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Seek Criticism, Not Praise

For my first year or so as a filmmaker, one of my personal hurdles was gaining acceptance and approval. I was new at this, and wanted to find out if I was “good” or not. I quickly learned that approval is actually quite easy to find, even if it might not be warranted. Criticism, on the other hand, is much harder to get.

People generally want to be kind and encouraging. So when presented with something that’s at least moderately acceptable, they’ll probably give mostly positive comments. If those comments are your gauge, than it will be easy to evaluate most of your work as good. Most likely it’s ok. It’s unlikely that it’s outstanding though. And it’s a pretty sure bet that there’s something that can be improved.

One of the most honest, and memorable criticisms I ever got came from a 14-year-old. It was Joshua, the subject of “Q&A”. Tim and I had invited him and his mother over to see character designs and storyboards. We were excited and incredibly nervous about sharing the work with them (mostly because we feared possible criticism!). The storyboard seemed to get a pretty good response. But the first thing Joshua said when he saw the character designs was, “My hair isn’t blond!” We had a picture, we knew it was brown. Why had we designed him with blond hair? I’m really not sure.

We ended up giving Joshua blue hair. Still not true to life, but it worked great for the design of the film. And it’s dark, the way Joshua’s hair is. I don’t think we would have arrived there without his criticism. And it’s made me conscious of not designing everybody like me and Tim on subsequent projects— white male, blue eyes, and blond hair. The experience has also helped me anticipate criticism with eagerness and excitement because I know it will only improve the project. In fact, I find that the earlier on the criticism comes, the better. Of course, if I don’t agree with the input, I’m free to ignore it too.

The good news is that if you look forward to criticism, your personal work will improve. But I’ve found that this outlook is equally helpful professionally. We did a short spot for a client recently, and they commented that they were very pleased with our attitude and response to notes throughout the creative process. Being complimented on our ability to take criticism was equally as rewarding as any compliment we could have gotten about the quality of the finished work. And I’ll bet it will go a long way to increasing our chances of repeat business.

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t graciously accept praise, and take pride and joy in receiving it. That’s part of the fuel for creative fire too. But if you want to do great work, and improve creatively, it’s important to seek criticism. It helps to remember that criticism is not necessarily a judgment that the work is bad. It’s just an observation of a weakness. We’ve all got them, so there’s no need to dread hearing it. Instead, we should embrace the opportunity to receive honest, critical feedback.