Meet Raphael Bittencourt

We were lucky to catch up with Raphael Bittencourt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raphael, 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?
Creativity is like a hungry being that feeds from everything you see, listen to, touch, and consume on a daily basis. If you feed it with interesting things often, it will respond proportionally. Not necessarily immediately or at the exact time you want it to respond, but it will respond eventually. The best way to keep a creative flow going is to feed it constantly. Leave the door open to new experiences and possibilities. Try something new or look at something usual and trivial in a new way, from a different angle. Let yourself commit mistakes. Perfection is the enemy of creativity. The fear of being imperfect freezes and prevents you from creating.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am one of those creatives who insist on not having any labels attached to me. I don’t like sitting in a box someone else created for their convenience, not mine. I am currently invested in the development of a few TV and film projects in a writer-producer and director capacity. That does not prevent me from considering being the Director of Photography and the editor in other projects produced and directed by some frequent creative partners. People seem to like my eyes and hands over the visuals and storytelling of their own films.

Simultaneously, I am also a professor in the Film and TV program of a major Design and Arts school in Atlanta. That alone is a huge source of inspiration. Hundreds, maybe thousands of stories from people from all over the world.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
To succeed in any field, including the creativity field, persistence, curiosity, and the courage to risk being wrong are key factors.

Persistence to hear “NO”, and “NO”, and “NO” a thousand times and still feel motivated to keep going, improving, polishing, and adjusting. Obstacles make us better protagonists of our stories. Better creators.

Curiosity keeps us interested in discovering the new, the unexpected, and the dangerous. A creative person is necessarily a curious person. There’s an endless thirst for the unknown and the establishment of new connections between old matters.

Last, but not least, a creative cannot be afraid. Fear prevents you from moving forward, It paralyzes you. Creative people have to internalize the habit of throwing themselves into the fire. Commit mistakes, receive critiques, and be open to hearing and digesting what you heard. Keep what you think that will improve your ideas, throw away (or save it for a later time) what you think it’s not useful at that moment.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The End of Print by Lewis Blackwell, which is a book about the work of David Carson. That book investigates Carson’s production and his approach to creativity. It is about turning off the grids and letting your creativity run without constraints. Dare not to be satisfied with any type of preset or template. That requires courage and the will to generate numberless amounts of alternatives. Don’t try to be perfect, be authentic. Perfection is a consequence, not a goal.

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