It never ceases to amaze me, the Creative pissing match

The Creative Pissing Match

This is one of the most ridiculous power dances ever invented by our devolution tendencies.  The Creative Pissing Match cannot be explained, and typically cannot be corralled once it has splash its way up your leg.

I have been in several creative pissing matches and they typically occur when the boundaries of who is in control are unclear.  This is where back stabbing, bad business, jealousy and rage trudge out of the primordial ooze and takes its first breath and does its best in destroying your project and leaving you angry and resentful.   What is so stunning to me is that a pissing match is so counter to the creative process.  A positive creative process grows a solid and fully formed collaboration, where a negative creative process usually gives birth to a convoluted, dysfunctional vision, a project that falls short of what it might be, or even worse an atomically horrific aberration.

Case in point, I worked with an up and coming live action director from New York on a very important national spot who announced upon meeting me that his "Live Action was King" and that my animation was just window dressing and may not even be necessary, although the client and agency had specifically designed the spot to have an animated character wreaking havoc throughout the commercial.  I gently informed him that in any combination live action and animated spot, there is no real way to feature the live action and that the nature of animation itself demanded the viewers attention.  It's just common sense, the typical viewer can see live action everywhere around them, if a clown jumps out of the bushes screaming, then most likely, you will no longer be intrigued by the bushes.

He never agreed and insulted me whenever he could and he made sure I was not invited to the post production session where the live action and the animation were to be composited.  He tried everything to minimize the animated character effect.  He even asked if they could view the spot without the character distraction.  He colored the character incorrectly, didn't add the highlight pass in post and although I was proud of the animation, he diminished it.  He was an idiot nightmare.  Instead of cooperating, trusting my expertise, being open to new ideas, he chose to jump up and down in his own creative mud puddle splashing everyone with his ill advised tantrum.

Unfortunately, the mud also splashed on us as we were lumped together as the creative team with this idiot, we never worked with that agency or that client again.  Price of doing business, bad business.  Sometimes you can't save the baby without getting wet from the bath water.

I ultimately don't understand the pissing match.  I don't get the lack of collaboration where ego overtakes any idea of creativity.  But one thing I have always noticed, is that the pisser always does it in alleyways and out of your sight.  These supposed creatives are backdoor insecure chicken shits who sneak behind your back to get their agenda under the spotlight and it is always a bad result.  Creativity has to be positive to succeed.

It never ceases to amaze me, the Creative pissing match

The Creative Pissing Match

This is one of the most ridiculous power dances ever invented by our devolution tendencies.  The Creative Pissing Match cannot be explained, and typically cannot be corralled once it has splash its way up your leg.

I have been in several creative pissing matches and they typically occur when the boundaries of who is in control are unclear.  This is where back stabbing, bad business, jealousy and rage trudge out of the primordial ooze and takes its first breath and does its best in destroying your project and leaving you angry and resentful.   What is so stunning to me is that a pissing match is so counter to the creative process.  A positive creative process grows a solid and fully formed collaboration, where a negative creative process usually gives birth to a convoluted, dysfunctional vision, a project that falls short of what it might be, or even worse a atomically horrific, aberration.

I have had several dances like this with live action directors who have been hired to direct a combination live action and animation job (for the first time).  Case in point, I worked with an up and coming live action director from New York on a very important national spot who announced upon meeting me that his "Live Action was King" and that my animation was just window dressing and may not even be necessary, although the client and agency had specifically designed the spot to have an animated character wreaking havoc throughout the commercial.  I gently informed him that in any combination live action and animated spot, there is no real way to feature the live action and that the nature of animation itself demanded the viewers attention.  It just common sense, the typical viewer can see live action everywhere around them, if a clown jumps out of the bushes screaming, then most likely that will command attention.

He never agreed and insulted me whenever he could and actually made sure I was not invited to the post production session where the live action and the animation were to be composted.  He tried everything to minimize the animated character effect.  He even asked if they could view the spot without the character distraction.  He was an idiot nightmare.  Instead of cooperating, trusting my expertise, being open to new ideas, he chose to jump up and down in his own creative mud puddle splashing everyone with his ill advised tantrum.

Unfortunately, the mud also splashed on us as we were lumped together as the creative team with this idiot, we never worked with that agency or that client again.  Price of doing business, bad business.  Sometimes you can't save the baby without getting wet from the bath water.

Experience is a "dirty word".

The worst word in the creative business English Dictionary is that scab picker, "Experience". When you are starting out in business it's the one thing you need but almost always lack and when you have pantloads of it you are perceived as an overpriced, opinionated bag of pain in the ass who will be too difficult to manage.

Ever notice that most job postings want 2 to 3 years experience and not 10 to 15 years? The only solution for this kind of ridiculous job market is to get a new job every 2 to 3 years that way you will have the perfect amount of experience every time.

A Post Story

Ever been in "post" with a knucklehead? It is a special moment. A favorite of mine occurred during a spot for a hospital chain near Cleveland. We were finishing the spot in "Flame" at a Minneapolis facility with one of the greatest Flame guys I have ever worked with (Jake Parker). We were busy compositing the animated character inks with several animated matte layers that acted as the character color and background. We composited in Flame (a very expensive process) due to the complexity of the animation and the amount of animated color elements, mattes and background plates. Things were going swimmingly until the Agency Art Director started putting his two flawed cents in.

The Art Director after finishing his large lunch that we hoped that would keep him quiet, started commenting on our color choices and wanted to adjust. There were several problems with his interference, one we were almost done (in other words why did he wait so long), and two, Jake informed him that it would be a difficult process due to the way he had set-up the file and gently explained (you always have to gently explain when dealing with a creative knucklehead)that it would have been better for him to have been involved during the composite. (I am sure that Jake was trying to help us here.)
Didn't matter. So "the Jake" started breaking apart a section so that the Art Director could bless us with his well fed miraculous eye. After a short period of time it was obvious that his color choices were awful. After an hour, the patience in the room started to wane and the eyes were starting to roll. I pulled the Creative Director out of the room and asked him to help us out and shut this guy up. He apologized, said he would wring him in and confided in me that this Knucklehead Art Director was of all things, colorblind. It cost us over a grand for the two hours of his screwing around and thankfully we ended up back where we started, sweet colors intact.
The good news, the Creative Director was a very loyal and wonderful guy who utilized us whenever we could and we rarely had to deal with the knucklehead again.

Can you learn from a Knucklehead?

Absolutely. The hardest lesson to learn in a creative life is to recognize that learning doesn't take sides. Even knuckleheads teach. They can teach us in a useful negative way, by showing us the bright light of what to avoid, what one should never attempt or do creatively. But there are those disturbing moments when the universe slaps you upside your silly head and gives an idiot a burning moment of creative revelation. Scary moments for they don't always know what they do.

I had a old high school football coach who taught an uninspired film class which mostly accommodated his need to snooze in a darkened room. He was truly a challenged individual and needless to say a waste of teaching flesh but he did display the first independent animated short film I had ever had the pleasure to see. This nightmare of a educator gave me the first breath of creative fresh air and forever changed my life. I am forever YIKED, bamboozled, and grateful.

So pay attention to the curveballs this universe so skillfully drills at your unexpecting head.

"IT doesn't WORK!"

I have been through many circumstances where a client makes a suggestion which is counter to the creative in their own spot and directly in conflict with what you are trying to produce for them. You politely respond, "I don't think that will work" and if you are smart enough, you will be able to explain why. (If you want to play the "Ego Card" you laugh, tell them to "shut up", or just say "no"). Hopefully after your explanation the suggestion has been tucked away in the forever forgotten pile of crappy ideas. If not, you have opened the Pandora's Box of creative issues. Are you just not talented enough to make it work? Are you too stupid to understand who you are working for? Are you not creative enough to defend your position? Not good. You do not want to be defending your creative, it should be the only absolute in the room. You ARE the creative.

As a young animator/producer, I used to think you could make nearly anything work, that was my job in a sense, give the client what he/she wanted no matter how ridiculous it seemed at the time. I was a young "MAKE IT WORK" Tim Gunn wannabe. Sometimes to my surprise it was actually successful, the client was happy that I used their idea and made it pretty as a butterfly just for them. But invariably, I would not be satisfied one iota, I would see their suggestion as a large nail in my creative tire. I almost never put those jobs on a demo reel and surprisingly most of the times the client did not return for the next offering. Big HMMMM.

The problem is this, a bad creative idea is a bad creative idea and it is your job to make sure those ideas don't screw the pooch. How else can you prove your expertise? In my crankcase old age, I actually suggest the "Ego Card" tell them to back off, that you were hired for the creative not them. Do it in an entertaining way, if possible, nothing like laughing like an idiot while they stare confused. Most of the times they want the outlandish, the "wack job", it is what the corporate world expects of us. But beware, make sure it is a creative difference and not a business difference, the client has a right to portray their product and brand how they wish. Know the boundary and understand the risk.

Yes, you can lose jobs this way and you cannot overplay this hand or you will be known through out the industry as some pariah or worse, a prima donna. Maintain balance, understand that you do not own creative thought, but be in control of what you have been hired to do. And certainly understand that living the creative life is all about risk, in and out and all about.

How do you prove you are an expert?

Years ago, expertise was a given. If you had the equipment, you must be an expert or at least you were in competition with experts. Certainly this statement is not entirely true, but it's not 50 mile walk backwards either. For example, back in the day, post-production was handled by firms with very expensive equipment. Millions of dollars worth of video technology, decks, ranks, massive color correctors, and editing equipment. You hire technicians and editors with vast experience in film and video. Now a retard art director comes into a post house with his Mac and Final Cut and shows the editor his rough cut. It's happening. Now the editor is forced to tell the knucklehead art director that his work sucks and he (happened to be a "he" in the version I know) should just let the editor do what the editor knows how to do. What the hell? If that ain't a screwed up situation. So if you are a pin head art director who thinks you have any talent in editing, then edit your kids home movies. Don't show your version of a commercial to anyone, not the client, not the creative director and certainly not the editor. Let a pro do it. When you have edit 10 years of your kids opening Xmas presents while Grandma swears like a sailor in the background, then maybe open your mouth, but keep your laptop shut.

The toughest question for many professionals now is how do you prove you are an expert. All the damn tools, now fit on a laptop. Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, etc. A nerd knows all the terms, hell they created this stuff. The quality of work is all over the place due to the internet due in part to the availability of cheapo video technology. The only solution I can come up with is be the best at what you do, "be original and be you" and hope they don't create a program to duplicate it.