The Greatest Movie Ever Was Made by a 1st Time Director

Citizen Kane is often cited as the greatest film of all time. What most people don’t know is that before he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in it, Orson Welles had never set foot in a studio.

As he explains in this clip, it was only because of his naivety and ignorance of the world of movie making that he was able to make cinema history …

One of the paradoxes of the creative process is that the more we know, the harder it is to think originally.

Three takeaways …

1. If you're a creative leader, recognise the unique advantage held by the junior members of your team. Don't corral them down the well trodden path of what's been done before. Encourage them to follow their instincts wherever they may lead, safe in the knowledge that you’ll catch them if they fall.

2. If you’re just starting out, go for it. Be as wild and extreme and provocative as you dare. Push your ideas to breaking point and beyond. If that’s too far others will pull you back. Your job right now is to discover the boundaries by overstepping them.

3. And if you’re neither a creative leader nor just starting out, but someone who's been making work for a while, consider how you can disrupt your own process. Try changing your materials, or working with an arbitrary constraint. Or posing yourself the question Peter Schmidt once asked of Brian Eno, ‘What if you don’t do the things that no one had never thought of not doing?’

With thanks to Orson Welles.

For more on the ‘not know mind’ check out this post.