Creative Juices

by Danny Summers

Real creativity, what we may call Creative Juices, must take a special kind of focus and attention. It may require quiet space to really unplug and block out all the typical hustle and bustle you normally experience in the work setting. I decided to ask Tom Kegley what he does to be in the best position for his most creative work. Here's what Tom said:

"In my work, CREATIVITY is equal parts INSPIRATION (concept) and PERSPIRATION (execution). Given this notion of Applied Creativity, I’ll focus on the front end. How does something intangible as INSPIRATION happen?

For me, it’s a process that begins with listening to my client and understanding their need. And then… with a leap of faith, I patiently wait (with the pressure of the tic-toc of the deadline clock!). The waiting room is time and space– driving in the car, morning coffee, sitting, standing, walking, conscious and unconscious thoughts, looking at clouds, cab sav, the half-awake state right before and after sleep, dreams, experiences. The room is vast.

And out of this amorphousness comes the new way to present something, the idea outside the box, convention turned on its head, the ‘aha’…the inspiration.

Hard, ain’t it hard, but I love the challenge and the result after the perspiration part!

Tom shared a few slides from his presentation at The Fall Event 2023... they fit perfectly in this conversation...

Pollinators, as a potential subject, has been a hot topic and continues to be an important area for Centers to build stories and content around. You heard this emphasized by Sid Raisch at The Fall Event 2023.

Last week Earth Works in Jacksonville, Florida shared a new Pollinator Video they produced.  It features Matthew Barlow, Earth Work's Retail Manager as "the Bee Man". At first glance, the video caught my attention and got me laughing. It grabbed my attention, was entertaining and had an interesting message. And, it was quick.

After watching it several times, I sent Earth Works the following message, "Matthew and all… I just saw the crazy-good video on FB… You guys are Way Over the Top!  Congrats on being so creative. Give me a little backstory on the development too. Who’s idea was it… was it difficult to get Matt to dress up like this (probably not)… and more?"

Terri McGregor, Earth Work's Marketing Director, replied, "It sure is hilarious, and you're correct; Matt needed zero coaxing to put that suit on! Over this season, we have watched our interactions and views closely, and it is apparent that 1. Having our people's faces speaking on camera holds attention and 2. You must grab the audience within the first couple of seconds. And 3. The wackier, funnier, or sillier, the better."

OK, are you ready? Click on the Earth Works Pollinator message below...

 
At this point you may be wondering... how did they do this?  What did they use to shoot the video?  I was certainly wondering, so I asked. Terri said, "It's an Insta360 X3 Camera. The 360 means just that. It shoots with two fish-eye 180-degree type lenses on opposite sides of this small device.

I followed up and asked, "How did you do the fish-eye or distorted look when Matt was following the camera… giving that “nose at the camera (and nose in the flowers) look?”

Terri said, "We filmed it with a special Insta360 Camera. A couple clips are with our videographer holding the camera. The clips where he is running through the nursery and the "nose in the flowers look", it is with a special selfie stick in his mouth!"

Digging into the Insta360 x3, you will find it captures 5.7K video.  You have different options of how much of the 360 you want to use... front, rear, either side, or even all 360-degree views. The special Insta360 selfie stick is INVISIBLE to the Insta360 camera so if you look closely the person in the view may have a hand extended slightly but you don't see the selfie stick or camera!

I also knew Steve Kendall would have some experience to share on more of the equipment (the PERSPIRATION part Kegley mentioned) on this type of camera and process. So I asked and here's what he said:

"I have previously used the earlier version of the Go Pro Max to capture a 360-degree stroll through a garden path and a person pruning a boxwood. I used Adobe Premier Pro to edit the footage for final use. Within Premier Pro, you could edit the final video to be viewed as a 360-degree interactive video, allowing the viewer to scroll left, right up, and down to see the full effect of the 360-degree field of view, or you can edit the footage to create a traditional video with various unique whimsical distorted viewing perspectives.
 
The camera has two 180-degree lenses, capturing a full 360-degrees. The two pieces of footage are automatically stitched together within the GoPro software, producing an entire 360-degree field of view. Adobe Premier Pro has additional editing tools to take the footage and distort it in either a concave or convex format, allowing you to create some fun visuals a traditional camera can’t achieve.
 
We used poles of various lengths to raise the camera higher, giving the viewer a different perspective of the subject matter.  It takes some experimenting and testing but yields a creative way to capture and view video."

Here's an introduction video to the Insta360 x3 (they even have an x4 now):  Website

And here's an introduction video to the GoPro Max:  Website

Obviously quite a bit of this conversation is focused on the "gear-side" of how this is done as well as Steve Kendall's sharing of post-video processing ideas, but this all begins with... as Tom Kegley says... CREATIVITY is equal parts INSPIRATION and PERSPIRATION.

Congrats to Earth Works for sharing your creative ideas with all of The Group!

Keep the Creative Juices going!