Yesterday I found myself in the crosshairs of a verbal exchange at a music video shoot.
I had done something in ignorance that got in the way of the artist’s vision. They were expressing how certain shots captured I was in were not according to his plan. In truth I was just being a follower. We all joined in as we normally do, which was actually the problem, he needed extras, not cameos. He had a legitimate grievance.
While this was never communicated to me, I was still being assumptive and I’d even say arrogant.
I never once asked what he wanted me to do. All of us extras were guilty. None of us asked.
When your artist friend has a vision they are trying to execute on, anything else is a distraction.
Anyone investing time and money into something creative you expects a certain outcome
JS and I have had many squabbles over artistic vision and no one’s ever really right.
When I put a lot of time into visualizing something, I become very set in my ways. Despite what people think I will change my mind if something comes across dope to me, but most of the time I’m trying to do something specific. Your idea either helps me achieve that goal, or it doesn’t.
A lot of times as a leader the art is in knowing when to say yes, which should get rarer as you get wiser.
Many times your artist friends feel helpless, despite all the apparent “help” they receive. Whenever the people around you aren’t pushing towards the vision, it feels more of a burden than anything else. People tend to react strongly to having their ideas rejected.
This time around I was clearly the one preventing a vision from coming to life and it was a humbling experience.
It’s probably better to be like Spectrax and wait on the sidelines until it’s your turn at bat.
These artistic ideas tend to have a lot of thought behind them
Sometimes when dealing with an artist you see something clear as day they can do to improve.
The artist is telling you about what they have in mind and when they are done you drop this knowledge nugget on them. Then you see the artist get kind of weird with you like your improvement is sacrilegious in some way. After about 10 minutes of back and forth the artist explains this long and convoluted sounding reasoning why your idea won’t work and you feel like they are an idiot.
There may actually be a good reason in the diatribe that explains why your idea is actually bad.
Now the worst part is chances are your idea was actually good in some contexts but not all contexts.
To reach an artist they need to feel like you understand the entirety of their vision. You need all their context. Every minute details.
Once you get all that, and prove you care, they may actually listen to you.
Your experience is not their experience
For some people throwing a bag of pickle chips at an audience crowd is an absurd marketing tactic.
For me it makes a lot of sense.
Some people’s character requires them to dress in all black. Other people pull up to the middle of nowhere Vermont in an orange jumpsuit before changing into a fully pink suit. We all have our own paths and reasons for the creative choices we make.
At least we should have reasons.
When your artist friends are looking for help, a lot of the time it is not leadership they need. They don’t need creative advice on how to improve their plan. What they are looking for is some soldiers who are down to help.
If they are about their shit for real, they have mentors. If they want your expertise in a domain, they will ask for it. Otherwise what they need help with is people who will deliver on the mission.
If you want to help your artist friends, ask them what they need help with.
Then shut the fuck up and listen.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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