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So this post came about because as part of The Kennedys, we spend the last Friday of the month watching a film.
The first one we watched was a Japanese animation movie called Paprika … and when I asked Juni – my partner in crime and film expert – why she chose it, she said the thing she loves about animation is the fact anything is possible.
I liked that sentiment … and it led to me telling them a story about a British TV presenter called Brian Cant.
Brian was one of the hosts of a children’s show called ‘PlaySchool’.
[Not to be mistaken with this one]
Anyway, there is a famous story that when he auditioned for the show, he was asked by the director to pretend he was rowing in a boat.
So Brian sat on the floor and pretended to be rowing before he suddenly stopped and cast an imaginary fishing line.
“What are you doing?” asked the director.
But Brian ignored him because he was now pretending he had caught something.
Everyone watched as he acted like he was struggling trying to reel in his imaginary ‘catch’.
Bit by bit, he stood up before finally – and with an over exaggerated fall backwards – he sat back on the floor with a look of contentment on his face.
“What are you doing?” asked the director again.
But Brian ignored him a second time because he was inspecting what he had found and in his lovely voice he proclaimed …
“I’ve caught a wellington boot” … and then he proceeded to tip it out over the side of the boat and went,
“Urgh … it’s full of custard”.
The director had enough and told him to stop.
“Why would you find a wellington boot, let alone a wellington boot full of custard in the sea?” he asked.
To which Brian said, “Because in a child’s imagination, you can”.
Of course the director realised he’d been thinking like an adult so Brian immediately got the job and ended up being the longest serving [and my favourite] presenter throughout the show’s incredible 24 year run.
So what is the point I’m making …
If you’ve watched the video above, you’ll know kids think in ways we don’t.
And while some of their ideas are mental, some have the power to trigger stuff we might never have considered without their spark.
I think the same is true of animation.
It lets things happen that normally can’t happen, but the other way of looking at it is it opens up possibilities that may create new possibilities.
I know I sound like a mental, but I’ve previously written about finding inspiration from unexpected sources and the more I think about it … and the more I hear the same people being celebrated week after week … the more I think we all need to look in new places.
Of course I’m not saying the people of our industry who inspire our industry are bad – or wrong – but seriously, when was the last time we had someone new that really came through?
Think about it?
Either our industry is stopping them have a platform or there aren’t nearly as many as we should be demanding, let alone expecting.
So with that I leave you with this, next time you have a problem that you are trying to work out, forget thinking in the real world, think in imagination and see where it takes you.