How to not be second tier:
Posted by will | Filed under Nice, Quotes, Thoughts
Digital ProTalk has a great article on “What it takes to be great” referencing the Science of Experience article in Time magazine. If you don’t have the time to read all 8 paragraphs of both articles, just read this quote from Time and their response to it, especially the last sentence:
“”Take figure-skating as an example. For the 2003 book Expert Performance in Sports, researchers Janice Deakin and Stephen Cobley observed 24 figure skaters as they practiced. Deakin and Cobley asked the skaters to complete diaries about their practice habits. The researchers found that élite skaters spent 68% of their sessions practicing jumps which is one of the riskiest and most demanding parts of figure-skating routines. Skaters in the second tier, who were just as experienced in terms of years, spent only 48% of their time on jumps, and they rested or took breaks more often. As Deakin and her colleagues write in the Cambridge Handbook, “All skaters spent considerably more time practicing jumps that already existed in their repertoire and less time on jumps they were attempting to learn.” In other words, we like to practice what we know, stretching out in the warm bath of familiarity rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers.”
Folks, I think this little tidbit of information gives a good insight into what it takes to be great in whatever we want to achieve in our lives. Practice the hard stuff, it’s the second tier performers that spend too much time practicing the easy or routine stuff, within their comfort zone, that they are already good at achieving.”"
3D exploration of 2D
Posted by will | Filed under Creativity, Nice, Thoughts
This is a very interesting take on a famous piece of 2D art- Picasso’s Guernica. (via motionagrapher)
I doubt that Picasso ever imagined that this piece would be viewed in this manner. This makes it even more fascinating to me because someone has taken someone else’s art and transformed it by changing the medium into another piece of art.
If you have nothing else to do today, ponder how 71 years from now people will be reinterpretting current art pieces into new mediums….
Sexual Temptation Video
Posted by will | Filed under Christianity, Thoughts, Video
Today at NewSpring Perry talked about sexual temptation in a no holds barred manner. Perry said this morning that he was praying for brokenness and repentance and I believe that his prayer was answered. I believe that people’s eyes have been opened about sexual temptation and lives are beginning to be changed because of this message.
Below is our part of the message. DJ has a good synopsis of what the task was for this video. Basically it was to show the various attacks that one can be subjected to in a way that makes people uncomfortable (uncomfortable- only because of the fact that those things are being shown in church). I love the fact that I get to be a part of a church that does not retreat from culture, but rather addresses it head on and tries to create it.
Check back tomorrow for some behind the scene details.
Message to bosses of creative professionals:
Posted by will | Filed under Christianity, Creativity, Thoughts
It doesn’t matter if you are a creative professional yourself or if you are so uncreative, you couldn’t pick out your clothes without your wife here are a few things that you should keep in mind when managing creative people:
- You can never give creative people enough time to “play” and just be creative
- Give them as many relevant opportunities as you can to allow them to be inspired, whether that means:
- Magazines related to their field
- Concerts, art galleries, CDs, etc.
- Calling or traveling to network with other people in the same field
- Give them irrelevant opportunities to be inspired. You never know where they might get the next idea that furthers The Kingdom.
- If they seem like they are being reclusive it has nothing to do with you, they are probably hard at work on something and just don’t want their creative process interrupted.
- If they don’t get to work at exactly 9:00 or whatever your usual “work hours” are don’t worry, creativity is not a 9-5 process, they may have been up into the wee hours of the night working on something.
- If you serve as the interpreter going between the client (e.g. senior pastor) and the creative team, their ability to execute the idea or concept, their execution can only be as strong as your communication
- If they have just finished with a huge project give them some time out of the office, seeing the same 4 walls they have staring at for long hours doesn’t inspire any new creative ideas.
I didn’t write this as a “secret” note to my boss or even my boss’s boss, they both have all these things down very well.
I wrote this as message to anybody that has recently been thrown into the role of managing creative professionals or for someone that has struggled with relating to their creative people. I will be the first to admit that creative people like myself are a different breed and therefore necessitate different management than your usual office worker.
This sounds familiar
Posted by will | Filed under Asides, Creativity, Thoughts
PopPhoto.com has a story on their site, and in their magazine about the crossover between photography and video. Parts of the story resonate with me being that I started in photography and then picked up a video camera and now am lucky enough to be able to do both. They both make you more creative in doing the other. If photography or video aren’t your cup of tea, what other hobbies, interests or jobs do you have that can push you to be better in another hobby, interest or job?
[via Chase]
Moving your ego
Posted by will | Filed under Asides, Thoughts, Tips, Video
Yesterday I had the privilege of helping Ken lead at Production breakout at Unleash. In case you missed it, check out the notes that were live Twittered. If you are looking for the gear list, Ken has the gear list posted here (.pdf).
One of the things that Ken and Ben talked about was not letting your ego get in the way.
Basically one of the hardest things to understand is pouring tons of time and effort into making a piece and then having it cut because it did not support the message that God has given to your pastor. It is one of those things that requires putting your ego in your pocket and trusting the leadership that God has put you under. Ben referred to the first big piece that he worked on with me after he came on staff- a viral video to help promote our Christmas Eve services. We took the direction that we were given and ran with it, but in the end after playing it during run-through the Sunday that it was supposed to run, the leadership decided that it just was not the best fit and decided to cut it. To sum it up: make sure you and your ego aren’t standing in the way of God working in your church.
Here is the video that Ben referenced:
If you loved it, just remember God didn’t need that video in order to have 12,795 people attend our Christmas Eve services. If you hated it, still remember the same thing.
Never enough time?
Posted by will | Filed under Running, Thoughts
I think most people would empathize with the statement- “If only I had more time I would __________.” I know that I say that a lot, but no matter if those words just left my mouth if somebody else asks me to do something else that I really want to do I find the time for whatever it is that is most important. Something that I have been saying to myself for a while now is “If only I had more time I would start exercising again.”
Finally, the other night I quit making excuses and went running. It wasn’t far, it wasn’t fast and it sure wasn’t pretty, but I did it.
Today, after hearing Ken talk about working out during lunch I went home and threw on my running clothes and went running again. It is amazing how something that I put off for so long feels so good (except for when I am actually doing it). There are many other things in my life that I need to do the same thing and stop making excuses and just do because they are important.
What are those things in your life- Exercise? Spending time with your kids? Spending time with your spouse? Stop spending money you don’t have? Stop gossiping? Whatever it is, I promise, if you have been thinking about it for a while, you should probably shut up the excuses and do it, you won’t regret it.
Told you it wasn’t pretty.
I love Jesus, I love my