Mike J documentary video

[Old Pit Guy]

I believe the word is smarmy.

[Steve Holmes]

Let's try not to be adversarial here guys. It's very common for folks to do business with people they're friends with/have connections with. No need to nit-pick at stuff like that in my opinion.

[chris perra]

Mehhh..... the vid company is legit and they are great at it.. I was impressed with the vid.. If I had no interactions prior to the vid with Johnston on this forum I'd be.... wow that guy is awesome at what he does... Sadly that didn't happen...

[langmick]

Disingenuous bullshitters have worn my patience thin for their games. I see them a mile away.

[Old Pit Guy]

Let's try not to be adversarial here guys. It's very common for folks to do business with people they're friends with/have connections with. No need to nit-pick at stuff like that in my opinion.

I'm good with it all. I do recall the blusha thread, and that's a bad taste any which way its cut. I think you touched on it before while alluding to marketing and self-promotion, and how like anything else there are good and not so good approaches. Hey, at least he has something real to promote, right? So much of social media comes down to people promoting … selflies or just awful product. I just clicked off a guy who was talking about being a composer/studio musician and when I heard the songs I nearly fell over. There's just this flood of BS now everywhere online … I think it sensitizes people so that when someone who would for all intents be considered legit does or says something that's off the alarms sound.

[Kurtis]

6 figure income. At least thats what I have been told. Sweet figures. Any way you can make a buck. Nothing wrong with that. Just stay humble and never post on any media platform. That pretty much goes for anyone in the limelight. Just do your thing. Don't speak your mind. Just play music. It's not like he needs a publicist and an advisor. It's always best to stay quiet.

Kind of cringed at the video. I'm just old school I guess.

[ced]

Hi guys,

my name is Cedric, I made the short documentary about Mike J. I signed up a little while ago to be an online member on mikeslessons.com, that's how I learned about Mike Johnston's story and decided to approach him with my production company to make a short documentary about his journey.

I am not here to debate or raise the question " is Mike J a good person or not?". If you watched the film, you know what I think anyway, since it was MY project from A to Z, not his. And I just want to make it clear on a couple of things.

At no point we got hired, paid or compensated by Mike J or his business. The idea was ours, we are a young video production company always looking to create good content. When I learned about Mike J, I was fascinated by his journey and I thought it was hitting each key components our company want to highlight: innovate, educate and inspire ( if you go to our website, this is how we present our work: videos to innovate, educate and inspire). I felt that Mikeslessons.com had them all and that is why we approached Mike to make this video. I simply asked "can I film and do your interview?" and he was ok with it. We barely knew each other, I was actually blown away that he gave such a personal interview and trusted the outcome, and he had no idea of what I was doing or what the final docu would be... I filmed him, shot his interview and he simply left it to " Thanks buddy, I hope this works for you and good luck with your project". He never tried to have control over the content or the editing, EVER.
I really liked the final video, and to get the best exposure I figured that it would be ideal if Mike could post the video on his youtube channel.

Again, I don't want to enter the no ending discussion about: is this right or wrong?
The only thing I can tell you is, this project was made out of passion and love for storytelling and great stories. It was at no point a marketing video or an order from Mike J. . You would be wrong if you thought that... It's just a fact. If you don't like the video, fair enough, but don't get it mixed up with that idea.

Hope you guys have a great week and happy drumming!

Ced

[Julián Fernández]

Validation has nothing to do with money imo. I really don´t care if he makes five, six o seven figures...
I do care about people really pursuing their passion and really devoting to the craft.
That´s not the case for most youtube teachers... That vid is way too much for me. The whole "divorced parents", "we are a family" thing really puts me off. :/

[percusski]

Hi guys,

my name is Cedric, I made the short documentary about Mike J. I signed up a little while ago to be an online member on mikeslessons.com, that's how I learned about Mike Johnston's story and decided to approach him with my production company to make a short documentary about his journey.

I am not here to debate or raise the question " is Mike J a good person or not?". If you watched the film, you know what I think anyway, since it was MY project from A to Z, not his. And I just want to make it clear on a couple of things.

At no point we got hired, paid or compensated by Mike J or his business. The idea was ours, we are a young video production company always looking to create good content. When I learned about Mike J, I was fascinated by his journey and I thought it was hitting each key components our company want to highlight: innovate, educate and inspire ( if you go to our website, this is how we present our work: videos to innovate, educate and inspire). I felt that Mikeslessons.com had them all and that is why we approached Mike to make this video. I simply asked "can I film and do your interview?" and he was ok with it. We barely knew each other, I was actually blown away that he gave such a personal interview and trusted the outcome, and he had no idea of what I was doing or what the final docu would be... I filmed him, shot his interview and he simply left it to " Thanks buddy, I hope this works for you and good luck with your project". He never tried to have control over the content or the editing, EVER.
I really liked the final video, and to get the best exposure I figured that it would be ideal if Mike could post the video on his youtube channel.

Again, I don't want to enter the no ending discussion about: is this right or wrong?
The only thing I can tell you is, this project was made out of passion and love for storytelling and great stories. It was at no point a marketing video or an order from Mike J. . You would be wrong if you thought that... It's just a fact. If you don't like the video, fair enough, but don't get it mixed up with that idea.

Hope you guys have a great week and happy drumming!

Ced

Seems like a quid pro quo scenario to me; you wanted to promote your video business, you play the drums and saw an opportunity to maybe win favour with your tutor, and Mike gets to advertise that he was approached by a documentary maker or whatever it was. Why not just sell it as it is, a student of Mike's wants to make a video about him? Anyway the whole thing's quite tiring, the relentless marketing thing...

[Old Pit Guy]

Kind of cringed at the video. I'm just old school I guess.

I didn't finish the video. Not because it was terrible, but I don't at all feel like the subject is deserving of such a work. I realize Mr Johnston is now a product of the Internet, so the whole social media dynamic comes into play. However, it's a weird juxtaposition and a leap for me to go from the Blushda thread here on the one hand, to this produced Disney story on the other. The video chronicles a relatively young subject with a treatment reserved for people who've been around for decades - you basically have to suspend disbelief in order to suck up all the warm and fuzzy. Sorry, but I can't do that because I have a functioning brain. The video is executed adequately, from what I watched, but the concept-treatment is totally wrong in my opinion.