Conclusion

My Manifesto

1. Don't Listen to Other People. There will be many times when people don't like your work. They'll suggest that you try something else, perhaps even tell you to give up being creative. Don't listen to them. Keep creating; if only for the sake of the process of creation.

2. Specialize AND Diversify. As a creative individual, you need to be able to stand out. What makes you different than the person competing with you for a job? What is it about your process that gives you an edge? There needs to be a few things that you do well - such as event videography, or editing. But be able to do the rest - at least at an introductory level. Be able to compose, to write, to create sound, motion graphics, and DVDs or internet based media. That way you can tackle any job.

3. Collaborate. Sure, it's a tough industry to get into. But you're not going to make many friends by doing things your way by yourself. Consider helping out other people with their projects. Network. Find collegues. Perhaps one day they could be in a position to hire you.

4. Create. Don't stop. Continue making things, not matter how big or how small. The process is what's important, almost as much as the end product. If you can look at a project and say that you've learned something, than it was absolutely worth it.

5. Learn. It's important to keep up with technology and with what others in your field are doing. Make it a habit to see what they're up to, and what new things you could be doing too.

6. Try Something New. It's always smart to attempt new things, and new ideas. Try approaching a task with a different mindset. Or, even consider trying a new creative process. Perhaps music isn't your thing. Who cares? Give it a shot, and see where you end up. The process is what matters.

7. Explore. Being in the same environment isn't the most conducive thing to creativity. Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone to get a new perspective on things. Go on, give it a shot.

8. Refresh. After a while, you might get tired of how you've branded yourself, or how you do things. So why not refresh things and start anew? Make a new business card, redesign your website. Give things a fresh coat of paint and see how it looks in the morning. At the very least it'll help to inspire you.

9. Review. Everyone likes looking at old photos, seeing where they were in the past. Reflecting on the journey is a meditative process. Look back on your old work. Take a look at how you did things a while back, and remember how you've changed it up. Go on a personal journey.

10. Mentor. One of the most rewarding things you can do creatively is to help out other people who are interested in what you love to do. Find someone who is just starting out. Give them advice, and help them grow. You'll foster a professional relationship - perhaps a friendship.

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It's been a long 10 weeks, but overall I've learned a great deal. I look at media in a different light, and hope to continue challenging myself to do similar. Hopefully you will too.

10A. Response to "Freak Factor"

David Rendall’s “FREAK FACTOR: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness.

Overall this essay talks about the misconception that anyone different or not part of the crowd is wrong, and therefore erroneously needs to change. Furthermore, it discusses in part how people put too much effort into attempting to eradicate their weaknesses; when in fact they should focus on improving their strengths.

2) What's My Problem?

This suggestion is particularly meaningful to me because it's something that I've noticed time and time again. In school, in the workplace, and just in general, people seem to believe that if they have weaknesses, these problems need to be addressed and handled quickly. But I find it refreshing that these weaknesses aren't really problems at all - in fact, they point to the strengths that we all have.  The man who doesn't respect authority often is the man who starts his own business and takes charge.  The one who is disorganized is creative.  And the list goes on and on.  These so called weaknesses are admittedly problematic in typical workplaces...but when given the opportunity to flourish and work on their own, such problems reveal great strengths and the ability to succeed.

4) Forget It: Don't Try to Fix Your Weaknesses

This also is intriguing to me because we are all expected to correct and remove whatever "weaknesses" we have. However, David makes some strong arguments against dismissing your weaknesses and focusing instead on your strengths. First, it's slow and difficult to make progress on adjusting a weakness. In order to make a difference, you would need to put a lot of time and energy into the process.  Secondly, it hurts. It's painful and - plainly - not fun to try and get better at something we're bad at. Thirdly, fixing a weakness is distracting. The time that we spend on making a weakness less weak could be spent on activities that complement our strengths or increase our skill in things we are good at.  Finally, and most importantly, David suggests that any attempt to fix a weakness will fail. Even if we are able to turn a negative trait into a neutral or slightly positive one, it's not a powerful strength. At best it's a mediocre strength that really isn't useful for anything.

6) Focus: You Can't Do Both

This final example brought up an interesting real life example: commercial stores.  The focus of the discussion was on the idea that as a business (and therefore as an individual), you can only focus on fixing a weakness or building a strength. Unfortunately, many people try to do both at the same time, and the result is largely that they fail at both. The example used was of Walmart and Target. Walmart's strength is low prices; its weakness is low quality products and unhelpful employees. Target's strength is the opposite: good quality products and employees, but at a higher cost to the consumer. Both stores focus entirely on building their strengths, while ignoring their weaknesses, which is something we should all strive to do. Kmart was used as an example of a store that tried to both promote its strengths while working on its weaknesses at the same time. The result was a mediocre store with mediocre products - and consumers decided not to shop there.  Likewise, your interactions with people will result on how you approach your strengths. Make yourself valuable, and don't try to be great at everything - you'll just be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

As far as the creative process goes, my strength is that I can work well on my own. I've started my own business, and as such I am able to work with clients to completely produce video products. As such, my weakness is linked to working well on my own in that at times I find it challenging to work with others. I prefer to do things my way because I know it will work for me, and I can keep track of scheduling. It's hard to delegate tasks to other people, trusting that they can get the job done.

9B. Collapsus/TransMedia

Collapsus: Interactive Multimedia



Download Audio Response Here!

9A. Gaming Reflection

One point that didn't come off so great was our use of in-game music. Originally, we were going to have a slide that incorporated the music into the game; however when we presented the slide was missing, and we had to end the presentation, find the music file, and play it back in iTunes. This was more a technical error rather than a weakness in explaining a concept.
It was also challenging to explain the rules of the game. Rules declare to the player what can and cannot be done, and all games have a lot of them. We tried to explain most of the rules that we came up with, such as including a 5 minute time limit, but the most challenging rule to explain was the punishment rule. In our game, there are certain harmful actions that you could take against other characters in the game, but doing so would result in a time penalty, which would make the game harder. We envisioned this happening because the protagonist is already in a situation where his reputation could be harmed; he wouldn't want to do anything that could make him look like a worse person.
It was easiest to talk about our objectives. Because our game is an online Flash game, the objectives are simple and easy to understand and explain.  Basically, the player has to find the incriminating pictures before the time runs out. Beyond that, the player needs to navigate whatever obstacles the antagonist puts in his path, including attack dogs, puzzles, and social dilemmas. There are a few minigames within the game that encourage the player to participate to get clues.  Because the things the player has to do in order to succeed are obvious and to be expected, we found it easy to outline and explain them.