For most things in life, either creative or not, the beginning is often one of the scariest parts of the process. Even as I'm typing this post, I feel a slight twinge of anxiety as I have never maintained or even begun a blog in my life. I have recently found as I've started to exercise my writing ability that just starting is the best way to begin. As cliche as that has come to sound, it's still true. I still don't fancy myself a writer, per say, but with each project I've worked on I have gained more confidence in my ability to tell a story. Words on the page are just another tool in the story telling process, just like chords to a song, composition of a photograph, or frames of a movie. All of those elements may seem locked in concrete initially and that there are hard and fast rules that MUST be obeyed in order for it to work properly. After spending most of my life as a musician, I can say without a doubt that that is so far from the truth.
When we begin learning about anything, we often start with the rudiments, or building blocks, of what it is we're learning. Wether it's a C chord on the guitar or how to just turn your new camera on. The basics are a great place to begin and definitely where most, if not all, of us start this journey. Without gaining an appreciation for the basics, we will most likely struggle with gaining the confidence to start branching out and trying new things. If you don't KNOW the rules, it's gonna be pretty hard to bend them. Having said that, it's just as common to dive straight into the deep end without a safety net to just see what happens. Trial by fire can certainly be an effective barometer for what we DON'T know and what skills we may want to devote more time to.
So what does all this mean exactly? I'm not 100% sure. All I know is that a couple years ago I rolled out of bed and decided to be a film maker. I got so excited about learning a new thing. In my mind, I'd already tackled music so I wanted a different creative medium to try out, at least for a bit. Well, 2 years and 5 short films later, this passion has grown a ton and now I have a team working beside me. We're still learning every day and we still have a bunch of things we haven't had the chance to even try yet, but we're doing it together.
Collaboration is such a great element in the process. I had to learn this for myself. When I started learning about film, I told myself that I HAD to do it all by myself. Not sure why. That's just how I felt initially. My first short film had to be written, directed, shot & edited by ME ME ME. Now, it didn't turn out bad, but had I allowed myself to be more collaborative it would've been even better. Our recent documentary, HIS LAST STOP, is so far the best example of us three really working as a cohesive unit. We all pulled our weight and utilized our individual strengths to further improve the project every step of the way. It took time and it wasn't always easy, BUT the end result is a solid documentary that all three of us are immensely proud of.
So now what am I getting at?? (writing blogs is challenging)
If you were to scroll back up, for about a year (sorry), you'll see an iPhone screen with a handful of apps. THIS is where to begin. I'm not the first to say that gear doesn't matter or that story is king. Don't brush it off as yet another cliche, though it is. All these apps are free and most of them come preinstalled on your device. So much can be made with just these apps and NOTHING else. That's the truth. Sure, we will spend time discussing other fun and fancy things to add to your phone to augment the capability, but that's all just icing on a pretty sweet cake. We live in a world where creating doesn't have to be seen in such an unattainable light. Even if you don't fancy yourself a "creative" person, we ALL have a story to tell. If you find what that story is, you have everything you need to tell it right in your pocket...or in your hand if you're reading this on your phone.
We'll dive into each of these basic apps in future posts and show the real power of each of them. There's no better time than now to just sit and create something. You won't know until you try.
Comments