the whole thing, the Scoble footage reveals four core, usable subjects for the video cast:

a) their shared affection — it comes across as a third character in their relationship e.g. him, her, & the fondness expressed in their smiles. So it sounds like a soupy romance novel. I’m tellin’ ya, the truth shines through;
b) who the boss is;
c) if they do or do not stay within their tech-gadget family budget;
d) banana pudding

VISUAL TRANSITIONS
I like their company logo; is it ok to use it briefly during a clip transition?
…shall ponder and research. Using head-shots, images, facts on their blogs appeal to me for introducing them before each subject-driven clip.

The first cut of their interview footage will include three, main transition dividers: HE (with Robert’s photo, # of Scobleizer blog hits daily or monthly or such data); SHE (Maryam’s photo, her crowning day as a featured MSN Spaces blogger); and THEY (their hugging, their company logo…transitioning to the core relationship topics of what it’s like living with King Geek e.g. the Scobleizer).

Dixie Chicks & Barbara Kopple’s documentary “Shut Up and Sing”

In cutting footage, I aspire to convey character & storyline as effectively as Kopple does in the trailer for her new doc Shut Up and Sing.

The story follows the band Dixie Chicks in the wake of their controversial remark made days before the US invaded Iraq (2003).

The trailer conveys a perspective but not so much it seems force fed. And based on Kopple’s previous non-fiction work, one could reasonably expect she’ll handle the free speech issue more directly -vs- offer 90 minutes of anti-Bush redundancy.

Band member Natalie Maines’comment initially embarrassed me & I’m not sure why. She made that highly publicized anti-Bush statement just days before the US went to war. I thought America seemed nervous & uncertain enough without them taking advantage of their popularity to stir-the-pot.

Yet even those well attended by the media have rights. And the depicted backlash to their music & well being indicates America forgot the band can speak their mind like the rest of us.

At the time, the Dixie Chicks were performing on a London stage in a city potently filled with anti-Bush opinion. Maybe it’s logical for them (or Natalie…) to have shared their remarks to affiliate with their London audience.

But I think Natalie’s remark hit me the way it did at first because as American celebrities, it was an easy shot to make from across the Atlantic. But was it just an off-hand comment to bond with the Brits? Or was it more ulterior with hopes for increasing focus on their tour? Or was it their (or singer Natalie Maines’) true political voice chiming through with the confidence of free speech behind it?

I’m compelled to see the film.