Amplify Your Own Creativity: The one most adaptive to change is the one that will survive.

Every time there is a major shift in technology it is uncomfortable. Established workflows and patterns change. We have a saying at our place: “No-one voluntarily changes their workflow!” The innovations that are coming are going to be disruptive.

How quickly and directly these changes are going to affect you depends where you create in the broad spectrum of film, television, corporate, education and other production.

At the big money end, everything remains extremely conservative. Changing editing platforms is major news. (Well, editing a major motion picture on something other than Avid’s Media Composer is news, but I digress.) Because of the investments involved everyone is conservative. To change a workflow is a major challenge. There are months of testing involved before a commitment is made. If you work on network TV or feature films then nothing will change in the next couple of years.

Realistically, that end of the market will not embrace ML driven Smart Tools until they’re Avid sanctioned and available in Media Central.

Outside of that market uptake will be mixed. The most adept will explore which of these new tools enhance their creativity. I expect the smaller the creative group, the faster the uptake. These new smart tools particularly benefit small independent production groups, whether they’re creating their own projects or providing the creative and physical services to clients. The more efficiently they can work, the more they can create and/or remain competitive.

Although the exact words are a summary of Charles Darwin’s thesis and not his own, the intent is certainly applicable:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

Insist on working without amplification and you will fade into irrelevance. Adapt, adopt and amplify your creativity and thrive. As Alvin Toffler said:

You don’t have to spend weeks and months researching the ever-changing application of ML directly. Find some resources that you trust, like mine or frame.io‘s excellent blog, and subscribe. You only need a few key blogs or podcasts to keep up. News quickly filters across all sources.

When something seems relevant, follow up on that. If it’s a new app, service or smart tool, give it a try. There are almost always free trial periods or demonstrations. For example, you can reproduce my experiments in Keyword extraction at IBM Watson and MomkeyLearn by setting up your own free account at each.

Workflows are going to change. Tools are going to change. The skillset you need is going to change. The most pro-active way to approach it is to control the change. Seek out the changes that will enhance your creativity, and embrace them.

You’ll also need to get over the “sucky” factor. Life Lesson number three from learning to sing: To Learn you have to suck! Either you’ll feel awkward, or the new tool will feel awkward at first. It takes three weeks to set new habits, so there’s your goal. If the new tool or workflow hasn’t amplified your creativity, move on to the next. But be sure to check back in a couple of years, because it likely has improved.

Learning new stuff has its own reward, keeping the brain young, but we must always keep in mind the question Larry Jordan taught us to ask:

How do you save time every step of the production process, so that you’ve got the time that you need to make your films to your satisfaction.
Larry Jordan

Take advantage of every smart tool out there. Log with Lumberjack, use storyboarding software to speed the process, get your automated voiceover and soundtrack, etc, etc, etc. Use them all at the subservience of your creativity and amplify it over and over again.

Introduction, AI and ML, Amplified Creativity