Tolerable Imperfection :: Creatives Edition

I know…. I know. There are so many articles, posts, videos, memes and on and on, about perfectionism.

Anyone who has asked the internet a question will have been greeted with responses that assert, their way is the only way, and all others are terrible solutions falling short of the perfection the internet oracle prescribes. That is complete and utter nonsense. The reality in creative work, is that perfection doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist for being perfectly organized, there is no perfect edit, perfect lighting, voiceover, collaboration, planning, pre-production. None. No perfection. Only tolerable imperfection.

It occurred to me that one of the things I love about filmmaking, the process of, and the result; Is that it is a never-ending pursuit of perfection. But maybe not in the way you might think. For example, organizing gear and then reorganizing when you discover something could make your day smoother, in post-production finding the perfect folder structure for a project, or a perfect keyboard layout that gets you closer to working at the speed of thought.

One might think there is never perfection, but there is a kind of perfection in production, which involves unpredictable environments and situations that require quick thinking and deep problems solving skills, the perfection is in quickly finding solutions, getting an imperfect but serviceable shot is better than simply not getting it at all. That excites me and gives me anxiety.

One of the paradoxes of perfection in the production side of filmmaking is that while seeking perfection in execution it’s the imperfect, serendipity of happy accidents that make it so fulfilling in the end. The accident of positioning a light part way to where you thought i should go it feels right, so you stop. Or of having a delay, the weather isn’t ideal and then the light changes just as you are ready to roll, and magic happens.

In post-production it’s the same thing, I had sought perfection for a long time in my early years, and now, years later, I’m acutely aware, always, that the balance of time, money and quality, by definition, mean letting something go. Embracing the happy imperfection of the result. Even now when I revisit something I created a decade or more ago, I am pleasantly surprised by its quality, it seems as though I retrospectively gaslight myself to believe that the work I’ve completed is never good enough for the standards I believe I hold.

Which, if I’m being honest, is a constantly moving target. My standard for acceptable today will be different tomorrow. As it was different twenty-five years ago when I began this journey on a professional level, it will, as the proverbial notion goes, for the only thing constant, is change.

I love, and hate, organizing gear, finding a more efficient setup, driven by the real working implications of having gear disorganized; Finding that one thing you need, once in a blue moon, or having a place to put things while moving around when shooting Cinéma vérité.

Whether it’s finding a better way to carry the things you need on your person; or organizing all he various types of batteries for everything, I’m never completely satisfied. A primary driver behind that organization is not forgetting something. So, the constant organizing and reorganizing will continue, and I’ll be happy with it for a time.

Back in post-production land, there is a term I heard, it was true years ago and still true today; and it never changes, I used it when someone is constantly making very minor changes that arguably don’t add more clarity or value to the whole. ‘Frame F***ing’, it’s almost a clinical condition, the never-ending tweaking or an edit, of color, of sound, that 99% of people will never notice a difference from. Even on set, we could adjust a frame endlessly, or drawing from my knowledge of post-production, finishing and color grading I can confidently know we can adjust something in those stages easily and get us moving on to make our day. I’ve suffered from this condition in the past, at some point along the way I learned to just accept good enough and move on.

In the same way that, like all creatives, we need to eventually learn to stave off insanity, is to accept client wishes and just do the work the way they want. The client is paying for the work, if a gentle nudge on a creative decision doesn’t move the needle with the client. Then the client is right and we move on. The inability to let go and move on will destroy one’s health, literally. The real question is, in the pursuit of perfection, whose definition of perfection are you using? Yours? The Clients? Someone else with absolutely nothing to do with your project?

I understand that the only manageable level of perfection we can attain is the ability to quickly problem solve and move on. ‘Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities or characteristics… as good as it is possible to be’. The circumstance may not have been perfect, but a solution found, and implemented that allows us to move forward is, in its own way, perfect. Problem solving is the mechanics of pursing tolerable imperfection.

PS.

That last sentence was mine, I'm sure I'm not the first to put those words together. But I asked Microsoft Copilot what it thought I meant. This was the response:

The phrase "Problem solving is the mechanics of pursuing tolerable imperfection" suggests that the core activity of problem solving, especially in creative fields like filmmaking, is not about achieving flawless results. Instead, it’s about navigating challenges and making decisions that lead to outcomes which are "good enough" or acceptable, even if they aren’t perfect. This aligns with the context provided, where the pursuit of perfection is described as unattainable, and the real skill lies in adapting, compromising, and finding workable solutions. In essence, problem solving is the process by which we accept and manage imperfection, aiming for results that are functional and satisfactory rather than flawless.