Working with someone.

Ok, so making a movie is the most amazing example of emergent property I have experienced thus far. I spent the afternoon with my amazing Cinema photographer, Glenn Winters. He is an award winning Director of Photography, not to mention a budding director himself. All in all he is a fantastically talented and accomplished artist.

We sat for almost 3 hours going over idea after idea. His expertise in the field of visual storytelling was absolutely astonishing and his capacity to take the vision I was expressing and turn it into something tangible and practical was so inspiring. This medium is amazing!

My other mentor in this whole process is a man we all lovingly refer to as “Tucky”. Tucky is an epic story teller with amazing depth and authenticity. He has totally taken me under his wing and is whispering all the advice and encouragement I am longing for while I step out of my comfort zone and into the ring of the unfamiliar.

I throw an idea at Tucky or Glenn and like a sea monkey, it germinates! My idea is suddenly 100 times more that where it started! The idea of a team. The idea of compassionate encouragement and kind collaboration. If we could learn to relate to each other like this all the time, again, utopia.
xo
allison

Newer Comments →
  • taylor nikole

    speaking of…utopias…

    “If we could learn to relate to each other like this all the time, again, utopia.”

    What is so great about ‘utopia’
    or a ‘utopia’?
    Isn’t the lack of one that brings forth
    the inspirational stories and creative
    projects from events so far from…
    perfect?
    Sure it would be great if we could all get together
    and learn to relate….
    I think we already do that….
    but would the ‘adventure’ and struggle
    and free expression of life disappear within
    the Utopian world?

    Its the idea that haunts me…
    What would happen if the world were perfect
    and we all understood?

    would it ultimately be all that amazing?
    not saying that it wouldn’t be a great thing…

  • http://www.Avitable.com Avitable

    I always wanted to order those sea monkeys from the backs of comic books when I was a kid. Do they reproduce like bunnies?

  • http://www.myspace.com/fridayphilosopher The Friday Philosopher

    Sometimes Taylor, I wonder if you’re not actually fifteen but a 40 year old philosophy professor instead!

    I mean that in the nicest way possible of course. :)

    I personally agree with Allison, but like Taylor, I don’t see the big attraction with a Utopia. I mean surely all that the achievement of perfection will do is hinder the search for it. With nothing to aim for, no goals, personal or global, what would be the point?

    Then again, maybe Allison’s idea of a Utopia isn’t the same as mine. Maybe your idea of a Utopia, Allison consists of the world that we know only with the added advantage of being able to work down the street without fear of someone hurting you!

    Whatever it is, I agree that there are simple things that we can do that will make the world instantly a better place.

    Friday

  • Istike

    holly shit!you write a lot:)))))
    Viel glück!

  • me Rachel

    cool

  • Maria

    I totally agree with your closing line. If we could always work like a team I wouldn’t say it would be a “utopia” but it would definitely make our lives a bit easier. I know that right now where I live it’s election time and it is chaos!! (well it was, the new governor has been assigned) But in this week it was total chaos!! The different political teams and all of that. While seeing how people go to such length for politics it made me thing just that what you just said

    If only we worked as teams ALL of the time!

    btw I hadn’t seen your last post. And I totally envy you and congratulate you! I envy you for the beautiful experience you’re having and learning about your craft and I congratulate you for being able to come this far (22 years) and being able to live your dream!! :)

    Xo

    Maria

  • arash

    If three of the most talented people with the same artistic interests get together and exchange ideas, I think they can most certainly find a way to relate.
    Comfort zone is where you teach.
    Out of the comfort zone is where you learn. There are people with A.D.D who visit all the zones “uncomfortably”, there are people who live all their life in one very comfortable zone. The rest of us are confused how comfortable we should get before we move on.

  • arash

    … and there are those who want to get out of the zone but they can,I think they are called phantoms.

  • arash

    … and taylor should be limited in her postings, she makes us (oldies) look really bad :)

  • Kelly

    You’re so conceptual.
    You could write a damn good artist statement. Seriously. If you write one I want to read it.

    It all sounds so compelling. The amount of subjectivity involved in such an objective art, it must be incredibly tedious. It sounds amazing. It’s also great that you’re working with such a dynamic group of people.

    Good luck with everything!

  • taylor nikole

    I don’t think im 40 yet
    *looks in mirror*

    hahahahah how so arash?
    LOL

  • http://www.myspace.com/shinefloyd_luigi shinefloyd / luigi

    Utopia… yes…
    I think… I know your concept of utopia…
    welcome to Utopia!

  • Massena1

    Allison – I’m very excited for you. A lot of people are. I’m sure you’ll do a great job directing and I am looking forward to seeing your directorial debut and hearing all about the experience. If you have any amusing stories you can share from your experience, I know lots of your fans would love to hear them. Don’t forget to take some pictures of you directing. You’ll want them to remember the whole experience. :)

  • Kelly

    oh, when I said you’re so conceptual I mean that as the sincerest compliment. like, WOW, you’re work has so much meaning. that’s all i meant.
    in art school that’s the highest praise you can give someone. :)

  • http://www.daybo.com David Hayes

    I’m not a big fan of teams. I have seen instances where a group of talented and dedicated indiviuals open to each others ideas can accomplish amazing things. But I haven’t personally experienced it almost 30 years in the design field. Teams are often a group that gets together to assign the work to one individual and take credit for the individual’s success … and that’s usualyy the BEST that can happen. At worst, the team can feel a need to contribute to something that they can’t understand or improve upon. But today, “team” is in — any individual is seen as incapable of creating anything worthwhile on their own.

  • Aysha

    Oh, Allison, that is so great to hear! I am so happy that you have people that have taken you under their wings and shared their words of wisdom with you.

    What brings me joy is when I can bounce off ideas, and get something more return – as you have in this situation.

    I have worked in a group in which we ALL equally participated and threw ideas at each other and together came up with more than what each individual would otherwise had come up with.

    I think it is in a genuine community where our creativity is nurtured and has the ability to evolve into something greater than we could have possibly imagined.

    Again, we are all very happy for you!

    Can’t wait to see your work!

    -Aysha

  • Nikk

    +100 points for using the word ‘germinate’.

  • taylor nikole

    hahah
    i thought it was using
    ‘thus far’
    in a sentence…
    or ending
    haha
    ive only used it on a couple occasions LOL

  • http://www.chloesullivansite.com/ Bouroux

    Hi Allison.
    Working with someone is to share knowledge and experiences. In life, it is not necessary to know everything to do great things. Just being around good people.
    Allison, good people attract good people and you can not that attract that what is the best. To work with someone, you must agree to give the best of yourself and create synergy.
    Confidence, spontaneity, complementarity and respect increase synergy.
    Immortalize this synergy in a making of would be fabulous.
    Congratulation again and good luck.

    Bye
    Claude.

  • taylor nikole

    meh you guys are discussing teams…
    we do work as teams…
    if not in pairs.
    It seems hard to even get through anything without a team in general….
    you need them for emotion support and to boost you in doing the things you want to do… no matter how much we deny it and say we are self sufficient, there has always been times when we have needed and wanted moral support.

    Teams are great… except when part of the team is doing more than another part.
    hmmphh

  • Lydia

    It is fantastic that you are working with such wonderful people.
    I’m happy for you that you are enjoying this creative journey.

  • m e d i n a

    “… and sundely , she fall in love for her baby (the movie). And sundely she think: I want more”

    Dangerous like a virus

  • http://www.myspace.com/zidanesg1 Adrian P

    the concept of utopia is so vast, and I know that all of us have our own utopia, however as you say bright minds working together might make the diference on reaching a goal or in this case this utopia.. so i have faith that working with other brilliant people to reach a goal is the solution.

    and seems that you have had nice mentors… :P

    hope you get all of your goals accomplished :D

    and again congratulation on your directing experience! i still wanna know how it went out.

  • http://www.daybo.com David Hayes

    Old quotes “There is no “I” in “TEAM” .”

    “Yes, but there is “ME” in “TEAM”.”

    How about: “There is no “YOU” in “UTOPIA”.”

    I think the only way there can eventually be a utopia is if we find ways to generate enough wealth in this world that we can support everyone in this world to a very high standard of living — even those who can not contribute or refuse to contribute. And even that depends on those finding the ways to generate that income being willing to give away the bulk of what they have produced.

  • http://ruthieswoods.blogspot.com Ruthie

    I’ll give a hundred points for germinate, too. My daughters 2nd grade teacher would call that a million dollar word…something writers love. :) It also happens to be a favorite of mine.

    “…whispering all the advice and encouragement I am longing for while I step out of my comfort zone and into the ring of the unfamiliar.”

    This really hits home for me. What an amazing opportunity to work with mentors like this.

    My husband asked me last night what I needed to really pursue my writing (besides time, of course). What I felt was encouragement and someone to believe in me. What I said, laughing, was $800 to get a kick start writing course going. (this while he’s working on his masters) He knows how much I have been pining over some writer’s courses. When he said to start looking for a good online program, I literally started to cry.

    Honestly, I’m a little nervous to step out of my comfy stay-home mom and blogger zone into a dream I’ve been sitting on for 10 years.

    Just so you know, Allison, your posts have been really encouraging to me in this process. I love ready everyone’s comments too!

  • Jennifer

    Allison I hope you know how incredibly lucky you are to be able to work with such amazing people all the time. You are truly blessed <3

    I have a question for you. You live such a busy but wonderful life. Can you see yourself settling down,getting married and having kids? That is if you want kids someday in the future.

  • Shalu

    Hi Allison,

    I was just wondering if you have/make the time to respond on ur fans.
    That would mean like a lot to people like me (dreamers).. as comunicatin with stars is somethin people tried to do for centuries ;) .
    Wanna let u know that im a great SV-fan! I can relate to Chloe.. (defens mechanism when it comes to love). Hope i make sense, for english is not my first language.

    Gr,
    Shal

  • jennygirl

    Oh my gosh…Taylor Nikole….you are so brilliant! Very interesting idea! Like..that movie…the Time Machine? The people who were living in a “utopia”..had simply become mindless veal calves…not knowing what awaited them as they had stopped thinking as they didn’t need to any longer?

  • Darwin

    Hey jennygirl! I used to watch that movie the Time Machine all the time…(seemed it was on TV alot)…

    And yes…”mindless veal calves”…

    But as one realizes that “Utopia” comes from the Greek “ou” meaning not + “tóp(os)” a place + -ia …

    …this of course means Utopia is “not a place.”

  • http://ruthieswoods.blogspot.com Ruthie

    I think Allison’s usage of the word utopia here is right on.

    Utopia is derived from Greek (“not place”), of course coined by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516.

    “Origin:
    < NL (1516) < Gk ou not + tóp(os) a place + -ia -y 3″

    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Utopia&db=luna

    Another derivitive, with certain meaningful play in Sir Thomas’ title, is Eutopia “good place”:

    Origin:
    < Gk, comb. form of eús good (adj.) or eú, eû (neut., used as adv.) well

    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=eu-&db=luna

    Eutopia hints at that “perfect” society. Utopia asserts it’s imaginary state.

    Putting aside science fiction stories, I think Allison is saying, Cool…this is what it feels like when we work together with compassion and kindness. Wouldn’t it be awesome if it was like that all the time? Eutopia. Taylor Nikole validly points out that it simply doesn’t exit (Utopia) and we seem to be learning a lot from the disharmony. In fact, maybe we should be leery of a Eutopian idea.

    Personally, I think the problem is forced Eutopia, which is really conformity, which is a Utopian ideal…it cannot exist in a world full of broadly unique and creative individuals.

    I vote for Eutopia, a place that perhaps will someday exist, burgeoning from the evolving hearts of those compassionate, creative beings we are struggling and surrendering, learning through the dissidence, to become.

    for what it’s worth…. :)

    (and Taylor Nikole, I love you for moving into this topic, it is so interesting :)

  • Rachel531

    Citing the mantra of the Obama campaign, I think this perfectly applies to you and everyone you’re going through right now (and it applies to all of us as well!)… “Yes We Can”…”Yes YOU Can”…. you can do this, Allison, and sounds like you have an awesome team in place to make it happen. You go girl!!!!

  • http://ruthieswoods.blogspot.com Ruthie

    Eu?to?pi?a? ?/yu?to?pi?/
    –noun Obsolete.
    1. a place in which human society, natural conditions, etc., are so ideally perfect that there is complete contentment.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eutopia

    Just for fun, taking the word ‘eutopia’ back to it’s roots (good place), can we redefine it for contemporary use, rather than based on science fiction? Maybe using Allison’s words:

    “The idea of compassionate encouragement and kind collaboration. If we could learn to relate to each other like this all the time, again, utopia.”

    Obviously, we can’t control the weather. But what potential rests in humankind?

    How does emergent property play into the idea of small-scale emerging ‘eutopian’ communties? Does personal creativity wilt or blossom? And, aside from sea monkeys, how does germination work? What if I have a seed, but no water…would you help me out?

    This community is a source of water for me.

  • http://bubbalou.deviantart.com/ Lou

    rock on, Allison!

    Can’t wait for the episode to air! (btw, when’s it due out?) I’m sure it’ll be fantastic. You’re a very intelligent person and I know this will turn out spectacular. :D

  • Vanessa (spain)

    Sometimes I like to think that we already live in Utopia. Like, if you stopt to think about it, the Universe is perfect. There are terrible explosions, matter is “destroyed”… Yet everything is wonderful.

    I like to think that everything happens for a reason. I always refuse to think that I´ve failed at something, I always think that I just made a mistake, and as long as I learn something from it, it´s not a failure.

    So, I think if we just learnt to accept things as they are, there would be much less suffering. If we accepted our sadness, our selfishness, our fears, and instead of complaining about it, we´d just say: “Ok, I feel sad and it´s ok, but I won´t be happy unless I do something about it”, then we´d have the choice to decide how we want to be or how we want to feel.

    I´m not saying that we have to deny all the bad things going on in the world and in our lives… But just accept them and don´t “rejoice” in them. Move on, and enjoy the good things, for as long as we can. Because bad times always come back, but it´s up to us how long we let them stay.

    Yesterday I was watching La vita e bella (Life is beautiful), and I think it´s an amazing movie, and it shows how you can always find the magic in life, even in the most unespected places. You just have to look for it.

  • vegas911

    However luring the idea for “utopia” is…I think sadley that it is an impossibility!! ……if everything were perfect then I would see no need for advancment, in literature, in sciences!! Complacency would set in and technology and inspiration would take a backseat…so I am not so sure that utopia is as fantastic as it sounds!

  • http://www.daybow.com David Hayes

    At least one member of this community lives and works in Shangri-La (and one doesn’t … but played someone who did in a TV show pilot) … so maybe isolated incidents of utopia can come into being … at least in the minds of people who decide to be content with what they have.

  • taylor nikole

    hahah thanks jennygirl :)
    and ruthie

    is a fun topic
    haha

  • http://www.somethinglikearapper.wordpress.com Jimmy Valentime

    hey,

    so how will your smallville Episode Look ?

    Are you aiming to make it look different then a typical episode ?

  • Vanessa (spain)

    And what is perfection?

    A clock mechanism is perfect, but if it´s stopped, that perfection is useless.

    If we don´t take advantage of our habilities, our perfection is useless too.

  • http://www.daybow.com David Hayes

    Another example of the “anti-team” concept from my work experience: A VP at one place I worked made a terrible business decision and the orders for the company’s products almost stopped completely within a couple weeks. The knee jerk reaction was to immediately run around the building and fire anyone in the office that day. Two thirds of the people lost their jobs. Many departments only had three people so, in many cases one person became a department. Something very unusual happened. The people who were left were motivated to do a good job because they didn’t want to be fired next. That no doubt helped in what happened, but I think it only played a small part. What happened was that an unprecedented amount of productivity started happening. People had predicted that, without the full work force, the company would fold. Instead, where department meetings had been required, now one individual would weight the issues and make a decision – no debate, no long discussions, no delays due to getting everyone’s schedules lined up so people could get together, no pre-meeting and post meeting chatting … just decisions followed by implementation. There was no miscommunication and tasks left undone assuming someone else would handle the work. It was remarkable. Of course, it didn’t last long. Sales rebounded and the company staffed up again (because everyone knows you need teams of people to do the job right) and the new staff needed trained and everything bogged down again.

  • taylor nikole

    perfection…
    is it non existent?
    How can we be the ones to judge if something is perfect…

    or is perfection judged by an individual..
    something that looks flawless and perfect to one may look like a ‘mess of flaws’ to another.

    its like judging good and bad…
    sure there is a distinction, but who gets to chose?

  • paul

    It sounds like you have a great working environment. Lots of enthusiasm, lots of talent. A group of people involved in creative artistic endeavor… that’s a mini-utopia I can get on board with.

    Photography, both still and motion picture, is I think one of the most wonderful and most beautiful of human inventions.

  • taylor nikole

    ohhh or is perfect our ‘ideal’ fantasy that we strive for… and we may not ever reach?
    lol

  • http://www.daybow.com David Hayes

    taylor nikole Says:

    “its like judging good and bad…
    sure there is a distinction, but who gets to chose?”

    I do!

  • taylor nikole

    ofcourse you do david…
    haha
    *rolls eyes*
    JK
    haha

  • http://www.daybow.com David Hayes

    I’ve been going back over my spreadsheet. The totals on the sheet didn’t match the actual counts, so I have taken care of the worst errors first. I have re-checked and fixed 60 of the 108 blog entries so far. 34 of the totals were right the first time (but that doesn’t rule out mistakes that cancel each other out). There are 14 more blog etries that I was off by 1 or 2 post counts (a total of 23 errors out of 7733 comments tallied) and I plan to fix at least 6 more of the blog entry tallies before I repost the updated spread sheet. The blog entries I might skip rchecking are huge and account for only 9 errors in count talies. I’ll probably check them too. Who needs to sleep anyway?

  • http://deleted Lizeth

    jimmy valentime! Hey that’s a good question, Allison, could you please tell us how you’re planning to direct the smallville epysode????

    By the way.. Im so proud of you for encouraging others to make “something”

    -Lizeth..

  • http://www.myspace.com/shinefloyd_luigi shinefloyd / luigi

    # David Hayes Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

    “At least one member of this community lives and works in Shangri-La (and one doesn’t … but played someone who did in a TV show pilot) … so maybe isolated incidents of utopia can come into being … at least in the minds of people who decide to be content with what they have.”
    …………………………………………

    David… Welcome to Utopia….
    Shangri-la… sounds like a utopia…
    do you know what mean “Shangri-la”???
    here is the meaning: in english.. “place of peace”… in spanish… “lugar de paz”
    Shangri-la… is it an utopia??

  • http://www.daybo.com David Hayes

    Luigi,

    Ever see the movie “Lost Horizon” ??

    Shangri-La was a uptopian paradise. Everything outside Shangri-La was in black and white but Shangri-La was in brilliant color.

  • Brittany

    Hey Allison! I’m glad your having a great time. We do need to start working more in teams instead of thinking only us, one person, can achieve a grand amount of things, which is quite unlikely in some situations. Their is no I in team. I can’t wait to see the episode you directed! It is truly wonderful that you get to work with so many amazing people and have such an amazing cast at Smallville! I swear when I’m older I will visit the set even though the show will be probably be finished by then :( . Lol.
    Bye for now,
    BrittanyXOXOXO

Newer Comments →