How Do You Deal with Procrastination as a Filmmaker?
Is procrastination a good or bad thing for creatives?
As filmmakers, we have to deal with lots of deadlines. We have to get our scripts entered into contests by a certain time. We have to enter our films into film festivals by a certain date. We have to deliver our part of a project, whether it's editing, color grading, or sound design before we breach our contracts with our clients. Really, procrastinating can be a tricky quality to have as a creative, but so many of us do it. So, how do we deal with it?
In this video, Simon Cade of DSLRguide opens up about his own battle with procrastination and why it may not be such a bad thing to wait until the 11th hour to get things done.
I'm a bad procrastinator—I'm talking "looking at class materials for the first time an hour before I have to take my final" bad. I don't think I've ever chipped away at a project little by little, lovingly sipping on a latte as I meander gracefully to the finish line. No! It has always been a 3 AM death metal explosion of furious grinding the night before and a greasy-haired, crusty red-eyed delivery of a gloriously monstrous product.
I've always given myself shit about it but maybe I don't have to, because, like Cade, I seem to perform so much better under pressure. Case in point, the only times I've ever completed a screenplay were done so under a strict deadline. You can't leave that kind of thing up to me. I'm never going to say, "Ah yes, today will be the first of many days in which I slowly and dutifully work on this project," because I'm not a "drop in the bucket" kind of woman. I need a raging flood to prove to me that water even exists!
So yeah, maybe procrastination does have the potential for getting us all into trouble—what if we don't make that deadline?—but maybe it also brings out the best in us. We chill 90 miles below the Earth's crust until the day before, but the heat and pressure produced from our frenzied work builds and builds until, eventually, we poop out diamonds. (Hopefully on time.)
Are you a procrastinator? How do you deal with it? Let us know down below!
Source: DSLRguide
