Collaboration

Creativity, in our business is all about collaboration. Camera and Sound. Producer and Editor. Director and Actor. And so it goes. Collaboration can be bliss or chaos. Sometimes both. When two conflicting visions vie for a voice, sometimes the result is glorious harmony. Say, as in the work of Leiber and Stoller, whose book details how they came up with some of Motown's greatest hits. What was it like? Here's an inside view of their approach to working together: "I can't remember if it's Mike or Jerry who describes their relationship as a 50-year-old argument," says David Ritz, who ghostwrote Leiber and Stoller's joint memoir. In their words, it was "long, long years of stepping on each other's words and toes and sentences."

And then there's the dynamic duo, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In Keith's new book, Life, he describes yet another turbulent collaboration, but a winning partnership too. And that dichotomy is also the subject of a recent NPR story on the powerful energy unleashed by polar opposites.

For me, the key to a successful collaboration in music or any other creative effort is to find a way to harness that energy. I think it's normal, even predictable to have different approaches, different points of view. That's part of the creative process. But then it's about listening, hashing it out, exploring and synthesizing. You can travel parallel paths, zig and zag, but eventually you have to come together. And when you do, you can really rock and roll.

strength in numbers

It's great when a client takes the time to give you feedback about the results of your efforts. Here's what one said about a complicated PSA project we recently completed involving several days shooting and nine actors:
This afternoon I had a brief conversation regarding the PSA.
"Mr. Y" is "delighted" with our approach and commented on the likability of the actors
and how well it was written for the audience in VA. As you may already know, this is
quite an accomplishment.
What distinguished this project, for me, was how it involved so many people from our shop. One person wrote the script, another produced it, another shot it, another edited it, another did the graphics and another managed it as Creative Director. All bringing their own creative vision to the project. And all working together seamlessly as a team.

On another recent project Ali, my co-editor, and I did "tag team" editing for a series of award videos for another client. Facing an extremely tight deadline, we decided to each play to our strengths to get the job done. So I created the structure for each piece and then handed it off to Ali for finishing. Not how we usually do things, but like everyone else here, we did what we had to do to make it happen. And that's one of the great strengths here - making our collaborative model with everyone working as a team, quite powerful. Strength in numbers.