Reflection 4: Sparked from the video ‘Stop chasing original ideasâhereâs what actually makes you creative’ by Lofi Cinema
My mind has been through hell trying to come up with anything, whether it be ideas for a project or words for a reflection. Itâs something everyone has to overcome at least once in their life, an inevitability that we just have to deal with. Why is that? Is it because all of the âgood ideasâ have already been taken? Or is it because we feel the need to create something new, never done before, unseen? This assumption is generally what leads people to a block in creative thinking, because coming up with something completely new and having it be good is incredibly difficult to achieve nowadays. Â
I found this video while procrastinating the other day, and it has made me realize what actually makes work original. It gave me a perspective I feel like I already had but just didnât prioritize. The discussion of the video is on the concept of originality and the misconception that surrounds it. Many people believe that creating something original means it has to be a new idea, never seen before. The thoughts presented in video, however, argue that many great works; whether that be in film, art or writing, are modelled upon ideas and works that already exist. To truly create a unique and original piece is to interpret through your own lens. The video describes how interpretation through personal perspectives is what drives creativity, moving away from the belief that invention is what makes something original.
It’s explained in the video that although many ideas, themes, and stories already exist, what turns them into true art is how you interpret them, frame them, feel them, structure them. The video examples that many great pieces, mainly some great films that have been produced, are great not by design but because they are created through genuine emotions and experiences. The main example presented is on the movie Gravity, a survival thriller about a character lost in space, spinning out of control lost in space. Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron didnât just write about a space story; he wrote about how he felt at the time, broke and depressed. When viewed from this perspective, the story stems from a person’s lived feelings and experience; that the feeling of depression is like being alone in space, isolated, away from the world. This idea is expanded through an exercise that director Paul Schrader gives his students. âYou begin with yourself; you are the raw materialâ. Start by writing down your biggest personal problem, just the thing youârecarrying. Then ask yourself, âwhat’s the metaphor for that?â, because thatâs what makes powerful storytelling and creativity. Itâs not the literal story thatâs powerful but the feelings that are translated from underneath.
This approach to originality redefines it into a more accessible and realistic process. As a theatre artist and actor, this way of interpretation relates a lot to the process of becoming a character. That I donât need to play character the way someone else does, but I should become the character through my own interpretation, emotions, and experiences. Thatâs what makes something exceptional, the story beneath the story, that something is not unique because itâs never been done before, but because itâs done by you.
âMaybe itâs about making something no one else could have made… because it came through youâ