kiki_miserychic

#vidspiration | mod: kiki_miserychic

A how to guide of sparking creativity to increase vidding output and/or overcome vidder’s block to fuel your vidding motivation.

I over planned on purpose and then gauged the room to see which way to go to address the most amount of people who attended the panel. The handout has some things that didn't naturally come up in the discussion.

I started the panel with a delightful clip from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. If you replace the word "drawing" with "vid," it totally applies.

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I'm going to throw a lot of ideas at you. If you find one idea out of ten that works for you that you want to try, then it's a success. Aim for one idea and we're good to go.

Creativity is not always easy. Give yourself credit for even trying to make a vid. You're translating things from out of your mind and make them into something others can understand that can be hard work. A vid starts in your brain and you try to pour it out onto a computer, then pour it out onto the internet. That's hardwork, so good for you for even thinking about making a vid.

Creativity is a form of intelligence so everyone is going to be different. Creativity is something inherent in everyone. I don't think there's not creative and creative people. It's people who create and people who don't.

I gauged the audience and started talking about how vidding isn't just emotional and inspiration driven. Vidders are like machines in that we take source material and produce a vid. Clinically looking at it, we need to get your vid factory production up. I used an adapted formula for getting better at art. As with a lot of things, if you replace "art" with "vid" it totally applies. (Side note: check out that blog entry, it was extremely helpful.) I'm thinking of vidding inspiration as putting information into yourself (basically the source), processing it through the filters in your brain from your experiences, then putting it back out again.

Experiences themselves are important. The longer you've been going something, the odds are the better you are getting at it. You might not have a great vid everytime, but most people don't get worse.

A good mentor is valuable and it's been said that a good mentor is half critic and half fan.

Challenge yourself. I'm not great at romantic relationship vids, so I made a bunch of them. Challenge yourself to do the same genre 10 times. I want to make 10 ship vids to push through the typical 4 kinds I see. Do bad work. If you're not making bad work, push harder. They probably won't be very good, but you'll get the practice in. And you'll have a vid you wouldn't have made otherwise.

Learn what you can. There's lots available. There's meta that people have written, con reports, panel notes, the vidder profile series, reading other people's year end vidding memes, and I think straight up asking people is undervalued. Leaving a comment and asking how someone did something or asking for advice is a great way to learn because vidders would probably love to talk about how they did something.

Play around more. It's good to make mistakes and you can learn from them. If you make a vid and it's awful and you hate it, you don't have to share it with anyone. You can keep it to yourself.

If you're stuck I suggest taking the last movie you saw and making a vid. If you think it's crappy, then so what? A bad vid of the most recent movie you watched is better than no vid at all, even if you never release it. You get experience from making a bad vid just like making a good one.

Again, I gauged the audience a bit and went in a different direction. I had people write down vid ideas they want to do one day or ones they've been thinking about. I think of those vids as Bucket List Vids. The vids you want to do at some point in your life. I had the audience share a couple of the reasons why they haven't made that vid of their dreams. Lots of valid reasons to hold off on making a vid were given, but I told everyone to just do it anyways.

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A lot of vidders tend to be perfectionists. Salvador Dali said, "have no fear of perfection. You will never reach it." And I love that, so don't worry about failure and dream a little bigger, darling. Perfectionism stops people from completing projects or even starting them because you think the end product won't be good enough. It's a form of fear; thinking you're not good enough ever or that it's a waste of time or you won't do it well enough. Nothing is beyond critics and nothing is flawless. Someone will find flaw, so just finish it. Make things with a determined heart.

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It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking you can't post a vid because it's not perfect, so it can keep people from vidding altogether. I don't think it's good idea to put off making a vid until you think you're a better editor because you want your idea to be perfect. The idea you have of perfection now is going to be different than what you think is perfection in a year because your skills grow and your concept of perfection grows too.

I gauged the audience to see who vids daily and who thinks they have time to vid for 5 minutes a day, then I had them write themselves a permission slip to do a little something vid-related everyday. Could be opening your editing program or writing some notes down or listening to a vidsong or even just thinking about making a vid. Indulge yourself with five minutes of personal vidding time daily.

Procrastination is stress relief in short term. If you feel yourself avoiding it, do it for 5 minutes. Count down from five and start. Being perfectionists and procrastinating go hand in hand. Sometimes wanting everything to be perfect and waiting turns into procratinating starting something or finishing it.

Judge Lynn Toler has a great tweet that I love: If I waited till I got my ducks all in a row I'd never cross the street. Sometimes u just have 2 gather up what u'v got & make a run for it.

I asked how many people were afraid of failing and had them add permission to fail to the bottom of their permission slip. It's the trying that matters and we can learn from mistakes.

Remember that quantity turns into quality over time.

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I love the idea of a Creative Bank Account. If you want to withdrawal you have to have made a deposit. You surround yourself with inspiration. Have an image and or vid library, inspiration board, gif sets, YouTube playlists, which I do. Make it a wide variety and range. You make character studies? Watch some ship vids. If you watch only what you make you be come derivative. Watch the vidders you admire's recs. Watch your own old vids too (great idea from audience). Take the time to review your horded vids. Experience and consume culture like heading to the library, museum, and movies because you're going to happen upon new things and foster creativity. Expose yourself to different things to apply to your favorite genre to work in. You can waste a lot of time too, so be careful.

The audience also suggested listening to random music, letting Spotify recommend related songs to ones you listened to already, watching weird new movies that you've never seen before, vid parties, watching lots of vids with other people, take a walk, watching other people, and more.

Getting an Accountability Partner (another great audience idea) could be a good idea. Tell someone your goals. They're meant to encourage you, hold you to your deadllines, give you feedback, and listen. Sometimes it's a beta and sometimes it's a good friend. The depth of experience is increased when learning from someone else.

I personally think people forget the importance of staring out the window. Plato thought ideas were like birds and they need calm in our brain to settle. So take a little break and stare out of your window.

I guaged the audience and went in another direction. Some vidders compare themselves to other vidders. If that's the kind of person your are, then that's the kind of person you are. Me saying that you're unique and great isn't going to quiet the part of you that looks at others. Try to remember that your brain is different than their brain. Creativity is a series of small steps in your brain that's based on your experiences and history. A creative person makes a small step to the next most likely possibility based on their assumptions which looks different to an observer in a different mind and space of possibility. Logical small steps are different for different people. So admire others, but it's all just the same small steps to them. It's easy to get caught up in a comparison trap, so do your personal best.

Nothing is completely original anymore. There's nothing new under the sun. Someone smart said that everything that needs to be said has been said but no one was listening so we have to say it again. I say instead of comparing yourself to others, copy what they do. You're not nessasarily copying exactly what they did, but copying the thought process behind it. You're reverse engineering what they did so that you can do it. If you see something cool, figure it out. Have a bunch of influences and mentors and vidders you admire because if you rip off a bunch of a things, you'll be called original. It's like putting all your inspiration in a blender and straining it out through your style. It will have your flavor in there. I think people can imitate before they innovate.

In the panel I originally said not to straight up copy someone's vid, but someone in the audience changed my mind. I think there's value in copying to learn. I do think it's a terrible idea to then post that vid online though.

Watch on Vimeo

THE GAP by Ira Glass from Daniel Sax on Vimeo.

If you're worried that your vid idea isn't original or that it's boring and common and already been done... You're right. That idea might have been done already. Maybe with the same pairing or same character or same song, but it wasn't done by you. Make your own version. We compare our unfinished works in progress to other vidders' finished products. Your tastes are better than your abilities, especially when you first start vidding. You might look at your work and not like it because you think it's not as good as the vids you like watching.

Someone in the audience disagreed with that saying she's from an older generation of vidders and can't do that because it was viewed as wrong and something that's not done. While I understand where she was coming from and I'm sure it's a difficult mindset to leave behind, but I think it's an outdated way of thinking that stifles creativity. My recommendation is to not worry about that so much and do something that matters to you and vid for yourself.

Someone in the audience disagreed with my sentiment to vid for yourself. I think some people vid for themselves and some people vid for an audience. I tried to explain better that if you vid for an audience, sometimes you won't get that fulfillment because our corner of vidding is a different environment. Compared to twenty years ago or even ten years ago, vidders are oversaturated. I say the world doesn't owe you enjoyment of your work. No one is obligated to leave a comment. You aren't owed kudos. Sometimes some vidder tend to expect certain things and if they don't get it, then they feel like a failure. Not just the vid is a failure, but they as a vidder feel like a failure. Once your work enters someone else hands then everything about it belongs to them. Their reaction doesn't belong to you. They can ignore it, misunderstand it, hate it, love it, or whatever. So create stubbornly. I think enduring that disappointment and frustration can be a part of being a creative person. It's a part of the process, not an interruption. Equip yourself to deal with it. If you're the type of vidder that needs validation and to vid for an audience, then I guess try to vid for yourself and that small circle of people in your friends group and maybe you can find fulfillment in that.

Someone in the audience very aptly said "I'd Rather Be Nine People's Favorite Thing Than a Hundred People's Ninth Favorite Thing."

So yeah, someone else might have used your song or did a character study of your fave, but you didn't do it. You'll add your own flavor and it will be different.

I didn't include these in the panel, but I thought a list of a ton of random productivity tips might be helpful. Mileage may vary. I've tried some and maybe some of them will work for you.

PRODUCTIVITY TIPS, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED
clean up are area
Morning Pages, journaling, wake up and write three pages of whatever is in your head to clear out
Enjoy nature, take a walk
Create personal creative space, personalized your environment, light candles
Listen to music or podcasts
Eat healthy
Exercise
Take breaks
Make lists
Prioritize
Set rewards
Worst thing first thing
Less excuses
Accountability partners
Set goal
Stay off your phone
Close your browser
Noise canceling headphones
Food prep your snacks
De clutter visual area
Drink water
Go to bed early
Get rid of your TV, lol yeah right
Go out in sun
Standing desk with or with a standing balance board
Eliminate distraction
Designate a space
Get a timer
Make a list of what you need to do
Address self care
Make your bed
Read and research to relax
Write down everything
Turn off phone notifications
Schedule breaks
Schedule your caffeine to benefit you most
Plan what you need to do and when
Put phone in airplane mode
Create ritual
Double rate of failure
Pomodoro method
Spruce up your space
Add pizazz to your day like colorful outfit
Make a vision board
Listen to inspirational speeches and podcasts and Ted talks and YouTube videos
Say no when you don't wanna do something, I said no to a lunch date cuz I didn't wanna
Don't spend fresh brain on emails
Close your social media browsers
Time blocking
Avoid phone for first 30 minutes of day
Find happy place daily like drinking tea, getting a tatto, hanging out with happy babies and animals
Work out
Take advantage of wait times
Manage time realistically
Don't make flimsy excuses
Pizza
Carry a notebook
Get away from computer
Collaborate
Get feedback
Go somewhere new
Get up at 5:30am
Don't eat processed foods
Stretch
Take a shower or bath