There are many and varied theories, psychological tests and examinations of the human mind to try and discover what’s behind the whole process of human creativity. For the day to day participant in the radio industry, therer are a number of practical ways just to get started making radio programmes, commercials, promotions, plays, and other forms of audio expression.
Work to a Brief
Nothing concentrates the human mind better than a set of given instructions. Tasks that must be completed either in a certain way or to certain set deadlines and creativity is no different. Often writers, directors and producers will work to a given brief. This is for a number of reasons:
- To achieve set aims (especially say of an advertising campaign, or a series of programmes)
- To follow or develop a style that must be adhered to
- To work within given durations of commercials, series or campaigns
- To tie audio work in to creative work on other media
- To carry out the stated aims of a client or advertising manager or director
- To fit the radio work to appeal to a given audience or brand profile
Once the brief is agreed by all with any sort of vested interest, the creative personnel may then be given a certain leeway of inventiveness to ‘create’ as long as the work is ‘within’ or ‘to the brief’ or in other words, as long as the final output achieves the stated aims. On the one hand the advantages to the creative process of a brief may at first appear to be restrictive, on the other it provides a great start to the creative process and can in itself provide inspiration or even the kick start the initial ideas process.
Listen to Some Sound Effects.
Ideas rarely come from thin air and sometimes all that’s needed is an initial thought, and that thought can often springboard quickly and produce other useable ideas. Thus the process is begun. One vehicle that often works in radio or any audio production, to quickly get the scriptwriter writing, or the ideas conveyor belt running is to pick a random sound effect, or a group of sound effects and write round them. Some examples may illustrate this. Imagine radio commercials that might result from the following sound effects:
- Interior atmosphere of a Submarine running submerged – for a double glazing company
- A judge’s gavel - for a company selling second hand cars
- A thunderstorm – for a travel agency.
- A heartbeat – starting a dating agency commercial.
- Roadwork in progress – advertising cruising holidays.
and this is just a start! This process often works even better when the sound effect is chosen at random and has little immediately obvious to do with the subject.
Research and Play Music Tracks.
Music is one of the best muse as a vehicle for audio creativity and starting the process for any radio activity. There are two or three main areas of music to consider as stimulation, and a number of areas that can often generate original and highly workable ideas.
- Commercially released tracks from all genres of music.
- Favourite tracks – well known and familiar tunes can help.
- Production and mood music – there are a vast number of libraries releasing music for productions of all kinds of audio.
- Commissioned music – a meeting and collaboration with a musician to produce custom music can easily generate ideas if there is sufficient budget.
Listening to Bach is often quoted as the music most able to settle the brain logically or at least arrange brain patterns in a productive state, but music in all it forms is well able to act as a stimulus.
Experience Real Life.
It’s seldom that the best ideas come as a result of looking at a blank sheet of paper wondering what to put on it. Many creative individuals, scriptwriters, designers, art directors, and musicians find ideas not looking a desk, but in real life. Places like:
- Libraries
- Lifts (a creative director famously always wrote in the company lift!)
- IT Departments
- Museums and Art Galleries
- Public spaces like railway stations, airports, and bus terminals.
For example, a project based on transport, a day spent in bus terminals, train stations, garages, on roads and motorways, will yield a wealth of ideas just by being there. Similarly, if a programme or commercial is aimed at IT people, go to an IT department and ask them what they think.
There’s an old saying that “ideas come from conversation.” A creative brief is essentially a conversation that ensures any resulting ideas are on the right track to fulfil the brief. Similar conversations, whether the brief is dictated or self-generated, about what form the creative work might take will produce a starting point for the ideas process and using some of other techniques above will often produce some surprisingly quick and productive ideas.
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