“You should return to the well often for ideas and inspiration and even a refresher on what you learned from those older campaigns. But rather than trying to “enhance” older campaigns with new technology, apply what you learned from those gems to something completely new. Because like it or not, George Lucas is teaching us an important lesson: rather than giving us more to love in an already beloved series, he’s wearing us out.” Elaine Reed from her article “What Star Wars Can Teach Us About Poisoning the Well” (link to full article at http://www.talentzoo.com/digital-pivot/blog_news.php?articleID=13108)
My first memory of the movie, Star Wars, came not from seeing the film itself, but as a seven-year-old playing in the schoolyard, where suddenly, unexplainably, some of my cohorts were making laser gun sounds with their mouths, something like a few muted whistles followed by a rumbling explosion reverberating in their third grader mouths. “That’s not what it sounded like in Star Wars!” one of them would say, “It’s more like this…”
Soon thereafter, I did make it to the movie theater to see it myself. I went with my friend and his mom to a mall in south Denver. His mom was in a wheelchair and got us past the line that wrapped around the building, which I thought was super cool. I was blown away by the experience, and was again 20 years later when I saw the re-release at a theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Still, I agree with what Elaine Reed has to say: If we want our creative offering to feel alive, we must start from the beginning, and not try to embellish what we’ve already done. We may, in fact, end up building upon a theme from before, or we may move off in a new direction altogether. But if we cling to what we’ve done already out of attachment or fear of heading out in a new direction, the vibrant sense of our creative offerings suffer accordingly.
The tumor that had landed my friend’s mom in a wheelchair did her in shortly thereafter and my friend moved away. The mall where we saw the movie, the largest of its kind when it was opened in the 1960’s, was demolished in the late 1990’s. Learning from the lessons of the world around us, that everything arises, abides, and ceases, when something’s time is up, love what it was and lay it to rest.
There is no need to revive the dead. Genuine creativity is always available to carry us onward towards new and unforeseen places. It’s best to learn to surrender to the ride!
Elaine Reed’s full article, “What Star Wars Can Teach Us About Poisoning the Well” follows below:
In case you haven’t heard, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is out in 3-D this week. In fact, the first screenings have already aired as you read this. I’ll be following movie news over the next few weeks to see how it performs — not because I’m a huge Star Wars fan, but because all of the big fans I know say they are not going to see the The Phantom Menace in 3D.
What made their statements especially notable to me is that just about all of them said they would pay to see all six of the movies on the big screen again, but in the original formats. When I asked if they were turned off by the 3D edition because the tickets are expensive or if they feared the quality of the 3D they all said no. They liked the movies as they were when they were originally released. In fact, a few of them even referenced a South Park episode called “Free Hat” where the boys protest changes to the original trilogy, from back in 2002.
This is a notable sentiment on many levels. How many times have you worked on a project and had to remove some elements that were really great, but simply didn’t jive with the overall theme or goal? This is the same concept. Movies, books, music, and marketing campaigns that are truly great are because they struck the right balance. They don’t have too many elements, nor do they demand a lot from their users.
Now think about your most successful campaigns. After the campaign ran did you go back and add new things to it and re-run it as it was plus the “enhancements”? Of course not. You wouldn’t be able to replicate the success of the original campaign by doing that. Instead, you took what you learned from that campaign and applied it to something completely new. That is the way it should be done.
You should return to the well often for ideas and inspiration and even a refresher on what you learned from those older campaigns. But rather than trying to “enhance” older campaigns with new technology, apply what you learned from those gems to something completely new. Because like it or not, George Lucas is teaching us an important lesson: rather than giving us more to love in an already beloved series, he’s wearing us out.
During all of the conversations I had about The Phantom Menace and whether it was really Jar Jar Binks keeping us away, or something else entirely, I had a bit of a Zen moment: upon its release, each Star Wars movie broke new ground with special effects. The new enhancements aren’t worthy of films that were already ahead of their time.
Use that logic if you ever find yourself tempted to dress up an older campaign. So-called enhancements on already great work dim its brilliance. Let your gems continue to sparkle.