PMVeltri

Measuring Tape Girl : The Self Esteem Workshop

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:26:09 -0400

Measuring Tape Girl will be going to schools in the local area and performing for 15 minutes. After the performance Measuring Tape Girl will be talking to the students about self-esteem and self-images issues. If you or anyone you know might be interested in having Measuring Tape Girl come to your school please contact pmveltri@gmail.com or measuringtapegirl@gmail.com

The Films of the 1940’s

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:12:31 -0400

I have grown tired of sequels and explosions so I’ve gone backwards. Decade by decade, I’m traveling back in time to learn from the films of the past. If you have ever wondered where the Coen brothers screw ball comedies come from well look no further. They were influenced by the screwball comedies from the 1940’s. In particular the work of writer/director Preston Sturges who was a major influence on the future of filmmaking. Preston Sturges was the first Hollywood scriptwriter to direct his own work. When you have the time take a look at The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan’s Travels (1941) or maybe even Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Preston Sturges, George Cukor, William Wyler, John Ford, Orson Welles, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wellman, Billy Wilder, Hitchcock and the list goes on and on. This may take me some time but it’s always a good idea to look back at the past before you move forward.

Stealing has been re-branded as Sharing

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 13:53:16 -0400

Copyright is dead. I accept it. We live in a digital age where any form of online media can be download in a few minutes. It seems like a force of nature that you can’t question. The sky is blue because it’s blue. You never wonder why the sky is blue. Everyone just accepts it and that’s it. Digital Copyright will always be a few steps behind everyone’s ability to copy, paste and download digital media. When we used to buy things, the things we bought came in a box. It was an object that you had to pay money for. Now that digital media no longer comes in a package, it is much easier for people to think it is something that you don’t have to pay for. In someways it is a generational issue. If you are over thirty you are more likely to have a blue ray or DVD collection. You might even still buy CD’s. When you buy a movie you are interested in having a box and owning an object. There are generations of people who have never had a collection of CD’s or DVDs. It’s much easier for you to disassociated value with a movie or album if it only exists in digital form. Years ago the music industry went though the growing pains of digital locks and legal actions against illegal downloads. Eventually everyone basically gave up on digital locks and legal action because it meant that the content producers were suing the consumers of their products. Surprisingly that didn’t go over so well. The movie industry is now going through the same revolution. Early this year, the Producers of the Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker” filed copyright lawsuits against people who illegally shared the movie on peer-to-peer networks. http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20006314-261.html It seems that no one in the Movie Industry was watching what happened in Music digital file sharing over the last decade. Digital file sharing and any type of illegal downloading is stealing. As a filmmaker it is hard to accept that anyone can just download a film that took you several years of your life to finish. Especially when you really haven’t made much money for it yet. I did few searches and two of the films I’ve made in the last few years can be download illegally on a few different file sharing networks. A film I made last year called ‘A Day in the Life’ has a distributor and it is for sale: http://www.ouatmedia.com//film.php?filmid=9815 If you can download the film for free, then who’s going to pay for it? At the same time, I accept that this is way the world works. After a few days of being upset, I now consider it to be part of the marketing process for the films I make. In the music industry full albums seem to always be put online just weeks before the official release date. Is this due to the demand for the new product or is it a good way to market the release of your new album? Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ album was leaked to the internet two weeks before it’s release date. http://tinyurl.com/2bkhtmv Drake’s new album was leaked online, just before it’s release. http://tinyurl.com/3859c6h Coincidence? I’ve tracked back my “leaks” to some small international festivals. You never really know what film festivals do with the film screeners you send them. I’m not saying any specific film festival did something wrong but one of them must of lost track of some films and then whoever “found” those films, puts them online. I don’t think I’m in a position where I should leak my new film ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ to the Internet. Eventually I can see major film studios leaking blockbuster online a few days before the film is released, for marketing purposes, just as the music industry is doing now. The huge difference is that I’m not Eminem or Drake or a major film studio. I make tiny Canadian short films that are considered successful if you can come close to breaking even. These short films are forms of marketing and having them show up online in file sharing sites is a sign that the marketing is working. It still does not feel right. I accept it and will call it marketing. As a small Canadian Filmmaker you juggle with bankruptcy after most productions until you see a return on your investment. It is very difficult to make any money on any form of digital media when everyone can just share it with each other and not pay. We are sharing movies, music and digital media with our friends. Sharing has become a new political correct term that makes everyone believe stealing digital media is okay. There are generations of people stealing digital media and there are generations of people to come who will never consider peer to peer sharing of digital files to be stealing. Stealing has been re-branded as sharing. All we can do is adapt and continue to make films. All we can do is accept simple truths. The sky is blue because light tend to bend towards the blue spectrum as it travels through water vapor in the sky. We steal movies, music and digital media because we don’t consider to be stealing.

Magazine Articles and Self-Esteem Workshops

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:06:31 -0400

An article on our adventure at Cannes appeared in View Magazine and Good Life magazine this month. Special thanks to Heather Brissenden and Steve Uhraney for making me look good. Please go and check out some of Steve's photographs at: http://www.stephen-uhraney.com.temp.livebooks.com/
I had forgotten about this article because the interview was done at the beginning of May. Someone emailed me about the article and I got scared and a little nervous. The press from the Cannes Festival has died down and I was not really ready to see pictures of myself again. It's strange how these self-image issues never leave you. I've been pretending that someone else was in those photographs and that it was someone else was in the video clips. Measuring Tape Girl is about self-esteem issues, coming to terms with who you are and accepting yourself. I think I've accepted myself and come to terms with images of me existing but it's easy to fall back into old habits. It's easy to become uncomfortable with yourself again. The main reason for all these crazy publicity stunts was to force myself out of hiding and to move beyond my self-images issues. I'm not to sure it worked.
We're starting a new project called the Self-Esteem Workshops. Measuring Tape Girl will be going to local schools and performing for 10 or 15 minutes. After the performance we talk to the students about self-esteem issues and about accepting yourself for who you are. Hopefully this process will help students start a dialogue with their teachers and with themselves about self-images issues. Maybe I'll learn something too.

Everyone is a Media Channel

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:40:58 -0400

We all broadcast our lives to the internet. We all do it to varying degrees but everyone does it. Our lives are sent out to the world with tweets, blogs, facebook posts, youtube videos and the list goes on and on. At this point privacy is dead. I don’t know if we should blame Paris Hilton or the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. This new openness is wonderful in some ways but confusing in others. It’s wonderful to connect and share information and videos but at what point does personal branding cross the line and become corporate? When do we fall into the same corporate traps of trying to stay on message. When personal anecdotes sound more like talking points you memorize for interviews; it may be time to give your head a good shaking. Warhol’s prediction that we would all be famous for 15 minutes has come true but in a warped way. 15 minutes has become 1 to 15 seconds. This pseudo fame has been transformed into an online whisper that others can choose to listen to or they can tune out in an instant. The biggest issue with online pseudo fame is that most young people don’t understand the difference between their real life and their online life. We have become our own online avatars. My current marketing bible ‘Six Pixels of Separation’ by Mitch Joel simples tells us that ‘You are Media’. You provide the content for the internet, you are the media. I’ve avoided a Youtube channel for sometime because I didn’t want to have people go to Youtube and not visit my webpage but at the same time I’ve been uploading things to a youtube channel that has no name or direct connection to me. Mr. Marketing, Mitch Joel, tells us to ‘Embrace your digital footprint’. Over the next few months I will make an effort to embrace my digital footprint and take ownership of all my digital channels. There is no privacy in Personal Branding. You are transparent and there is no where to hide. I’ve stop hiding but I’m not as transparent as I should be. Channel after channel of online content must connect back and forth to all other channels. These online channels loop back and forth, allowing people to follow the trail in any direction they choose. Broadcasting your life over the internet and trying to retain some privacy can be a bit like walking a tight rope. At this point I give up my privacy. I surrender. I’m not going to start posting my PIN Numbers and passwords just yet but I now accept the simple truth that Everyone is a media channel.