The thing I know when I’m not in the middle of a project is that it’s best for me to be able to consider a project before I start the project. It’s the ideal time for me to mentally iterate the possibilities of what I could do.
Because when I’m in the middle... I’m super focused on what I’m doing in that moment. Which is important. Which is necessary. So long as that’s not my process for the entire project.
Know what I mean?
The level at which I work and the success my work’s able to achieve rests on my ability to visualize holistically, consider/reconsider/discard alternatives, imagine outside the box, and iterate in a manner that’s only possible inside the human mind.
For me, the best time to engage these creative superpowers is before I even get started. Before I set foot in the edit suite or studio.
Of course, once I’m inside a project where I have to engage multiple disciplines... that’s a huuuuuge challenge. I mean, I can’t hand off one job to the next like marathon runners. Oh sure I could... because technically I know all the tools and how to use them. But the central challenge is Why... to use them. Why this one and not that. Why those ones and not these. Why here and not there. Why now and not later. Questions, all, for which I need time for my brain to do its thing.
Visualize holistically.
Consider/reconsider/discard alternatives.
Imagine outside the box.
And iterate in a manner that’s only possible...
Inside the human mind.
What that means... is that I’ve gotta create buffers between the disciplines, between the jobs that I do, whenever the editor’s gotta hand off to the designer to the composer. Or whenever the writer’s gotta hand off to the director to the editor. Even the micro hand-offs that are inevitably necessary within the production and post-production process.
How big’s that buffer gotta be?
Well, however big, however much time I can take based on the time that I have. At the very least, I need to allow my brain to bring what I’m currently working on to find a natural close... so that my mental apparatus can do what it has to do in order to cleanly shift and focus on a new task.
Of course I can always just jump straight into what’s next. But that creates a drag on my creativity, problem-solving ability, and focus. All of which can cause me to struggle after the hand-off, allow missteps to flourish, oversights, wrong turns, u-turns, and straight-up restarts. All of which costs me time.
That’s just the neuroscience of it.
“The prefrontal cortex of the brain begins working anytime you need to pay attention. This area of your brain helps keep your attention on a single goal and carry out the task by coordinating messages with other brain systems. Working on a single task means both sides of the prefrontal cortex are working together in harmony. Adding another task forces the left and right sides of the brain to work independently. Scientists at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in Paris discovered this when they asked study participants to complete two tasks at the same time while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results showed that the brain splits in half and causes us to forget details and make three times more mistakes when given two simultaneous goals.”
So.
Buffers and boundaries between the jobs I do is where I’m at. Finding natural endings and beginnings within my work processes. And treating those hats I wear...
Well, I actually have to be those people as if they’re separate individuals each working the same project and wielding their own expertise within their own disciplines.
Because the human brain doesn’t multitask in the way we think (and hope) it does. And using my brain the way it works best turns out to be the first priority of the work that I do.
No matter how many hats I wear.
:-)