Upon getting assigned this blogpost I kept racking my brain to try to find the perfect creative to write about. I spent days trying to figure out the right person but I could not figure it out. Then when I was browsing Netflix I came across the documentary called Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates by Davis Guggenheim. After watching the documentary, I decided to write about Bill Gates for my blogpost using information I learned while watching it.
The first part of this documentary focuses on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Specifically the toilet they helped create for African countries in hopes of minimizing the deaths due to diarrhea. This documentary does a great job of trying to explain Bill's creative mind. When watching it I could not help connecting almost everything that was said to class. One of the things that stood out to me was what he does when he is faced with a creative block. He plays tennis, sometimes up to 8 hours. This acts as incubation where his conscious mind is preoccupied with playing tennis while his subconscious processes the issue at hand.
The documentary also makes it a point, through several testimonies, that Bill Gates reads a lot. To me, this is a form of collecting. In class we talked about how creatives collect information and experiences. This extensive amount of reading definitely appears to be a form of collecting experiences and information that fuel Bill's creative mind.
Another thing that should be taken into account in regards to Bill's creative process are his motivations. The first part of this documentary shows that Bill's mother and wife are a big motivators in his humanitarian work. All through his life, Bills mother always reminded him to give back to others. His wife also motivated him to assist the people in Africa because she brought the septic waste issue to Bill's attention. Melinda not only brought this issue to Bill's attention but expressed how it was their duty to help these people.
Bill had many obstacles that made it difficult for him to achieve his goal of reducing the death due to diarrhea. Perhaps the biggest one was cost. The governments of these African countries cannot afford to install typical waste treatment facilities. So he needed to devise a system that can cheaply be installed and still be sanitary. This toilet needed to "remove germs from human waste and recover valuable resources such as energy, clean water, and nutrients, operate without connections to water, sewer, or electrical lines, and cost less than .05 cents (in US dollars) per user per day" as stated on the Bill and Melinda Gates website.
Even though Bill figured what features the toilet needed to possess he still needed to engineer it. This is, in my opinion, his creative product. Bill made a contest amongst many engineering companies from around the world to see who can build the best product and they did this all for free. Bill Gates had some of the world's most brilliant engineering minds construct toilets that followed the parameters he created free of charge. Only a creative genius like Bill Gates would be able to devise a solution to such a complicated problem.
I thought that the first time I had ever heard of Ve Neill was when I was watching a tv show called Faceoff. I had been watching a few episodes and she was one of judges who evaluated the prosthetics and makeup created by the various contestants. It wasn't until the show provided some background information on each judge that I realized I had seen Ve Neill's creations a million times before. Ve Neill is the brilliant mind behind the faces in Beetlejuice, the amazing transformation of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, the iconic look of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, the elaborate characters from The Hunger Games, and countless other characters and monsters. I had seen her work in numerous movies, but had never known who the creative mind was behind the characters.
Ve Neill had known she wanted to create monsters since the age of 5. After she watched Frankenstein for the first time, she was constantly dressing her cousins up and putting makeup on them with whatever products she could fine. Unfortunately, very few women worked in the industry at the time, so she turned to fashion instead. Quickly realizing this was not what she wanted to do, Ve Neill left the fashion industry and began doing makeup and designing costumes for rock and roll bands in the 70s. It wasn't until she went to a science fiction convention when she was 18 that she realized her potential as a makeup artist. At the convention she met a man named Fred Phillips, most famously known for his work on the makeup in Star Trek. Fred Phillips took her under his wing and began mentoring her. He even gave her one of her first jobs working with him on Star Trek. After that, she began working her way up and became the lead makeup artist on numerous films, earning awards for her art. She continues to work on films, but also teaches classes and judges on Faceoff.
I believe Ve Neill would fall under Kaufman's description of a pro-C creative. Although she is the one who is physically creating the monsters and characters, Ve Neill describes her work more as helping to make the directors' visions come to life. The process for her creativity involves working closely with the directors to understand their ideas and working with the actors to see how their personalities will be emphasized by the makeup. Her creativity stems from collaboration with others and constantly learning new techniques for application and blending. I think Kaufman would describe her as a pro-C creative because she didn't create a new form of art or completely revolutionize makeup art, but she is advancing the industry by teaching others the various techniques and constantly perfecting and learning new ones for herself. Ve Neill was once asked why she didn't do traditional movie makeup, and she responded with, "anyone can do that. That part's easy. I wanted to do this other stuff." I think this is why she is creative. She had the passion for creating monsters at such a young age and, even though this form or movie makeup was much more difficult, especially for a woman at the time, the difficulty and want to bring someone else's ideas to life and learn new skills along the way are what motivated her and her creativity.
“I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is
the story of many girls.” - Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai, at only 22 years of age, has already done
tremendous work towards the advancement of education for young women. Having
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, Malala continually stands up for and
speaks out in favor of women’s right to education in countries across the
world.
When Malala was 15 years old, she began to speak out against
the outrage of prohibiting girls from attending school. The Taliban took over
her town four years before and prevented girls from attending school. In
resisting this injustice, she became a target and was shot on the left side of
her head. This injury left her in the hospital, undergoing surgeries and rehab
for months. After her recovery, she established the Malala Fund, which is
“dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she
chooses.” Although Malala is incredibly talented in public speaking and
educating those around the world, this talent is not what led her to desire to
speak up about the importance of education. Malala was inspired to speak after
that right was stripped away from her. Her passion to see all women educated
motivated her to speak up and make a change in women's education.
Malala is now studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
at the University of Oxford, refusing to give in to the violent attempts to
keep her from education. She continues to travel, meeting with women and
constantly working to establish a better community for women who desire
education. Malala’s creative approach to building a better future for women has
been seen throughout much of her life. Malala was separated from her classmates
when she was just 11 years old, and quickly realized the importance of speaking
up for their education. Despite the dangers of speaking up, Malala did not give
up, even after being shot.
Malala established the Malala Fund in 2014. The work that is
done through this fund is specific to each country the fund provides aid to. Malala
is not taking a universal idea and applying it across the world. She comes to
each country with a specific and unique plan to best fit the needs of women in
that location. Malala is working to advocate for education in Afghanistan,
Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Syria region.
In Afghanistan, there is a focus on “recruiting female
teachers and eliminating gender discrimination,” in India, on “expanding access
to free secondary school through advocacy, mentorship programmes and re-enrollment
campaigns,” in Pakistan, on “fighting for education funding, building schools
for girls and training young women to speak out for their rights”. This
individualized approach in each country shows how dedicated Malala is on
working to truly achieve education for all women. Instead of sitting down and
deciding on one creative approach to apply across every country, the Malala
Fund looks at each country on its own and comes up with innovative solutions to
fit the culture and climate of that specific location. The Malala Fund sees
that only 7% of Nigeria’s budget is spent on education, and they help Kiki
James advocate for increasing that percentage. In Brazil, however, the Malala
fund focuses on the massive problem of sexual abuse and exploitation, supporting
Denise Carreira in educating and training teachers on gender equality and
reporting violence. In the Syria region, transportation to schools is a massive
barrier to education. The Malala fund invests in technology which Nayla Fahed
established to help refugee girls catch up on lessons, even without internet
access.
This is a common theme throughout the work that the Malala
Fund is doing – supporting, helping, and building up the people making a
difference in these communities. Instead of coming in and taking over, they
come beside and work with, a powerfully creative approach to change. It is all
too easy to think we know exactly what needs to happen and how to make that
change, but the reality is that those in the community know the culture and needs
far better than an outsider or newcomer will. Malala desires to work with, not
just for, the communities she enters into. Her creativity does more than
inspire, motivate, and move individuals – it gives them an opportunity to
create for themselves the future they desire. That is a power that simply
cannot be undermined.
Works Cited:
https://www.malala.org
(You can also visit this website for more information on the
work that the Malala Fund and to support the work being done!)
Vagina shots, guinea pig obsessions, sex with Priests, and feminist silent retreats with your sister. Actress, comedian, writer, and producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge isn't afraid to make you feel uncomfortable. In fact, that is the entire premise of her latest Emmy award-winning Amazon Original Fleabag (2016-2019). Using a combination of painfully grotesque situational comedy and the breaking of what's known as the "fourth wall," Waller-Bridge creates a universe where she can provide commentary in real time. In this bing-worthy sitcom, a woman known only to her audience as "Fleabag," played by Waller-Bridge herself, details the dramatic and often painfully awkward moments of life, always stopping to drop a joke or two for the camera at the expense of her friends and relatives. The beauty of this character is not only her detachment from social expectations and her sadistic love for making others uncomfortable, it is her ability to point out the meaninglessness of conventions of daily life. Simply put, Waller-Bridge entices her audience by saying what we are all thinking, or simply, breaking down that thinking all together.
Take this scene for example. Fleabag finds herself on a crowded London tube. The scene begins with a seemingly boring early commute, until you here the quiet opening of AWOLNATION's "Sail"in the background. As if choreographed, all of the passengers, with the exception of our protagonist, begin contorting their bodies in sync to the metallic riffs of the guitar. The viewer watches this scene play out with equal amounts confusion and awe. It builds with the music like a ballet of ordinary civilians until Waller-Bridges turns to the camera and brings it to a crashing halt. "I think my period's coming" Fleabag concludes and the motion stops.
This scene like many others needs few words to create an unforgettable moment. What's masterful about Waller-Bridges comedy is its lack of complexity and its provocation. Just by saying one line, "I think my period's coming," Waller-Bridge completely strips the performance of any symbolic meaning and defies every expectation of the viewer. That one line turns all of the beauty of the previous two minutes into absurdity.
These small moments are complimented by more serious plot lines. Through comedy, Waller-Bridge displays the complicated relationship between family members, grief after the death of a loved one, female sexuality, and the vulnerability of love. In the show, Fleabag grapples with the death of her mother and the recent "accidental suicide" of her best friend and business partner. Fleabag's fraught relationship with her "perfect, anorexic sister" helps her navigate through the reality of her situation: her business is on the brink of going under, she can't hold a guy for more than a couple of one-night stands, and at times, she feels completely and utterly alone.
Waller-Bridge admits that she draws on her own experiences while creating. Her character's are memorable for being complicated. They're not good. They're not bad. They defy categorization — a uniquely human quality. Her character may be a murderer, but she's the sweetest murderer you've ever met. "I think a lot of time, I'm just writing my worst fears, of the idea of losing my mum or my best friend or doing something so terrible to somebody that's kind of deemed unforgivable, or having a really broken family." - Waller-Bridge
Waller-Bridge comes from a family who supported her artistic endeavors. In fact, several of her siblings work within the music and entertainment industry as well. Phoebe, herself, has always challenged convention. Beginning with her education at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Waller-Bridge found herself frustrated with her course instruction. When they told her to be silent and expressive, she felt compelled to speak. When they told her to play a panther, she wanted to play a bat. In an interview with the New York Times, Waller-Bridge comments that life has always been that way for her. People try to place her in a box, and all she wants to do is get out. “I’ve always wanted to be a bat,” she says, “but I’m expected to be a panther.” - Waller-Bridge
After graduating in 2006, Waller-Bridge opened a Theater Company, Drywrite, with her business partner and fellow writer Vicky Jones. Her company was designed to push writers to create stories that made audiences feel uncomfortable. When she became dissatisfied by the characters being created, she decided to write ones for herself. What followed was both disturbing and terribly interesting, and I'm not even talking about her role on Star Wars.
Waller-Bridge originally created Fleabag as a stage production, which debuted several times in New York. Her other creations including Crashing (2016), a sitcom detailing the lives of squatters in an abandoned hospital, and Killing Eve (2018), a romantic spy drama also received critical acclaim. Regardless of the fame these masterpieces have brought her, Waller-Bridge's ultimate fear is stagnation. She is never content to look backward towards her accomplishments, but wants to keep pushing herself and her audiences to think outside the box. Her star status as an actress does not concern her, rather, she has decided to focus on writing and producing much to the annoyance of many directors who have considered her for roles. Her partner, Jones, actually comments on Waller-Bridge's creative spirit, recounting Waller-Bridge's annoying habit of spoiling movies and productions by guessing and whispering what is going to happen next. Jones says this annoyance with predictability drives Waller-Bridge to "Phoebe-Proof" her own work, meaning the audience never knows what's about to happen.
"You're allowed to bore your friends and family, but to bore your audience is unforgivable." - Waller-Bridge
That insatiable appetite for unpredictability can also make Waller-Bridges a difficult boss to write for. Often times writers on her various shows will giddily provide their new ideas for a certain character only to find out later that Waller-Bridge had already planned on killing that same character. However, the same goes for Waller-Bridge's own work. A perfectionist at heart, she is never satisfied with the first draft. In fact, Waller-Bridge once wrote her own character out of a production because she didn't think she could do that character justice. You can say what you want, but she is willing to make the hard decisions to provide the best quality.
That's exactly why Waller-Bridge has shut down the idea of a third season for Fleabag much to the dismay of fans and Amazon. According to Waller-Bridge, the story line has come to a natural end and she is ready to put Fleabag to rest. However, the same was said after the first season so fingers crossed.
For now, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is basking in the glow of her recent Emmy win and continuing to create some pretty depraved and masterful content. Waller-Bridge is set to star in live productions of Fleabag in New York until the end of April. The artist is also teaming up with HBO on a series titled Run, depicting a love story between two estranged friends whose time to call on a long forgotten pact has suddenly expired.
I, for one, can't wait to see what she comes up with next. "I have a horrible feeling I am a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman who can't even call herself a feminist." - Waller-Bridges
Above is one of my favorite scenes from the series. Hair is everything.
When asked to think of Big "C" creatives, my first thoughts are of intellectual giants such as Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, and Neil deGrasse Tyson or of business moguls such as Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, or Mark Cuban. But I felt that I could not really relate to any of them, they seemed so much larger than life. Which brought me to my next question: do Big "C" creatives have to be these larger than life figures. Certainly, they did not have such prominence before their work, but after, it seems almost necessary for a Creative to gain such prominence. So I thought about this for a while, and I found a loophole in my thinking: YouTube celebrities. Although the most prominent YouTube stars gain the prominence of conventional celebrities, they are often a mere click away. Unlike, conventional celebrities, their content is largely personality based rather than based around a product they produce. Accordingly, each video represents a more intimate interaction between the creator and the viewer than music of videos of some sort. I knew what kind of person I wanted to do, but I was not too sure. I knew I couldn't just pick my favorite You Tuber because they might not hold the prominence necessary, so I picked the most popular You Tuber I could think of: PewDiePie. Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (2019)
College dropout turned YouTube sensation, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg joined the ranks of YouTube creators in 2010 - five years after the site opened. Felix had been a self proclaimed gamer all his life and had been interested in recording his videos for a long time. YouTube in 2010 was full of vloggers and sketch comedians (I'm sure we all remember Fred), gaming channels on YouTube weren't really a thing yet - but some did exist. Without a mold to adhere to, Felix was free to create his own material without much influence from other creators or fear of being unpopular for being different. He posted
"let's play"videos of himself playing horror games - and later Minecraft - which gained lots of views very quickly, but the crux of his popularity game from montage videos he created. It was in these videos where his goofy, energetic, and endearing personality was able to shine. Viewers couldn't get enough of it. By July 2012, he had 1 million subscribers, in 2013 he had 10 million, and reached 19 million near the end of 2013. He now sits at 101 million.
Minecraft loading screen
Felix popularized gaming on Youtube, and changed it in a profound way. In 2016, he shifted from content driven posts to personality driven posts. That translated to less gaming videos and more "try not to laugh" videos. This shift from the content to the creator changed how YouTube was used and influenced every other gaming channel that popped up. Felix's channel became the blueprint for a successful gaming channel on YouTube influencing the type of games played and even how they are played. As a gamer, he knew that he could not always be the best at whatever game he played, so he didn't make it about him being the best. He made his channel about him being himself and just having a good time. Felix Kjellberg was among the first to create a brand based on his personality on YouTube and make millions off of it, recreated gaming on YouTube and influenced other creators, and gained international prominence and popularity in doing so,which is why he is a Big "C" creative. PewDiePie subscriber count
As I was trying to find my creative for this blog, I found myself searching through the biographies of prominent individuals I had never heard of before. Although what they had done was great, no one struck me as interesting enough to write a post about. While scrounging the internet for a creative to stand out, I turned to my friend to pick her brain for ideas, “Name the first creative individual to come to mind who has made major breakthroughs.” Without skipping a beat she said Stephen Hawking and my search began. A little hesitant at first, I soon found Hawking was the creative I was looking for. Not only did he make some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, but he also did it all with an ongoing, terminal disease called ALS for over 50 years.
The Disease
Hawking was first diagnosed with ALS at 21 years old while attending Cambridge after noticing signs of the disease while previously studying at Oxford. ALS, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a “progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord,” which results in progressive muscle weakness. Although he was only given a couple of years to live, Hawking lived well past that. As a result, the constant threat of his disease suddenly and rapidly progressing was just one of the factors that lead to his many scientific advancements. Hawking felt an overwhelming need to learn as much as he possibly could about the secrets of the cosmos before his disease would no longer allow him to. Over the many years, his ALS did progress and towards the latter half of his life, while he was still continuing his research, he found himself confined to a wheelchair and eventually communicating through the use of the technology that translated eye movements, and later cheek muscle movements, to words. Due to his disease, he experienced much isolation but it was the combination of isolation and drive to complete his studies and research that made him the great man we know him as now.
Stephen Hawking (image from biography.com)
The Work
Hawking is most famously known for his discovery that black holes are not the information vacuum scientists previously believed them to be. Instead, Hawking proved “that matter, in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star.” Since I’m not well versed in scientific language, I’ll spare you the details by saying, Stephen Hawking created his own radiation theory by bringing new meaning and understanding to the workings of black holes, as well as the big bang theory, and ultimately, how the universe was made. His discoveries made him famous in the science world but also heard by everyone else as well. As a part of his efforts to share his discoveries with the world, Hawking wrote many pieces of literature in attempts to simplify his findings so that the everyday person could understand the significance of the material at hand. His contributions in cosmology, physics, and the field of general relativity brought him numerous exceptional honors and awards. Even a year after his passing, his theories on the universe's secrets remain very relevant and discussed in both the scientific world and mainstream media as well.
Stephen Hawking receiving the Copley Medal of the Royal Society, 2006 (image from britannica.com)
The Impact: A Modern-Day Big-C Creative like No Other
Stephen Hawking can and should be named one of the greatest Big-C creatives of our era. He transformed the way we look at space, black holes, and the universe as a whole. When he was faced with the possibility of death, he was not held back or deterred from his work, but rather quite the opposite. Hawking recognized his calling and dove into the work that lied before him. Whether he was going to fail or not was not even a discussion, Hawking was driven not towards success of any kind, but rather knowledge. He knew that if his days were numbered, he needed to answer the questions that had filled him for so many years, he yearned for knowledge. He not only yearned for this knowledge for himself, but for the world. In the past 20+ years, references to and appearances by Hawking himself have been made in everything from cartoons to television series, from talk shows to movies, all because of the great scientific knowledge he has brought to the world. The impact Hawking has left on the past, present and future understanding of the universe is almost unmatched. Thanks to his many contributions, cosmology will be forever changed and as a result, Hawking has opened a door to numerous advancements that await the future of science.
Stephen Hawking with the star of Fox's The Big Bang Theory, Jim Parsons (image from biography.com)
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