As a project this summer (Daily Treasures - http://www.goatsilk.com/daily_treasures.html), Goatsilk
makes a “rules” produced video every work-week day (mon.-fri.) in the month of June. Each video is based on a found object we discover by searching the surrounding land we’re living on. We produce a story about the history of the object, the people it was imagined to be connected to, what they used it for and how/why it was left behind. After we create the video, we post the object for sale on e-bay in hopes that someone will find our tale compelling enough to fall in love with the “treasure” and bid to buy it. It has thus far been a great parameter/formula to work under, and successful in that more than half of these previously worthless found objects have sold on-line and attained some new value. We’ve produced 15 shorts/15 auctions in three weeks…each one takes about one full workday (plus overtime) to complete. It’s engrossing but very challenging to keep pace as each day we start with nothing - a blank canvas - and let the “find” inspire us to complete the work about it, using the storytelling techniques we’ve developed and continue to hone through the process. It’s a blend of fact and fiction, present and past, real and artifice.

In any case…I agree with you Adriana that parameters, while not necessary for everyone or everything, can be crucial to making something work for both creator and audience, and also to help people learn how stories and ideas can be told. Limitations and/or rules can also help eliminate the kinds of indulgences and meanderings that make so much creative work self-centered and uninteresting.

I look forward to seeing the new Von Trier movie.