Work and Working Methodologies
Problem:
“if you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it?” – Picasso
This quote sums up the attitude I have developed during my time at university towards work. It is my working method and my excuse.
As a working procedure it is both fantastic and flawed. I enjoy it because it allows me to excuse myself from conventional working practices (in my case preproduction and pipelining). As a result I can concentrate on making works using intuition rather than pre-planning. In my experience this way of working appears to be favoured by those who are more creative than technical.
However, this way of working is flawed because of its lack of respect for preproduction and the purpose it serves. Skipping the preproduction stage can result in misguided hours being put into projects that amount to nothing, which can be very frustrating for everyone involved. As a working method for university it is particularly inefficient because the nature of the marking process can involve regular presentations of works in progress.
It is difficult for a lecturer to guage the potential success or failure of a work if they do not have continued access to it over the period before it is due. This does not necessarily pose a problem to someone using the working method being discussed as it is possible to present what work has been done (as opposed to presenting a storyboard or script of what work will be done). The marker can then achieve some idea of what the end product is going to be, even if the subject of the work is not yet finite.
However, in my case this working method does cause a problem. I do not bother with preproduction because I wait for an idea to present itself to me that I can run with. This would not be a problem were I to find inspiration early on. But I have noticed over the past 3 semesters that this is not the case. Overwhelmed for choice, I sit on an idea until another more interesting one comes along. I am flighty with my choices, each idea stimulates me for a short period of time before it becomes a chore to complete, at which point I tend to abandon it in favour of another.
I get frustrated because due dates draw close and I have no work to show for my work in progress and no ideas for a story. Yet I refuse to attempt to write up a script, block it and complete it because I don’t like knowing what I am going to end up with.
Solution:
I need to find a way I can work that allows me to feel like I can adapt what I am creating as I create it. I dislike preproduction because it ruins the surprise of what I am creating for myself – I enjoy never knowing exactly what I am going to end up with.
As a result, I must find a working strategy that includes or can be manipulated to include the essence of Picasso’s quote (which is essentially a summary of my current working method) while offering a way to introduce more structure into what I am doing so that I am always creating and expanding ideas rather than sitting on them and suffocating them.
Areas I need to research are: time management, preproduction, aquiring ideas and motivational techniques to keep myself on track.
