MAYDAY! MAYDAY! 2024 IS HERE AND ITS GROOVY BABY

It's a New Year and good things are already happening! Issue Highlights: How Pivoting Creates Channels for Success, Social Media Changes, and Is Screenwriting Getting A Face Lift?

Jan 14, 2024

Welcome to Create (Pop), a bi-weekly newsletter that provides fun, insightful, and useful tips to help you excel in your creative journey.

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Grab your favorite snacks, bevs, and sword pens! Let’s dig in!

Happy 2024 everyone! We’re two weeks into the New Year, and good things are already happening. As a creative, the New Year provides an opportunity to reevaluate, regroup, reestablish - all the things. But for me, 2024 seems to be quickly becoming the year of the shift.

Instead of anchoring myself to New Year resolutions or trying to overhaul my routines, I’m adjusting to the new things serving me this year, and expecting good things to find me. One of those adjustments is making tiny shifts in my life that allow me to focus on what’s working in my life and expel what isn’t.

I’m noticing along with shifts comes the idea of pivoting. Pivoting from toxic mindsets that hinder me, pivoting from relationships that don’t serve me, and being able to pivot in an industry that is constantly on the precipice of change.

Creative Mindshift: How Pivoting In The Industry Leads to Channels of Success

I was listening to the *Read, Write, and Create podcast by Lori Tharps, an incredible source of literary inspiration for aspiring novelists, writers, and publishers - the entire gambit! In her episode with best-selling author Denene Millner, Denene spoke about all the pivots and changes she made within the editorial field that landed her in her dream role today. Lori remarked 'it seems like you almost had to become a caterpillar in each stage in your journey that catapulted you into a butterfly landing you in your amazing space today."

Lori’s sentiment struck me for a couple of reasons. Number 1, I am a huge fan of butterflies so any mention, sight, or allegory of them always hooks me. Number 2, it made me realize that the caterpillar/butterfly phase was a more realistic, accurate portrayal of any artist, creative, innovator’s journey, as well as my own.

I am a filmmaker, project manager, post-production coordinator, producer, writer, and director. In each of these positions I held jobs in between that had nothing to do with my creative career goals. When looking for my next opportunity, it felt like I was completely starting over. I was so far off the beaten path I wondered how would this work out.

In hindsight, I am learning that every notch in my career journey has been an opportunity to pivot. Not a failure or a setback in which I would forever stay stuck but moments to adjust where needed, develop new strategies, and lead me to spaces where I wanted to be faster than I could have expected.

How so? I learned skills in different industries I never knew existed. I learned to work with a variety of people enhancing my communication skills. I gained knowledge on the backend of platforms that helped me automate my creative process faster.

I spoke in a few newsletters back about how diversity in a community is vital to our success. To me, diversity in job history is vital to a creative’s success. It’s how we thrive, how our work stays afloat, and current, it builds us better and equips us faster to be able to roll with the changes.

Every day major shifts, layoffs, and resizing (insert politically correct term for YOU’VE BEEN LET GO) are happening and it seems like creatives are taking the brunt of the heel.

But instead of seeing this as a massive setback see them as channels to pivot.

Continue to develop and brush up on your skills, and learn any new skills wherever you land. Don’t be afraid to go out for something new just because it isn't exactly aligned with the traditional flow of things.

These are the anchor points I am utilizing skills to help me pivot in my creative business today. It’s important to stay malleable, adaptable, and keep our heads on the swivel.

Route yourself back to the thing you do best and put yourself out there when you feel led to.

Do any of you have success stories of how pivoting helped you stay afloat as creatives? I’d love to hear!

REVOLUTION IRL Filter Finish Is the Cutie Concealer You Didn’t Know You Needed

When it comes to my makeup routine I keep it pretty simple. That being said there are occasions where I desire a fuller look without putting a pound of makeup on my face.

This is where Revolutions’ IRL Filter Finish Concealer comes in!

Revolution IRL Filter Finish Concealer

The Revolution In Real Life Filter Finish Concealer cuts my makeup routine in half. It’s a buildable concealer meaning it’s meant for long wear and can be paired with any foundation providing the full face experience in a matter of minutes.

I primarily apply it on my cheekbones, T-zone, and any blemishes I’m looking to cover. It glides smoothly onto my skin leaving no creasing, wrinkles, or clumping, and the soft matte color gives my skin a nice finish that lasts through long days.

And! The Revolution IRL Filter flows with my skin needs as I can range from oily to dry it doesn’t sweat off easily, or sit heavy on my face.

The Revolution IRL Filter comes in several shades and is travel size so I can take it on the go with me wherever I go! WE LOVE!

If you are searching for a makeup cutie to pair well with your makeup routine give Revolution IRL Filter Finish a try!

While we’re on the matter of concealing I’ve been changing up my social media habits. I’ve found inspiration, creativity, and ingenuity on the unlikeliest of platforms and I can’t conceal this excitement anymore!

POV: YOU CHECK LINKEDIN MORE THAN INSTAGRAM

Now before you completely bypass this section let me explain.

In my first newsletter, I spoke about how I use hashtags on LinkedIn as a way to find new creative job opportunities. After a few months of following these hashtags not only have I found cool job opportunities across my market but I’ve also discovered something much more valuable.

My LinkedIn home page has become a rich platform filled with creative inspiration, and motivation, providing new resources, tips, and different leads in the industry, PLUS, new ideas and innovations that are in the works.

It’s a hominy of creatives, designers, animators, and more, their ongoing projects, and sound advice. My post homepage is like a springboard where I am learning from people who have been where I’ve been and are where I’m trying to go.

My feed can vary from authors sharing their editorial process, and developments in VFX tech, to news and TV producers sharing current tips on how to operate in the workspace.

That’s not to say this information doesn’t exist on Instagram or other social platforms. However, the way the information is presented on LinkedIn keeps me active on my platform longer engaging with my fellow creatives, and tapping into new sources.

It’s digestible information that is interesting, engaging, and educational to a creative like me which is a HUGE shift for me.

I saw LinkedIn as a dreaded, dense, and tedious site to comb through job applications for hours on end or only a place for senior-level corporate climbing individuals.

Now it seems as if more people are open to breaking down that barrier and being just as social on LinkedIn as they are anywhere else.

Along with sharing photos of cool moments, graphics, and videos, LinkedIn has become another creative space for me to tap into with connections to movers, shakers, and other cool creative folks like us.

If you’re on LinkedIn, try following and using hashtags aligned with your interest, and watch as your page grows into a fruitful space. You never know what you may see.

Now that we’re talking shifts in the so-called ‘standard’ industry, a recent script page format made waves on the internet. Is this becoming the new way we write scripts?

Is Brian Duffield’s ‘No One Will Save You’ Changing the Screenwriting Industry?

This script page had everyone talking!

So anybody who knows me knows I LOVE screenwriting but when it comes to formatting I feel things can be a bit rigid. Formatting has its place but the heart of the script is its story. Are the characters engaging? Does the dialogue move? Can I visualize the setting? Follow the action?

It’s a delicate balance to have all of these screenwriting elements while adhering to the industry format.

Few directors, writers, and producers have been able to ‘break the rules’ of screenwriting and succeed. Brian Duffield seems to be one of them.

No One Will Save You was the conversation starter for many in the cinema last year, from the cinematography, dialogue (or lack thereof) film direction, and more.

When a Reddit user posted a screenshot of a page in Brian Duffield's script 'No One Will Save You' it set the internet ablaze.

Page from NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU script by Brian Duffield

People got into it in the comments - is this a revolutionary way to break through the standard screenwriting format OR a gimmicky, lazy way of writing?

Personally, I love it. It's a unique way to get across the script concept, character, and conflict. The action is gripping, concise and the bold sentences act as a through line keeping the reader engaged to the next page.

I see it as a clever way to break up the monotony that can be technical ‘by the book’ screenwriting.

Also, a couple of things to note here about the page:

Brian Duffield wrote, produced, and directed No One Will Save You; he can write however he wants.
This page isn’t a reflection of the entire script.
This is an intentional creative decision to convey meaning in a film with little to no dialogue.

When I’m screenwriting I am mindful of all the things jammed into my brain, punchy lines, tight dialogue, and more whitespace, etc. Sometimes being consumed by the technical aspect of something can stifle the actual creativity.

As writers, we know our stories inside and out.

We should have creative license to break up a page or two with unconventional screenwriting terms especially if it still nails three core screenwriting techniques:

Three Core Screenwriting Techniques:
- Grabbing your attention
- Telling a succinct story
- Visual descriptive language

Also, this entire script page can be translated to the screen which is the foundation for screenwriting.

Scripts are the blueprint for filmmaking so what you write will literally be filmed.

All said and done I doubt the page above will become the industry standard, nor do I think this is what Brian Duffield intended. The point is it stands out!

He developed a signature voice as a writer with a technique that makes his films stand out, at least on the page. As a writer, owning your voice, writing unabashedly, and telling the story that matters to you is the goal.

How do you feel about the script page above? Is it a new and innovative or gimmicky trick?