The challenge is in the finishing of things.
One of the by products of our fast-food, disposable culture is the unrelenting flood of human waste caused by the unceasingly incomplete. Time and time again, a great idea or kernel of a fantastic project, is set aside because the creator does not have the discipline (or enough disciples natch) to see it across the finish line. Some projects suffer death by committee where the creator cannot overcome the resistance thrown up by others.
I'm not pointing any fingers here, I'm probably one of the worst offenders.
After receiving a low disk space warning on my high performance audio project drive, I was forced to take a look at what the fuck was on there. What I uncovered was pretty fucking terrifying. Aside from almost 4GB I recovered by removing all of Ruxpin's* older stuff, I was able to dump almost 18GB of project data that I could see now was NEVER going to be completed.
What was all that shit? Well, a number of the projects were ideas that I had in a flash and thought I better record it, jot it down, or make an audible note so that I could return to it and finish it up later. Some of them were bare bones re-mix attempts that I lost interest in and decided to abandon, but a very scary number of them (about 30) were songs that were 80% done, or worse, were 98% done (i.e. complete, but with some obvious lazy mistakes in it I had not bothered to fix) and then poorly mixed down to a master that I then used once or twice in a rush either DJ'ing or burning to CD to give away. In retrospect, embarrassing.
The decade of 2000 - 2010 is littered with the remnants of my incomplete projects (audio, and otherwise).
Now, many an artist will tell you that no work is truly finished, only abandoned. I'm starting to think that's a pile of whining narcissistic self-indulgent horse shit. It's the kind of marshmallow garbage you would expect from people who complain about deadlines, lament the fact that their work doesn't sell**, and flit from obligation to obligation looking for the 'right fit' for their creative talents. I think it's fair to say that I'm guilty of subscribing to this view when it was convenient (recheck that second asterisk point below to verify this admission).
What I submit to you is this: a public declaration of commitment to complete forces a person to change their view of their work. I'm back in my studio again, quite a lot actually, because of changes that started before Christmas. Two things conspired to get me back in here: a deterioration of my general baseline health status (I believe the laypeople call it 'mortality', I was as shocked as you are that I'm so afflicted), and an opportunity to work with a junior film creator in Prague.
I told that person that I would have a couple of pieces of sound work completed for his short film by a certain date, and by god I had to make good on the commitment because HE in turn had a deadline. I had to wrap my head around the fact that one way or another, this 'product' had to 'ship' (at this point I'll refer you to Seth Godin). It was energizing. It was strangely, counter intuitively, liberating. I didn't obsess about reaching "when it's perfect", nothing ever is, and this is probably where that artist mantra above comes from. Instead, I concentrated on "when it's done".
So, for the rest of this year, I'm going to try to think about new projects differently. Instead of enumerating all of the possibilities each project can entail, I'll frame it in terms of the deliverables I can complete in order to call the project done.
On that note, I would like to re-start the conversation regarding Project Unknown, as proposed by LordJim earlier this year. I believe the best place to start is to get the interested parties together in a room early on a weekday evening, add a few pints and some munchies, and talk about ideas (we will still need one after all). Very soon after we have put ideas on the table, I think we will need to make a commitment to some kind of deliverable - a point when we can call the project done. I am uncertain what the shape of the commitment will be, just as I have no clarity yet about the project we will pursue. Commitment is scary, I'm scared just thinking about being committed to the completion of this because it means work, but I think it's okay to be scared and I want to participate anyway.
I know we have a bunch of creative, hard working, loving, dedicated people around us. I know we can get something going, and if we get started I'm going to stay committed to figuring out how we can get that something finished.
Of course, I'm also a sometimes douche-nozzle.
* we had just been lazy about moving his old projects off of my machine, he has been working in Logic on his laptop for almost 2 years now, this transition from one place to another is yet another incomplete project in itself, we wrapped this one up now though
** my work isn't selling right now either, and I do complain about it, so I can fairly be called a hypocrite
6 comments:
I have one question, why did you delete that 18 gigs of music. I understand that they were incomplete, but why not complete them. I hear you that you didn't have the hard drive space, but there are alternatives to deleting. I was just at Costco and 2 TB external drives are $160.
Second, I agree to us sitting down over a pint and discussing what kinds of projects we would like to do. I know that I was in a bit of self loathing in the previous post that I had nothing to contribute, but I know that is not true and am looking forward to working with you all as I have nothing but the utmost respect for you all. Depending on what we choose for a project, I becoming quite adept at photography thanks to my extremely talented wife.
To clarify: it was 18 GB's of source audio, not all of it actual "music". Lots of it was garbage from initiatives started as many as four years ago - better to wash my hands of it than to keep seeing it.
But to address your suggestion of "more drive space" (more is more right?) a 2 TB drive of material sounds like hell. I could barely find anything within the project drive as is - I HAVE plenty of drive space in this computer, but that is not the best way to organize it. Having finite space
Also (and I realize this wasn't obvious from reading the text) not all of the roughly 18 gigs overlapped perfectly with the 29 or 30 songs I chose to drop.
There were a few of them (most notably my "technologic" remix and a remix of "Oh Yeah" that I lamely started) that have been moved over and I intend to resume.
Some of them (collaborations with a few guitar players, kids playing piano - mostly badly) are just not worth keeping 1 GB of recorded licks around that I didn't like. Many of them were projects that Ruxpin and I started together that I won't return to - that's over.
The act of committing to deletes was very therapeutic, I have NO regret.
Regarding the project: you absolutely have something to contribute, and not just your developing skills with a camera.
We only need to pick a date/time and place to have this pint and get the ball rolling - on that note, Facebook Group, Google Calendar/Docs, PbWiki or something might be a good idea for organizing our work. This is something else we should discuss at the first "in person" meeting.
I didn't finish a thought:
"Having finite space forces you to make choices, the choices allow you to rid yourself of chaff, a skill that is being lost in the store anything and everything mentality of the modern computing era."
Good post brother.
As someone who now gets paid to be a professional creative, deadlines are a good thing. They force the issue and force you to walk away when the item is done. And even if you think you could do more or make it better, you're done and it's a feeling of relief to turn your back on a project, if only for a few days.
One problem I see all the time is that intelligent and creative people like us have a serious problem: we're intelligent and creative. Time and again I watch great ideas turn into good ideas and good ideas turn into crap we don't want to touch because we overthink things. Really, I've seen it happen more times than I can count now where putting too much thought into a project kills it. It's an awful, helpless feeling.
Recently I started doing more writing for TV, pitching some shows and web series and whatnot, and it did a strange thing for me. Suddenly I started to pull some of those unfinished ideas and interesting characters that had been slowly fading on one of an army of yellow post-it notes beside my desk, and I began to use those ideas. I've already mashed up three of them into a new series to pitch, another concept has now become a two issue story arc for my comic book, and so on.
And it feels great. Closure is good.
I guess I've just rambled for a couple paragraphs, but your topic is one that hits home and it makes me think. I know that for me, becoming professionally creative at the age of 33, and then more recently having my first kid, has kind of ignited a flame that laid dormant for years and I'm not as willing to wait for stuff to happen as I used to be, and I have far less time for people who hold me back.
Which leads me back to the Unknown Project. There are at least 2 possibilities to consider that have been mentioned and yes, I think we should get together. So since it was I who suggested we do this in the first place, I should get the ball rolling. So be on the lookout for an invitation.
In the meantime, all of you out there, "later" is an excuses. And sometimes, just sometimes, it's ok for a project to be good enough. At least it is if you want to sleep good at night.
Can't stop looking at anime girl....
Wow, funny how this shit finds you when you're thinking about a topic, some might call it The Secret or the Law of Attraction.
START SOMETHING, good advice.
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