Day two of KAM Summit ended on a thought-provoking session, Developing the Creative Eye, that comprised of a detailed discussion of how to nurture creativity throughout the different stages of production and how to explore new techniques and use them in our own way.
The panel included industry leaders like IMAGINA Corporation president Robin King, Walt Disney Animation Studios character technical director-simulation supervisor Avneet Kaur, Spire Animation India creative director Philippe Gluckman and Technicolor India head of creative operation Rajarajan Ramakrishnan.
Moderated by Technicolor country head Biren Ghose, the session began with Kaur defining a creative eye in her own way. She said, “When I think about creativity, two words come to my mind: curiosity and imagination. The ability to see beyond the apparent and go deeper into something to create a version of your own is the fundamental of a good creative eye.”
Adding to that, Gluckman said, “Creativity is seeing a world and having a profound desire to express it in some way and it is also about holding on to curiosity and passion to create things and getting the vision true.”
Giving the definition of a creative eye, Ramakrishnan said, “Creative desire is to have a natural ability to see creations at an early stage, the curiosity, struggles and passion is what drives you further to achieve things in your career.”
Defining the stages of creativity, King expounded, “There are several discrete stages of creativity like preparation, incubation, inspiration, and verification and these four are the dynamic sets of mental creativity. Understanding the dynamics is very important, to know how to support the profession.”
Commenting on how art and technology works hand in hand, Kaur said, “Creativity is also about problem-solving and you have to employ creativity not only in the artistic side but also in every aspect including the technical side. We at Disney strongly believe that art cannot be served without technology. Art and technology co-exist especially in the world of CG animation. They cannot do without each other.”
Shedding light on the hiring process of creative people, Gluckman added, “While hiring I would look at attitude rather than their works because I feel if someone has potential to move their desire and vision to accomplish artistic things, then they are the right candidate.”
He further added, “I recommend that while hiring one should look at people more holistically than they look at their portfolio or resume. We can identify their hobbies and passion for art. Sometimes it is the best representation of an artist. For artists, it is very important to keep their thought-process working to reach heights in creative careers.”
Adding to what Gluckman said, Ramakrishnan commented, ”Sometimes the creative eye is measured based on creative independence on how someone is trying to solve their problem, what they learn from their mistakes, how curious are they to find solutions and how they are implementing it to do it better. We at Technicolor always encourage younger generations to learn from their mistake which is great and also learn from others mistakes so that they get a clear view to perform better.”
Talking about how to generate creative skills in upcoming artists, Ramakrishnan added, “Don’t just try to feed the fish to the younger generations. Don’t just give them the answers, make them probe and ask many questions. You guide them how to fetch the fish so that next time they swim on their own and nurture themselves and achieve a career.”
Experimentation and exploration plays a crucial role in building up a creative eye. King said, “To some extent, one has to nurture his creativity but it is only understood through experimental practices. You have to integrate into the learning process, the effective and reflective practice gives you a clear understanding of the process and helps to develop creativity.”
He also added, “People connect deep into their personal experience, and if they dig deep, that becomes a story of a universal and larger segment of the population. Great stories come from internal experience and that is unique and manifested within.”
Shedding light on how technology is evolving and the invention of a lot of tools to make the creative projects easier, Ramakrishnan added, “For every artist, whether you come from traditional or CG background, the tool plays a crucial role and it is the backbone of artistry. The variety in tools is predominantly driven by ease of doing it. Tools are just an added advantage to the artist but the internal fundamentals and principles of filmmaking should be within the artist. The inner passion and fire drives you to build creativity and to come up with a great output.”
Negative feedbacks are always hurting but for a creative artist, it is a boost drink to rectify and make better out of their mistakes. Kaur said, “As an artist the most important element for growth is being receptive to the feedbacks because sometimes we are not able to figure out things that others have figured out. Diversity of thoughts, different points of views and perspectives allows artists to have a wider look at their work. The biggest strength is always to listen, understand, reflect and grow from this mantra which I learnt from my experience and which completely applies to every aspect of filmmaking.”
In Ghosh’s point of view , “Developing a creative eye means that the artist should be in love with life because the things they create like a house, the location comes alive as artists stimulate lives into it through their creativity and stories.”
Talking about creative directors’ role in production to work as a team, Gluckman said,” As a creative artist, everyone has to understand what’s the vision and story of the film is and how they are going to approach it and how their piece fits into the film. Once the crew understands this, then it will be like magic. Everyone should know that film is like a machine where everyone is mini-directors of their own work.”
He further added, “We as a studio need to deliver to the audience an environment where they can experiment and be driven by the desire to succeed and not by the fear of failure. We have to be with people who are similar-minded and that will create global happiness.”
Signing off the session, Biren said, “With this session I was reminded of the fact that you cannot lose up the creativity. It is magic, eternal and fandom.”