Producers, Directors and Writers
Just watched an inspiring interview with Garrison Keillor and Robert Altman about the movie “A Prarie Home Companion.” (on Youtube)
In the interview with Peter Travers of “Rolling Stone”, Keillor commented on Robert Altman’s directing style. Altman’s approach is to get out of the way and let the actors bring what they have to the scene.
This started me thinking about the best music producers and authors and songwriters that I know. By far my favorite style of producer (and the way I try to produce as well) is the one who gives a skeletal outline, a flexible “wineskin”, then empowers the musician to let the music flow; to rely on Inspiration and the interplay between the musicians. To let go of creative control requires humility and trust in the creative process that causes one to rise above the paralyzing self consciousness and fear that so easily thwarts the free flow of creativity.
One of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz, imagines the characters in his novels, then lets them take on a life of their own. He merely writes from the flow of the moment. It is unselfconscious, and to me, the vulnerability and trust in the inspiration is what gives the novel it’s power and “out-of -the-blue” sense of creativity, freshness and imagination.
In a recent newsletter Koontz writes:
“When you accept your talent not as something to take pride in but as something for which to be grateful, you set the ego aside ad you are freed from the desire to impress, and you enter into play. When that happens, the consequent spontaneity enriches the work, and you experience moments that are spiritually exhilarating, an awareness of God within and without.”
I like my friend and Pastor, Steve Fry’s recent take on authority. My rough paraphrase: “Authority is not so much about power and control and submission to leadership, it is “author-ity”- creating, originating.”
The best songs that I have written were (with only a few exceptions) songs that seemed to have a life of their own. I merely yielded to the creative impulses that were bubbling in the Spirit-realm, and in my own heart.
Jesus is the Author… We are created in the image of the Creator! There is an authenticity and vitality that comes when we trust the Creator to create through us. Let it flow!
Godrest and Godspeed
David Baroni
