The Creative Power of Boredom

Welcome new subscribers! I'm so happy you’re here... in a different place than YouTube. I'll talk about filmmaking and photography, but mostly the creative process. I hope that's okay. I want this newsletter to be a “reminder” to both of us about why we create.

There's a moment on set, when filming dialogue, where the location sound mixer asks for twenty seconds of quiet to record "room tone." This captures the natural ambient sound of the space (no room is actually silent).

During those twenty seconds any movement will rustle clothes and be instantly met with a stern, silent stare from the sound mixer.

The silence is excruciating for most people. You can almost physically see their skin start to crawl as they tense up, not knowing what to do with themselves. They certainly can't reach for their phone. It's the call of the phone—the precious—that creates a massive battle boiling right under the skin.

I've never really had a problem with quiet. "I'm bored" was a curse word on the farm, so I had to get over it early. Homeschooling on top of that was trial-by-fire into facing silence and just thinking, "Well, what are we going to do now?"

I'm not some sort of monk—I can't take credit for this… I can barely make it work myself… but I know that creativity becomes clearer, brighter when you've actually made space for it. Believe me, I would have played video games all day if it was an option. I’m thankful it wasn’t.

It's like when I hear about people, in this rural area with clear skies, who have never seen a shooting star. Haven't you ever just looked up? If you sit for a bit, you can see at least a couple an hour. If you're always distracted, you won't.

In today's video, I talk about how I was converted—evangelized, radicalized—into becoming a serial walker, primarily by Craig Mod, whose book you should absolutely buy and read. We also share an affinity for the term "ding-dong," which is a total bonus.

Walks are an excuse to get exercise, but not so much that it steals your focus. I find the rhythm of it—the 120bpm-ness mixed with nature—drums up a lot of great things.

But beyond walking, spending time bored (or if I spin it differently, in solitude) is where you actually find yourself. It's the foundation of a lot of famous self-discovery stories, but why can’t we be those people too?

OH AND WE SHOT A SHORT FILM!

In the previous newsletter we talked about shooting a short, and we did. It's "in the can." I had the bulk of editing done the very next day, and as this newsletter publishes, I'll be on a train to Toronto for the color transfer. I'm amazed that people share their time with me to make these ideas come to life. I wrote this short film for my daughter and her friend to act in, and now it's getting touched up by the folks who worked on Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa. Mind blown.

And maybe I get a little bit of joy from making them all work on a short film where a child screams “Diarrhea!” Sneak peek below. Next newsletter will be chock full of short film failures and wins.

Booking the colour transfer gave me a deadline for a levitation scene’s VFX work. Boy am I an amateur in After Effects. I didn’t even know there was an “easy wire removal” tool. My work is barely passable, not at all passable if you know what to look for… but I’m not going for the Academy Award… I’m just going for “done”.

Next time you get an email from me will be the moment I post the short on my channel. I'm very excited.

Let's keep figuring this stuff out together.

Jesse

New video here

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