Creative Process Series – Part Five: Conclusion
This week, creative professionals from across the worlds of filmmaking and music have shared their challenges, triumphs and processes – as well as the skills they’ve honed in order to work most effectively and innovatively.
Regardless of the profession, clear themes emerged in all of our experts’ processes – so we’ve compiled our top 3 skills for working creatively.
1. Organisation
Yesterday, Barrie Gledden explained: ‘As a media composer, much of what I do needs to be done relatively quickly. Time management is crucial now more than ever.’ You can substitute media composer for any other job title in the creative industry and the sentiment stands: deadlines are tight and planning is key to delivering something you’re proud of.
The benefits of organization in the post-production world were clear to editor June Wood: ‘It is also important to keep your work as tidy as possible. Some projects can generate hours and hours’ worth of footage which all has to be uniquely identifiable by all users to deliver your cut and/or revisions.’
The merits of planning were summed up succinctly by director David Ward: ‘Whatever time you have estimated, double it. That might be close to how long it will take. Planning realistically is key to making the film you envision on schedule and within budget.’
2. Patience
Persistence and patience are crucial for “making it” and media composer Martin Felix K had this advice for young creatives: ‘By chance, I met a successful composer who advised me not to lose heart and keep going. He told me: “Find the genre that you are good at, continue to develop your skills and keep knocking on doors until you make an impression.”’
And once you’ve made that impression, patience will always be a valuable tool in your skillset, as editor June Wood explained: ‘I have worked in a whole host of TV newsrooms, from regional to global. They all have one thing in common: journalists running from edit suite to edit suite needing to cut the latest breaking news – and it needs to be cut now.
‘By remaining patient… with the clock ticking and the news editor shouting at the top his voice, maintaining a calm exterior has always gotten me through. By keeping my concentration, I am able to produce accurate and moving edits on time with a journalist that trusts me to deliver.’
3. Experimentation
Martin believes that ‘whatever you’re making, letting creativity lead can help you win the next pitch’ and experimentation was key in the processes of all of our industry experts.
‘I always run with my imagination when composing but learning how to filter and focus the creative flow is crucial,’ said Barrie. Yet, this method of filtering creativity should be counterbalanced by more freedom when not working to a deadline: ‘I compose all the time and really let my imagination go wild when not working on a specific job.’
Like June said: ‘Keeping an open mind goes hand in hand with the creative process.’
As outlined by the four talented creatives in this blog series, organisation, patience and experimentation are absolutely necessary to produce work that you can be proud of. With such an abundance of knowledge and experience between them, we hope you were able to get a brief insight into the crazy world of the creative industry. It may seem daunting, but give it everything you’ve got; one day it could be you recounting your nightmare experiences to us!
If you enjoyed this series, Audio Network and TCC will be partnering again in the near future – so keep an eye on our social media for announcements!
Audio Network is an independent music company delivering authentic and creative music solutions to global content creators in every industry. Their production music library has over 120,500 high quality stock music tracks for TV, film, advertising and corporate video.