Luvz2edge wrote:
It seems so much trouble for something that should be as simple as to create a porn compilation. What started as a hobby started causing me quite some trouble and anxiety in the past few weeks as I am constantly trying to figure out what went wrong.. I am already trying out different things and honestly it made me lose my enthusiasm... instead of using any creativity I have, I am wasting my time on technical aspects which - believe me- are boring the F... out of me...
Yeah, BTDT ... here's a thought ...
I suspect that there are an awful lot of people who thought they would go into computer-creativity, only to stumble over exactly this type of frustration. Kids who want to do video-game creation because they liked the "Lord of the Rings" movies and think it's going to be mostly about designing giant-sized elephants. Etc.. Today, among all the historical and present fields of creativity which mankind has ever invented (dance, choreography, music, composing, poetry, epic, prose, history, painting, sketching, mosaic, sculpting in clay, in marble, architecture, cave-wall painting, etc. etc.), computers have become the absolutely worst, relatively speaking, compared to all the others, for the manner in which computers require and usurp your mental and temporal space and attention. (This is no surprise. Computers are the most complex tools for creativity -- or for any other task -- that humans have ever invented, so, they generally make the most complex demands on the user.) I don't denigrate computer-creation -- plenty of great works of art available, more being made every day! -- but I do suggest that a LOT of the experiences of computer-creators is similar to yours. It's an essential first hurdle.
But here's a way to get over it -- don't let it. In other words, if the computer demands too much computer expertise, say "fuck you" to the computer and just don't master the stuff. Really? Really!
The trick, then, might be, to cause the computer itself to take over large portions of the computer's needs -- make IT master the technical details so that YOU can be free to be your creative self. For example, you can choose full-development environments as your software fundamental creation space; you can stick to the default settings and never ever tweak any setting even if you think it might be interesting; you can remember processes or settings and re-settings by means of HAND-WRITTEN notes (I find this part very important; rather than notes on a Notepad .TXT document, I get out the pen and paper, because for some reason, hard-copy with INK makes me take CARE differently) ; don't get into the micro-managerial zone over any given technical detail UNLESS you are directly influencing it PRECISELY BECAUSE of a creative and NON-TECHNICAL choice that you've made. In other words, leave the tech to the tech. If you can figure out how.
I learned this the hard way, working in book publishing at the beginning of the internet era (1990s to early 2000s). A LOT of authors thought they could become computer-whiz authors; but it turned out, they were just mediocre at being a computer-whiz and they weren't paying enough attention to being an author. They thought, "Hey, I wrote a book about the history of film noir ..." or "about bumblebees" or whatever, "so why can't I write a COMPUTER BOOK about the same subject? I'll BE RICH MAN, wave of the FUTURE!" It turned out that only a very small portion of them succeeded in augmenting a successful hard-copy-book-authoring career with successful computer-book-authoring. Most, instead, it turned out, unfortunately, did what amounted to, taking a three-year hiatus from an otherwise rather productive book-authoring career in order to try, and fail, to become software engineers, after which they sheepishly returned to what they knew and loved with, well, a little bit of web expertise, but not enough to actually become web authors. To be a web author, is a type of skill, in which you ENABLE your authorship BY MEANS OF your management of the computer's technical details. People who have something to say (about film noir, or bumblebees, or whatever) can either fail to say it or succeed in saying it, depending on how they manage to let the computer take over their lives or not.
Not that I understand computer video-creation. But I suspect that the metaphor is a pretty good parallel. I struggle with this, in a writerly sense, regularly. I ought to be blogging. I mean, look at me, I write goddamned BOOKS on Milovana all the time (hence the name ... heh ...). But is it doing my real-world self any good? Nope. Because I'm bad at blogging. Because of the technical details. I just HATE calling up my web-host and asking them to update the damn Wordpress theme to the latest for benefit of anti-virus security and also so I can get a new purple-and-blue color scheme and ... OH STFU!!! But, that's why I'm not blogging. If I could automate all the important details so that I could just SAY WHAT I WANT TO SAY without having to KNOW HOW TO PROGRAM A GODDAMNED WORDPRESS SITE (which is NOT, frankly, very user-friendly AT ALL) ...
But wasn't that the problem which Shakespeare faced? And Milton? And Dickens? Charles Dickens: "What? You need HOW MANY INCHES by TONIGHT? Wait, I'm not feeling creative. Can you just postpone the daily London Times newspaper so that you don't run a copy tomorrow? We could just run my story on Saturday instead of Friday, couldn't we? People won't miss a day's edition of the daily newspaper will they? Oh no, I guess they will, come to think of it, not like I don't know what kind of schedule a daily newspaper prints on, when they put it to bed, when I therefore have to get my text to the compositor, when therefore I really ought to have handed the manuscript to the copyist, so that it will be typeset in time to ... make the daily paper." See, technology. Everywhere. Don't let IT manage YOU, unless you WANT a particular effect. William Blake: "Yes, mister printer, I know, it would be most unusual and almost unprecedented to use coloring over engraving, but trust me, I own an engraving press, and I know how my images will meld together with my poetry in just the appropriate manner IF YOU RUN THE TECHNOLOGY the way that I am changing the technology for a new effect. I don't give a damn about the book-binding, you can do whatever you want. And as long as you use wove hand-made paper with 100% rag content, you can get it from France or Germany, who cares? But you'd better use MY engraved copper plates with OIL BASED ink for the images, and you'd better let ME watercolor the things in a manner I've perfected through long experimentation ...". Technology mastery, but only of the parts that he cares about, and total ABANDONMENT of any of the other parts that he can abandon.
Just some thoughts. Yours in bibliophilia, Book_Guy