Find a post or an article these days on the subject of creativity or creative inspiration and it will undoubtedly mention Steven Pressfield’s book, ‘The War of Art.’
It is a great book. I keep it close by on my desk as I refer to it often. The book can be opened at random to pretty much any page and you’re sure to find something that’s worth reading.
The problem is as I pointed out, it shows up everywhere. Don’t get me wrong. I wrote a blog post about getting your creative juices flowing and it included this book.
But I wanted to try something different. I wanted to use my advanced age (in the circles I run in lately, I’m one of the old dudes at the age of 40) as an advantage to share with people sources of inspiration that may not be very familiar, if at all.
The Myth of Passion
Before I get to the items, I felt it was important to touch on a related topic when it comes to creativity and that is the subject of passion.
It’s all about the passion, right?
Wrong.
If somebody tells you in regard to a creative endeavor (or anything really), “Hey! You can do it! It’s all about the passion!”, run from that person as fast as you can. “It’s all about the passion” is a myth and a dangerous one. It has people jumping into things they clearly are not prepared for and when it all goes wrong, they wonder why.
Ever watch ‘American Idol’, particularly the early rounds? Apart from the freaks who behave like freaks for the purpose of being on television, there are those who cannot sing and are genuinely flummoxed as to why they are being rejected. You can see it in their faces. They truly cannot fathom this turn of events.
Chances are, they were told at some point, it was “all about the passion.”
I can imagine the roar of laughter I’d hear from John, Chris and Tom if I told them I wanted to be in on developing the next 8BIT theme because I have a passion for writing code.
If you think it’s all about the passion, you’re sure to be disappointed one day. Passion is important. But learning, trial and error, mistakes, collaboration, learning more, working hard, falling down and getting up, learning even more, doing it over and over is going to take you where you want to be.
Passion is a catalyst, not a solution.
Films
The Limey
Steven Soderbergh became a well known name in cinematic circles with his film, ‘sex, lies and videotape’ and became a star director when in the span of a year he directed, ‘Erin Brockovich’, ‘Traffic’ (he was nominated for Oscars for both films in the same year) and the blockbuster, ‘Oceans 11.’
Tucked in between ‘Out of Sight’ and ‘Erin Brockovich’ was this little known neo-noir revenge film gem. ‘The Limey’ stars Terence Stamp who more people would remember in his turn as General Zod in ‘Superman’ or as Sir Larry Wilder in ‘Wall Street.’ In this film, Stamp plays Wilson, an ex-con just released after a 9-year stint for armed robbery in England. He learns his daughter has been killed in a car accident (which he finds suspicious) and comes to America to get to the truth.
He’s after Terry Valentine, a wealthy music producer who also happens to be involved in drug trafficking. Valentine is played by Peter Fonda. Both Stamp and Fonda are terrific as is the rest of the cast. It’s one of the few movies you’ll find made in the last 30-years that actually clocks in at less than 90 minutes (89 to be exact).
Who should see it?
Cinematographers – The film is beautifully shot with great lighting, camera angles, etc.
Editors – It was edited in a very unorthodox manner with past or future scenes and dialogue juxtaposed against current scenes. It never distracts the viewer, which is what makes the method so interesting. Some may find it annoying, but I thought it added depth.
Touch of Evil
When one hears the name Charlton Heston, it conjures up thoughts of him as Moses in the Ten Commandments (or maybe ‘Planet of the Apes’) and Orson Welles is synonymous with arguably one of the greatest films of all time, ‘Citizen Kane.’
Touch of Evil is often considered one of the last of the film noir genre films that was most famous in the 40’s and 50’s. I’m often surprised by the number of people who tell me they have not seem this movie. It stars Heston as a Mexican drug enforcement agent (Yeah it is kind of a stretch) named Miguel Vargas who witnesses a car explode (with people inside) just across the border in the United States while he is on his honeymoon (his wife Susie is played by Janet Leigh). Vargas offers to assist in the investigation where he must knock heads with Captain Hank Quinlan (Welles). It doesn’t take long before Vargas realizes Quinlan is dirty and the rest of the film revolves around this story arc.
The movie starts with a three minute plus tracking shot (or long take) that sets the stage for the rest of the movie. In the noir tradition, much of the lighting is very direct with dark shadows. Orson Welles pretty much steals the show with his performance.
What’s interesting about this film is Welles was fired post-production. The film was cut and changed so much, that when Welles viewed it for the first time, he fired off a 58-page letter passionately explaining changes that should be made. It took 40 years for the version Welles envisioned to be released. You can read more about that and the letter here:
Photography
Natalie Dybisz
If I am not mistaken, photographer Natalie Dybisz is only 25 years old, yet makes images that are absolutely stunning. Here is some of her more recent work:
Dybisz’s photography, early on, was made up largely of self-portraits. Despite her advancement in her photography skills, she hasn’t removed her older work. You can see images from 2006 posted.
She may have been passionate about the craft, but its easy to see she worked hard to improve as the quality of her work steadily improved to where she was working on commercial campaigns and teaching workshops.
Dustin Diaz
Dustin Diaz was a full time web developer for Yahoo! and still does Javascript development. He even co-wrote a book on the subject.
You can see his work here and here, but what attracted me to his work was his 365 day project. Unlike many of these (I admittedly started one and could not finish), Dustin’s images were not simple shots taken to fill up each day but quality images, some of which were simply done, and some of which were quite complex.
The best part of his project is that for many of the images, he provided a shot which reveals the lighting setup. There are lots of ideas you can get just from looking at those setups.
Music
Collateral Soundtrack
This Michael Mann movie is so well shot that I’ve said before, I can watch it without the sound. However, that would take away from listening to the amazing soundtrack. Soundtracks often bring together different artists (aside from the musical score), but many times the music is part of the same genre. Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino are two of the best at doing this.
This soundtrack features a whole host of musical genres such as hip-hop, R&B, rock, jazz, and Spanish music. The song ‘Destino de Abril’ is performed entirely in Spanish and despite not understanding nearly 99% of the words (though I did translate it), it’s a beautiful song and demands being listened to over and over.
I am challenging you to go seek out sources of inspiration that are different from the ones everybody is talking about. Sure, grab a copy of ‘The War of Art.’ But stop there.
Please share with everybody some sources of inspiration about anything that people may not know about at all or would be considered off the beaten path.
Calvin Koepke says
Something that surprises me every time I try it is reading the Bible. That much interaction with the Holy Spirit and the creator of the universe is sure to inspire…
Marcus Williamson says
agreed. its funny how that works fo sho
Marcus Williamson says
There is a graphic designer that I follow on Flickr that is def worth check’n out
[Hannes Beer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/haynesmann/%5D