A busy and good day here, despite getting up so late.
First I completed the edit of a video, About The Love Symphony, which I spent most of yesterday making (actually, it took three takes, each in a different place). In the end, the final take was the only one needed and I managed to edit together the video, plus sections of other films with audio, or other video using the main video's audio quite easily. It was a matter of dividing the main part into sections, noting the start and end frame numbers of each.
Most of this was done last night, but having an overnight pause to re-examine things is very useful. The only change I made today is fading out one of the film clips, as the jump from these to the speech parts can be a bit sudden.
Doing this change and uploading, plus uploading the full Love Symphony film to my music channel took until 3pm. The day, by 3pm, feels like it is mostly gone, but this is illusory as it is technically the halfway point.
Then I watched a David Lynch question and answer video, which he posted yesterday. Suitably inspired, I decided to make a short film, quite unexpectedly. I was walking in the garden and saw that the nasturtiums were fully awake and showing their hand-palm leaves to the sun. Some little ones had 'fallen down' and seeded themselves in the lawn. They looked very alien and like satellite dishes, so I filmed them with the aim of adding some grainy Apollo-mission space effects and audio. This took less than 30 minutes.
All of the time I was considering David Lynch's talks on creativity. Someone asked what is a good way to generate ideas... for me the answer is simple. Ideas are everywhere, anything can be an idea. In an artwork, what part of it is the idea? You could say it starts at the very beginning, but, perhaps more accurately, every aspect of the artwork is the idea; the idea is made manifest by making it into something real. Also, we oftel self-deceive and magic up the idea after we've made the art!
Of course, we can become inspired, startled, en-loved by some unexpected thought which pushes us to create. There are tricks known to boost creativity; having a plant in the room, thinking of opposites to one thing, using abstract limits ('everything must be blue') or external ideas like Brian Eno's cards.
Perhaps even the inspiration process itself is something that, also, grows from a seed, and only when its big enough in your mind will it reveal itself. Where these come from should be simple too; the mind is a machine which accepts and processes information. Everything that comes out has gone in at some point, and most of our thoughts and ideas (and dreams) are the result of what has gone into our minds, usually recently (but sometimes years ago, those thoughts bubbling like fragments in the hot oil of our minds). If you want to generate ideas, all you need to do is expose your senses and mind to lots of variety of input, then relax, and let your dreaming (or meditatory) mind flow and the idea will reveal itself.
After my little film I got back to work on Pyjama My Warehouse and recorded some vocals for The Fingers Of Evil. It's a very odd track. This took until about 8pm.
Then it was time for guitar practice. I have a new idea for how to practice; I have decided to play along to my entire CD collection. Today I've played to A New World Record by ELO, which is surprisingly easy (certainly easier than A Kick Inside by Kate Bush!). Most of my playing is on one string and often hilariously bad, but it's the trying and self-monitoring that is important. Even if every note is wrong I'm training my arms, hands and fingers. Repeatedly doing anything is how we improve.
