Dream Teams Part 1

What do Beatles songs, Kung Fu, and McCoy Tyner have in common?




passion + highly-honed skills + freedom to explore = combustion of creative energy

Let me explain.

Like most DVDs these days, Forbidden Kingdom comes with short features about the making of the movie. (Incidentally, a movie starring Jet Li and Jackie Chan is a ginormous deal. Think De Niro and Pacino in a movie in which they interact frequently with each other doing their actorly thing. "You talking to me?" "Hoo ah!")

(Yes, I tend to form nebulous stream-of-consciousness type connections that make no sense to most sane people.)

Back to topic at hand (and prone to wandering off subject.)

One of the features is called Dream Team. The producer and director fall over themselves trying to express their joy in getting not only these two Kung Fu superstars, but also the top kung fu choreographer and cinematographer, to work together.

What sends my spine tingling was the process they described: how the choreographer would come up with initial ideas, which Jet and Jackie would try, and the cinematographer or assistant choereographers may suggest changes or additions. They'd keep doing this until they're happy with the results.

Can you imagine the creative energy? Wouldn't you want to be a part of it? I do!

Just imagine the thrill of engaging in a process like that, where highly-skilled and highly-experienced people get together to create. Nobody knows the outcome and nobody has a monopoly on how the process goes, but everyone has to trust that their ideas and efforts will intersect with those of their fellow creators, resulting in something magical.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about McCoy Tyner and Beatles how any of this is relevant to a blog about writing.

[jazz trio by Flickrzen; kung fu by anna_T; Beatles by pinkisawayoflife. All pictures found on Flikr, Creative Commons.]