Embrace the restrictions.

I was listening to Alejandro Iñárritu talk about the making of Birdman the other morning in the car. A film with a lot of ambition but without a budget to match. (Sound familiar, anyone?)

And, even then, it took three years to get the budget together they did have. In order to shoot what he wanted to shoot, with the resources he had, the entire film was shot in 19 days. Which is crazy. Absolutely crazy. (The film runs for 2 hours, think of how many days you’ve spent shooting a 15 or 30 second spot…)

This not only forced script changes, but a number of creative and executional decisions. Everything was shot with extended takes to condense the shooting board, leaving little time for adjustments or additional takes. This required an agonising amount of pre-planning that left very little room for improvisation or ‘leaving things to the edit’. He described the process as ‘making spaghetti with one long noodle that you cannot cut’. The idea and the concept itself had to be shaped to the economical, logistical, and physical realities which in turn ended up re-shaping the film itself. Knowing this now, you can feel the manic energy and the imperfections in the film. The story itself is a rollercoaster made even more maddening by how it was shot.

He also spoke about how the same script will never be the same in the hands of a different director. Every script could end up being 300 completely different films. Even with the same director, depending on the circumstances around its creation. In the case of Birdman, it won ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards.

Restrictions can often be forced on artists and creatives by circumstances outside of our control. Usually it stems from time or money, or both, controlled by an entity with more investment in the outcome than the process. And learning to roll within these bounds and still extract the best piece of work is a critically important ability. The faster you realise that restrictions aren’t always an enemy, the better. In fact, sometimes it’s worthwhile placing some restrictions on yourself just to see what happens. (Tbh, I wish those restaurants with like 214 mediocre things on the menu would start placing some restrictions on themselves and just do like 10 things really well. Can probably add ‘full service agencies’ to that analogy as well.)

"I've always been making up my own restrictions for myself, from day one, and it's compelling, because it forces me to think. That's always been a driving force for me." - Jack White

Why would we put restrictions on ourselves? Well, think of it this way. It gives your brain somewhere to go. It gives you padded walls to bounce off instead of just catapulting off into space. I created sickbandnamesintheheraldsun purposely to create guardrails for experimenting with Midjourney. It’s like when you see those musos on Insta playing famous riffs in different keys and the song entirely changes. Black Sabbath suddenly sounds like Weezer. Or the genius stuff that macglocky does.

These aren’t just ‘covers’, he forces the song to be written within the constraints of another artist and the outcomes are genuinely phenomenal. The songs are new, and whole.

Every young creative gets understandably frustrated by budgets and feedback and mandatories. It’s natural, but the pace at which they learn to forge all of these restrictions into bullets can vary. It’s something I wish I had known earlier in my career, and Alejandro said the same. When he was starting out, he’d get constantly frustrated by the non-belief and unrealistic timelines and small budgets, but once he started getting big budgets, he suddenly realised that the huge wide open canvas wasn’t actually making him more creative. For similar reasons, it’s often why open briefs can be the worst briefs. I remember meeting a mate in Austin who took me to a craft beer joint with 101 taps, and despite loving craft beer, I just stood there in complete paralysis with no idea where to start.

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” - Orson Welles

Now, this is not the say that budgets, timeliness, and expectations shouldn’t always be in line with the ambition of the idea. They should. That’s the perfect situation. But you’re almost never going to get that. So rather than be overcome by frustration, it’s better to look at all the restrictions before you and figure out how to play them to your advantage. Use the restrictions to reshape the idea to accomodate them, and you might be surprised at the outcome. It might force you to simplify. Use less shots. Less locations. Less talent. This might let the spot breathe. (Our sustainability campaign for Deakin is an example.) Use animation/illustration. Street cast. Do everything in one shot. Get one of your muso mates to compose. Do the VO yourself. All of these things can completely change an idea and make the seemingly impossible, not. One thing advertising is very good at is being way too overcomplicated for its own good, and sometimes restrictions can save us from ourselves.

It’s one of the reasons why Aussie and Kiwi creatives are revered overseas, and why, per capita, we outperform for nations of our size. There’s fewer big brands, fewer challengers in any category, and smaller budgets to execute with - yet we somehow find a way to punch above our weight. So when we take that grit overseas, with more at our disposal, we make good use of it. Conversely, it’s something people struggle with when they move over here. I’ve come across a lot of really successful creatives from the US or UK who assume Australia will just be a walk in the park, only to discover how brutally difficult it is to break in and do great work. Having a folio full of big celebrities and huge budgets just doesn’t translate to a market where you’ve suddenly got $150k and the same expectations hanging over your head.

I’ve always been a firm believer in trying to hit the ceiling of a brief, no matter where that ceiling might be. And learning to work with the restrictions placed on you is a key part of doing so. Some of my most effective and awarded work has been done on a shoestring. And while that’s not really a sustainable business model, taking that thinking into every single project, no matter the scope, can help you extract the most out of every opportunity. It’s a bit like ‘The MacGyver Principle’. Sometimes being able to defuse a bomb with a paperclip, some gum, and a fishing rod beats being born with a silver spoon and having all the resources in the world and still needing the butler to come help you open a jar of pickles.

“In the end, it’s always just your best three people vs. theirs.” - Nils Leonard

I’ve spent more time in small agencies than big, and now been a partner in two. And in that time I’ve managed to win pitches against most of the network agencies. Most of the work we do at SICKDOG would probably be considered a ‘small budget’ in comparison. Most people think we’re bigger than we are. We’re like 13 permanent staff with some freelancers here and there. We’re very good at getting the most out of our talent and our opportunities, and as we grow bigger, and the clients and the work get bigger, thrashing about in a shrinking pond, that thinking is only going to continue to work in our favour.

So, for any young creatives reading this, feeling frustrated by the briefs you’re receiving and the perceived ‘lack of opportunity’, my advice is to learn to embrace the restrictions. Challenge yourself to make those restrictions work for you.

If you can learn to box your way out of any corner, then you’ll absolutely flatten anyone once you get them in centre of the ring.

As you’ll have noticed, I’ve been experimenting with ads on the newsletter to cover hosting costs. Thus far, it’s been a mixed bag, my subscriber count continues to grow but I have noticed a few people drop off. Nature of the beast, I guess. Ideally, I would like to keep DTSA free and not gated, and the only way to do that is with ads. So thanks to anyone who’s clicked.

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