“Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” was a mantra from one of my favorite drumline instructors in high school. He used it to emphasize the importance of proper technique. As a result, I improved significantly and had more fun in the process, both of which likely led to my role as section leader senior year. Long before then, I had already internalized perfection as a standard, but I’m not writing this to unpack my problems with toxic perfectionism. I’m writing this to share key takeaways I’ve learned about the importance of practice, how it impacts my work today, and how I’ve found a healthier relationship with it.
There’s a great interview with Ira Glass, in which he describes the “Taste/Skill Gap”. He says we usually start pursuing some art form because we love it and have great taste. The problem is, when we start, we’re not very good, and we know this… because we have great taste. He explains the best way to bridge this gap is by completing “a volume of work”. This is accomplished through time spent practicing, but how much time?
“...the key to achieving true expertise in any skill is simply a matter of practicing, albeit in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours.”
To put Gladwell’s quote in perspective, if practicing your skill were your full time job at 40 hours per week, you would have to work nearly 5 years to reach expertise, assuming you don’t take any vacation time.
(10k hours / 40 hours per week = 250 weeks / 52 weeks = ~4.8 years)
On the surface, that’s a huge investment of time. For me personally, and I’m sure many can relate, when I first found the thing in my professional career that I was willing to invest so much time in, it consumed me. 40 hours was a light week. I absorbed as much about cinematography as I possibly could, then went out and applied what I learned. Practice no longer felt like work. It was exciting and fun. It became play.
“One for the reels. One for the meals.” A friend of mine shared this quote early on in my video production career. To me it means I do some projects to get paid and other projects because I love what I do. I call the latter, passion projects.
My main role at ATCP is Cinematographer. My happy place where I have the most fun is behind the camera in my hands. Recently, I had the privilege of working on two short films with an outstanding cast and crew. None of us were paid for these projects, yet all of us were excited to be part of them.
We used two very different camera packages for these projects. One was a single, power and data hungry, high resolution camera package requiring quite a bit of rigging to properly operate, making it much heavier. The other consisted of three far smaller and lighter cameras with batteries lasting hours instead of minutes. I can confidently say the 3 cam kit was far more enjoyable to use on set than the heavy kit. After my experience, the image quality and post production workflow on both are great.
Passion projects like these allow room to take risks, try new techniques, hone our skills with different equipment, learn the strengths and weaknesses of that equipment, collaborate on trouble-shooting, streamline our workflows, creatively solve problems, and learn in a safe space. Without that safe space, it can be difficult to get comfortable with a key ingredient for learning and success.
Failure.
Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. Experiencing failure surrounded by a supportive group is like planting a seed in your garden of personal development. There’s no judgment. Everyone there wants you to succeed and grow. After these projects, I absolutely love when we debrief and reflect. One of us may say, “Well, X didn’t go as planned” then several of us chime in with, “sure, but on the next project, we could try XYZ to fix it.” There’s a positive energy around solving problems and improving together.
These passion projects help us grow and showcase what we’re capable of. We gain a new portfolio piece to be proud of, and often make new connections as the casts and crews grow. All of the skills in practice transfer to our client work without the associated risks of learning and failing since time has already been invested in that process. Scripting, storyboarding, location scouting, tech prep and troubleshooting, blocking scenes, etc… The repetition of using these skills in practice and on client projects leads to continuous improvement in speed, quality, and consistency which benefit every project moving forward.
I have invested a lot of time into my craft. That time has given me confidence and helps me bring better ideas and solutions to the projects I’m part of. Practice makes progress. Practice is where I play.