By Rachel Chaikof
Second-year student Michael Cooke talks about his venture into filmmaking
Mike Cooke, a second-year broadcast design student has had many achievements, including having filmed and edited an hour long documentary movie, “Hustle101,” and being an artistic director for a dance Web site called www.doyodance.com.
You filmed and edited an hour long documentary movie, “Hustle101,” which is being distributed nationwide in a DVD form. Could you talk about your experiences in working on this project?
This was a learning experience if anything. It taught me so much about networking, film and composition skills, right up to money managing, marketing and effective propaganda. First off, “Hustle101” follows the lives of four different college party promotions teams that are based in the AUC. [Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta] The concept is that these 19 and 20-year old kids are making anywhere from 10,000-30,000 dollars a night off of parties. We tell their stories and expose a world of unseen drama, backstabbing and psychological mind games that take place behind the parties that you attend.
I started filming this movie right out of high school and on up into my first quarter [winter quarter] at SCAD. I was forced to think on my feet and see how to balance SCAD work and outside filming projects, which wasn’t easy. I was also forced to develop networking skills, and communication with people who I would have to keep a prolonged business relationship with. I wasn’t used to just being a graduating senior. This movie gave me time to develop my filming craft. Since it was my project, any mess ups were on me, and not on, say, a client who hired me.
That being said, I could learn from my mistakes and effectively fix them. Marketing our project was
something of a big task. That’s where my business partner really stepped in, Donte Murry, who’s a
senior at Morehouse. Together we built a grass roots marketing campaign revolving around Myspace and Facebook to spread the word about “Hustle101” since we didn’t have much of a budget.
What accolades did you receive regarding ”Hustle101”?
We received praise from anyone who even heard of our project, and not to mention the write-ups in
numerous publications talking about “Hustle101,” just to name a few — AUC magazine, The Source, Rolling Out, and Creative Loafing.
Besides being a successful movie producer, you’re also an artistic director for a dance Web site called www.doyodance.com. Could you talk about your experiences in being an artistic director and what successes you’ve had?
With doyodance.com it is a small team of myself and three other gentleman who run the server and deal with the marking, I myself pretty much give the final input on anything creative that takes place on the site. From filming most of the dance performances that we attend, to impromptu photo shoots of doyodance fans.
What other projects have you done besides being a filmmaker and an artistic director?
Currently I work for the RAWREPORT. It’s a DVD hip-hop magazine based out of Atlanta. I do a lot of editing and film work for them. Other than that I bide my time with SCAD work and photo shoots for different models.
What are your goals after you graduate from SCAD?
I hope to take what I’ve learned in and out of SCAD and use it to create a successful film career where I’m producing and directing big name blockbuster titles.
