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Once you have some, you can get some.

Since I’ve never made a movie before, it’s all new territory for me. I have no frame of reference for this kind of project.

My editor, on the other hand, is a veteran videographer. And he explained that in the filmmaking process, the more things we do, the more we understand what doing means, and that knowledge informs all of our subsequent decisions. Like the self learning robot, with every modification, our creative mechanism becomes more capable against its opponents, solving more problems and fending off potential threats to its plans.

And so, each day when we sit down in the edit bay, we learn something new. We discover an angle or a cut or a transition or a color correction that we’ve never tried before. That experience affords us context and understanding and a sense of what’s possible for the scene, which in turn populates our frame of reference and expands the palette from which we create. And this process ultimately allows us to go back and retouch the previous day’s footage with our new found knowledge.

Are you flooding your creative process with intense learning experiences?

Awe equals wow plus how

I absolutely believe in magic.

Not supernatural enthusiasms, ancient mythologies or occult practices. But real magic. The art of influencing others and producing marvels using natural forces. Creating moments of awe and transcendence and enchantment that transform people and reorient their lives, goals and values in profound and permanent ways.

In fact, magic is the reason I decided to make a documentary. Since day one, busking in the tunnel has literally been magical. Both for me and the audience. There’s just something sacred about the architecture and the aesthetics of that natural phenomena. The musical experience is sizable and powerful and vast.

Every weekend, as people walk past me playing and singing, I can literally watch their faces and bodies changing. They dance and hum and smile and wave and sometimes even come barreling into the tunnel at full speed, just to investigate this curious, magical machine.

And all I can do is smile. Because you can’t get that from singing into a hairbrush. That’s our job as artists. To create awe. To give people a window into a world of wonder. To do things that make people say, holy crap, this is amazing. But how the hell did they do that? I need my camera.

That’s awe. Wow plus how. It’s not a proven formula. It’s not a predictable construct. But it’s the best shot we have at making a difference.

How does your art enter the conversation with curiosity?