You want creativity? Then give me some rules!

Breaking the rules is pretty punk! It’s the way to make step changes in the world. Stick your fingers up to the status quo and do something new. Yep, very cool and artistic, but sometimes, keeping faithful to a strict rule book can actually generate creativity, not stifle it.

Challenge yourself to think differently

I went to the Regent’s Street Cinema recently to attend the Straight8 film competition screening. To quote the website, it’s a competition where ‘each film is made entirely in-camera on just one cartridge of super 8mm cine film lasting up to 3 minutes 20 seconds. Each shot taken goes into the final film in that order, like it or not.’

No second take, post production, no finessing and the first time anyone sees their work is when it’s shown on the big screen! Now for those of you that know how unpredictable working with super8 is, this set of rules is pretty cruel, right?

‘That’s the first time you’ve seen your film?’ asks London based Director and Straight8 founder, Ed Sayers, to one of the film makers, up on stage, post-screening. They’ve just seen their edgy and brave piece about domestic violence, slightly blighted by three shots, completely blown-out due to overexposure. ‘So, what did you think?’. ‘I think I’ll be talking to my DOP!’ comes the slightly bemused answer.

Try looking inside the box for ideas

Sometimes, rules push us to work unexpectedly and think outside the normal way we’d usually approach a problem. And that’s the purpose of creativity isn’t it? To find a new solution to an established challenge. Who would have thought that constraints are actually good for brainstorming! So should we be thinking back in the box after all?

Rules can give us the focus we need to move ahead with an idea rather than sink into complacency and procrastination. By taking positive steps forwards you can quickly get to grips with a thought process rather than be faced with a huge empty canvas where paralysis of choice can hit!

Straight 8 sets a challenge to anyone willing to step up to it through, giving brave contributors, clear and restricting boundaries to work within. The competition looks to content creators to use their problem-solving skills to find a unique answer. Pick this up and put it down in an agency and that’s what is being asked of us for every brief, isn’t it? This is where we are, this is where we want to be, these are the rules – go to work and impress us!

Be brave, and accept the rules, don't alway try to break them

The Regent’s Street Cinema is apparently the birthplace of British cinema in 1896 when it featured the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe. So it’s ironic that I came away from the screening buzzing with exciting ideas for such an old medium; new ways to approach the briefs that I’m challenged with; fresh thoughts about the technical aspects of shooting with enforced restrictions. Above all, it’s the knowledge that telling a story through an original approach can be encouraged with rule setting, not rule breaking. I think, with some self-induced cruel rules here and there, things just might get a bit more interesting! Still not very punk though!

If you want to take on the Straight 8 challenge, then places for next year’s competition Straight 8 2020, have just opened! However, if you want to set a video challenge all of your own, then let me at it! I'm ready and waiting to hear your cruel rules!