Last night I got my little hands (actually they’re not really all that little) on the DVD set of Season 1 of Heroes. One the very first disc is the unaired original pilot. It was like a tasty treat. When you’re a fan of something that you find entertaining it’s often fun to see everything there is to know about that creation. At least it is for me. When I really like something I’ll want to know all the little details. The curious thing is that when it comes to my own creations I don’t find the same fascination. Maybe it’s because I already know all the little details. I’ve had fans actually ask me questions about things. Thus obviously I’m not the only one that finds those details about others exciting.
A good portion of the unaired pilot made it to the pilot that did air. There were several story lines that ended up getting changed and one that got axed. The good thing about the edit it is it brought the many stories left over into better focus.
Editing ideas. It’s easy to come up with ideas. At least for me. The hard part is taking those ideas and refining them. Tweaking them. Honing them. Crafting them. Maybe one time in a thousand you can get lucky on the first shot out of the gate with an idea and it’s perfect in it’s inception. However, the reality is most ideas need to be molded, shaped and tweaked into greatness. I think there’s a great line from the movie Finding Forrester, where Forrester (played by Sean Connery) tells a young apprentice to write the first draft from the heart. Then go back and edit it later.
Some people start editing from the get go. I know, I sometimes do it. However, it’s a lot easier to let something roll, get it into a tangible form, then go back and edit. I’m sure it’s similar for movies, TV, sculpting, acting, obviously with music, and probably any creative field. As I’ve stated on the blog before, I’ve started taking a lot of time tweaking things from my original ideas now. The tradeoff in the time spent is the response I’m now getting. While the output has been a bit less, what has come out is so much more.
In the spirit of a group of creative people, you get a lot of worlds coming together. Sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn’t. When it works the sparks fly and things happen. Thus comes my resurfacing of a hit for a group called Powerman 5000. They took original ideas and turned them into their own greatness. I don’t know a lot about the group but I do know my path has crossed with the original bassist Dorian, and one time drummer Adrian. Dorian I met on the east coast while going to music school. Adrian, actually played drums for me early on for a few gigs. The small world got smaller when I found out he was Dorian’s roommate for a while. I had a tape from a band that Dorian was in prior to Powerman 5000.
I like the energy and the spark that is flowing through this song. Don’t you? What’s your original idea? How are you going to turn it into greatness?
(** Disclaimer: If Powerman’s label decides to collide with me, I’ll have to go supernova on the audio and melt it off the server. The post will remain to show that I appreciate ideas and their editing. **)