Grit and Ira Glass.

I just finished a fantastic book called “Grit” by Angela Duckworth. The book is SO good that I actually read it twice, back to back. The first time I extracted some awesome quotes like these:

“Each of the basic requirements of deliberate practice is unremarkable: A clearly defined stretch goal, Full concentration and effort, Immediate and informative feedback, Repetition with reflection and refinement.”

Angela Duckworth

“To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.”

Angela Duckworth

“Gritty people do more deliberate practice and experience more flow.”

Angela Duckworth

The second time I read the book, I took the time to pause during certain moments and really reflect on how Duckworth’s advise could be applied to my own professional life.

“Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.”

Angela Duckworth

I’m going to grow up to love my work as much as you love yours. I won’t just have a job; I’ll have a calling. I’ll challenge myself every day. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest. In the long run, grit may matter more than talent.

Angela Duckworth

One of the most interesting exercises was to think who represents Grit to me. And Ira Glass, the well-know host of “This American Life” was the first one to come to mind.

I’ve watched this video by Glass endless times. I’ve used it on some of my “Storytelling” online courses and workshops. And I’ve shared it with more students than any other video. Why? Simply because in 5 minutes we condenses the process all creative people go through, not only once or twice, but pretty much every time we push ourselves, get our of our comfort zones and try new things.

On a more recent interview on “Without Fail“, the host Alex Blumberg (who worked for Glass for many years) shared a little bit of Ira’s process. If there’s no “Grit” on that, I don’t know where to find it!

If you want to learn more about Ira Glass and his creative process, I’d highly recommend watching this hour-long interview at Google.

And last but not least, I’ll leave you with one more quote by Angela Duckworth:

Grit has two components: passion and perseverance. This consistent pattern – perseverance scores more often topping passion scores – is a clue that passion and perseverance aren’t exactly the same thing.

Angela Duckworth

In the Mood for Love Redux.

I love Asian cinema and I feel a strong and special attraction and respect for Wong Kar-Wai’s work, especially his earlier collaborations with Chris Doyle. Wong Kar-Wai is known for his “romantic and stylish films that explore—in saturated, cinematic scenes—themes of love, longing, and the burden of memory.” In terms of photographing urban landscapes, especially at night, I can’t think of a better cinematographer than Doyle.

For the past couple of months I’ve been revisiting his movies, his video interviews, and reading as much as possible about his production methods and unconventional approaches to filmmaking.

Check out the following books to learn more about this amazing director:
“The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai” by Gary Bettinson
“Wong Kar-Wai: Auteur of Time” by Stephen Teo
“Wong Kar-Wai” by Peter Brunette
The long-awaited and complete Kar-Wai retrospective with more than 250 photographs and film stills will be released in September but it can be can pre-ordered now.

In order to better understand his compositional and directorial choices I imported “In the Mood for Love” into Premiere Pro and selected my favorite scenes, including those critical to the story, those that are brilliantly original, and scenes that are flawlessly executed or contain a number of technical achievements (like the impeccable use of dolly moves). I then re-cut all my favorite scenes from the original 94 minutes into a single 18-minute clip (below), always trying to keep the integrity of the story. My goal here is to help someone who hasn’t seen the movie grasp its (very convoluted) story in one 18-minute clip.

If you haven’t see the movie, I highly recommend it, and I’d love to hear from you once you see it.
If you have seen the movie, did I leave any key cinematic moments out?

Francis Bacon and The Last Tango in Paris.

 

Inspiration often comes from the most unexpected sources. I am reading Moviemakers’ Master Class: Private Lessons from the World’s Foremost Directors, and found the conversation with Bernardo Bertolucci, and his inspiration for the “Last Tango in Paris” fascinating.  (more…)

Looking for inspiration? Find a Mutoscope.

 
After three jam-packed weeks attending Photokina, the Glimpse Conference, Cloudforce, and PhotoPlus Expo, I have something to confess: the most interesting and inspiring gadget/technology/trend I saw was NOT Samsung’s innovative Galaxy Camera, Fuji’s slick X-E1, Blackmagic’s Cinema Camera or a new powerful software application.

It was a Mutoscope I saw at Frankfurt’s Film Museum. “A what?” you may ask.

The Mutoscope, an early motion picture device, was patented by Herman Casler in 1894. Cheaper and simpler than Edison’s Kinetoscope, it did NOT project on a screen, and it provided viewing to only one person at a time. The system was marketed by the American Mutoscope Company and quickly dominated the coin-in-the-slot “peep-show” business.

I am in love with the simplicity of this device, the way the viewer interacts with the story by using a hand crank. And story is what really matters. In under 60 seconds (the “movie” starts below at 00:34) we get to see a “crazy wheel” running free through a small town, and the villagers trying to catch it. See, this is about storytelling, not technology. It’s not about sensor size, firmware updates, bigger-is-better, or faster-is-better. It is about the story, something I feel we have been loosing at an ever-increasing speed. If you are looking for some inspiration or motivation, look no further.

Events like hurricane Sandy make us revalue some of our priorities, the real significance of things we often take for granted, like running water, electricity, and true friends. In a similar way the Mutoscope hit a nerve. For some strange reason, the idea of producing something simply for fun or pleasure is becoming obsolete. We should, and we will, go back to the basics. Work harder on telling more engaging stories, developing new angles, communicating better ideas and asking deeper questions. Technology is great, but it is not the be-all and end-all that most photographers assume it to be. I’m sure some of you feel the same way. Want even more inspiration? Check this out.