1. Please describe your state of mind when you are creating something.
I try to just remove myself from whatever is going on in my life in that moment and clear my mind of any distractions. There's a sort of focus that you can get into where time starts moving much faster and you can perfect the thing you're working on for hours and hours without noticing any exhaustion.

2. How much of your creative ability do you think is innate? Or is your creativity a skill that you have developed?
I think for me most of my creative abilities are learned. I don't have musical or other ideas rushing through my mind at all times, but when I dedicate myself to developing ideas or deliberately creating an inspiring environment, they come more easily now than when I started.

3. How do you go about evaluating your creative product?
The first stage is just judging whether I like the product as a listener, viewer, or consumer. In the case of our band's music, my second question is always what Max, my partner, thinks about it, because he is very discerning and finds the flaws very quickly. Then once something passes both of those tests I like to "test" stuff out on lots of different people of different ages and tastes.

4. Can you see your finished product before you start it?
Once it gets to a certain point, yes, because I have a good amount of experience recording and can fill in some of the blanks. But I don't start with a full picture in my mind.

5. How important is education to your creative process?
Very important. There are so many different ways to educate oneself, and I'm thankful that I have almost constant opportunities to be around talented and interesting people, who educate me through osmosis. I also find that "cross-training" my mind sharpens my abilities in many different realms. Reading seems to help music making and vice verse, for example. The different areas of our brains are cross-wired to such an extent that I suspect there's a good biological basis for my experience, as well.

6. What kind of things do you do to get your "creative juices" flowing?
Get rid of distractions. When it comes to coming up with melodies or lyrics, which is primarily what I do as a songwriter, I like to put on the music loud and pace around singing out loud until I stumble upon good ideas.

7. What made you decide to follow a creative career choice (though possibly risky) rather than something more stable?
Getting paid to make music with your friends is hard to turn-down. I love the freedom that it permits to explore many different areas of society, and it's an incredible way to connect with huge numbers of people. The instability is certainly a downside, but as this recession has shown, stability can be illusory in many different fields.

Thanks to D.A. Wallach for his participation and creative savvy. He's a gentleman and a scholar.

D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey are Star Trak Records famous pop music duo known as Chester French. D.A. and Max are currently working on their next full length album with plans for a 2010 release.

Visit Chester French's Blog: The Chester French Blog
For more information on D.A. and Chester French Visit Here

Download Free Mixtape; Jacques Jams Vol 1

To buy the critically acclaimed Chester French debut album "Love The Future" Visit Here. You also have the creative possibilities of bundling the album with some great options like merchandise, vinyl records, work outs, slumber parties and even an African safari.

Directed by Colin Solal Cardo, the clip adequately represents the tune’s soulful theme displaying Aloe strolling throughout the city of Paris after a few failed attempts to start his moped.

McQueen
55-61 Tabernacle Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 4AA.
Telephone: (020) 7036 9229

Definitely named after a certain Steve - images of the star of The Great Escape adorn the walls at this slick Shoreditch bar and restaurant located on the site once occupied by The Tabernacle. The main bar area is all polished wood and exposed brick work, a black and masculine space, while the basement has been transformed into a suitably moody, brooding space with comfy booths and a small stage. On Thursday night it’s ‘Secret Rendezvous’ which brings together the worlds of circus, burlesque and cabaret. There’s a theatrical quality to a lot of the design and the music policy suits the venue’s retro styling. Cocktails are taken seriously and executed with care and attention. The promised kitchen is now open and serves a well thought out selection of Modern European dishes.

1. Who is the most creative person that you have ever known?
I have had the good fortune at knowing a great many exceptionally creative people. Perhaps the most influential was the British sculptor Henrey Moore for whom I worked for a few months as one of about 40 technicians.

What Henry Moore taught me was how he approached the ideas in his head. Over his time as an artist, he had developed a practical approach which enabled him to earn the reputation as one of the most prolific sculptors of his generation.

He used to come to the shed each morning to review our work, and then would wander up and down a small stream that ran through his property. I noticed him stooping down to collect pebbles and bone fragments from the stream (there was an abattoir upstream) One day I went into the house mid morning to deliver a message and found him at his drawing table sketching these small pebbles and bone fragments. I was astonished that the creator of monumental sculptures was sketching humble stones. I asked him what he was doing, and he answered " I am building up my vocabulary of shapes" - fine advice for filmmakers and screenwriters.

2. What environmental factors do you consider to be helpful (or limiting) to your creative process?
All artists have a responsibility to the environmental issues that threaten life as we know it. Be it thorugh green process (like the new halogen lights, or through making audiences aware.

3. Is there something that you do to put yourself into a creative state of mind? If so, what?
I believe that all humans are born into this world with an equal amount of creativity and talent. It is how we unlock it that distinguishes great artists from the rest.

I personally meditate a great deal, but during that process, try to sketch a symbol, or write a word or two that brings me back to the moment when I have had a creative idea.

I also love Hemingway's principle of 'priming the well' whereby he would erase the last few words in his notebook at the end of each day. He had noticed that the next day he would quickly rewrite the erased words, and in so doing would bring him back to the flow that he had.

I use this technique a lot - both in my creative writing and in the technical writing I do for Raindance. And it seems to work!

Everyone needs to develop a method, a plan of attack to making their creative ideas concrete.

4. Do you critique your own work? Explain.
I am my own worst and harshest critic. If a line isn't right, or a phrase isn't right, I will go over and over it.

Always trying to remember that creative projects are never ever finished. They are abandoned!

5. If you and I were to trade places, tell me one thing about yourself that I should know.
I am an obsessive workaholic!

6. If you could change one aspect of our society through your work, what would it be?
We live in extremely troubled times: environmentally and politically.

Environmental issues are something I am trying to get everyone I influence to change.

Political and social issues are also something that threatens our society. And it is here that filmmakers have a real opportunity to change people's lives - for through cinema we can see how people love and learn and work in every culture in the world and in so doing, through this learning break down the fear that seems to be behind the hatred that creates wars.

7. Are you a fan of cartoons? If so, what is your favorite one?
I don't really have a favorite cartoon, although my friend dave McKean's Sandman series are hard to beat.

mav·er·ick (mvr-k, mvrk)
n.
1. Elliot Grove - One who refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter.
adj.
Being independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence:

Elliot Grove founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993, the British Independent Film Awards in 1998, and Raindance.TV in 2007.

Elliot Grove has worked intensively with writers at Raindance since 1992. He explains the tricks of the trade from practical experience and reveals some of the latest paradigms through lecture, exercises and video clips.

He has written three books which have become industry standards: RAINDANCE WRITERS LAB 2nd Edition (Focal Press 2008), RAINDANCE PRODUCERS LAB (Focal Press 2004) and 130 PROJECTS TO GET YOU INTO FILMMAKING (Barrons 2009). His first novel THE BANDIT QUEEN is scheduled for publication in 2011.

Read Elliot's Screenwriting FAQ's