with the release of the jesus pad this past weekend there’s no doubt that many aspects of visual media + the publishing industry will change. one part of that in particular that i’m interested in is the concept of vertical video. it seems almost non existent today + yet i hear predictions that it’s on the way in a large scale + i’d have to agree.

coming from a photography background one of the very first things i did with my 5D II was shoot vertical video. not because i knew at all what i was doing but purely from a visual standpoint as i was used to seeing that way. in that vein, i’m interested in seeing what the online editions of your fav mags adopt – seems to me that there’s a place for vertical video to fit within the print columns that dominate our publishing industry. i’m already concepting a project for later this year that will be anchored in the vertical format. in the time being, let’s see if this blows up or not.

here’s a dated test sequence of animated stills that gives a small taste of vertical, though in this case it’s running splitscreen. definitely a fan of this as it makes vertical stills or footage that much more versatile as the clip could run as stand alone vertical embedded in an online mag column but could pop out to standard 4:3 or 16:9 once open in it’s own page.

20080430_roadtest from heath korvola on Vimeo.

1: evaluate take a hard look at what you’re doing. i like the hop, skip, jump metaphor – where are you in terms of where you want to be? do you have a goal? if not how can you hit what you’re not even aiming at? when you’re done with all three of these steps, start back here. evaluation is a constant process. if what you’re doing is not getting the desired results then reevaluate + shake things up.

2: plan take everything you can into account. there will always be variables so focus on what you can. eliminate distractions + balance out what you can do with what you have. take action in the form of conscious steps in your given direction. could be recruiting the kind of employees you have your eye on, a fat new promo campaign or a great job lead, doesn’t matter. hell, even the a team had a plan.

3: work really this is what we all want to be doing but to get here you have to go through the above. this, my friends, is your reward – total unadulterated work in the vein of what you want to do + have created for yourself. the trouble that most of us have with this is that it doesn’t stop. and the further you get into it the crazier it gets. if you can’t handle that or really need your sleep, it might be time to think about something more 9 to 5ish. get started + don’t stop, ever. believe it or not, that’s actually half the fun once it gets going.

so it’s been an entire year now since i started putting ideas on location photography down here. and a great year it was. looking forward to a plethora of changes in this next year as i have a few ideas on hand and a brand new outlook. there’s a few reasons for this – partly due to imagination, part to the new business outlook for the industry and part to creativity.

the imagination idea was one of my early posts and among other things i mentioned the guy that grabbed balloons, tied them to a lawn chair and took off from bend, or. didn’t make it far. coincidently, he’s back this past week never giving up his idea and riding his homemade contraption all the way to idaho. that’s evolving imagination.

business wise, we all know that the industry is changing. the question is where it’s going. among all the guesses there are a few that ring more true, or at least more interesting, than others – one of those is this recent take by former NY Times staffer Vincent LaForet via sportsshooter.

lastly, creativity is everything… or nothing. when you have it and your in the flow there’s nothing better. when you don’t, it feels like you’re ready to join the dark side. i’m always thinking of how ideas originate, how the concepts that shape our world take hold and evolve. i ask other creatives whenever i have the chance where they derive their inspiration. the answers vary but what i’ve gleened is that the methods and consistency are similar. whatever it is you’re chasing take notes, always be fresh, keep the numbers high and never give up.

during a recent two weeks in oregon i came across an interesting article in the june issue of scientific american mind on creativity. not what you might expect from this journal but a good read nonetheless (other stories included chronic itching: causes & cures and bisexual species: unorthodox sex in the animal kingdom among others). how to unleash your creativity is a roundtable interview with three very different ‘experts’. the most recognizable is julia cameron author of the artist’s way. the other two are professors and all three are fascinated with the mechanics of creativity.

among the highlights is the idea of getting your ideas out – all of them. whether it’s by writing, as cameron advocates, or email, text, rss or something like jott or reqall yo’uve got to get the numbers up there. then follow through with the images to match. there is inherently no guarantee what works but your ratio of successful ideas, and thus successful images, goes up with the increasing numbers. the mag quotes:

“creative people are productive. they may have lots of ideas that don’t work, but the point is that they have lots of ideas. so if people want to be more creative – and to be effective problem solvers – they’re going to have to be disciplined…”

i would even take that a step further as i disagree that creative people, “may have lots of ideas that don’t work”. they definitely have a vast pool of ideas that don’t work. the key is to fight through those to the winners. einstein is quoted as saying something to the effect of it’s not that i’m so smart, it’s that i’m so stubborn.

in a basic sense the panel breaks down the process into four categories. not really the process of creativity but rather how to maintain creative prowess. those four ideas – capturing, challenging, broadening & surrounding – fit photography to a tee.

so follow your ideas and expand the creativity by getting it down on paper, pushing forward, keeping it new and never stopping. and if you’re up for the test, robert epstein from ucsd has on your creativity score here.