I love the idea that books now need trailers. I read so many books based on trailers I've stumbled across rather than reviews. Never a great fan of reviews. Recommendations yes, but not reviews.
I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Jonah Lehrer's new book 'Imagine' and wondering why I'm holding off putting the finishing touches to my own book on the same subject. I clearly need to give myself some restrictions to make sure it gets completed before I find myself back in work with no time to think. Perhaps I should make the trailer first detailing what's in the book and when it will be finished.
Sorry, just thinking out loud. Watch the trailer. Read the book. Feel free to let me know if there is any need for another book on the subject or if it has all been covered by writers who can actually write, unlike myself.
Last night I went to see Bill Cunningham New York, one of the best films I've seen in such a long time. Bill lives a life of simplicity in a world of excess and glamour. He shuns the limo lifestyle getting around New York on his bicycle. He has few clothes and gaffa tapes them together when they fall apart. And he refuses meals at the celebrity dinners he attends most evenings in favour of a $3 diner sandwich.
Throughout the entire film you're constantly questioning how such a man survives in an industry that is so at odds with his own values. In a film sprinkled with touching moments the one that stood out for me was when it was revealed that BIll parted company with Women's Wear Daily because they had changed the copy of an article to poke fun at how people were dressed in some of his pictures. For Bill there was no 'In' or 'Out', just 'In'. There was no 'Cool' or 'Uncool', just cool. Why be derogatory about something that should just slip by unnoticed. Socialite Annette de la Renta later notes, “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a cruel picture done by Bill.” It's a cruel business, with questionable morals, which is why it will never be see in light as other art forms. If only it had Bill's values.
Here's a few moments of brilliance from the great man:
"Everyone has taste, but they don’t have the daring to be creative."
"I let the street speak to me."
"If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. That’s the key to the whole thing."
"Money is the cheapest thing. Freedom is the most expensive thing."
"It’s as true today as it ever was, he who seeks beauty will find it."
"The wider world perceives fashion sometimes as a frivolity that should be done away with in the face of social upheavals and problems that are enormous. The point is, in fact, that it’s the armor to survive the reality of everyday life."
I went to dinner on Sunday with a friend who told me that people in Liverpool were walking out of the cinema when they discovered that The Artist was a silent film. I shouldn't be surprised though. I'm sure there were couples choking into their popcorn in multiplexes all over the country when the realised that a silent movie actually means no speaking and no colour. Not even 3D!!! What was Hollywood thinking?
I was delighted to see it scoop a handful of Oscars last month. It's a brilliant and engaging film packed with lessons in how to be creative in whatever it is you do. Here are 4 to be getting on with:
1. What is not constrained is not creative. If you are faced with a blank sheet of paper to fill try add some restrictions of your own.
2. Creativity is about subtraction. What you remove is as import as what you add. If you're making a blockbuster like Transformers and you add more robots, you simply have a film with more robots. If you're making a film like The Artist and you take away the voices you have something 'remarkable'.
3. Talent imitates, genius steals. Borrowing from what has gone before is no bad thing. Singing the Rain was a brilliant movie.
4. Rethink deadness. Just because technology moves forward doesn't mean old ideas are bad ideas.