Craft

“First learn to be a craftsman; it won’t keep you from being a genius.”

Eugène Delacroix

There’s a lot to be said for thoroughly learning your craft – whether it’s filmmaking or painting or maintaining car motors. Malcolm Gladwell proposed the 10,000-hour rule in ‘Outliers’ – contending that some 10,000 hours of focused practice are required to achieve mastery in a field. Not sure he’s got the number spot on but the notion is convincing. Innate talent alone is not enough, we’ve seen that time and again. The film and TV business is full of such masters from Johnnie Burn, Sound Designer of ‘The Zone of Interest’ and more recently ‘Hamnet’, to my old boss DoP Roger Deakins.