The Distraction Factor

Mike — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:21:17 +0000

Working in the creative industries means a whole lot of time sat in front of a computer screen; and while for some of us this poses little problem, and can in fact be quite enjoyable. This can lead to losing complete track of time and the seasons as we are totally engrossed in making sure that our output matches our creative ambitions, time passing by unnoticed while you are obsessing about one particularly complicated transition or intricate key framing.
This is why sometimes it is necessary, in order to maintain control of a project and to keep your sanity, to have a series of distractions which allow you to switch off from your work for a few minutes. This is no different from workers in any other sector taking a coffee or cigarette break and can prove to be a great boost to your productive output. Especially when, and this is what I plan to talk about in more depth in this blog, we use distractions which actually help the creative process and stimulate our capacity for work.
That is not to say that sitting on Facebook or Twitter for hours on end will help you to produce anything but slap dash work, and the importance of moving away from your desk and getting some fresh air and direct sunlight should also not be understated. But what we are looking at here are ways to disconnect the brain from a project for long enough to get the creative side of our minds working again rather than allowing the more methodical impulses dominate throughout an entire project.
It should come as no surprise that keeping a workforce motivated and at their creative peak is a major concern amongst large businesses and considerable budgets are afforded to studying and developing ways of helping employees to relax at work. Take for example Google, with their notorious Lego room and scooters for staff; here we have a company looking at creative ways of ensuring that their employees are in the right frame of mind to produce the most ground breaking work that they can.
Beyond this we also have resources offering small and medium sized businesses the capability to get workers reaching their potential, interacting better with one another and stimulating their creative output. I have been lucky enough on two occasions to experience what is on offer at The Automatic at Liverpool’s Innovation Park. Here we have a cutting edge facility that adapts to the needs of the individual or group that is taking part in order to give them the chance to develop their own imaginative solutions to whatever problem they have entered the building with.
So if big businesses realise the importance of managing our time, from both business and pleasure perspectives, then how can we implement these changes into our own daily workloads, particularly when working freelance or within a small office environment?
My first port of call has always been to have some form of background music. This is a technique that has suited me ever since I first sat down at a desk and started working towards my GCSE’s way back before they started marking them with smiley faces and allowing text speak! Back then I realised that I could concentrate much better on the task in hand if I was relaxed and had music playing at a comfortable level. This was invariably 1990’s indie music such as Hefner, Teenage Fanclub and The Charlatans , all of which proved to be perfect at keeping my mind focused on the kind of Maths and Science information that at one time seemed essential but has since been long forgotten.
Thankfully since then things have moved on, and not only do I no longer need to worry about Pythagoras Theorem, we have also evolved in such a manner that I can play my music of choice whilst working; without needing to embark on the tedious task of inserting a CD and pressing play. In fact I don’t even need to know what music I actually want to listen to anymore, I can simply visit Stereo Mood, choose how I am feeling (or rather how I would like to feel) and bang, away I go, perfect mood music with the minimum of effort, allowing me to relax and simply concentrate on production.
Next up is my current favourite, Stumble Upon. For those of you who haven’t seen or used Stumble Upon yet it is basically a tool bar add on for your internet browser which allows you to generate random websites. More than just this though you are able to tailor your own personal settings to concentrate upon interests that you may have, then by selecting whether you like or dislike each site that is presented you can develop a system that will only generate websites that are of interest to you. It does take a little bit of time to get going and it does reward more active users but once you’re used to it Stumble Upon can be a great creative tool.
I have my Stumble Upon set up so that the majority of sites that it suggests for me relate to my work in some way or another, whether this be simply for drawing inspiration from photography or other film sites, or sometimes, and this is where I feel I get the most reward; in the form of actively useful editing materials. These include Photoshop and After Effects tutorials, interesting fonts available for download and backgrounds and layers that can be imported into your own work, to name but a few. Once you have all your settings managed and have begun using it for a while you will quickly find how much of an opportunity it brings for finding inspiration from parts of the web that you may never have thought to look. Plus just to break things up I do also subscribe to a range of comic books and art work, just for when I really need to switch off for a few minutes.
While I did earlier discount sites such as Twitter and Facebook, mainly because they are too easy to get drawn into and waste productive time they can also be utilised as a sounding board to help you develop ideas that might be stalling. Because of the likelihood of you having quite a wide range of friends working in all kinds of industries you could reap rewards with a simple statement such as,
“I’m working on a set of titles and they’re dull. Any ideas how to brighten them up?”
While this might not bring up the most technical, or achievable of replies every time it is likely to produce a response as varied as your friends list and could prove to be just the trigger that you need to think outside the box and produce a creative alternative that has cleared a potential stumbling block before it has had opportunity to manifest itself.
But as much as I love technology, especially the internet there is still one more thing that I couldn’t possibly overlook when talking about reducing stress levels at work. The tried and tested cup of tea. With cuppa in hand I feel invincible and able to handle the most extreme of deadlines or ultimately devastating news. It just makes things feel better sipping on a cup of tea, a true British gent, ready to take the world in my stride. And I must admit it’s not something I’m particularly fussy about either, a good strong breakfast tea with a touch of milk, but no sugar, just like the three cups that I have got through while writing this blog!
Obviously not everything that I have mentioned here will work for everybody (except drinking tea). We are all different and need varied stimulations to get the most out of ourselves. What is important is to identify how we work and look at ways to reduce stress levels and maximise creativity. I have met some people that feel they can only work once a deadline is looming, others will do anything to avoid being under pressure toward the end of a project and take great pride in being prepared well ahead of schedule. And there is nothing wrong with any of that, if we all worked the same then there would be no variety and genuine creative inspiration would be hard to identify.

What are your experiences of this? Have you ever had your methods frowned upon by overzealous employers? What helps to get you into the zone; and when do you find you are producing your best work?

MERSYESIDE AGAINST THE CUTS PROTEST

admin — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:12:09 +0000

Shooing anything that’s ‘live’ is always slightly risky, especially so if you aren’t in a contained environment where the action is localized to a stage for example.
To begin with, we had the interview with our source, which was simple enough (Canon 7D on sticks, shooting a standard three-quarter profile MCU, Canon 5D handheld shooting a similar CU with a slight drift on the framing).
Then we were left at the mercy of the event. Thankfully, the protest took place throughout the late morning and early afternoon, and the light was quite consistent. The cameras were left with a low ISO and f-stop, as well as a narrow aperture and only needed slight tweaks throughout in order to compensate for shadows etc. This was fortunate, as we were shooting a moving body of people and had to constantly running ahead and setting up our shots with minimal time.
There was so much happening, we just picked details out of the crowd: signs, banners, people talking particularly passionately- basically anything that the editor could use as an interesting cutaway, or relate back to our earlier interview.
As with any video article or report, shots must be chosen carefully, as they serve to convey the narrative. We had to make these decisions on the fly as the crowd marched, which can be challenging. However, it wasn’t our first rodeo and Richard and I have both spent the past six years honing our eye for these details.
Overall, it was challenging but ultimately rewarding. There were no complex set ups, but filming live in front of thousands of people can be slightly unnerving. We held it together well though, and I think the finished piece looks great.

Progressive Creative Media

The Distraction Factor

MERSYESIDE AGAINST THE CUTS PROTEST