How to Watch the Academy Awards
I have finally found a reason to watch the Academy Awards. Usually I avoid the program because every year it becomes more about fame, fashion and popularity. At least that is the set of values the TV folks choose. But, this year, it occurs to me there is a much bigger reason to watch, particularly if you're working on creating something big and bold for yourself and others.
The Academy Awards allow us a rare look into what happens in the creative process. We get a glimpse at how an idea goes from the firing of synapses in brain cells to a complete set of contiguous images and sounds - a movie - viewed with the eyes and listened to with the ears so it evokes intellectual and emotional responses. And, people offer money for those inner experiences.
So, when Dan Futterman gets up and talks about turning his idea for a story about Truman Capote into a film, he lets us glimpse the make-up of a creative journey - if only a little bit. If you want to know the nitty-gritty ins and outs of the entire process, do some research. I encourage you to do that. Why? Because growing fully into who we could become takes the same kind of courage, persistence, collaboration and creativity as is needed to turn an electrical impulse about a story, into celluloid through which light passes so it can be experienced by other people.
I mean, what's the difference? A past client was a librarian in Iowa. She had dreams of being more vibrant and fulfilled in her life living at the coast helping marine animals. After a creative process as intensive as any used to make a film, if on a smaller scale, she is now living her dream life - and earning better money, in case you thought the dreamer never figures out how to make a living. A businessman I work with has a dream of $8.0 million in annual revenue within four years; he's at $4.0 million now. How will he get there? The same way Futterman created his Academy Award nominated screenplay.
The businessman will feel the idea so fully that he is compelled to make it real. He will imagine, fantasize and begin to assemble raw ideas. He will crystallize those ideas so they can be shared with others. He will selectively invite smart and collaborative people into the process. He will establish the values used to achieve success. He will set the direction. He will protect the idea and the process from cynics who would prefer he not succeed.
He will constantly remind people what the prize looks like, why it is important and how they should go about attaining it. That's basically what everyone interviewed at the Academy Awards does. They tell stories about how an idea became real.
In all, the businessman, like the artist, will believe success is possible. In that sense, he is precisely like the screenwriter who discovers, nutures, pushes and pulls his idea over hill and dale, through frigid rejection and balmy triumphs until one day, not really suddenly, it all fits together. The idea is a fully fledged product to share with the world.
That is how I will watch the Academy Awards this year. And, I look forward to enjoying it.
The Academy Awards allow us a rare look into what happens in the creative process. We get a glimpse at how an idea goes from the firing of synapses in brain cells to a complete set of contiguous images and sounds - a movie - viewed with the eyes and listened to with the ears so it evokes intellectual and emotional responses. And, people offer money for those inner experiences.
So, when Dan Futterman gets up and talks about turning his idea for a story about Truman Capote into a film, he lets us glimpse the make-up of a creative journey - if only a little bit. If you want to know the nitty-gritty ins and outs of the entire process, do some research. I encourage you to do that. Why? Because growing fully into who we could become takes the same kind of courage, persistence, collaboration and creativity as is needed to turn an electrical impulse about a story, into celluloid through which light passes so it can be experienced by other people.
I mean, what's the difference? A past client was a librarian in Iowa. She had dreams of being more vibrant and fulfilled in her life living at the coast helping marine animals. After a creative process as intensive as any used to make a film, if on a smaller scale, she is now living her dream life - and earning better money, in case you thought the dreamer never figures out how to make a living. A businessman I work with has a dream of $8.0 million in annual revenue within four years; he's at $4.0 million now. How will he get there? The same way Futterman created his Academy Award nominated screenplay.
The businessman will feel the idea so fully that he is compelled to make it real. He will imagine, fantasize and begin to assemble raw ideas. He will crystallize those ideas so they can be shared with others. He will selectively invite smart and collaborative people into the process. He will establish the values used to achieve success. He will set the direction. He will protect the idea and the process from cynics who would prefer he not succeed.
He will constantly remind people what the prize looks like, why it is important and how they should go about attaining it. That's basically what everyone interviewed at the Academy Awards does. They tell stories about how an idea became real.
In all, the businessman, like the artist, will believe success is possible. In that sense, he is precisely like the screenwriter who discovers, nutures, pushes and pulls his idea over hill and dale, through frigid rejection and balmy triumphs until one day, not really suddenly, it all fits together. The idea is a fully fledged product to share with the world.
That is how I will watch the Academy Awards this year. And, I look forward to enjoying it.
