Yesterday I had the all-too-rare privilege of spending a couple hours with an film editor and a music supervisor as we looked for scratch music for some commercials I am helping to create. I don't know how many thousands of commercials these two have put together, but I'm sure the number is stratospheric.
They would find a music track and lay it down roughly against a rough cut and see if it had the right feel.
In kibbitzing around they came up with an evaluation continuum.
On one end--the bad end--was "what were you thinking?" The opposite end was "awesome!"
They would listen to a track and say one or the other.
After about ten minutes of this "meme," they said, something that stuck with me.
"You get about 100 "what were you thinkings" for every "awesome."
And that's what so many project managers, creative directors, account people, clients and agencies forget.
Creation is experimentation.
It's looking at myriad options.
It's playing with dumb ideas until you find something smart.
It's playing with the obvious until you land on the unusual.
It's a thousand mistakes until you find something correct.
There are no shortcuts.
There are no expressways.
There's only "keep trying."
That's the way to make work that works.
2 comments:
So right George. And there is no shortcut. That's what really freaks the beancounters out.
Like I say to the students I talk to, 'the best way to have a great idea is to have 99 awful ones first.'
Or like Beckett said, 'Fail again. Fail better.'
Great post, once again.
Reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPbjSnZnWP0
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