Work Ethics

Today I spent several hours in the recording studio at school creating some very crucial sound for my project with the help of two very smart and competent sound producers. We worked hard and well on about 8 pages of text and 1 song, all of which came out beautifully I think.

I really pride myself on having calm and reasonable shooting/creating schedules, especially when I'm working with other people. I've started to think of this as my work ethic. It isn't that I don't work hard. In fact, I generally spend many hours ahead of my shooting preparing so that I can feel confident and prepared for the work. I then make sure to overbook our time. That is to say, I know that we probably could have done those recordings in fewer hours, or that we could have recorded more, but that would have felt rushed and insane instead of calm and fun.

I feel strongly about this ethic because I think that it respects the people who help me, and it respects my values as a person living in the world.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't believe strongly in the work and it making it come out right. I slog away and certainly harbor perfectionist tendencies. I just also believe that good work is as much in the process as in the product.

In fact, I know that in my own work, things that took hours and hours of backbreaking, frightened, upsetting labor don't look or feel as good as things that came through organization, competency, and the ability to create a fun atmosphere for everyone involved. I also know how much I hate working with or for people who don't treat their collaborative work in the same way, even though there are so many people who believe that a beautiful outcome is worth suffering for. Don't artist suffer enough just with self doubt, and brokeness and frustration and fear of not being accepted? If we aren't really enjoying what we do, what the hell is the point?