GSL Network

I met with Nigel Corbett at GSL network yesterday.  Unlike traditional advertising agencies they have only one creative head. The rest of their creative team is a 'network' of collaborators who come together to respond to client needs. This allows the network to be adaptable, responsive and creative. Rather than fulfilling any preconception of marketing and advertising their aim is to meet the needs of the client in an ever changing media landscape.

http://gslnetwork.co.nz/

It's a similar structure that we have worked with in film for years. A network of contractors who's unique skills can be called on for the right job. Hopefully businesses like this will continue to thrive  through collaborating with a broad group of artisans and creatives. Working this way will result in art growing to meet a demand. A smart way to work.

'Being Seen' is more important than 'Hard Work'.

The key to working with and engaging other artists is your ability to be 'seen'. It doesn't matter how wonderful an idea you have. If you don't let people see 'your art' and the qualities you have then there will be no quality communication and no collaboration.

When most of us start out in film we're digging holes, cleaning buckets and brushes, delivering lunches. From there we move into roles of greater responsibility.  Most think this is a process of working from the bottom up. Most translate this as 'you work hard, complete the task then graduate to the next level'.  This is not completely true.  What is actually happening here is you are allowing yourself to be seen. Are you a hard worker, smart, patient, talented, creative? what qualities are revealed through your work?  Does the work reveal your art?

When we consider recognition through 'being seen' rather than task completion our relationship to the work shifts dramatically.  Also we become awake to the most important questions. How do I want to be seen? And where do I best reveal that? Too often we take on work we think will lead to something without considering what it reveals of our art.

In 2006 I was hired for the film 'Bridge to Terabithia' as a researcher and runner.  I got books, reference and delivered lunches to Roger Murray and his props crew at Main Reactor...Roger will be the first to tell you how bad those lunches were.  I was being seen but not particularly well.  So I did something about it.

In the evenings I started doing illustrations of the production designers (Rob Gillies) plans. This was not my job. I was reminded on more than one occasion that the work wasn't necessary. Still every night I worked late to create concept art. Pretty soon the work was getting noticed. I set up in an office next to Rob and was powering through designs. Next Tim Coddington called me to his office. I had been seen, by a producer...I was terrified. On the floor of his office were storyboard frames. Too many to count. Every inch of carpet was covered. Tim ran me through the story explaining a frame was missing here, there, a sequence there and another there. I nodded politely in silence. Then he said, "Can you storyboard?". I nodded again even though I had no idea if I could or not. "Great." he said "lets have those changes for the end of the day."

Had I worked hard at the job I had been given as a runner yes I might have been offered it again. Likely though I wouldn't have. I didn't work my way up from this position. I couldn't.  It didn't reveal anything that was unique about me.  To be seen the way I wanted I had to do the work that allowed that. The only way to be 'seen' was through my art.

http://www.brendanheffernan.com/Bridge-to-Terabithia

Upcoming Movies

Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland have the NZ premier of thier debut Feature film 'Shopping' coming to cinemas soon.  Be sure to check it out. I am fortunate enough to be doing a bit of sketching on an idea they have brewing away.

Also check out Andrew Adamson's 'Mister Pip' when it reaches our screens. You can check out the trailer and a couple of my digital paintings for the film at the link to my website below.

http://www.brendanheffernan.com/#Mister-Pip 

We can't give what we don't have.

We can't give what we don't have. Who we are matters immeasurably more than what we know and who we want to be.   
P.177 'Daring Greatly' by Brene Brown

After directing a short film and production designing another two there is hope that I might direct or production design for feature length films. This is my hope.  It is a hope shared by the people that have helped me along the way.

The danger of course is that this hope has no tangible value yet. It does not exist. It may one day but right now it does not.  I am not any of those things. They are merely aspirations. This aspiration can be dangerous.  Aspiration can create a divide between 'what I can do now' and 'what I can do later' (once my goals are achieved).  Instead of waiting to give through 'what I want' it's far better to give through 'what I have'.

What I can do now is concept art and art direction. I'm good at it. Who I am now is a much bigger subject but I feel free to say I am of enormous value to a creative team. 

Contribute through who you are now. Once we reach our goals we'll be all the more practised and able to contribute from that place and who we are then.

Defining my Work

My work is to create for the benefit of audience and artistic community. What I create is the byproduct of a life lived artistically. The way I ‘live’ my work is my focus. When my actions, words and thoughts are creative and generous then I am fulfilling my work. The artistic community I look to benefit includes creators and makers for the arts as well as students working toward these roles. I measure my work against market criteria of cost and gain, critical response, satisfaction level of practitioners I work with and the joy and enrichment of my audience. The main measure I work by is the ‘look your self in the mirror’ test. Do I like the person staring back? If so then I am on my mission, I am on my path…I am in my work.

My approach to work is to expose my process of creation openly, unguarded without agenda. In a word  to be 'Vulnerable'. I practice modeling how I work to others to grow trust, confidence, energy and job satisfaction for all. 

Like all I have a responsibility to my family and the community I work with. My aim is to work in ways that are sustainable and support the financial security, independence and freedom of my family and my fellow artists.

We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven,

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

            ~ Tennyson Ulysses 

Above a quote from Tennyson Via 'Skyfall'. I am exploring themes of courage and sacrifice for a feature film.  In this quote Tennyson reminds us not to identify with the past or the image of heroism that our minds have constructed. Rather he implores us to see the value of  who we are now. 

Credit The Man In The Arena...But which Arena?

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"

delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 

Theodore Roosevelt

What I love about Roosevelt's speech is there is no mention of fear or overcoming it. Fear and bravery is not even considered. Every man experiences these feelings as much as every man experiences breathing. Fear and bravery is so common amongst us that it is irrelevant. What is important and relevant is what you devote these feelings to. What is your worthy cause? and Why?

We spend so much time avoiding the arena because we are afraid of failure that by the time we get there we haven't even addressed the problem of significance...Which Arena should I be in?

The sooner we start making work and striving through the experience of the deed, as Roosevelt describes, the sooner we can move through the arena's of learning and discover the arena where we can thrive.

Courage

Courage is not a fixed entity that belongs to a single moment; rather, it accumulates and is tested over time. It takes courage to face a challenge. That process, in turn, generates further courage. Our life experiences enhance our ability to understand our roles in society and strengthen our will to take further actions. A society can have courage only when its members can have faith in justice and fairness and know that their constitutional rights are protected. Civil courage is born of openness to education, access to information and recognition of a society’s strengths.


Exert from a speech by Artist Ai Weiwei.
http://worldvoices.pen.org

May 01, 2013

Overcoming Fear to Build a Courageous Society in China

• By: Ai Weiwei Source: Washington Post