Drawing on an experience of collaborating within the studio, discuss this quote: “I always find that if two (or more) of us throw ideas backwards and forwards I get to more interesting and original places than I could have ever have gotten to on my own” (Cleese, John 1991 A lecture on creativity)

In reflection on the first four weeks of the studio, I am inclined to agree with John Cleese’s view that collaborative creativity is a highly effective way of finalizing a highly creative piece.

I cast my mind all the way back to our group discussions of “what happens next” after viewing Philippe Orreindy’s short film “J’Attendrai Le Suivant (I’ll Wait for the Next One)“.

At first, our table seemed to split into two smaller groups of “what if”. There were those of the opinion that our protagonist (the blonde lady) would do her best to follow/chase down the gentleman in the short film, and the gentleman would feel remorseful for his actions, leading to a romcom situation. The other school of thought was that it should be a revenge film – the lady goes home and vows to hunt down both actors in an act of revenge.

Clearly, by sharing these two viewpoints, we immediately found that both had creative potential. For the purpose of the exercise, we began building more and more upon the idea of a revenge film. In his lecture, Cleese notes that one should “always be positive and build on what’s being said”, and suggest new ideas by prefacing with “what if” — and my group seemed to embrace that by utilising the improvisational technique of “yes! and…” and “what if”, meaning a lot of our discussion went something like this.

“She should go home, and slowly become really mad about what’s happened.”
“Yes! And she should start planning her revenge, like trying to seek them out”
“Yes! Maybe she does something like that thing on the Truman show – she slowly cuts images out of magazines to piece together the image of the guy she’s hunting”
“Yes! And she carries it on the subway and keeps looking between that and the people on the train”
“What if she rides the subway to and from work — what should she work as?”
“What if she’s a teacher? Like an art teacher maybe?”
“Yes! And she can have two students that are playing up – one attacks the other for calling them names. And that’s like a trigger point for her to resort to violence…”
And so on, and so forth. Suddenly this seedling of an idea – that she snaps – becomes fleshed out to the point where new scenes and new possibilities and new forces upon the character are conceived. While I was in the school of thought of a revenge story, I would never had considered all these ideas above, let alone the conclusion reached.

However, I think for my own practice, I should perhaps try to move around groups in future weeks – just to try to hear some new perspectives from different people. While the group I have often been sitting with for the past few weeks are incredibly creative people with great ideas, I think – from my own experience – it is easier to convey ideas that come from my own interests and views of the world – and so to “switch it up” and collaborate with other people may bring some new creativity, viewpoints, and ideas as influence for my own.

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