The other day I sat down at my computer ready to edit our latest video and have to confess I felt completely uninspired. The footage looked good, there was a great story to be told but on that particular day I just couldn’t seem to get it right. After speaking to Alex it was clear he had also been having a similarly lacking in creativity kind of day, and in a search for creative inspiration I idly started looking up the great film-makers that have always inspired me.
As I scrolled through the webpages pictures of some of the greats started to appear: Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, Stanley Kubrick, even Orson Welles… as I looked through I started to notice a correlation – a clear link that seemed to surely be the cause of our joint creative block. You see, that very morning in a desire to look neat and tidy ready for filming a wedding, Alex and I had both shaved off our beards.
.jpg)
George Lucas during filming of the original Star Wars Trilogy after auditioning for the part of Chewbacca
Now bear with me, I appreciate that beards may seem an unlikely source of creative genius but I have evidence to support this theory. George Lucas created the original Star Wars whilst sporting a beard that made him look not dissimilar from his good friend Chewbacca. He also went on to co-create another of the great trilogies – Indiana Jones along with king of the beardies Stephen Spielberg. However many years later, having tidied up the beard a little he created Star Wars prequel series… enough said. Peter Jackson also did a far greater job on the original Lord of the Rings looking furrier than your average bearded collie, but struggled more with the rather more styled beard he sported during The Hobbit.
Now I know what you’re going to say. What about Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese? Surely two of the great un-bearded film-makers. Great film-makers they most certainly are, but it should be remembered that Tarantino is really a writer who just happens to direct and it’s well proven that writing is not connected to the beard-fuelled part of the brain, it’s really more of a directing thing. As for Scorsese let’s face it there’s enough hair in those eyebrows to compensate for the lack of a beard, although actually whilst directing Taxi Driver and Goodfellas he sported a beard even Spielbergo would be proud of.
.jpg)
Martin Scorcese during filming of Taxi Driver
Think about it, Ben Affleck starred in some top films whilst completely clean-shaven and then went on to direct a few which enjoyed only limited success. As soon as he grew a beard however he became an Oscar winning director for Argo. The same is true for George Clooney. Rumours persist that Sophia Ford Coppola grew a beard whilst directing Oscar winning Lost In Translation, though even if she was proven beardless she is daughter to one of the great beardies of his generation and it’s of course possible that the bearded creativity gene passes from father to daughter.
Glasses are also clearly a major help in becoming a great film-maker and there are many excellent film-makers sporting glasses who might rise to the status of the greats if they would just put their razor away.
There is of course one notable exception to the rule – proof perhaps that he was the greatest film-maker of all time. Alfred Hitchcock is one man with which I could find no evidence either of facial hair or visual aids. He was undoubtedly a visionary but, it should be noted, the evidence seems to suggest he was also absolutely bonkers. Perhaps if he had grown himself a beard he might have been able to control his creative genius and avoid some his more unpleasant eccentricities.
So it appears we have our answer – if you’re looking to become the next Oscar winner you will need 2 things: a camera and a monster beard. So apologies to anyone who questions why two homeless-looking bearded men have turned up to their wedding with some cameras, but rest assured, your film will be all the better for it!
