I recently read a blog post by writer-designer Jack Cheng titled 30 Minutes a Day. If you’re a creative person in any field and have time to read just one post, I’d say, read this.
The premise is simple – if you are going to learn / master something, you must push yourself into making it a daily habit. If you call yourself a writer, write every day. If you’re a painter, paint every day. And if you are a filmmaker, shoot every day.
Here’s an excerpt from the post:
I want you to pick one longish-term goal and commit to it right now. Make a conscious decision to actively pursue what used to be an “I want…” or “I should…” like improving your writing, speaking a new language or finally learning CSS (you know who you are).
You’re going to accomplish this goal by limiting the time you spend on it to no more than 30 minutes a day. You’re going to learn more by working with your long-term memory rather than against it. If you can’t carve out a half hour each day, cut it to 15 minutes. Find a time span that makes it insanely hard for you to not do it every day. Keep doing it and over time, you’ll be surprised at how much you’re able to accomplish.
In response to this post, I’ve decided to make a conscious decision to shoot every day, right within my own home. My aim is to become technically proficient in the art of shooting HDSLR video. My experiments will be posted online.
I home school daughter and what my kids have taught me is that creativity is in the process, not the product. For them, its not important what the final painting or other work looks like, rather its the joy of experimenting with new stuff and having fun along the way. Taking a leaf from their book, 30 Minutes is not a product oriented exercise, rather its “process-driven”. The individual films each day matter less, compared to the process of shooting, having fun and the long-term aim of achieving proficiency in cinematography.
I’m reminded of a quote by Ira Glass:
"If you are just starting out, you gotta know that the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline. It only by going through a volume of work that you will close the gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions."
Here is my first creation:
For daily updates, see my Vimeo stream: http://www.vimeo.com/gasperd