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#Post#: 4--------------------------------------------------
Unlock your creativity
DIR By: bcb
Date: November 11, 2014, 7:41 pm
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Let me begin by telling you a story about one of my first shows
We had be hired to do 3 shows over a weekend and "just do your
thing" for the rest of the time we where there
We had meet up with everyone involved, sorted out budgets,
designed huge scaffold based structures for us to play/ perform
on, even tested a few of them.
We had the show all planned out, choreographed for 2 weeks which
when 2 of the members where from Belfast was no easy feat and
then when the day arrived stuff hit the proverbial fan
We get there and find out that our lovely scaffold hadn't
arrived, yet our show hadn't been cancelled as it was VIP and
Media day but "not to worry it will be here tomorrow for the
rest of the weekend"
With this being our first show we had no idea what to do in a
situation like this, so we did what any normal person would and
panicked
After we calmed down a bit we got to the task at hand, we had 2
hours to come up with a show with no equipment to convey "the
art of moving through your environment"
So we came up with the idea of using each other as obstacles,
vaulting and diving rolling over each other, wall
spinning/flipping off each others backs
All while humming AC/DC's back in black to make sure we where
all landing on beat, it was horrible
1 hour in we had about 5 minutes of show with another 10 to come
up with and a serious case of needing to eats
So we did just that, said "Phufff" and went and got food and had
a look around the place
15 Minutes till we where due on we arrive back to our area a
square of blue carpet and just sat down to talk about what else
we could do for the last 10 minutes of show time
when two guys from Drift Ireland a modified car magazine came
over to us and said we heard what happened to you guys do you
want these
They brought us a life saver, 3 security barriers we could not
have been any happier
We had just finished putting them in to a make shift triangle
when we where surrounded by people coming to see us preform
This meant we had now got ten minutes of improvisation to do mid
show
The time had come, the lights dimmed and we where up
So we started off with what we had choreographed.
Everything was going great and just when we ran out of
everything we had planned, We heard someone in the crowd ask
what's with the rails
That was all the queue we needed and with one look we all set
into vaulting and making our way through the rails occasionally
heading out in pairs to repeat our doubles choreography
When the music stopped somehow we had nailed it, we had tones of
people come over and congratulate us and ask us how long we had
worked on it
And although it when well and we got prised for it, I vowed to
make sure it would never be that hard again
So I went to talks on creativity and even a few work shops on
chorography, so the plan is to spare you on the boring nonsense
and just give you the stuff I found that works
So here is what I learned
Step 1. Liberate everything
Its actually steal everything, but I find the word steal to be a
bit harsh.
Why steal an idea when you can liberate it from its current
captive state and make it into something more?
Someone once said nothing is Original and that right there is
the key to being creative and original.
STOP doing it
Stop trying to look for the new idea instead look for the stuff
you love and ways to make them your own
Everything you call creative is just works that have built on
what's come before, nothing is original
Sure even the Bible says it "There is nothing new under the sun"
(Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Though I prefer Gide's "Everything that needs to be said has
been. But, since no one listens, everything must be said again."
2. Collect ideas
This is something I find hard, as its to dam easy.
Once you start you get ideas from everything and that's a
problem for me
You see I was taught two, what I now see as conflicting ideas.
One write everything down and two collect ideas don't hoard
them.
Lets look at that second one first, apparently "an artist (cause
that's what you are now) is a collector. Not a hoarder"
"Hoarders collect everything and never let anything go, where
artists collect only things they love, and want to share that
love with the world"
Now despite that lecture being more cheesy then I could handle,
I found that to be good advice.
You see at this point nearly a year had past since I got the
first piece of advice to write everything down and I had amassed
a library of books from biomacinics and anatomy to capoeira,
gymnastics and breakdancing
As well as an old orange rucksack full of scraps of paper with
notes and sketches.
It was getting all to much to store and I had no idea of what I
was sitting on anymore as a result I was doing nothing with it
all except collecting dust.
I now had a collection of ideas, books and dust
I was a hoarder
So now I hardly write anything down and hate making lists (ask
Gillian about my shear loathing of anything list based)
As I find I never do anything with them and they sit here and I
will never fully finish any list despite my best intentions
So now I still collect ideas but I keep them in my head
So now I only have a limited time to act on them
I have to record that new video, write that new talk and the big
one try that new movement before I forget which way I spun or
what way I put my hand
I also find that ideas flow into each other much nicer like
this, with one idea re inspiring an old one iv forgotten about
And that right there is the down side, iv a brain like a sieve
and forget everything
Iv lost so many what I thought where genius ideas its not even
funny, but I really really hate lists
I recommended you try both and see what works for you
start with writing stuff down and lists otherwise you never
know, you might just forget to even try it
Point C (for choke on that list)
Surround yourself with ideas
This is kinda part of collecting but I fell its important enough
to warrant its own point.
Your only as good as the stuff you surround yourself with
This one came from a friend of mine that gives talks in
wellbeing and how to better yourself.
She told me that" if you surround yourself with stress and
negativity, your only going to be stressed and negative".
I think the same can be said of ideas and inspiration if you
only surround yourself with **** ideas guess what your going to
get out
If your goal is to collect good ideas and make them your own, it
goes without saying that surely the more good ideas you have
coming your way the more you can pick from to influence you
I try to make friends with everyone I learn from cause if you
talk to someone that inspires you regularly guess how often your
going to be inspired
"The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from."
- questlove
Which leads nicely to this
D. Apprenticeships
"if you try to learn the history of your discipline all at once
you'll choke"
We are lucky that the art of Parkour is relatively new (only
about years), but horribly unlucky that its inspiration movement
itself is about as old as it gets
So what do we do about it when it comes to copying from the
past?
You start small and find out everything there is to know about
one persons style you really love and their movement background,
along the way you'll find out about who inspired them
At which point you then start to learn about one of them and on
it goes until you have found enough to steal to make your own
style
A few weeks back me and the guys where in mine looking through
my dvd collection looking for inspiration for a fight sequence
we were working on for a short movie we just finished, needless
to say this got us on to Jackie Chan and the fact I have 23 of
his movies (to much or not enough? we couldn't decide)
So we stayed on topic of Jackie for half an hour before putting
on buster Keating's classic "One Week" (guess who Jackie lists
has his inspiration)
If your looking for somewhere to start we put up a list of
people that inspire us recently on our Facebook page
The great thing about learning from dead masters or people
you've never met is they cant refuse you as an apprentice
E. Fake it till you make it
When we started displacement way back in 2008
Before we could even decide on a name (its since changed twice),
we worked with and learned from The UPG, a group from Brighton
(expect to hear more about upcoming work with them soon) and the
masters Charles Perriere and Malik Diouf (two of the legendary
Yamakazi, the founders of Parkour)
When we finished I asked buster (the head honcho of the upg) for
any advice he had for us
He gave me two "read everything" and "to be successful, you have
to look successful"
That second one is a big one, I love the fake it till you make
it analogy cause there is two ways to perceive it I recommend
you do both (I still do the second in a way)
1. Pretend to be something your not until you are/ everyone sees
you the way you want them to
2. Pretend to do something until you actually do
As I said I kinda still do the second ill say something like "We
are working on this idea/ project" when really I mean iv thought
about it and will get around to it at some point
Technically you start to work on something the moment you think
about it and how it will work
So its not really a lie, its just making it sound better right?
So I think im going to leave it there before I give away to much
of our secrets and get in trouble (the others beat me)
So go out and fake it, start stealing ideas, writing them down
or forgetting about them, studying other movement and movers and
sharing all your doing with others until you find people asking
where you get your ideas
At which point you can tell them honestly
"I stole it, this guy that jumps over walls for a living told me
to but he hasn't a clue about any of it and honestly neither do
I"
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