Courage of Creative Convictions

So… the trailer.

I know.  I've been talking about it a long time, and you haven't seen it yet.

Well, an interesting thing happened the other day…

The trailer has actually been 99% done for a couple weeks.  Travis, my wonderful and amazing co-producer/editor/director, and I had gone back and forth, making all kinds of changes; we'd sent it out to a few trusted beta-testers who gave great notes; and finally it was almost ready.  I'd given Travis a few final tweaky notes, and we were also waiting for my generous, artistic, and very busy husband to do the image that ends the piece.  Once we got that image, Travis put it in place, answered my notes, did some final finessing on his own, and sent it to me.

I LOVED it.

I even emailed him and said maybe I'd have a teeny tweak or two, but really, I loved loved loved it.

But then I started worrying.  Sure, I loved it… but maybe I was missing something.  So I sent it to a friend whose opinion I respect.

She had notes.

"I love it," she said, "but I was thinking… maybe it would be interesting to do xyz…"

I didn't like xyz, but I do like a good creative conundrum, so I started brainstorming other fixes for her issues.  I wouldn't do xyz, but pqr would be really cool!

"Yes!" she agreed.  And then if you did that, you could fgh!"

This went on and on.  By the time I got off the phone, my head was spinning with all the notes I wanted to give Travis.  I emailed him again — those teeny tweaks I might have?  Turns out they're actually significant notes — lots of them — oh boy did we have work to do!

I was fired up with the need to change, to tweak, to embellish.  I could barely handle the drive back home from my daughter's school, I was so eager to dive in.  Finally, I leaped to my computer and started typing, but realized I needed to watch the trailer again so I could tell Travis the exact spots we were going to add these bells and whistles.  I called up the file, hit play…

…and just watched.

I LOVED it.

I watched it again.  Maybe I was missing something.  Didn't I have a head full of notes to "fix" it?

I pressed play.  I loved it.

I swear, I did this six times.  I was actively looking for the problems we'd "tackled" on the phone… but they weren't there.

The trailer was done, and it was terrific.  I knew it the second I saw it, but I didn't trust my own opinion.  I let someone else's doubts get into my head, got all caught up in the intellectual-creative exercise of the things we could do, and in the process completely lost sight of my own sensibility.

I wrote Travis back and told him what happened.  I also mentioned it would surely appear as an object lesson on the blog.

In writing, in trailers — and in life, honestly — there is a time and a place for soliciting other opinions.  But at a certain point, you need to have the confidence to tune out everyone else and stand by what you feel is right.

The trailer is done… and it's awesome.  Travis is just putting it in the proper format (it's a file change, not a content change), and then we'll get to share it with all of you!!!!

In the meantime, tell me… have you ever had trouble of letting go when something was finished?  Have you let someone else's opinion get in your head and sway you from your own creative convictions?  I'd love to hear all about it!