Home Movies: The Spirit of Creation

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hello your honor as you can see i've

decided to make a video essay in place

of a written essay

generally speaking kids are dumb

they tend to not know anything about

anything and very few of them have any

skills that can be considered even

somewhat valuable to society being an

adult is better in just about every

conceivable way

but despite our overwhelming advantages

there's one aspect where kids have us

absolutely beat

in 1972

british progressive rock band jethro

tull released their fifth studio album

thick as a brick an epic tale told

through the ambitious format of one

continuous piece of music

front man ian anderson credited the

fantastical lyrics of the composition to

an eight-year-old boy named gerald

bostic the album was so imaginative it

made sense to many that it could only

have come from the wild mind of a child

when it comes to creativity kids are

king and 20 years ago one show helped

many of us channel our inner

eight-year-old

1999 was a landmark time for american

animation the year introduced us to some

of the most influential cartoons of the

21st century but lost among the titans

of its era was a series that received

far less fanfare

home movies was a largely forgotten show

that debuted on a largely forgotten

network

upn was viacom's awkward attempt to

establish a new broadcast network on

american television across its 11 years

of operation it struggled to even make a

dent on mainstream culture

if you were watching american television

in the 90s you probably weren't watching

upn

in 1999 the six major networks broadcast

164 unique shows on the air arranged by

viewership upn aired 22 of the 25 least

watched shows of the year and second

from the very bottom of the list was the

subject of today's video

home movies premiered on april 26 1999

to historically low ratings the worst

the network had ever seen in its time

slot

just 30 days later upn pulled the plug

and canceled the show after only five

episodes

during its brief stint the series

received generally unfavorable reviews

from critics

the launch was one of the most

disastrous in the history of television

and it's not hard to see why the 90s

audience weren't exactly crazy about the

new cartoon

pretty much everything about the show

was unorthodox the art style was crude

and childlike the series was animated

using the incredibly niche technique of

squiggle vision which some viewers found

hard to watch

the show's dialogue was almost

completely improvised which was

practically unheard of for any other

animated program at the time

the comedy was subtle and understated in

an era of bombastic in-your-face humor

it was a show that looked like a new

grounds animation and sounded like a

podcast needless to say home movies was

unlike anything else in its era and

hardly anyone was willing to watch

something so different

however not every series needs to be

loved by millions of people

sometimes all the show has to do is

impress just one

during its short run home movies managed

to pick up one important fan in khaki

jones an executive at cartoon network

she loved the show so much that she

convinced the network to renew home

movies for three more seasons

on september 2nd 2001 home movies would

redebut as the very first program on

cartoon network's brand new animation

block adult swim

now loosely scripted and flash animated

the show had turned over a new leaf

and gradually over several years

audiences finally began to warm up to it

the series has since developed to cult

following and has been critically

reassessed as one of the best cartoons

of its era so how exactly did home

movies age so well

on its surface it's a relatively simple

show about the trivialities of childhood

but where the series truly shines is

through its meta-contextual significance

home movies has possibly the most to say

of any show about the nature of the

creative process

this is crazy but maybe you might be

working a little too much on your films

that's what people say

but

creativity is a concept that has always

been somewhat enigmatic to us

the ancient greeks did not have any

words in their language corresponding to

the idea of people as creators for

centuries philosophers did not consider

art to be creative positing that the

role of an artist was to simply

interpret what was already provided by

nature

in the middle ages creativity was

heavily intertwined with religion and

artistic spontaneity was attributed to

flashes of divine inspiration

it was only during the renaissance when

philosophers began to consider that

human beings were capable of producing

creative works on their own volition

soon enough creative work had become a

legitimate profession artists achieved

worldwide fame for their unmatched

ability to bring their imagination to

life by the 20th century creative works

laid the foundation for billion dollar

industries entertainment media

eventually became so inescapable that

the tools of the trade became accessible

to just about anybody setting up the

premise of home movies the story of a

boy and his camera throughout the show

we get to experience the adventures and

misadventures of brendan small who makes

movies with his friends jason and

melissa

brendan's parents have recently divorced

and filmmaking provides him with a much

needed escape from a turbulent period in

his life

although his movies are far from the

best he's not afraid to keep trying

the character of brendan small is a not

so subtle nod to siri's co-creator

brendan small

home movies presents a rather unique

symmetry between its creators and

characters the essential conflict

portrayed within the show parallels the

external conflict experienced by the

show

home movies was not a show for everyone

as evidenced by how few people actually

watched it while it was on the air those

who enjoyed it likely related to the

characters based on their own creative

and personal struggles brendan is a 21st

century charlie brown he's a natural

underdog grappling with the unfairness

of a world beyond his control

within the show brendan's movies are not

exactly the pinnacle of filmmaking they

are often riddled with technical errors

and general sloppiness befitting of a

novice who's figuring things out as they

go along but even though his movies may

appear crude they are far from aimless

brendan takes his filmmaking very

seriously more so than pretty much

anything else in his life

he sees his ability to make movies as

his defining attribute it's easy for us

to dismiss children's activities as

inherently goofy and frivolous but

brendan's artistic endeavors are far

more meaningful nothing he creates is

arbitrary each one of his movies has a

clear vision even if his ability to

execute may be lacking

brendan's plight is something

experienced by all creative people at

one point or another

no matter how brilliant our vision may

be we're always caught in a tug of war

between imagination and feasibility

home movies offers a powerful commentary

on the barriers to create a fulfillment

so you probably won't be investing in my

movie then no

if it requires money

our society has a somewhat paradoxical

relationship with creative works the

most illustrious artists musicians and

movie stars are often among the most

revered people in the world

we each dedicate a significant amount of

our free time engaging with creatively

motivated products like film music and

video games nearly all of us would agree

that these things vastly improve our

quality of life however despite how much

we enjoy the fruits of our most

successful creators modern society is

generally unforgiving to the process it

takes to get there for as much as

powerful institutions like to spout

platitudes about the importance of

creativity the fact of the matter is

that our society is not very welcoming

to creative people

creative ideas are inherently risky each

innovative new solution is usually

preceded by a dozen failures it's for

this reason why the vast majority of

jobs in the economy don't value

creativity as a skill

there's no need to reinvent the wheel if

the wheel itself is good enough

when most jobs can be accomplished by

mindlessly rehearsing an already proven

formula the ability to think creatively

is worthless

this is why artists who haven't hauled

in gazillions in revenue don't tend to

receive much prestige

without impressive dollar amounts to

show for it the value of creativity is

intangible which for the average person

might as well be nothing

because of their perceived lack of value

creative people often find themselves

being overlooked invalidated or even

stigmatized for their ambitions

it's an attitude all too familiar to the

creators of home movies

back in 1999 brendan small and lorne

bouchard were two young and unproven

minds looking to make something truly

distinct in avant-garde the resulting

project nearly ended up costing them a

rare opportunity as success in the

entertainment industry

both creators would eventually go on to

have long and successful careers but if

it weren't for a chance rescue from a

lone network executive their creative

contributions may have never had a

chance to flourish

it's easy to recognize their skill in

hindsight but were they really any less

talented 22 years ago when their grand

artistic vision was canceled after just

five episodes

we got ourselves an indie filmmaker here

isn't that exciting class wait a minute

i don't know what i'm talking about i've

only been in the film industry for 35

years it's often difficult for us to

evaluate whether any given creative

project will be successful bigwig

entertainment executives have the

resources to create anything they want

and most of it usually ends up sucking

of course these people aren't fools

somewhere along the way the

entertainment industry figured out that

movies and tv shows don't have to be

good to make a boatload of cash

it's completely logical for media moguls

to invest their money in the 10 000

superhero reboot versus an unproven

original concept the problem is that

once all the money is made and enough

time has passed the product that remains

is not very inspiring

logic is often antithetical to

creativity and creativity is often

antithetical to profitability

okay let's see what we got

what are you working on nothing i'm just

writing a review

there's a reason why the most critically

acclaimed art tends to be the most niche

truly great works are never meant to

please everyone the strength of art lies

in its power to alienate

if you want to see something new and

innovative it's gonna have to be a

little alien prioritizing mass appeal

and financial gain misses the point of

creation entirely

historically the greatest art has almost

always come from people who have had

nothing to lose and know when to impress

by removing ourselves from the

expectations and limitations of others

we become truly free to pursue our

vision

creativity may be the ultimate exercise

in autonomy

it's an activity through which we have

complete control over our domain

mastering the creative process requires

overcoming one's limitations while

retaining as much autonomy as possible

home movies is a passion project let's

say in that we

fight for the things that we think the

show should be

always

both brandon's movies and the show that

encompasses them were heavily limited in

budget and manpower but found a way to

make the most of what they had

we can still find them endearing because

there's never any question of who's in

creative control

home movies may not be the most polished

product but it's charming in the way it

allows the personality of its creators

to shine through

art is ultimately a metaphysical

extension of the self meaning that just

like us it's dynamic in a long-term

creative project like a tv show it's

intriguing to watch it evolve along with

its creators

in home movies there's a tangible sense

of progression through the seasons the

creators get more confident in their

storytelling the writing becomes more

sophisticated the actors really start to

settle into their characters even the

animation noticeably improves as the

show's animators develop their

techniques when given the space to do so

art can come alive

home movies was fortunate to wind up on

what was the perfect destination for

creative liberty adult swim was the

first television studio to truly embrace

experimental creator-driven content

tragically the vast majority of

commercial artists are given nowhere

near as much freedom over their creative

destiny perhaps the most difficult

constraint any creator faces is having

to navigate through a system that

fundamentally misunderstands our goals

and motivations

by and large society is run by the

creatively bankrupt for the simple

reason that society is run by adults

ever since the 20th century

psychologists have attempted to

empirically define and measure

creativity

across repeated studies spanning decades

researchers found that unlike nearly

every other skill

creativity tends to decrease as we get

older

when it comes to creative reasoning

specifically divergent thinking no one

is better than children

in 1968 george land and beth jarmon were

commissioned by nasa to devise a

creativity test for the agency's

engineers and scientists

after applying their tests to nearly 300

000 adults they found that only 2

percent scored at what they defined as a

genius level

just out of curiosity the researchers

ran the same test on a group of a

thousand preschoolers

out of this average sample of children

aged no higher than five years old the

amount who achieved a genius score was

98 percent

somewhere along the way to adulthood we

appear to unlearn the skill of creative

thinking

of course there are some intuitive

factors for why this happens

children lack the knowledge or life

experience to make informed decisions so

they have to rely more on their

imaginations to make sense of the world

as we get older we become capable of

more logical reasoning and creativity

becomes less important in our day-to-day

lives

adults are also far more cognizant of

social perception this newfound concern

over how we appear to others contributes

to possibly the biggest obstacle to

creativity fear

specifically the fear of failure

when we enter adulthood there's an

expectation that we should be at least

competent at what we do

it's often shameful to show a lack of

aptitude in any given skill

failure causes us to get ridiculed by

our peers and punished by our employers

many adults have been conditioned into

the mindset that failure is not an

option to such an extent that they try

to eliminate the risk of failure in even

the most minor circumstances children on

the other hand are not encumbered by

such strict pressure to perform they are

mostly free to try and fail as much as

they please

creativity cannot prosper in a culture

of fear and anxiety to truly reach our

creative potential we can't allow

failure to paralyze our willingness to

explore new ideas

after all the fastest way to improve in

anything is to learn from our mistakes

speaking of learning one major factor

which has exacerbated the decline in

creative thinking has to do with the one

place where children are required to

spend most of their time

failing

homework

much much

more homework

it's no secret that public education

doesn't exactly have the best track

record as of late as schools have grown

increasingly obsessive over standardized

testing they have become notorious for

stifling creativity

the structure of the modern education

system overwhelmingly forces students to

think inside the box

school very rapidly teaches kids that

their imaginations are irrelevant

getting good grades almost entirely

depends on your ability to robotically

memorize arbitrary facts and figures

it's no wonder why so many young

creative minds feel so antagonized by

modern education as a student you're

given an ultimatum to either abandon

your instinctive curiosity or get

punished for failing to conform to the

system

in home movies brendan is a character

who embodies this struggle he is very

clearly a bright and motivated kid but

he finds himself totally disconnected

from conventional education

in a broader sense this disconnect

reflects the underlying conceit of the

entire show

home movies is not just a show about how

kids thrive with creativity but also how

adults struggle without it the structure

of the series fundamentally divides its

characters into two distinct groups

while the kids often soak up the

spotlight it's the adults who provide

the show's most nuanced commentary

pretty much every major adult character

in the series suffers from a significant

flaw

the tedium of adult life has left them

uninspired and unfulfilled you get the

impression that each of them has a

substantial void in their lives which

they're all trying to fill

this motif is punctuated by overtones of

divorce and loneliness which linger

throughout the entire series home movies

exposes a great irony in the adult

world's perceived superiority over

children episodes typically feature both

children and adults dealing with a

similar problem and displaying similar

levels of powerlessness to solve them

the series questions the prevailing

belief that our logical adult thinking

is inherently beneficial while concrete

reasoning allows us to make good

decisions it can simultaneously inhibit

us from exploring better ones

abundance and knowledge can make us more

informed but it can also make us more

cynical stubborn and prejudicial home

movies tends to portray its adult

characters as being rigidly said in

their own ways they often have a hard

time expressing their honest thoughts

and opinions to others choosing instead

to remain burdened by their own

discontent

by contrast the children of the show

rarely display any of these

characteristics creative thinking allows

them to be far more earnest cooperative

and flexible

as adults we're used to interacting with

children in a condescending way a

relationship that doesn't have to be so

one-sided the most harmonious moments

within the series happen when both the

kids and adults engage with each other

as equals

it turns out that despite everything we

know we can still learn a thing or two

from children don't get into show

business josie don't spend your life

being dragged down by projects that

you'd lose interest in and have to sneak

away from granddad

where's my childhood gone josie

these days creativity remains an elusive

skill in the adult world the way our

society works most creative people won't

end up being successful but in a strange

twist of fate the most successful people

are creative

in the 1950s psychologist e.p torrance

developed one of the first comprehensive

tests of creative thinking over the

following decades researchers began to

realize that the torrance test was a

stronger predictor of lifetime

achievement than any other known method

longitudinal research suggests that it

is creativity not iq nor academic grades

which correlates the strongest with

individual success

in 2010 ibm surveyed over 1500 ceos from

around the world and found that 60 cited

creativity as their single most

important leadership quality

great scientific minds like isaac asimov

and albert einstein have both expressed

that creativity is vital in even the

most logical fields

those who master the creative process

can go as far as their imagination takes

them for something so influential it's a

shame that so few of us actually retain

it as we grow up

research has shown that even children

are becoming less creative compared to

previous generations

in life we take a lot of things for

granted and fail to appreciate their

greatness until long after they're gone

[Music]

on april 4th 2004 home movies went out

on the air for the final time

the series made it to 52 episodes

surviving 10 times longer than its

initial ill-fated run

it exceeded pretty much every

expectation that its creators could have

envisioned but sadly all good shows must

eventually come to an end

home movies chose to finish its run in

the only way it could

a big part of the freedom we get from

creative projects is the power to walk

away

at the end of home movies brendan and

his friends lose their passion for

making movies

as is the fate with almost all kids they

had grown past their creative endeavors

when it was all said and done they

realized that the movies were no longer

needed they had served their purpose

for the first time in the series brendan

is ready to step out from behind the

camera and into reality

home movies was a show that was

remarkably ahead of its time just one

year after the series ended we were all

introduced to a little-known website

called youtube a place where anyone can

become world famous from making home

movies thanks to the internet it's never

been a better time to be creative and

while many of us may have unlearned how

to think creatively none of us ever

truly forget it if you want to reclaim

your imagination a good place to start

is learning from the case of gerald

bostig who like the kids in home movies

doesn't actually exist they were all

created by adults who remembered how to

think like an eight-year-old as the

great painter pablo picasso once said

all children are artists the problem is

how to remain an artist once we grow up

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

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[Music]

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if brendan small is so smart that boy's

a genius then why is he failing fourth

grade i have not done homework for the

last year and why is he hanging out with

this guy i have had eczema which is

called cradle cap

jesus and why is his coach always on his

back getting there for jeremy i don't i

don't want to go a friend and get in

there who cares why brandon has his own

tv show and that makes him a lot smarter

than you that's what i keep telling him

home premieres in two weeks on ups