Now that you’ve explored your inspirations, perspective and character, let’s look at pulling those components together. Being true to yourself and expressing your unique view, sets your work apart and makes it interesting to others. Letting go of any fears or restrictions and allowing your creativity to flow freely is essential. Rather than perhaps, your work version that corporate has told you to put on.. use your own version, because I promise you, it is in there! It’s allowing that part to express itself with no fear, which is crucial for coming up with a great idea, because no one else has ever been there before, and that part is unique to yourself, and that’s why it’s interesting to everyone else..! I know I’ve just said this in the previous lesson, but this is important, so I’m re-iterating it!
I spent around 6 years doing corporate work for my clients, their businesses, and their products before I entered a LaCie Drive competition that changed my life. The competition was the first time I could freely create how I wanted to make something and what I wanted to say. I had all that energy pent up inside me, and I even called the film “I just want to make something”. It was an expression of how I was feeling at the time.
It came from a place of “f*ck it, I’ve done enough thinking and mulling over. I just want to make something, right now, today” - it was fuelled by people who inspired me (it was during the Casey Neistat vlog era. Yeah wow, he kickstarted the fire in me during that time). It was also fuelled by my perspectives on the world. I was frankly tired of slaving over videos being produced to impress my client’s audience. It really embraced my character too - there are little jokes and things I wanted to include that were unique to me, and that fired me up because these pieces of character felt unique, and that was exciting to me!
Competitions and courses can help you explore and experiment with different styles and approaches to help you find what elements of yourself you want to bring into your content. They’re a great way to have fun and play with content without any rules from anyone. Honestly, the most important videos I’ve made have come from these kinds of experiences, which is why I made this course, to give other creators the same opportunity I had to make something that will hopefully support some kind of change in direction for your content.
So if you're feeling stuck or unsure about your creative direction, consider entering a competition or taking a course to challenge yourself, and help you find your voice and explore your unique perspective. Good news, you’re already doing that, on this course right now!
Keep in mind that this is a process. It won’t happen overnight, and it won’t come by working for your client’s companies to a brief that they want you to produce a certain way. And the same goes if you plan on mirroring a viral YouTube video you’ve just seen. You have to explore your creative voice and work at it. It’s a little different if a client or brand comes to you BECAUSE of your unique style, that’s different, and that’s great. And I guess that’s the end goal for everyone here right?!
But by allowing yourself to explore these parts of yourself, you’ll be able to find your style, find your tone, and from learning that about yourself, create content that you actually want to create. And the great ideas will flow so much more naturally at that point because you only have to think from your perspective, and that’s easy, because that’s actually how you feel! (and it’s how you’re wired!)
So, with all these things in mind, we'll go over your task, and then let’s go over Idea Generation in the next lesson.
Your task for this lesson is to compile the lists you’ve come up with over the last 3 lessons. Read over, absorb, and use them as a guide to consider what form your ideas could look like. Don’t worry about going into too much detail here because, in the next lesson, we’re talking more about Idea Generation.
So, stay open-minded, absorb your surroundings, and allow yourself to think up ideas freely.
(Remember, you can use the PDF file as a template if you’d like)
