Watching digital spaghetti’s interview with Natalie Lynn about cinematic video storytelling. I was actually almost brought to tears seeing this poignant, dark, top-director-feature-film style video content by a person who is SO young (to me, anyway). She has this natural ability to evoke a mood primarily by editing, and it seems almost instinctive.
And one of my frustrations is that I feel like I have no single-minded purpose like some people seem to do. You hear stories of people that knew from when they were young that they wanted to be a doctor and that was the path they (successfully) followed.
I’ve never known what I want to be when I grow up. Still don’t.
And I am GROWN.
Sometimes I watch these creators and think: Well, yeah, if I had the $1000 drone and the (multiple) fancy 4KHD cameras and apparently limitless quantities of hard drive storage and the $4000 computer and all the attendant equipment, I too could become a master video maker. But there’s a voice in my head that says I don’t have the vision, the instinct. Or that I’m far too utilitarian in my outlook and that “good enough” will be good enough but won’t look good or say anything or mean anything.
But I still have this undirected creative frustration. If I take time off work, I can sit around for a few days and watch movies or play games. But after a few days I don’t want to lay around anymore. I see something that would be a really cool photo. Or I think of a snippet of plot that could become a story. Or I start sketching some shop project based on something I see online. I honestly can’t escape the need to be creative. It doesn’t even have to be something to display to others or record for YouTube. I would love to rebuild a classic car (but lack a garage and all the tools). Or hand-craft fine furniture (ditto). Or paint, or do photography, or be a writer. Not all of these require a huge budget, but do require a lot of time.
One suggestion is to artificially limit yourself. Restricting time, material, subject, etc. can open up your creative abilities. One of my faults is that I don’t want to “waste” time or materials. I can’t — say — paint a landscape because I fear failure. I fear that I will mess it up and all of that time (and money) will need to be put in the trash at the end of the day. I really need to overcome that.
The only way to get better at anything is to try. And fail. And then try again.
The only thing holding me back is my own mind.
