And very quickly, here’s a recent music video I directed

Back off. Or break.

I posted last about the intensely busy periods that build you into the creative you are. They’re powerful growing experiences and very much needed in the grand scheme of your life, career and practise.

But, the flip side is when it gets too much.

The last few months of 2011 were just crazy. And I mean CRAZY. I was existing on a maximum of 4 hours sleep a night, though more often than not 2 hours….or none. There was just too much to do, too many people to respond too, too many decisions to make, too few hours in the day. But while working at such a breakneck pace is rewarding and part of the very nature of being a creative, there comes a point where you either have to back off, or break.

The lifestyle of a creative is hard. The lifestyle of a photographer/filmmaker is VERY hard, especially when you freelance and never know where the next paycheck is going to come from. And sometimes you go through periods where you have to take on projects or jobs which have a scant paycheck but are good for your greater career and/or soul even though they conflict with the whole business of surviving and being able to eat at somewhat regular intervals. And towards the end of last year I had a score of projects like that come up.

I didn’t back off. I took them all on.

And while I don’t regret saying yes what was a few too many times; by the middle of December I was literally so exhausted I couldn’t string together a coherent sentence or thought, let alone manage one particular fashion shoot with my crew, clients and talent waiting expectantly for a simple shot that I couldn’t produce because my brain had decided to stop working; let alone manage to drive myself from place to place. Not only is this stupid, it’s also dangerous. And while I survived that period, and eventually managed to get that particular simple shot, I decided I needed to stop. Just stop.

Stop.

If I didn’t, I probably would have had a car accident, or a stomach ulcer or some other kind of manifestation of a life without control. When you’re at that intensity of focus and work and stress, you’re not under control. You’re responding, always responding, never pulling back on the reigns but letting the horse go where it will.

Stop.

This is actually very hard. I am a definite confirmed nutjob all hours workaholic. It was like hitting a brick wall, I just collapsed and essentially didn’t leave my bed for 4 days.

Stop.

Thank god. In our hyper connected, always on lifestyles we can forget that we shouldn’t ALWAYS be on. It’s nice to be off for a while.

Stop.

It’s important to have the intensely busy periods. But it’s also important to stop too, and have a balance. It’s important to not take too much on. The problem for me is that I didn’t bite off more than I could chew – I did it all, got all the projects and jobs done and everyone’s been happy with the results. But in the process of biting off such a large chunk, I spent all my time chewing and forgot to breathe.

This year: more balance. And more backing off.

Long hours, long weeks, lack of sleep, adrenaline and far far too much caffeine

The title of this post pretty much describes my week – I was balancing three shoots (one of which was a music video), the necessity of making additional income in a tight market, finding a housemate, pitching for jobs and planning and concepting out another music video. Most nights this past fortnight I’d be having, maybe, 2 hours sleep. And each and every day utterly mental, working from dawn to well after midnight.

The question I kept getting asked this past week is, ‘how do you do it?’ The answer is very simple – you have to. Part of the lifestyle of being a creative, especially one in the production arts (photography, film, music etc), is doing crazy hours, sometimes. Hopefully not all the time, because that will kill you. But you go through periods. Periods where you just have to buckle down and get it all done, and just know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

These are the periods that make you as an creative and as an artist. If you can weather them, you come out stronger, fitter and more capable. And, at least in my experience, you tend to produce better work, because by necessity your thought process becomes concentrated.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t look forward to, nor deliberately plan to have these periods of intense work. They are hard. Very very hard. And the pressure is intense. I find that half the time, even though I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, I can’t sleep because my brain is ticking over the events of the past few days and worrying about the events to come. And while shooting, or meeting, or concepting, you have to keep it together; even though you might be juggling half a dozen disparate things at the same time – the stress of that can be maddening.

But, you get through it, and suddenly look back on all that you’ve accomplished. Don’t you feel that relief? And ever so slightly – an adrenaline rush, to do it all again….

So, celebrate the mad times. Live with them, welcome them into your soul and make work that is truly amazing.

The nature of taking it to 110%.

How often have you heard people boast they’ll take it to 110%, then been disappointed by the result?

The usual process is that the person changes one or two elements, boosts those to the extreme and then leaves the rest of the task half done or not at all. That’s called ‘taking it to 110%’.

I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough.

Really taking it to 110% involves sacrifice. It involves missing sleep, missing dates, missing friends and missing meals. To truly take it to 110%, you must immerse yourself in whatever the task is to the exclusion of all else. It’s hard. It’s draining. But you know what? It’s worth it. When you really do push yourself further than you could go before, you change. You become more capable.

What started this little line of reasoning is thinking about a particular project of mine – a collaboration between myself, artist Akina (aka Lang Leav), production designer Pia Leong, miller Sivear Ung and eventually retoucher Abbie Muntz. It became quite large scale indeed – 46 crew and talent, two elaborate sets, built props, 3 months prep and many many months of post production. And while the final result is this fantastical story, that’s not where it started.

the Clash!

We started with a small idea – shooting a quick fashion shoot in a forest with a model – 4 hours or so – simple, easy. Can you see the hat Liliput (jumping with the parasol) is wearing? The shoot was merely to show that hat.

However, before shooting we decided to meet – myself, Lang and Siv – and have a chat, plan it out. And at that meeting, we played with ideas, stories, talked about what the hat represented (Lang’s character Liliput) and she would be doing. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we had conceptualised a crazy story involving the evil Snow White coming to grips with the good Liliput. And from that meeting I visualised the hero shot – the epic confrontation of Liliput against Snow White – which drove the entire endeavour. I brought in my friend and colleague Pia Leong to design the project, and she pushed us even farther out of our comfort zone.

We all pushed ourselves further than we’d been before, from the PA’s to myself and the other key creatives. Instead of just shooting a simple fashion image or two in a forest, we decided to tell a story. We decided that we could bring a greater perspective; deeper and richer.

There were many lost nights of sleep, much stress and long long hours. But you know what, none of us regret it for anything. We all produced something we think is pretty special.

I’m not saying that we’re better than you. We’re not. We were just mad enough to push ourselves 110%.

 

 

So the question is, can you?

Hello there!

Hello there!

So this is the first iteration, the first blog post. I’ve just set this up while I’m relaunching my entire web presence. So if it’s looking just a bit sparse, I apologise. I’m very very new to this sort of thing.