Arguably the most misleading advice given to emerging filmmakers is to make their work “original.” Break new ground and do something you’ve never done before…
While this advice sounds good on the surface—and is often well-intentioned—it also completely misses the point.
When someone tells you to be original, their entire focus is on the results. And the process required to get there is not touched upon at all.
It follows that to create something truly original, you must avoid taking inspiration from other films or works that may interest you.
But avoiding the work of great filmmakers and artists is not the way to make yourself great.
As CS Lewis famously said:
“In literature and art, anyone who cares about originality will never be original: and if you just try to tell the truth (without caring about how often it has been told before), nine times out of ten, you will be Be original and have nothing to worry about.
Imagine walking into a museum and seeing a beautiful painting like you’ve never seen before. You get home and decide to sketch on paper using only memory.
No matter your skill as an artist, your version of that painting will look very different from the work that inspired it.
It will take on a life of its own because it is seen through your specific creative brain and then recreated through your hands.
It will be original.
If you just sit down and draw without inspiration, you may end up with a stick figure. Or a plain portrait. Or a postcard style landscape sketch.
Inspiration (and imitation) is essential to inspire truly innovative work.
In the movie, a lot has been done. Nearly every theme, story, and character archetype has appeared on screen hundreds of times.
So if your goal is to avoid whatever happened before, there’s little creative territory worth exploring. You end up making something so obscure that even you have a hard time connecting to it.
The purpose of originality is not to avoid all sources of inspiration. Instead, repackage them in a novel way. Create something new from a series of already existing parts.
The poet Billy Collins once said:
“You can take intimacy from Whitman, you can take momentum from Emily Dickinson… You can take a little bit from each writer and combine them. That makes you authentic.
Tarantino found inspiration in classic films—borrowing, stealing, and blending them together until new subgenres emerged.
He is a more obvious example, but everyone does it. Whether it’s intentional or not.
While it may seem illogical that the road to originality is through imitation, that doesn’t mean it’s untrue. Both components are necessary for your unique creative output.
A certain level of input (inspiration) is required to guide your ideas in a cohesive direction. But only your unique fingerprint can transform an old idea into something never seen before.
When Jean-Luc Godard began creating his masterpiece pantinghe didn’t think about changing the world of movies. Little did he know that more than 60 years later we would consider it one of the most original and important works in film history.
At the time he just wanted to imitate American gangster movies.
He pays special tribute to The harder they fall (1956) through cast selection, direction and set design. You can even find a poster from the classic 1956 film that served as the backdrop for one of the scenes.
But despite his intention to imitate, panting Nothing like an American gangster movie.
It is remembered, at least in part, for its innovative use of jump cuts, handheld photography, and improvisation. All of this opens up new stylistic territory without being specifically designed to do so.
This is how great art is born.
So next time you sit down to develop a concept or write a script, use this as food for thought.
Having a single goal of doing something you’ve never done before can get you into trouble.
A more effective approach is to rely on your own influences, consciously learn from them, and allow yourself to transcend.
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