Creativity and The Production Function
We have creativity biases: some people think about creativity as a chaotic rather than a planned process. While creativity can often begin with chaos, it doesn’t tell the whole story. That’s why a lot of companies have hacker days or allow people to spend time on unplanned projects as that boosts innovation in the company. The most unusual and groundbreaking ideas are often serendipitous. Having an idea is the beginning of a process, but more is needed to bring it to fruition. That’s where execution comes in.
In order to execute and bring your ideas to life, much more needs to be done beyond having your original intentions and thoughts. You should plan your actions and put them into action. Very often, you should involve other people in that process, and you should influence and organize people as well. And then test your assumptions, plan, and execute again. What is important is to finish with some meaningful results of your actions that you could present, release, publish, or sell. The process of beginning with an idea and ending with the resulting production of output is a function of process and structure.
Working in tech, I consider the process of creating products to be a very creative activity. To create something that never existed before, you should be curious, imaginative, visionary, and a big dreamer. You should be ambitious and at the same time stay connected to people, inspiring them to aim high as well a staying grounded with respect to your shared goals of success.
Let’s take a look at an industry that was commonly considered very creative — film. And examine three film industry innovators and highly creative artists and directors of the 20th century: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock. In particular, lessons from their creative processes.
Stanley Kubrick
I watched Kubrick’s “The Shining” some time ago, and being a person that is not very much into horror I didn’t fully enjoy it. However several years ago I traveled to Barcelona and visited the CCCB — the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona. It had an exhibition devoted to Kubrick and his works, where I explored his art in more detail and got learn to some of the backstory.
Lesson #1: Imagine it.
The first thing that caught my attention was that Kubrick began his career by creating photography, and his works are amazing. People looked like they were going to come out of the photographs and tell their stories. That was probably where a lot of inspiration emerged from, and where the seed of ideas was planted.
Lesson #2: Draft it.
After switching to cinematography, Kubrick produced many striking films. There were a lot of things from his personal achievement exhibited such as scenery sketches. Even if you’re not a painter you should be able to communicate ideas to other people (and sometimes even to yourself) and glue the small things together in one big picture.
Lesson #3: Plan it.
And finally, what amazed me a lot is the planning process and this “spreadsheet” of who, when, where, and how. People, scenes — all planned ahead in detail.
Then I watched “Dr. Strangelove” and more recently “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Both of them are definitely creative and genius works of art. They hold my attention towards all movie and details, emotions and I felt a great respect for Kubrick’s creative process.
David Lynch
While the world was on lockdown I watched Lynch’s Masterclass about creativity and film. Arts are thrilling and David Lynch started his career as a painter… and then he had a wish to see his paintings move, starting with animation and eventually turning further towards surrealist filmmaking.
Lesson #1: Love it with a deep love.
True love of your ideas always leads to their realization. And for Lynch, I’ll let his quotes speak for themselves.
So If you love the ideas that come along — a deep love — you will find a way to realize those.
Lesson #2: Catch it.
David also truly believes that “ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper”. To catch the big fish you should be open-minded, venturing into more expanded states of consciousness. He has a whole book about this — “Catching the big fish”. And in point of fact, he has practiced transcendental meditation for many years.
Lesson #3: Build it.
After you’ve “caught your big fish”, draft your idea, write it down, do some preliminary work on it, gather what you need, and build it.
And so now, you’ve got the materials written down: the things, the shapes, and each thing that came with the idea. And then if you have a wood shop, you then go and you get the materials and build that chair according to the idea.
Even more realizations and evolutions of your idea will emerge during the process of developing your idea.
There’s a thing with a flow of ideas. The flow of ideas can happen — by action and reaction. And it happens a lot to me in painting. You have an idea, and I say it’s an idea that gets you out of the chair and starts you working. And as you’re working, you’re saying, “Oh, that part is good but that part is not.” And so, you’ve acted and then you’ve reacted.
And last but not least — check out the David Lynch theater channel on YouTube, his weather reports are tremendously fun!
Alfred Hitchcock
Not being a fan of horror I didn’t watch Alfred Hitchcock’s movies until recently I saw the film “North by Northwest”, the 1959 spy thriller, which captivated me.
Hitchcock began his career in the film industry as a title card designer and copywriter. Eventually, he got the opportunity to direct and became one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. His works utilize a special style of cinematography and camera movements that play with peoples’ feelings of anxiety and fear, maximizing them.
Lesson #1: Innovate it.
Learn the rules so you can break them. Be unusual and unique. While some of Hitchcock’s films may appear formulaic or very conventionally shot to modern audiences, at the time his style was quite revolutionary. His idea of cinematography became the new paradigm, setting a new bar for visual storytelling.
Lesson #2: Use your strengths.
Hitchсock believed film is primarily a visual medium, and he saw dialogue as a crutch. And, having gained experience as a co-writer, art director, and production manager on dozens of silent films he brought that expertise to his future works and re-used visual techniques and made them his strengths.
This lead to the development of a whole new style — “Hitchcockian” style includes the use of camera movement to mimic a person’s gaze.
Lesson #3: Details matter.
In one of his interviews, Hitchсock claimed that the fact the character entered the door wasn’t so important but “how they enter the door” matters. The idea is not only to communicate a fact, but the small details and sequencing of them are crucial. That’s how Hitchсock achieved his famous suspense. Mastering the art of a craft makes a wider palette of tools available to the creator, helping to achieve the intended effect.
A quote of film critic Robin Wood about the meaning of a Hitchcock film: “It is there in the method, in the progression from shot to shot. A Hitchcock film is an organism, with the whole implied in every detail and every detail related to the whole.”
I find the creative process to be a complex activity, which includes ideas and creative thinking but also a lot of execution and re-using your expertise. Analyzing lessons from some of the best creative people in the film industry, I found similarities with other creative production processes. Consider how you can apply those lessons to your own creative endeavours.
