I meet countless people who tell me an "idea for a story" that they think would be great as a book, movie, TV show, etc. And my response is always. "Great. Write it."
I never read it. It never arrives. Everyone has great ideas. As the professor states, "The execution of the idea is what matters."
@xamill mentioned last week about his doubts of having an original idea and I know the professor's recent email referenced the idea of doubt. There should be no doubt, any idea we come up with has already been thought of by someone else. A large majority of films released by studios are not brand new. Remakes, reboots, re-imaginings and adaptations flood the market each year.
The reboot of Ghostbusters is this weekend. Even in the face of countless people crying about an all-female cast or how they're childhood is being ruined by Hollywood remaking classics, that didn't stop Columbia Pictures from moving forward the production. Why should we let it bother any of us?
I'm not suggesting we rip-off other people's ideas, but it shouldn't stop us from coming up with any ideas. If we were thinking about stealing ideas, I've wanted to do a reboot of Monster Squad for quite some time and I'm definitely on board with that.
The other aspect of the lecture that I wanted to comment on was the brainstorming session and the idea of a system of creativity. I always shy away from "How-To" books on writing. Stephen King's book, "On Writing", was great because it wasn't telling me how to write. It was just showing me how King does it and what he's learned. Most books lay out rules and expect you to follow them. I hate that thinking.
Creativity should be unencumbered. There should be no harness for creating an idea. The execution of that idea, however, does need a guiding hand.
When I started writing and directing, it was little skit shows with my friends. It was fun. We had a great time with it. But soon, I wanted more.
I wanted to keep doing it so we started a production company, but it's more accurate to call it a collective. There were five of us. We'd get together and plan out what we wanted to do as a production. Initially, we were all writing and directing commercials for the company. We shot five commercials. I wrote and directed three of them.
Clearly, I was the leader in the room. I was the one steering the ship, not because I demanded it, but because I was passionate about making it happen. I pushed my friends to write, to direct, to edit. I pushed myself as well. This isn't to say my friends were less-than in any regards to me. I was pushy and probably a jerk. Is that why they don't talk to me anymore? (Just a joke. We all still talk)
I don't know if any of the commercials, short films, and eventual feature we ended up putting together before disbanding the collective would've ever been completed if there wasn't a guiding hand. Even if it wasn't me. If one of my friends took control and pushed us down a certain path. Would we have made the same content? Would we still be making content together to this day? That's probably a different discussion and class for that thinking.
It's having no doubt that allows us to be creative. It's the lack of focus that promotes creativity. It's focus that leads to execution. It'll be my complete lack of reason that will get the remake of "The Monster Squad" off the ground.
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