Conversations on Collaboration

There are about six of us who work fulltime on Footnote, maybe more depending on what you call fulltime.

Add in a slew of interns, our executive producer, our distributers, some friends we call in favors from, freelancers, the random kid we'll talk in to holding a boom mic, some remarkable people who give us every spare hour and would give us more if they were able, and that number jumps up to about twenty. We couldn't do it with less, and if I tried to explain how close we've gotten while making this show, it'd sound like exaggeration.

Nevertheless, with every person we add to the team, it's one more person who needs to be happy with the final outcome. One more of us to look over someone else's shoulder, take a red pen to someone else's script, add an opinion to someone else's design.

It's collaboration. It's compromise. And it's awfully crowded. Of course, we trust each other - because we are all so talented. I mean, it's just crazy how talented we are. Probably the most talented. And the most humble. Go, us! - but trusting your friends doesn't mean you don't have ideas. And, when our ideas collide, things get messy.

Creative types. What can you do?

It's a trick that nobody's good at: sharing vision. Too many "collaborative" efforts are really exercises in smuggling ideas past egos. At Footnote, we do try to do better - but in doing so, we're learning why so many people prefer the subtle games.

Collaboration is hard - it means lots of conversations, long work hours, mutual trust, and discussions that might be generously described as "testy." Mostly, it means sacrificing an idea you know is good for the idea that the team thinks is better (and that can look like anything from "Okay, I see your point," to "Fine. Have it your way.")

And maybe that's why creativity is tough in this country (creativity is on the decline around here. Newsweek just confirmed it, if the Marmaduke movie left you unconvinced.) In a society where go for your dreams is everything, go for our dreams gets complicated.