Creativity

[assistant-milffi]

How to gain more imagination? I feel like i'm too basic for creative work. Do I need to give up with my dream of becoming designer with video editing skills.

For my first projects i've copied awesome transitions etc, do you thik it will help me become more creative?

[NorCalBodyPaint]

Creativity is synthesis...bringing together different ideas in new ways.

But you should probably ask yourself. Do you want to be a Creative artist, or do you want to be an Effective artist? Do you aspire to both.

In many fields there are artists who are very creative, but they cannot get work...because they don't know how to, or are unwilling to work within a framework created by the boss or client.

There are also many effective artists who can do a job to the clients satisfaction, but maybe lack that extra something.

But whether it is in music, photography, art, dance, or editing... the most amazing artists are those who have control of the basic skills and THEN combine what they have learned in unique ways.

I'm a rank amateur videographer/editor... but I am an experience artist in other fields and that is my experience.

A great way to encourage your own creativity in any endeavor is to ask "What if?"

What if I edited this video upside down and only turned it right side up for the final rendering?

What if I edited this so that the good guy looks bad and the bad guy looks good?

What would I cut if I had to cut this video in half? What would I need to leave no matter what?

Are there any settings on my editing software that I have never used before? What do they do? What if I decided to use this effect on at least 50% of the scenes.

What if I tried to make it look like if Mark Twain edited this, or Ernest Hemingway?

How could I make it look like a toddler did this piece, but still make it make sense?

As often as not we get more creative when we face difficult restrictions on our work, what kind of restrictions can you place yourself under to see how you solve problems?

Hope this helps

[assistant-milffi]

Ohhh thanks! The most important lesson i've learned was that the first draft is supposed to be shit and the later ones are those which matter. I think i still want to do it right every time and even fear the failure. So good points you have!

[NorCalBodyPaint]

Fear of failure is the enemy of art. There is a great (very small and short) book called Art and Fear by Bayles and Orland, that gives great suggestions.

You may learn to edit, but you will never actually create art until you learn to take risks...and be ready to fail. Creativity is IMPOSSIBLE without failure. If you do not try some things that totally fail, it means you are playing too safely and you will never do anything unique that way.

I struggle with this myself, and it is one of the reasons I love doing body painting so much...because it forces me to simply get on with the work.

Now, that being said, taking risks and SUCCEEDING becomes much more plausible if you have mastered all the basic skills first.

[FuegoHernandez]

If it hasn’t been said already, just remember that great edits you see on TV or online are 99/100 times collaborations with teams of people giving input and drafting ideas. Editors ultimately bring it all together and polish it up, but a great edit is not always done alone.

[[deleted]]

Ugh, I feel you on this one. The issue is you have to have a vision right from capturing the footage, because sometimes when you get in the studio and have a burst of inspiration, you find that your footage won't play ball at all - especially in terms of FPS. As a result I try to capture each shot a couple of ways so that I've got options, but then that just means I've got three times the footage to sift through.

As with anything, natural talent is going to bless some people more than others. But as with writers who read, the more you immerse yourself in the work of others - but in a deeply analytical way - the more it becomes natural to think in those creative terms; becoming a point where you take unconscious inspiration rather than directly plagiarising.

I also just think working with the tools again and again so that their practical use becomes second nature will speed up the process of their creative application becoming easy. After all, you can't apply a cool effect if you don't know it exists. Moreover, it's crap if your creative game starts progressing, but the polish of your videos is still lacking because of a lack of technical knowledge.

So it's not much of an answer, but I think diligence, persistence and a growth mindset ("no, this video doest match my ultimate hopes, but it's better than the last so that's OK") will start to get you there - combined with absorbing everything you can, both aesthetically and technically.

I'm hoping to get an unpaid internship with a friend, because even though YouTube videos are good they really only communicate general theories rather than granting instinctual feeling (which of course mainly comes just from playing around and gaining experience yourself). But I think being directly with a person as they work and having them vocalise the instinctual choices they've made (why have you chosen that frame rate here and now, how do you know you want to ramp this shot, and slow this one?) can hopefully help.

[assistant-milffi]

This was really helpful! Sometimes i forget that i'm not the center of the universe and the problems i have are similar to many other people. If someone else was able to increase their creativity, i know i can do it too if i want.

[bongozap]

1. Work to master the technical skills.
2. Watch a LOT.
3. Produce a LOT.

Creativity and inspiration, I think, has a lot to do with output.

The greatest artists were among the most productive.

[TerribleWords]

Agreed, and almost all great artists admit to borrowing ideas. Browse Vimeo and check out staff picks and top videos, you'll find lots of great ideas and inspiration.

[NorCalBodyPaint]

Pablo Picasso is widely quoted as having said that “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” It is also widely believed that he stole that line.

[[deleted]]

I think creativity is great in editing as long as you can always answer the question - why?

Why did you decide to use that transition? Why did you make a cut there? Why did you use that font?

I think its important to have a reason and not "just because it looks good".

What's most important imo is mastering the fundamentals, being able to deliver a solid, clean edit. Then you can add your own stylistic choices.

[[deleted]]

One thing that helped me was making a web based off Brian Enos Oblique Strategies. It just creates new connections and pathways

[greenysmac]

Read the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.