How do you turn on the creative side? (and turn off the logical...)

[David Grauberger]

Hello fellow DPs and filmmakers,


As a DP there is PLENTY of info on the web through research, forums, articles, videos about the technical side of our craft. Sometimes I can be somewhat daunting. There's very little about the creative side. I'm just curious to get others feedback about how you get in the creative space of being a DP? To me, theres a huge pull in our craft to get sucked into the logical/technical side of our job. Why is this? because theres a truckload of info that we need to know as a DP! Resolutions, lighting theory, exposure, camera support, jib operation etc...

I know for me I get absolutely buried in this area. Something tells me this should be barely half of what we as DPs bring to the table. The otherside is the creative. I've noticed that I can't be in both sides in my head at the same time. If I'm in "technical problem solving" mode, I can't feel the story or how the image relates to the story. I'm more robotic at that moment. I've been the happiest with my work when I shut off that side (after I've properly prepped the project technically) and engage the story. Does anyone else feel this way? I'm hoping to get some feedback on how other DPs engage the creative? Do you take pictures? Look at paintings? Walk around the location with an ipod in? Drink wine while reading the story?

I'd love to hear some creative ideas that get your creative juices flowing.

 

[Noel R.]

I know what you mean. It's very easy to get lost in the sea of technicalities.

I recently participated in the 48 hr film festival, mostly out of curiosity. I'm well aware how difficult it is to create a great film in 48 hrs so I didn't set my expectations too high. Towards the end I felt there was so much I could of done to improve the film before we turned it in. I had a conversation with some of the other Filmmakers at the festival about starting our own festival in our local area so that we'd have more time to work on our films and turn out some better material. I asked one person how long should the given time period be to work on the film, two weeks? One month?

Ironically he replied that the more time you give people the less amount of people actually ended up finishing their films. This is when I realized how important setting limitations are for a film. When you have to finish something you are basically forced to complete a project.

The 48 also included a genre you must shoot, and certain elements you must include such as a simple band aid in our case. What this does is that is also sets limitations on the story which helps because we are all very judgmental and want to create the greatest story possible, but when you look at a book full of blank pages you will find yourself rarely satisfied with your work. With these limitations you are not staring at blank pages anymore, now you have some framework to create a story which provokes more thought than staring into thin air.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Drugs? :smiley:

I think, or at least I theorize, that it might come with experience - simply a lot of hours doing it. According to the info in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers there is sort of a magic number of hours dedicated to something before it becomes flow - that number is 10,000. Maybe wehn you have spent enough time absorbing all the tech stuff that you can forget about it, the creative part come to the fore. I'll let you know if it ever happens to me.

 

[Naim Sutherland]

A good crew can help you clear your mind of technical issues and keep focused on the creative. Spending time in pre production reading the script and imagining what you want out of the images is critical. I design a whole look top to bottom from operating style, lighting style, colour palette, everything in pre production. I like to find out what the music is going to be like. Not operating can help sometimes too, you may want to try that out if you usually operate, but are having trouble putting your mind back into that creative spot. Sometimes watching a monitor while things happen can clarify the things you need to do to make it look better.

When it comes to tech survey that's where I get into the technical a bit, and I try to sketch out the lighting I want at each location with my gaffer and key grip (who are of course present on tech survey).

The day is a mix of both, and I agree, sometimes you can go down a technical rabbit hole and you must then consciously focus on getting connected with the scene again.

I have found treating blocking like a creative exploration of the scene is critical. If at all possible and time allows, I do prefer to send absolutely everyone away while the cast, the director and myself work out how to move through a scene. Then we can invite everyone back in and give them a run through and talk over every single place the camera will be through the scene so everyone is aware.

Either way, I have found building that look in pre, setting visual goals and making notes is the best way to stay grounded in your vision when things get a bit hairy on the day. And having a talented crew. I don't worry about anything on the day, I know the guys have everything under control. On tech survey, the gaffer went around and looked for genny drop spots, cable runs, talked out any rigging he'll need with those involved, and just generally handled a bunch of stuff that I was not involved in at all. I'll stay focused on running the day in an intelligent way, and making sure we are inside our goals visually and the director is getting what he needs.

I'm just embarking on my 10th show with my gaffer, and I know I will actually have to say very little to him on the days since we talked things out so thoroughly and we have seen every location and talked out the plan. In those discussions I am constantly reinforcing the look that I built in pre with him by using key words that I want to hit, and practical examples of what the execution will look like. This time we will keep things simple, but elegant, a bit of a departure from some of the complexity we've had lately. We'll use big guns far away for broad strokes. As usual we will seek any excuse for colour contrast, and I will be balancing at 4400k at night, as I often to do to cool HMI and warm tungsten without much work. The PD is on board too, and she'll be accenting naturally warm locations with cooler pale blue pillows, curtains, blankets, etc.

Fully create your vision in pre in the calm before the storm. Stick to it at all times, even when things get crazy. Trust your team. Do less work and have them do more work, and pay them properly... that last one is tricky sometimes, but vital!

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Having been involved in multiple types of creative processes, visual, musical, technological, conceptual, etc. I can confirm that the main principles are similar across many creative disciplines.

The reason there is very little about a creative side is mostly because the creative side of the creative process is very individual, intimate, emotional, hardly quantifiable and very difficult to verbalize adequately.

One can verbalize technical process because technical elements and their relations are definable by words, quantifiable and perceivable by typical senses. Mental and emotional creative processes are beyond words, words come from them. Creative process is dependent on individual emotional depth, sensibility/sensitivity, interpretation and self-analysis, awareness and control, and becomes very confined if put into words. As stuffing an orchestral symphony into a three tone metallic ring tone.

To me, theres a huge pull in our craft to get sucked into the logical/technical side of our job. Why is this?

This is present in many other creative realms as well. You can see it in music too, especially "popular music" where the technical in many cases outshines the essence underneath the surface and one can often experience technically perfect sounding garbage. One can witness the same tendency in many types of "popular" artwork, made by more technical knowledge and less by true inspiration.

One of the tasks of a creative person lies in the challenge to combine the intelligible with the inspirational and emotional in the perfect balance for its creation, so the final artwork portrays in the closest way the felt/envisoned message and brings that emotion to others. With time, mind manages to gather more and more technical data and the technical part falls into subconscious, needs less thinking and serves as a tool for the creative side.

If one strictly follows the technical side, the technical soon becomes the limiting factor and tends to make one drift away from the creative idea. This is very common. Understanding the technical part is easier. This is why the tendency to pull to the technical part. Because it is easier and within the realm of reason. It is always easier to reason one's actions, controlling what lead to them is a much greater task.

Less technically oriented mindsets are less subject to this pull but their creative path is in many cases proportionally made more difficult by their challenges in adapting the technical and less developed part to meet the stronger creative part.

In this context, in meeting the creative realm, one of the keys is developing the ability to interact with inspiration. What is its food, the quality of the food, what may trigger it and noticing when it is on and when it left the creative process.
Any specific subjective advice on motivating the other's creative side can only go so far, as the creativity is an individual process, moved by the subjective experiences, interpretations, yearnings and visions. What may trigger the creative thought in one creative person can be completely unusable for another, but one can try nonetheless.

In short, the answer to generally put "how to get the creative juices flowing?" is "know thy creative self, recognize your creative juices, what fuels them, what are they like, and what do you want them to be".




I'd say...

 

[Matthew Scott]

Some really good stuff here! I agree with a lot of it but would also like to add that for me, being truly creative means being unafraid. Having a good crew, experience, knowledge and of course freedom (good relationship with director) allows me to explore shots without fear. This is rarely the case when working on bigger productions but I have found that some of my best work has come from situations where I'm completely unafraid to suggest/start shooting in a way I never thought of before. Being creative means creating, right? Not just sticking to what we know best, or what we know will work.

 

[David Grauberger]

awesome feedback here. I have to say I think there's wisdom in what I'm hearing. I think repetition is a big part of it. Logging those 10,000 hours as Gladwell puts it. I really like what Hrvoje said about creative being harder than the technical. I definitely fall into the category. Much easier to read a few more blogs about lighting theory, than to stare at a script and break it down. I find our industry very interesting because its very hard on set to completely disengage in that way. Crews need clear direction that needs to be logical. Gaffers, ACs etc need logical reasons for what you want but the creative side of your mind doesn't always have a reason for what you want. Its a feeling. Sometimes you just want to try things and you have no logical reason for wanting it. If your crew is good and trusts you, they'll follow on the rabbit trail. If not, they lose faith and start thinking things like "this DP doesn't know what he wants.. etc"

 

[PatrickFaith]

I really like the book "The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles". I think of it more as a war with a world that has various reasons for crushing creativity starting around the age of 5, realizing we have internalized those the attacks which stop us from being creative, then break on through.

 

[Mark K.]

Personally I've always found the two sides work in tandem. The logical and technical side either tempering or constructing the creative side's shots, figuring out the possible from the impossible.

I don't think I could function without both sides working together at all times.