Byron considers the roles of fear, practice, age, and experience in the ongoing process of creative growth. And card tricks.
I’ve always been fascinated with people who can do amazing tricks with a deck of cards. I used to see them and be like, “I want to do that!” Then I discovered how many hours a day they have to play with cards in order to do amazing things with them, and I realized I would never be that good because I’m never going to play with cards as much as they do. Nerds.
We see a person’s end result, or read their perfectly crafted bio full of successes, and then we measure that against our own failures. We never consider how hard they worked to get there. How many hours and years they put into that one thing. How many times THEY failed. Or just how cool our own life might sound if we had someone collect its coolest moments into a 250-word bio.
I remember in my late teens I had this grand plan for how my goals had to work out by such and such age. How if I hadn’t done this or that by 25, then I was a complete failure. Watch this excellent two-part video essay from Delve. It really puts into perspective creativity, genius, and the work it takes to become great.
PART 1:
PART 2:
Francis Ford Coppola called experience “the parent of fear.” He said that if he knew then what he knows now, he would have never made “Apocalypse Now.” That’s a pretty scary thought: a world without “Apocalypse Now”!
As we are told the word “no” over and over we become fearful of trying new things. Fearful of trying big ideas. We pass or give up because we are scared of sucking. Experience leads to fear, but it is also what’s needed to be great. That means as we get older we should just expect to be scared, and realize that if we’re scared then we must be doing something right.
In my mind, fear just means I am on the right track. I figure, if I’m not scared then I’m bored. And boredom is way scarier than anything else.
I think the important take away is like you stated, to constantly be working on perfecting your craft. It’s easy to become complacent once you land that first full time gig after school and I am guilty of this which is why I love things like the Germ -not waiting for anyone but taking what you have and getting out there to get your hands dirty. Another thing we filmmakers tend to do is get so caught up in gear and the newest tech, we loose sight of the heart of story and filmmaking in general. Creating content regardless of being paid or not, with what you have at your disposal is so crucial to getting better and keeping that passion alive and yet it’s a constant struggle for artists. Things do take time and as long as you are doing what you love, taking risks, and learning, it will eventually pay off because you will get better at it. I also agree with being scared. I think when you are complacent it’s because you aren’t taking risks, which means you aren’t growing and your work will suffer because of it. Thanks for the write up and great videos!