The US Embassy in Thailand should be more helpful to US citizens living in Thailand. Our US Embassies around the world caters to to US businesses who wishes to due business in foreign countries.
If I may, you don't need the photos of De Niro or Niven or the mean streets. You don't need to mention Scorsese. That stuff doesn't add anything and distracts the audience from the story you're trying to tell. Ditto text lines like "Taiwan." It makes no difference to your story whether the guy went on to China or Taiwan. You're telling a story about explosive diarrhea in a stranger's bathroom. The awkwardness. The shame. The stench. Where the guy's next job was has nothing to do with that. And so what if somebody Googles the guy and says in the comment section, "Hey! You got it wrong!" That guy is going to be your most loyal viewer because he got to call you out and you thanked him for his comment. The text just pulls the viewer out of your story. What makes your presentation unique (at least in this genre) is that you tell the stories in one take. That's awesome. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody else doing that in Thailand. So don't cut away to photos of movie stars. Just tell your story into the camera and focus on narrative technique. For instance, pick a cause for the diarrhea: was it the chilies or was it food poisoning? Pick one. Doesn't matter which one you pick, both work for the story. But saying it was both makes the listener pause and say, "Huh?" Then use the reception line to build tension. "I shook hands with the head of my section and the pressure was building. I said "Hello" to the guy from the State Department and he gave me an odd look because he heard the noises coming from my belly. There was a Buddha shrine on the wall over the head of the cultural attaché and I said a silent prayer asking for strength. By the time I got to the ambassador's wife the pain and pressure were making my eyes water. She said "Welcome to Thailand" and in desperation I blurted out..." That's the good part of the story. Take your audience there as quickly as you can, but while you're on the way describe the room. Fancy? You bet. Big? Not big enough for the size of the crowd, everybody was in suits and the farang were all sweating like pigs. There was a floor fan by the kitchen door that did nothing to relieve the heat. It was my third day in country; I'd never experienced heat like this. The Thais had been practicing the appropriate smile for this occasion since childhood; they were having a great time. They love a chance to show off their official smiles." Take us to that room and stay in that room, in that moment, and leave the descriptions of the mean streets of Manhattan to those guys telling stories about New York. Just my two cents. The bottom line is keep doing what you're doing. Your future biographers, who will watch this video twenty times a hundred years from now, will thank you.
Steve, thanks for your comment. Sounds like you know how to tell a story. I suggest you try making a TH-cam video with your own stories - it ain't easy. If you already do please leave a link. Check out this to help you begin. th-cam.com/video/aB0TlsnkY6E/w-d-xo.html BTW, have you seen the movie Mean Streets? It depicts exactly where I grew up and I used it to juxtapose my life then with meeting a U.S. Ambassador - different worlds, and it is rare for a boy from the "Mean Streets" to ever make it out; Johnny Boy never did. Also btw, we add text sometimes when we made a mistake and to correct it (and can't go back and reshoot it). I said China but should have said Taiwan; we didn't have an ambassador to the PRC back then. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I have more stories to tell. Stay tuned.
@@hughleong2560 I attended graduate school in the Creative Nonfiction program at the University of Iowa, but before I did that I had a very popular column in The Nation for five years, and tens of thousands of people in this Kingdom would begin their Sunday by checking to see what story Steve Rosse was telling this week. My face once adorned a billboard over Sukhumvit. I've published five books about this Kingdom, I've got a hundred videos on my own channel, a dozen long-form interviews on other people's channels, and I appear every week on Grumpy Old Men on Tim Newton's channel. I'm trying to help you because the monologue form is what I know best. I reassert that your youth in New York, your feelings about certain movies, all belong in another video; they have nothing to do with the story you're trying to tell. They are speed bumps in the audience's journey. And you misspoke in a sidebar about the Ambassador's career, not at all worth the distraction of that word of text at the bottom of the screen. Just tryin' to help, but you do you, Dude. Carry on.
Your stories never disappoint. Thanks for sharing.
The US Embassy in Thailand should be more helpful to US citizens living in Thailand. Our US Embassies around the world caters to to US businesses who wishes to due business in foreign countries.
Embassies are how governments talk to each other. Consulates help citizens abroad. Two different offices.
If I may, you don't need the photos of De Niro or Niven or the mean streets. You don't need to mention Scorsese. That stuff doesn't add anything and distracts the audience from the story you're trying to tell. Ditto text lines like "Taiwan." It makes no difference to your story whether the guy went on to China or Taiwan. You're telling a story about explosive diarrhea in a stranger's bathroom. The awkwardness. The shame. The stench. Where the guy's next job was has nothing to do with that. And so what if somebody Googles the guy and says in the comment section, "Hey! You got it wrong!" That guy is going to be your most loyal viewer because he got to call you out and you thanked him for his comment. The text just pulls the viewer out of your story. What makes your presentation unique (at least in this genre) is that you tell the stories in one take. That's awesome. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody else doing that in Thailand. So don't cut away to photos of movie stars. Just tell your story into the camera and focus on narrative technique. For instance, pick a cause for the diarrhea: was it the chilies or was it food poisoning? Pick one. Doesn't matter which one you pick, both work for the story. But saying it was both makes the listener pause and say, "Huh?" Then use the reception line to build tension. "I shook hands with the head of my section and the pressure was building. I said "Hello" to the guy from the State Department and he gave me an odd look because he heard the noises coming from my belly. There was a Buddha shrine on the wall over the head of the cultural attaché and I said a silent prayer asking for strength. By the time I got to the ambassador's wife the pain and pressure were making my eyes water. She said "Welcome to Thailand" and in desperation I blurted out..." That's the good part of the story. Take your audience there as quickly as you can, but while you're on the way describe the room. Fancy? You bet. Big? Not big enough for the size of the crowd, everybody was in suits and the farang were all sweating like pigs. There was a floor fan by the kitchen door that did nothing to relieve the heat. It was my third day in country; I'd never experienced heat like this. The Thais had been practicing the appropriate smile for this occasion since childhood; they were having a great time. They love a chance to show off their official smiles." Take us to that room and stay in that room, in that moment, and leave the descriptions of the mean streets of Manhattan to those guys telling stories about New York. Just my two cents. The bottom line is keep doing what you're doing. Your future biographers, who will watch this video twenty times a hundred years from now, will thank you.
Steve, thanks for your comment. Sounds like you know how to tell a story. I suggest you try making a TH-cam video with your own stories - it ain't easy. If you already do please leave a link. Check out this to help you begin. th-cam.com/video/aB0TlsnkY6E/w-d-xo.html BTW, have you seen the movie Mean Streets? It depicts exactly where I grew up and I used it to juxtapose my life then with meeting a U.S. Ambassador - different worlds, and it is rare for a boy from the "Mean Streets" to ever make it out; Johnny Boy never did. Also btw, we add text sometimes when we made a mistake and to correct it (and can't go back and reshoot it). I said China but should have said Taiwan; we didn't have an ambassador to the PRC back then. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I have more stories to tell. Stay tuned.
@@hughleong2560 I attended graduate school in the Creative Nonfiction program at the University of Iowa, but before I did that I had a very popular column in The Nation for five years, and tens of thousands of people in this Kingdom would begin their Sunday by checking to see what story Steve Rosse was telling this week. My face once adorned a billboard over Sukhumvit. I've published five books about this Kingdom, I've got a hundred videos on my own channel, a dozen long-form interviews on other people's channels, and I appear every week on Grumpy Old Men on Tim Newton's channel. I'm trying to help you because the monologue form is what I know best. I reassert that your youth in New York, your feelings about certain movies, all belong in another video; they have nothing to do with the story you're trying to tell. They are speed bumps in the audience's journey. And you misspoke in a sidebar about the Ambassador's career, not at all worth the distraction of that word of text at the bottom of the screen. Just tryin' to help, but you do you, Dude. Carry on.