Where Does Creativity Come From?

In an awesome coincidence, I'm posting two John Cleese videos back to back several days apart...

I had a mentor once tell me that if you want to learn how to do something, learn from someone who is great at what you're wanting to learn. There aren't many more creative people than John Cleese, so the opportunity to listen to him discuss where creativity comes from is pure gold...

Quote of the Day

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people."


-Steve Jobs

Chasing Cane

This past weekend I had a great experience that I'd like to share. First - the back story...

Last year, a friend from college, Roy S. Ford, self-produced a short film called "Chasing Cane: At What Cost." It was the first of a four-part series of short films, and it actually won some awards on the film festival circuit.

A few months ago, Roy announced on Facebook that he was preparing to shoot parts three and four of the story. Directing is something I want to do eventually on a more serious level. I've directed commercials and television segments and even some short films with the kids for fun, but I want eventually to work on some HD projects, some short films and some longer films. So I e-mailed Roy and asked him if it would be okay if I came out to the shoot to watch him work. He graciously agreed, and even said I could bring my camera along to shoot some behind the scenes shots. He said he would be shooting on a DSLR camera, so I was particularly interested in seeing his setup and what he did. The shoot was broken up into four days - I missed the first two day because I was at a conference in Chicago, but I would be able to make the last two days of shooting.

On Saturday morning, I drove out to the Woodlands for day three of the shoot. He would be shooting scenes from both parts three and four of the films. Everything was very professional. He had plenty of lights - even though he only used a couple. He had a boom mic and an operator, a makeup artist and a detailed shot sheet. He was using real actors - not just friends or relatives or people he pulled off the street. And the best part of the day was that I got to meet some really, really nice people. Everyone was great!

So throughout the day, I clicked away during rehearsals and in between shots (I didn't want to bust a shot with the clicking sounds of my shutter). And I even got to jump in and work with the crew on lighting and as a grip. I did some camera work on a couple of scenes that Roy was in because he was shooting with a Canon 60D, which is the very camera model that I use at work and shot all the footage for an internal documentary with.

On Sunday, the shoot continued with some exterior scenes and a couple of really emotional scenes inside a house. The actors did such a great job, and it was very moving to watch them work and get into their characters. And when it was all done at about 10:30 Sunday night, it was a wrap on Chasing Cane. I'll post again here when there are more details on when more of the series will be released.

I had a really fun, really interesting and (most importantly) really educational couple of days. I genuinely enjoyed watching Roy work and direct with a very gentle style, but yet with a very forceful vision.

These are some of my favorite shots that I took on the shoot. You can see the entire set on Flickr here.

Final Cut Pro X - or - How I'm Going to Spend $300 in June

I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a software release. I have got to have this piece of software. I literally laughed out loud with joy at the color correction tool segment at about 15:36 in the second video.





After watching this video yesterday, editing with the current version of Final Cut this morning was somewhat of a disappointment, especially when I had a couple of sync issues and needed to do some quick trial fades on the fly. And the ability to mix types of video with resolution independence is going to be amazing. I've been doing a mix of 720p and DV for awhile now with disappointing results and looooooong render times. Background rendering is going to be much appreciated.

There may be a learning curve, but whatever it is, I'm sure it will be worth it.

Adobe Greedivity Suite 5.5

From Download Squad:

Rejoice! No longer will you have to fork over $700 for a Photoshop CS5 license! Adobe has unveiled a new subscription scheme where you can rent the entire Creative Suite, or individual packages, by the month, or for an entire year.

Adobe Photoshop can be yours for $35 per month if you agree to rent it for 12 months, or $49 per month if you require its services for a shorter period. Dreamweaver can be had for even cheaper, at just $19 per month. The entire Master Collection is still rather expensive, though, at $125 per month.

The three products I use most often are Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. If I were to rent them on a subscription basis yearly instead of buying them, it would cost me over $1100 a year. The upgrade price is only $550.

How stupid does Adobe think we are? We may be artists, but we can do some math.

Sheesh.

The Difference is that No One Is Going To Die From Bad Creative

From AdAge:

Take a look around the room at your next gathering of professionals. Each of the following is classified as a "professional" based on experience, education, certifications and credentials.

Lawyer: college + law school + a little thing called "The Bar"
Architect: college + apprenticeship + test for licensing
Doctor: college + med school + internship + residency + lots of tests

Now, let's take a look at the training, testing and certification of an account executive, graphic designer or other agency professional. (I will pause for a moment so you can imagine the sounds of crickets breaking the silence.) Yep. All you need to call yourself an art director or copywriter is a computer, phone and a copy of "place any do-it-yourself marketing book here."
Even Realtors and interior designers require testing and certifications to practice their trade, and it just seems wrong that our industry does not require the same amount of quality control. In the end, I guess the question we need to answer should be, "Is what we do important?" How can we expect clients to respect us if we don't even take our industry seriously enough to insist on testing and licensing?

What about continuing education? Yoga teachers and speech pathologists are but a few of the professionals that are required to attend continuing-education classes to maintain their licenses. Yet advertising and marketing professionals have no such requirement. I don't think the human body has changed nearly as much as our industry in the past 10 years.

Right vs. Left

Thanks to Sherri for sending this, even though she has no clue where she got it from.

"Goofing Off" Often Leads To The Best Ideas

From Harvard Business Publishing:

In an early episode of the excellent TV series Mad Men, agency partner Roger Sterling walks into creative director Don Draper's office to find Don gazing off into space.

"I'll never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like you're doing nothing," Sterling quips.

Sterling should take comfort in the fact that our best creative work is done in times of reflection and idleness. Studies have shown that the wandering mind is more likely to have a "Eureka!" moment of clarity and creativity. Taking breaks and zoning out from everyday tasks gives our brains time to do a kind of long-term, big-picture thinking that immediate engagement with bosses and clients and email and meetings does not.

I've been trying to explain this to my boss for years to no avail. People who aren't creatives just don't get it. But its absolutely true.

Procter & Gamble Manages to Piss Off the Entire Production Community

Procter & Gamble, in an effort to save money and streamline its production timeline instituted a "Preferred Vendor" program, forcing its companies and agencies to use a set of around 30 production facilities, rather than the 125 or so that they used last year. And they want deep discounts, naturally, with no guarantee that just because a production house is preferred vendor that they'll see any work at all.

The entire production and creative community is up in arms over the policy. The quote that sums up the whole situation is this, from an unnamed producer:

"If Nike calls me up, which probably does one-tenth the advertising of P&G, I'm more likely to give Nike a deal despite the lower volume because they do better work," says one production company exec. "I don't sell products, I sell directors. So my product's only viable if they do good work. Why am I going to give someone a deal for work that's not going to do anything for my reel or my brand? It would just be for the money, and if it's just for the money, why am I giving them a big discount?"

Exactly.

via Creativity Magazine.

Fun with sheep