Creative Theories: Research and Analysis
Flow is a concept developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a mental state in which a subject becomes fully immersed in an activity. In flow, the emotions must be positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. If depression, anxiety or any negative feelings towards the activity are felt, this means that the subject is not experiencing Flow.
A person who experiences Flow will have clear goals, high concentration and a distorted sense of time. These are but a few of the things that may occur during Flow, another being that the subject may lose awareness of their bodily needs and can get very hungry or tired without even realising it.
By definition, a Mind Map is a graphical approach to note taking. Typically, they take on a tree-branch format. Mind Maps are used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, to help study or organize information, as well as to help problem solving, making decisions and writing.
Generally, when constructing a Mind Map, you will put the core idea in the centre of the space and each idea will stem from there, and the next ideas from each of those branches, ultimately resulting in a tree-like or a web-like diagram of the developed idea.
HOW I MIGHT USE THESE IN THE CREATION OF MY FILM
Mind Maps is obviously a fantastic way to develop an idea. Using this, I can create a Mind Map that can include many possible themes that I could include in my movie, as well as develop my characters and their possible personalities.
Flow would be a harder thing to include as it is a reasonably hard thing to achieve. As there are many things that can go wrong a film set, some unforeseeable, it may be very difficult to achieve a state of Flow. However, I believe, with the pressure of shooting out of the way, Flow can be achieved in the post-production stage. As editing will be a reasonably lengthy process, concentration will be required as well as clear goals, and a distorted sense of time and being unaware of bodily needs probably wouldn't hurt either.