Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Peter-John Campbell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Peter-John, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
This is a great question, and not an easy one to answer. I have hardly mastered this skill, but I have learned a few things over the years.
It’s funny, I’m actually in the middle of a creative dry spell. We’ve all been there and are familiar with these frustrating feelings. You want to get back at it, but it all seems to distant and daunting. Any idea you come up with seems stale and over done. This use to defeat me and I would beat myself up for not being able to create anything of value. But in time I’ve learned this is part of the natural course of things. You can’t always be cranking it out, you have to allow time for your brain to rest. Or as a friend of mine would put it, “you can’t get water from and empty jar.”
As rudimentary as these sound here’s a few things I do to help me keep the creativity alive.
1: Mow the lawn. – 90% of my job is in front of a computer. After months of pre-production and intense shoot days, I often find myself sitting there attempting to get an edit put together and can find no way to begin. My D.P. Michael Grimes can testify to this fact and I’m often on the phone with him to find my bearings.
When you’re job is not very physical I find it helpful to get out and do something physical, something you can see. I was very frustrated with the edit for my latest music video, for whatever reason I could not get my brain in gear. I finally stopped and went outside and worked in the yard for several days. I sat on the ground in the hot sun weeding the garden for hours. There is something mentally refreshing in doing this. At the end of the day you can stand back and see something that you’ve accomplished.
After a few days I returned to the office, it wasn’t some epiphany moment but my head was clearer and I was able to focus.
2: Hobbies – I have probably 14 hobbies and I’m thinking about adding more to the list. I get bored very easily and need to explore new ideas. When you’re doing the same thing over and over there’s nothing to stretch you, there’s no challenge. I look for things that are interesting even if it’s not something I will spend the rest of my life with. It gets me into something new and I learn about things I normally wouldn’t have.
When I lived in downtown Chicago, mowing the lawn wasn’t an option so I would walk the city, with my camera. I love architecture and grew to love it even more during my years there. Just find way to get yourself out of your seat and explore new things. Push yourself to learn a new language. Go to the yarn museum or something that just seems so out there that you wouldn’t normally consider it. Take up a craft that is outside of your normal work, use your hands differently. Find out why these things are of interest to other people, it will force you to grow.
Or as I tell my kids “learn to love to learn. Always be curious.”
3: Turn the noise off – We live in a consent state of distraction. Screens are consistently hitting us with information. I remember a world before all of this technology. It’s easy to over romanticize it because life was simpler, but life before the internet and the iPhone had many downsides too. As a creative I find myself less creative the longer I’m playing on my phone. I have to force myself to put it down. That’s actually why most of my hobbies involve doing something that doesn’t require a phone or screen, to get me away from it all. I’m a news junkie, but the news will be there when I get back, the world doesn’t need me to keep spinning. Don’t let the daily worries of the world keep you from doing what you love.
My final point is not something that’s easy to explain but I’ll try my best.
4: Don’t wait – To keep my creativity alive sometimes I have to walk away from it briefly. But eventually I begin to get that inkling, things start to percolate and I get to the point where I have to create. This often comes out of a long dry spell and then there is this explosion of ideas that boil over. When that moment arrives don’t hold back. Sometimes I can’t sleep or I won’t eat much just to stay focused. Let it all pour out, even if it’s a rough draft, you can go back and fix it later.
I’ve had several of these moments in my life and until the last few years I really didn’t understand it. What I’ve learned is that if you don’t strike when that idea comes it’s not going to be there when you come back later. The shadow will exist in your mind but it will never come out the way it should have when you first found it. Don’t wait drop everything and create.
That being said this doesn’t give you a pass to not work when you are in that dry spell. You can’t check out. You got to stay at it, “Wax on, wax off. Paint the fence. Sand the deck.” It’s in these moments you have to be an adult and keep working to refine your skill, so that you’re ready when that timing is right.
The writer C.S. Lewis more eloquently wrote, “If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.” I think he sums up my advice better than I could.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an indie filmmaker that lives in Canton, Ohio, which is like saying that you are an organic beat farmer in downtown Chicago. You have a limited scope. Much of my work is corporate but it pays the bills.
Thankfully over the years I have met many other talented filmmakers in Ohio and over time we find projects to work on together. There’s a fair amount of Hollywood films that are shot in Ohio these days, but I prefer to be independent at this stage of my life. I’m not slumming with the stars (that’s not really why I got into this biz) but being an indie gives you your freedom to create what you want and on your own timeframe, it’s more freeing to me.
Much of my work lately has been creating music videos for local artist. Last year was a very busy year and we were filming about every four to six weeks. I’ve dialed it back this year, I have kids and they are at that age where they still want me around so I don’t want to miss that.
I do have three music videos that are running around out there right now. My latest one is for the band Indré called “Passenger Side.” (releasing on August 18) We shot this at my friend Todd Biss’ studio in Akron, that was a wild day. Only to step up the crazy we filmed it on an Alex 35 with Atlas’ Orion anamorphic lenses. That was the first time I’ve ever worked with anamorphic, there is massive learned curve with these lenses, but I’m glad we did it, the video turned out looking amazing.
Last summer we filmed this Wes Anderson inspired parade for Anya Van Rose’s “Lucky Stars.” That was a great experience. We took over an air strip and put on a full blown parade. We only had to clear the runway twice. Actually, it was that shoot that lead to us having a float in the 2022 Football Hall of Fame Parade. (Which is here in Canton.) We took the float from the music video and made some adjustments and entered, and won the Ohio State Award for best Non-Professional Builder.
The thing that everyone knows me for right now is The Vindys’ Bugs video. The Vindys are already bigger than life and getting to work with them was a huge honor. On a whim I submitted the video to the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, thinking “oh well, it’s worth a shot.” Well wouldn’t you know it we got in! – You know, just that small little festival started by Robert De Niro. – I’m not going to lie this was probably one of the most exciting moments of my career.
I do want to say this, I’m grateful to Tribeca and what it has done for me has been a real boost. Its nice to get that validation of your work occasionally. But don’t live your life just chasing that lime light, focus on doing quality work and in time it will happen. Took me a long time to get there but it was worth the wait.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1: You’re only as good as your friends – Figure out what you’re good at and perfect it. Surround yourself with others who need your skill but you also need theirs. Build those relationships and it will help you succeed.
2: Not everyone needs to have a front row seat in your life – Learn to filter the noise. Or as the kids say today, “the haters are gonna hate” so just let them. If you love what you do, do it. Which leads me to my last point.
3: Let the excellence of your work be your protest. – I didn’t come up with that quote, Dr. William Lane said that long ago. A friend of mine had that quote hanging on his office door, when I worked in Chicago, I saw it every day. I now have that quote hanging above my desk. It serves as a daily reminder. To put it more on a basic level, “Show don’t tell.” Do what you do well and it will speak for itself.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Time management is always the thing. There is never any shortage of people in need of your help or work. It’s easy to blame others in that, but in reality it’s all me. I’m consistently distracting myself or getting pulled into things that I shouldn’t be, not bad things, just things that pull me away from where I should be focusing. So finding that balance is a consent battle.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://claymorepictures.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claymorepictures/
Image Credits
My head shot is by: Mikayla Murnane-Donaldson The Black and what photo of the HOF parade was taken by: Luke Donaldson The red carpet picture from Tribeca is by: Todd Biss
