{"id":122,"date":"2010-04-22T20:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/?p=122"},"modified":"2010-04-22T20:32:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T02:32:00","slug":"instincts-remember-those","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/?p=122","title":{"rendered":"INSTINCTS: Remember those?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

I’m a little burned out these days, due to a number of pressures and people in the big studio machine\u2026 but it\u2019s given me something to say here.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Many of you who read this blog consider yourselves artists, or at the very least, creative thinkers. That means you live and die by one thing: your INSTINCTS.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favorite quotes about directing comes from Irvin Kershner, director of one of my favorite movies, \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back.\u201d His DVD commentary sounds more like your grandpa telling stories than a classroom lecture, and there are some golden nuggets in there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At the start of the commentary, Kershner says, \u201cDirecting is guessing. You GUESS that the script is good and ready to shoot, you GUESS when you hire the actors that they\u2019ll do a good job, you GUESS at where you want to put the camera when you shoot it, and you GUESS what to cut out and what to leave in when you edit. There\u2019s no right or wrong. There\u2019s only your best guess.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Way to whittle it down, Irv. And what is at the center of an educated guess? <\/span><\/span>Instinct<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Instinct is your <\/span><\/span>first guess<\/span><\/span><\/span> at something when you don\u2019t think too much about it. Instinct is the tip of a mental iceberg that you have built over many, many years of experience. You study, you make mistakes, you learn from your last project, and then you have cultivated this response <\/span><\/span>as a creator.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: rewriting is essential. Listening to notes is important. Considering your audience is part of the job. But as an artist, if you\u2019ve spent years cultivating your instincts, then you need to listen to them and always return to them. If you start over-thinking your instincts, you\u2019re dead.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then you\u2019re just fulfilling a committee\u2019s requests. You\u2019re letting all ideas in. Even good ideas can be damaging if they do not fit into the director\u2019s original vision \u2013 the gut feeling he had when he began.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I say all this because, if you create in a popular art form, I believe it is the <\/span><\/span>root<\/span><\/span><\/span> of any obstacle you will face. There are a lot of voices that will pull at you and tell you how to create. But you\u2019ve got to stay connected to that voice inside you, the one that made you respond to the work in the first place. I would add my own quote to Mr. Kershner\u2019s: \u201cINSTINCT IS EVERYTHING.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After the problems I\u2019ve faced with a number of studio executives this past year, I am convinced it all boils down to instincts. First, they don\u2019t have any. Or it\u2019s fair to say that any creative instincts that they ever had were deadened long ago. They\u2019ve been in too many meetings, working hard on pleasing too many agendas. Their job is to listen to trends, to their bosses, to the marketing department, and then, maybe then, to the storyteller.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s okay! Let\u2019s just acknowledge that some people have a different job. And their<\/span><\/span> job is to listen to other things that are not instinctual. They do their job, I do my job. The problems arise when they start pretending that they\u2019ve got creative instincts too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think we can all agree that great suggestions come from business people, the common man, even focus groups. But they are not to be replaced with the gut feelings of the artist. Everything has to weigh against that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m saying this today because lately I have had to remind myself. You might say I am taking some time to \u201crededicate myself at the altar of Instinct.\u201d This is the only way I can be refreshed to fight the good fight, to make the good stuff. If I lose my belief in my instincts, I\u2019m dead.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Instinct, much like inspiration, is not only where art comes from, it\u2019s usually what great art is ABOUT. Instinct is that magical realm of the spirit. It\u2019s where The Force comes from. It\u2019s why Neo can see the code of the Matrix, or why Indiana Jones knows where to dig when no one else does.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We are artists. We have the keys to that realm, if we stay open and alert to its call. Get to know your instincts. Sharpen them, learn their voice. When you\u2019ve built up years of trusting your instincts, you become a confident artist. Then you can weather the storms of the naysayers and committees and the second-guessers. They have their job to do, you have yours. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only way good art is ever going to sneak through the cracks! And let\u2019s face it, sometimes that\u2019s the only way it gets out there. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a little burned out these days, due to a number of pressures and people in the big studio machine\u2026 but it\u2019s given me something to say here. Many of you who read this blog consider yourselves artists, or at the very least, creative thinkers. That means you live and die by one thing: your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}