Raul Cuero Interview

Cuero provides many important life lessons in his interview on creativity that helped him to get to where he is today. Cuero urges the audience to believe that they should not limit themselves to what society thinks of them, and to do what everyone expects you can't or won't do. This is something I already try to apply to myself as a filmmaker, typically by throwing myself into situations that are over my head and seeing if I come out okay. In 2017, I took on a freelance videography job that was out of my comfort zone and bigger than anything I had worked on before, but the client was very satisfied with the final product. Last semester I directed and produced a short film that was "very ambitious" in the words of many of my teachers and classmates, but rather than getting discouraged when others were unsure if I could do it, or when one of the (many) problems on set occurred, I strove to keep the production going and show that I was capable of handling it.
Cuero also discusses how children today are having their creativity limited by the rapidly advancing technology and spending too much time in front of screens. He claims that rather than creating their own fun, they simply consume the creations of other people, never developing the skill for themselves. This can be applied to my generation as well, we grew up with some of the same technology. I can apply this to my life as well by remembering to try to figure out problems I may have with an editing program on my own before turning to google and youtube for step-by-step guides. I may solve the problem quicker by searching the internet for the answer, but I miss out on the opportunity to experiment with the program and learn some of its features.
This leads into Cuero's next point, that you cannot always rely on direction or instruction. He feels that children, and adults as well, are led to believe that all they have to do is absorb knowledge, rather than creating their own based on knowledge they receive. This is something very important to learn, that college only prepares you for a lifetime of learning, it cannot give you every skill you possibly need. Rather than thinking "I still haven't been taught AfterEffects?" I need to think "I really need to get a Lynda subscription to watch some AfterEffects tutorials so I can use that in the future".
Cuero also discusses the importance of not letting the fear of failure prevent you from trying. If I always stay in my comfort zone, I will never progress as a filmmaker, it is sometimes necessary to figure out how NOT to do something in order to learn to correctly do it. Finally, Raul Cuero talks about how one must enjoy the process of doing something, the end result must not be the only motivation. If my only motivation to work hard in a class is to get an A, I may end up disappointed if I do not earn that grade. If my motivation to work hard is to gain new knowledge, then even if I struggle in the class, I will be satisfied with learning new information and possibly narrowing down what exactly I want to do after I graduate.