Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com
10,000 Hours to Mastery
Pop Psych Author Malcolm Gladwell famously philosophised the concept that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a craft. You really couldn’t ask for a more saccharine outlook on greatness, where genius is the creation of those willing to endure the time and hardship. Many fields can rely on this simple formula, certain Sports for example, where the linearity of the rules dictate that the Team or Player with the highest skill-set should determine the victor. Filmmaking (and many Arts) tend to play by a different set of rules, and the Auteur’s inhabiting the domain can never fully obtain Mastery, and frankly should never want to.
During a recent Pre-Production meeting for my latest Directing venture and first foray into Stop-Motion Animation, an energy surge came over me. The environment was nothing out of the ordinary, in fact, these concept meetings are a dime a dozen, this was even the same French-pressed, organic coffee my trusty Soho waitress Laura has served for years. This feeling I had was my creative furnace, burning hot with this first plunge into Stop-Motion and all the new toys around me primed to become the tools to create movie magic. Ten thousand hours never prepared me for the unknown and I couldn’t be happier, because that creative furnace must always be cooking.
Into ‘The Abyss’
Take your pick of Cinema’s living legends, whether it be Spielberg, Tarantino, Cameron or Clint Eastwood, they all share a common driving force that continues to propel them to new heights. The unknown is a scary place to be and practice can never prepare you enough, so when James Cameron decides to dedicate a decade to developing new technology for his Films, it comes from a place of pure innovation. Opinions will divide on the output of these Filmmakers, but the reason their past and future work stands the test of time boils down to their willingness to break new grounds and never settle. The Master is in essence always a beginner.
Filmmakers, Storytellers, Artists, (insert craft here) must dedicate ten thousand hours and when that’s done start over. The creative furnace is never satisfied. It can’t overflow or peak and like our bodies it must be fed, nourished and stimulated or else it will seize to exist. You owe it to your creativity to keep the spark alive and believe me, your audience will be endlessly grateful