THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.
Vimeo: I think it was at springtime 2012, when I came across David Shiyang Lius lovely piece of work about Ira Glass. It was the most inspiring and motivating video, I have ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over again, listened to Ira Glass' voice and told myself, that I am not the only person who is constantly disappointed about the gap between ones taste and ones skills. Later on in 2012 I decided to do an own filmed version of Iras interview - use my own language to tell his message. It took me about a year from concept to upload.
11 comments:
This is really true for everyone. Some people might be "satisfied" with what they make, but they are never really happy with the gap that there is between what they envisioned and what actually came out of their work. There is a learning curve in art too. We all know what good art looks like, just some of us have put forth the effort to practice over and over to make it what we want. I see this a lot with drawing, at least in myself. I can picture in my head how to draw something and how to draw it, but then when I actually do it on paper, it looks like crap. Like the video says, there is this huge gap that people have when they first start out with something between what they know is good and what they do. You just have to keep working at it and improving skills until you get to that level of taste that you see in your head.
I loved this video. The first time I actually couldn't get the sound to work, so it was much different and I didn't understand at all. I watched it again and got the sound to work too and the story changed completely. I thought it was going to be music, but it was more of a story. I thought the message was strong and pertained true to all of us in drama. There are times when producing work its not how you intended it to turn out resulting in personal shame. We all experience a gap at one point or another and we need to fill that gap by completing a huge amount of work. We need to maintain faith in ourselves that we can improve and overcome the temporary gap.
I found this message from Ira Glass to be spot on and incredibly inspirational. Even though I know the ‘taste versus currently ability plus lots of work and then lots more work and then more work equals personal work that begins to align with your taste’ equation on a logical level, it is nice to have this message broken down simply and matter-of-factly with a good dose of encouragement from Glass. In my case – as with many fellow art students I know – I would add that everything takes longer (much longer) to produce than you think it will. Continuous work is definitely the key, and deadlines help push along the process. In the original and extended interview with Glass, he expounds a bit on the subject of deadlines saying it is better to have someone actually expecting work from you. (In my experience, more stressful but certainly more productive that self-imposed deadlines.) He also plays an amusing example of an early piece of his journalism. You can watch that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY
This is a great message to hear as someone in a school that has a lot of creativity running around through it. It takes years of practice and patience to really get to the point where you are past this "gap". We all go through this feeling that we created something and we just are not happy about it. Every student who has taken basic design has made a shoe, box, or table setting that they felt was not good enough and could have been better. It just takes time to become we you know you are capable of.
It is always interesting to read an article from someone inspiring you to move forward. But the use of visuals and music gives a stronger presence to what is presented. The use of Ambition in the bathroom or even the quitting sign, they all give a feeling from its visual to support the persuading argument from the orator. This was really revitalizing because there are so many self help books out there that aren't this visceral.
What a lovely video. It's nice to see a collaboration like this, something that gives reaffirmation, inspiration, to a group of people who aim to inspire. Discouragement is a sneaking thing. And while you pride yourself on the ability to escape discouragement while you're getting support and praise, it can be insurmountably disheartening to be in a place where you question your art, and while nobody is telling you it's bad, you can confidently say it's good. And we go to school, and we learn, and inform our craft, so that we can get better. Sadly, that bettering takes a lot of work. And there are easier, safer, less rewarding things to do. I wish I could suggest some channel or means to encourage young artists or would-be artists to persevere and because inexperience isn't an indication of a lack of talent, and the worth of true talent can only be appraised by educating it. But there are easier things to do; and easier things are done.
My mom tells me this all the time. I never like the work I produce, except for the few things that actually met my expectations. It's funny though. I don't care much for many of the things I have made. I keep thinking that I'll make better things in the future. I think I keep seeing the other side and wanting the other side, but I need to motivate myself to get to that other side of the gap. The gap is the worst. It's terrible when you can see/reach/taste the other side. It's hard, but everyone has to do it. Sometimes, though, it's harder for some than it is for others.
This is really motivational. As an actor, I could say that I am definitely not satisfied with the type of work that I am doing, and I sometimes forget that it is going to take a while for me to get to where I want. The way they incorporated operative words into the media was amazing. After watching this video it gave me the feeling of "keep going, and don't give up".
I watched this video a while ago and loved it. The message is really inspirational and the video just helps to facilitate the message. What he says in the video is something that all new designers should hear because its fairly comforting. When I was first starting out with Susan's design projects I made a few that sounded good in my head but when I turned them in I was not happy with them and honestly they were pretty bad. If I had heard this at that time I probably wouldn't have felt so bad about the quality of my work.
This video was allllll over facebook, yo. The video makes a really true point however. It can be so easy to doubt yourself when you have high expectations for yourself. But rather than focusing on the fact you are not as talented as you would like to be, focus on the fact that you understand what good art is can recognize when you are progressing towards your goal!
As a "beginner" it was actually really helpful to hear this. A lot of times I find myself frustrated by not being able to recreate what I can see in my head, and not being completely happy with what I end up with. It's nice to know that many people experience similar things, and that for some of them, they've gotten part the "gap". At this point it can be a little difficult to see that point coming, but I guess the only way to get there is, as Ira Glass says, is to keep working at it. I also think the video itself was also executed very well. The basic idea behind it seems so simple, but it was compositions were pretty nicely done and were very interesting.
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