Archive for the ‘ creativity and art ’ Category

The Power of Focusing Themes

The advantage of having focusing theme when beginning a creative project is amazing. Try this: Sit down and write a story. No limits, you can write about anything. Then try: Sit down and write a story that in some way has to do with “Restraint.” You can take it any way [ READ MORE ]

Discovery: The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet

I don’t like screenwriting gurus. Because they suck. But I came across something that I find amazingly useful. The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet. I’m not going to explain it, except that its a list of beats 15 beats in a movie. Google it. Okay lets get to this. Question: Why does this blake [ READ MORE ]

Hating on Story Gurus

I just watched Tropa De Elite and was deconstructing from a story perspective, trying to really get at the process for creating such a story. Okay I’ll assume you haven’t seen Tropa De Elite, so I’ll just say it’s the kind of story with several different character’s whose paths intertwine, morphing the characters and arriving at [ READ MORE ]

On Dramatic Need

Our brains tell us to look at things that move with intention. Consider a magic trick. The magician gives the impression of great intention with one hand, while lulling the audience into believing the other hand is unimportant, with no hidden motive. When the trick is complete, the hidden motive of the [ READ MORE ]

escape

This video was shot Jan 5th… It was freezing.  There were points where I was just gritting my teeth, trying not to shiver.  Maddy seemed to fair better, but that may have been the beer.  In any case, despite being rushed -not wanting to die of frostbite and all- we got the shots we needed. [ READ MORE ]

10 Scenes that End in Suicide • Part 1 – The Dreamer

Finished this up this weekend. I love how this came out. This represents a complete reframing of the creative process for me. Also, I feel kind of nervous to put it out there, which hasn’t happened in a while. [ READ MORE ]

3 Revelations about Creating Art

The real key to creation is not planning but passion. It really doesn’t matter how carefully planned your idea is. Get it out before the passion evaporates or it dies inside you. With planning, your art will only communicate what you choose.. but with an uncontrolled work, you communicate something you don’t know. And as [ READ MORE ]

Nervous Laugh: Breaking Tension

Moments ago, I was walking down the street and saw a cute girl standing in my path, staring at me, smiling warmly. As I approached I noticed she was holding her hand out to me. I smiled with curiosity. Looking at her hand and she held a leaf between her fingers. [ READ MORE ]

3 Brief Theories on Story Creation

I’m reading Story by Robert Mckee, and I think he’s confused the creation process with the deconstruction process.  Just because you’re good at demolition doesn’t mean you can build something. But maybe the most valuable learning involves creating the theory as you go along.  So I’m scrapping the dogma and creating my own theories on story [ READ MORE ]

Amputation: The Finishing Touch of a Creation

I was trying to draw a picture of the creative process and worked out a few theories. First, consider the creative process as a race. On one side you have the beginning, the inception of the work, and on the other the completion. In the middle you have pain, to get from the start to the [ READ MORE ]