Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jake Harness. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jake, 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?
For me personally, being creative is as essential as eating or breathing. I have to be creative. Working as a filmmaker, I have to find new ways to tell stories, and in doing so, me and my work survive on creativity.
A lot of the time I notice that I go online, and I look at screens all day, and I become overstimulated, and it’s very easy to fall out of being creative, to have writers block, and to go through periods of time where being creative can be difficult or your self-esteem gets in the way—being in front of so much technology all at once is just way too stimulating, and it’s easy to become disconnected with your own work when you’re constantly looking at others.
What I find helps me is just disconnecting from social media and from screens and from phones and going outside and writing down my ideas physically. I write down every idea in a journal. It’s kind of therapeutic. Around five or six years ago, I started writing my ideas down in a Field Notes journal. My goal was to come up with a new creative idea every day. Now, not every idea is going to be a gem, but that’s not the point. The majority of your ideas are going to be terrible; the majority of your ideas are going to live and die in the journal you wrote them in—but just like going to the gym or learning guitar, you’re building a skill that takes time to hone. By writing an idea down every day, it forces me to get into the habit of being creative, to the point where it becomes part of my daily routine. I write movie ideas, book ideas, treatments for music videos. I write what I’m feeling at the time. Like I said before, it’s therapeutic.
I’m fortunate to be surrounded by creative people on a daily basis, and whenever I’m in a rut, I can pop over to them and ask them what they’re working on, and just grabbing coffee with a friend who’s an artist or a musician and seeing what they’re working on immediately gives me inspiration and lights a fire that I might not even know that I needed lit, and that really helps come up with new ideas.
I observe people. I think that looking at people and taking stories from your own life and stories from other people’s lives definitely helps you come up with stories of your own. I love going to the art gallery. I love seeing art.
I love being surrounded by things that inspire me. In the room that I write in, I keep various pictures of other writers that I admire on the wall. I have Hemingway on the wall, I have Hunter S. Thompson on the wall, I have Bukowski on the wall. I have all of these artists that came before me, and whenever I’m feeling like I don’t know what to write next or what to make next, I just kind of look over at the wall, and I’m filled with inspiration and creativity because these people have made bodies of work that I deeply admire, and hopefully one day someone in a similar situation as me looks over at their own wall and is able to find some kind of inspiration in the work that I’ve made.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Jake Harness and I’m a writer, director, and cinematographer in the Greater Cleveland area. I am a recent graduate from Cleveland State University where I achieved a BFA in Film and Media Arts with an emphasis on Writing and Directing. My work has played in festivals across the United States as well as COMPLEX, MTV, Pigeons and Planes, and more. I have shot and directed nearly 30 music videos and I currently work as a freelance video director and staff writer for No Cover Magazine in Cleveland.
I try to have fun with everything that I do. I think the best way to prevent burn out is by approaching each project with a clean slate and just reminding yourself that you’re just making art. Iv’e always treated it as though I was gathering a group of people to play in the woods or something— the goal is to always have fun, no matter what I’m making.
I also try to make work that represents me as an artist, as well as the person or people I’m working with, and through this, each project has to feel like it serves a purpose greater than just being entertaining.
My work can be viewed on jakeharness.myportfolio.com
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?
I think communication is crucial, not just in articulating your vision, but also in how you feel. Communication with a client about your work and your vision goes a long way. A great idea can fall short or be overlooked if not communicated properly. There’s an art to selling your ideas and concepts and those who have mastered it will ultimately prevail no matter how much talent is put into the work— in the landscape of today, you and your work are going to be viewed as one single entity and when you’re starting out it’s nearly impossible to let your work speak for itself. You have a voice, use it.
In the creative space, momentum is very important. You need to have a drive and a work ethic that can separate you from everyone in the space. Work ethic is important. Whether you’re making millions of dollars a year or you’re going in debt to pursue your art, you should treat it all as a job and as a lifestyle. Someone who goes out and shoots photos everyday is going to be leagues greater than someone who shoots once or twice a month and the same follows with anything. From what I have found, success is often dictated on timing and persistence. I have also found that having a good drive and work ethic doesn’t go unnoticed by your peers and contemporaries. One of my mentors, who has had a career in the Film and TV industry for over thirty years, came in contact with me after looking at the work I was making and how often I was making it and asked if I would be interested in working on a project together and since then we have gone on to produce several projects together and I consider him a very dear friend— all because of the drive and passion I was putting into my work.
It’s important to learn how to accept criticism and feedback with grace. Whenever I write a script for a movie or a treatment for a music video, I always send it off to a select group of people who I trust to give me fair and honest notes and feedback. My work has only improved more and more once I started doing this. At first, especially in film school when we would write scripts and read and critique them in class, there’s a level of defense that comes into play when someone rips into your work— it feels like a personal attack and it’s easy to get offended and shut down. Once you learn to separate yourself from the work and look at it objectively, the notes and feedback you get will only help you improve as an artist and as a person.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Someone who has helped me in a way that can never be repaid is a filmmaker named Gabriel Tolliver. I met Gabe when I was in film school, he was a writing professor and would constantly give good advice and share stories about his career as a freelance filmmaker— something that I was just beginning to venture into. When the school year was over I reached out to him about possibly working together and he took a chance on me and we began producing web content together. We have collaborated several times since, but the information that I learned from him was far more valuable than anything I was learning in film school at the time. He completely showed me the ropes, taught me what to do and what not to do, helped me establish myself and grow as a filmmaker, put me in contact with other people who would go on to coach me through the creative world. He always made sure that I had work coming in, but was also paid fairly for my time. Gabe really taught me the value of having a strong work ethic and an even stronger integrity.
I would say the most valuable thing you can do as a young creative, would be to find a mentor of some kind to help you find your voice and grow as an artist. The creative world, especially filmmaking, is full of people who will sabotage or gatekeep information in order to get ahead, so finding someone who will look out for your best interests and make sure you’re growing along the way is a blessing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jakeharness.myportfolio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeharness
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jakeharness
- Youtube:youtube.com/@HGJake
Image Credits
Tessa Smith Maris Wirt Rebecca Aslanis
