We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Barnes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.
Ben, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I think about this quote all the time: “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.”
It’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson, shared by a mentor of mine right when I needed to hear it most. What has plagued my creativity since my teens, taken too much of my energy and time, is the simple fear of a lousy first draft. I can judge any idea before its development, bail on an embryonic thought because it isn’t a fully finished masterpiece. I can silence myself in an instant.
To protect my creativity, I had to do a few things.
I had to replace the idea of “good” and “bad” with the idea of connection. Am I connected to the work I’m doing? Regardless of the quality at the start, is there a connection driving me along? Good will come if I’m connected.
I had to separate the writer from the editor. If I’m not careful, I edit in my head as I write, which is like trying to lift up a rug you’re standing on. If I’m not careful, I judge every word as it comes out of my head. This is the sworn enemy of my creativity. It’s hard, but I have to let every word come out freely. I have to write without much pausing and little attention to quality. I have to listen to my characters. I have to go down unrelated tangents. I have to be ok with writing the “bad” version of an idea just to get it out. I have to trust myself that I will make it better.
Later I can go back and start identifying what works. More often than not I actually like something I hated in the moment, see more in some random digression, or have new ideas to leapfrog over my initial ones. And all of this writing would have been a just blank page had I decided to judge my work in its infancy. This absolutely goes for my artwork and illustration as well. I have to ignore my inner critic and invite him only at appropriate times.
It’s hard for me to look a C+ attempt in the eye; it’s probably hard for most of us. But somewhere within that ugly rough draft lies a brilliant finished work. There’s the reason we started working on it in the first place and somewhere in that reason is a shimmering truth that others will respond to.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA with the dream of being a newspaper strip cartoonist. Sometime in my undergrad that dream expanded to film. I moved to Los Angeles fresh out of film school in the early 00s and began writing and directing my own short films and music videos. The budgets were small enough that I edited all my own work as well, and through that experience, I began to get work as an editor.
I’ve edited film and television for the past 20 years as a living while writing and directing as often as I can as well. My directing work has screened multiple times at South By Southwest, the Just For Laughs Festival and the New York Television Festival, to name a few.
I enjoy my career in editing, but I’m grateful for the opportunities to write and direct my own independent work as well. They don’t usually pay as well but they are crucial to my sense of creative fulfillment.
With all of that I’ve been able to illustrate here and there as well. I was able to illustrate an actor’s memoir several years ago, and I’ve been able to create concert posters for some of my favorite bands.
Recently I was able to combine my illustration and filmmaking backgrounds for a project with a longstanding collaborator, Auditorium, a.k.a. the musician Spencer Berger. He tasked me with creating the album artwork for his new LP release, plus several singles.
In the past, I’ve pored over my illustration work, tweaking and second-guessing and worrying about every detail. In fact, I had to give myself a rule: if I found one thing left that I wanted to fix, that meant the piece was done. Pencils down. This time, I focused on letting go of any perfectionism, going with an idea and letting it be raw and messy. I only made sure I connected.
Once the artwork was established, I spent several weeks creating an animated lyric video for one of the singles based that artwork. It was my first video ever with a crew of just one and an exciting challenge. The entire album campaign was one of my favorite and most personal projects ever. I’m very happy with how things turned out. Spencer was, too.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve made, especially at the beginning of my career. My advice to anyone starting out is, get to know people coming up in the same field as you, at the same level as you. Other writers, other filmmakers, other artists. Be genuine and do favors. You all will be the ones to help each other out, to provide opportunities for each other as you advance in your field, much more than anyone further along.
2) Follow-through is extremely important. Two thirds of the way through a creative project, you’ll feel lost and dislike what you’re doing and feel like abandoning the whole thing. Don’t. Follow it through. All projects feel like that at some point. You’ll either succeed or learn.
3) The biggest lesson I wish I’d known from the very start is, every single thing you want is outside your comfort zone. Learn to be okay with discomfort and you’ll be able to get a lot farther towards what you want.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
As far as my challenges go, I have a great therapist. I have a great partner. I have a great kid. I have a handful of close friends in my field. Among them, someone will have the words I need to hear.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://benbarnes.net
- Instagram: @benwmbarnes
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbarnesdirectoreditor/
Image Credits
Sarah Golonka/SMG Photography for Flux. Steven Munson
