Wednesday, February 15, 2012

"If Your Idea Works, I'll Say It Was Mine. If It Doesn't, I'll Say It Was Yours"

Quote.

Thats ShowBiz! Needless to say, after hearing that, and it wasn't a joke, that this particular Designer would never be a factor in my success. As a Set Designer, I felt extremely reluctant to perform my best, or go the extra mile when my Leader was clearly not a Team Player. I was not born to enable the success of others. I was born to be a part of it. This Designer just lost a key player.

Ideas that you have, while working on a Production, nonetheless, don't really belong to you. If you are an ideas person at all, and you need to be if you are intending to be a Production Designer, you will have your good ideas stolen.
The first time this happened to me, I was put off, however, I really admired and respected the Designer who had claimed my idea was his. The whole show he went on about it. I ate my humble pie, and learned to take it in stride. Months later, I watched 'The making of" and the Director was claiming it was his idea! No mention of the Designer.

If you have good ideas and others take them, take it as a complement. Take it as a sign that you have a gift. Use it, let it out, let others take them. After a while if it is a pattern, no matter how many ideas you had taken from you, you will eventually get found out, and you will become a go-to person on the team.

A true ideas person has a neverending spring of ideas. And no one can take the spring except you.

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