Fair enough, however a lot of research would support the position that addiction helps contribute to people making decisions they normally wouldnt.
Absolutely. When I think of gambling addiction, I think of spending the rent money vs stealing. Maybe that's naive, maybe it's a minor point, and maybe it's not. Maybe it's just that the problem of gambling addiction can be worse than I want to believe. But you are correct, stealing is common with addicts of all kinds, so it's not like the case you present in the documentary is far fetched.
I also agree with Michael being a little lost to begin with...but I would argue that most of us are a little lost at that age.
Oh, definitely. But his walking the earth seems as much to do with his already being lost as it does with his playing poker. However, now that I have seen you express your vision for the film, I think there's a way to mitigate that. (More on that follows.)
But I definitely shared some of the same thought processes with Michael," Ill overdraft...and just win it back." This may be an assumption, but I bet most online players can related to that.
While I'm not that way myself (I readily admit that I'm probably not the "typical" or "normal" gambler) I think you are correct. I've seen it many times myself.
I initially tried to find someone who has experienced the level of loss you describe above, however getting someone willing to share their failures publicly is not an easy task.
No doubt. If I could refer you to someone, I would. Also, you're on a time schedule and with limited resources. It's not like you have the personnel and budget of Frontline to travel the country following this lead and that. (But wouldn't it be cool if you did!)
Michael's story appealed to me for many reasons, and I still stand by his story being one of the focal dichotomy's in my film.
Fair enough, and you've convinced me that it can work and mostly does work with what you've got already. I think the footage of Michael that you have is really good. In fact, you're not going to get footage of many people with nothing just walking along the side of the road. So in terms of visuals, that's priceless.
Visually I also felt it was compelling....compelling enough for me to buy a plane ticket and meet him in the middle of nowhere. The image of a young kid by himself with a few dogs and a cart in the middle of nowhere I felt painted a good picture of what it feels like to go up against the game and lose.
Absolutely. If I were you, that alone would force me to keep Michael in the film even if I had an alternate option. Good decision on buying that plane ticket!
With that said, thank you for your feedback. It will only help me as I eventually work on expanding this story. Keep it coming!
OK, so for me, the film works, except that, as mentioned, Michael already seems a little lost and flighty to me pre-poker, so I have a hard time feeling that poker is really responsible. For Dusty, poker is no doubt responsible, so it would be nice to put the same message across with Michael.
As you mentioned, many of us in college are a little lost and flighty. So this is nothing unique to Michael. But despite being lost, the vast majority of us end up fine. But Michael didn't. So maybe you could introduce some footage that would accomplish the following goals:
(1) College kids doing lost and flighty things. Maybe film a party or two with everyone holding plastic cups, beer bottles, and playing beer pong, etc. Remind the viewer that college kids are a bit all over the map. Maybe film a Monte Carole night showing college kids "gambling", playing cards, etc. Maybe some hidden camera footage of kids playing the
slots. Maybe even other kids playing online poker casually with other friends around. As if it's the most normal thing in the world.
(2) Try to relate Michael as being one of these college kids before things head south. I think this would make Michael seem as "normal" as everyone else before he started playing poker, or even while he is playing poker but before he started having problems with it.
(3) Try to relate Dusty as having been one of these college kids. I don't know if you could do that through photos or recounted stories or whatever.
The goal to this point would be to link Michael with Dusty and with the notion that they both started out the same, as perfectly "normal" college kids doing what college kids do.
If you do that, I think your dichotomy becomes that much stronger. Michale is no longer this kid who was perhaps already lost. Instead, he was a normal college kid just like Dusty, for but for him it went the other way. And that's the extreme dichotomy of poker.
I'm not suggesting that you would necessarily have to make these links before any of your other footage. I just think if you make those links -- basically what you have expressed here in your writing -- at some point, then the film would be much stronger. Then when I see Michael in the middle of nowhere with his dogs (which is great footage), I'm much more inclined to have sympathy and relate the cause of that misfortune more directly to poker.
Well, I hope that's helpful. If others don't see the film the way I do, then of course it will be of limited help. I'm not in film, but in software we use the 80/20 rule: you spend 80% of your time finishing up that last 20% of the project. I would imagine that a film project could turn out the same way!
Good luck to you, and please let us know if you do any further releases so we can check it out!
-Dave
