Hey friend,
I’m feeling bothered.
I’ve been giving advice in our Society of Professional Artists that is too vague.
You’ve probably heard the advice yourself, “Steal like an artist.”
How do you ACTUALLY steal like an artist when it comes to business or content?
Austin Kleon (the author of the book about it) argues that no one is original. Even the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun, Ecclesiastes 1:9.
Austin says you should steal bits and pieces from a lot of your favorites artists rather than stealing from one or two artists, that way your work is a unique combination of existing things.
This is great advice in terms of creating an overall body of work and finding your voice.
But it’s so much harder to apply when you’re just working on one piece.
And what about when it comes to working on a business, or more specifically, getting your work seen by making content?
How do you translate steal like an artist to making reels?
Should you take the hook from one reel, the archetype from another, the story from another, the idea from another and the look from another???
That would make every single reel an incredibly daunting task.
And the alternative of just going with your gut, making 50+ reels that haven’t been viewed more than 1000 times isn’t very appealing either.
I know these aren’t the only two options. But I’m painting a picture here.
I think a better tool for artists when working in smaller increments is REMIXING.
Hear me out.
If you aren’t familiar with remixing, it’s something that a lot of electronic music producers do when they’re developing their own sound (voice) or when they hear a song that they just absolutely love and want to create their own spin on it. To hear what I mean, check out my favorite remix of all time, by Flume. And here is the original song.
They’re completely different songs. Almost unrecognizable. That’s because Flume has a SUPER distinct style (personally not a fan of his recent stuff at all, way too dark, but his old old stuff is super inspiring for me).
How does this relate to painting artists? And business?
Well there’s a strategy to remixing. It’s not just for fun.
Practically speaking, an artist remixes a song because it exposes them to a whole new audience and expands their reach dramatically, especially if the artist that they’re remixing is much bigger than them.
You do that over time as you build your portfolio of content. But when you’re looking at an individual piece of content or creator that you want to steal from, remix.
At this point, you might be thinking, ‘cool, Jake. How do you remix?’
Glad you asked.
First let’s make sure we understand what content actually is. There are really 5 building blocks for content:
- Concept: what it is, plus the twist nobody expects. Ask yourself what’s the nonobvious part. (“A $47,000 painting hidden behind a gallery wall.”)
- Hook: what’s on the screen in the first 3-5 seconds (text, visual, sound, all of it). (“This took me 82 hours to create…”)
- Archetype: the type of video it is. Turnaround/reveal, process timelapse, before and after, ranking, a day in the studio.
- Story: the tension that keeps them watching and the payoff at the end. Archetype is the shape, story is why they stay till the last second.
- Eye: The overall look. Where and how it’s filmed. What’s in the scene. What you show while editing. This is especially important if you don’t talk to the camera.
CHASE.
After much brainstorming with Claude, I came up with this acronym to hopefully make it easier to remember.
Because we all chasin’ somethin’.
😆
There are levels to remixing content.
In the beginning, your remix will be a lot more derivative. You’ll only change 1 of those 5 components.
As you get more experienced, you change more and more. Until eventually, you’re just stealing one component. That’s when you graduate from remixing to stealing like an artist.
What does this look like in action?
Let’s take Aleah Denae, and see what I would remix of her’s for Dimitra.
This outlier video has 395k views.
Concept: Paintings inspired by books, twist = she already painting Anne, and now she’s painting Gilbert.
Hook: “I’m creating 30 paintings inspired by books” text on screen and spoken. But notice, she also is holding a fat stack of books. And she’s moving in the beginning of the video, too, so you feel carried into the video with her.
Archetype: Process + VO narration. I actually think the VO narration really carries this.
Story: I’m creating 30 paintings. Last one was Anne. But I felt like she was missing something. Or someONE. Yes, Gilbert. I’ve wanted to paint both for awhile, but I’m just now doing it because I started the collage layer, I started feeling overwhelmed with all of the WIPs. So I took 2 weeks off of painting this. Died my hair, and now I’m inspired. But this is just the acrylic layer, so I’ll see you when I’m done with it (GREAT unconscious CTA that makes you want to follow her without actually asking you to follow her. STEAL).
Eye: Studio shots, subtle movement, reveals, process shots, natural lighting through the window, zooms, quick edits, but don’t feel rushed.
Now, if I were to remix this, I’d first start with the concept (I think this is the most important piece of content, btw. That’s why it is first in CHASE).
I wouldn’t want Dimitra to do the exact same idea of 30 paintings inspired by books. But maybe instead, I’d have her do painting 30 paintings inspired by her favorite bible verses.
I would directly steal the hook, something like “I’m creating 10 paintings inspired by my favorite verses” but we’d be missing the hefty stack of books as a visual hook that Aleah had, so maybe I’d have her tearing a page out of a bible.😅 That’d create a visceral reaction and might even upset some people, but I think viewers will be okay with it in the end.
I would directly steal the Process + VO narration archetype.
Change the story, obviously because it’d need to be relevant to Dimitra.
And I’d steal lots of the look/eye, but add some shots from Dimitra’s studio. I’d also want to try filming this on a better camera (Aleah used a phone) to see if that extra cinematic feel makes it more compelling.
And that’s it.
Let’s recap what we’re stealing vs remixing:
- Concept: remix
- Hook: steal / remix
- Archetype: steal
- Story: original
- Eye: remix
The thing is, once complete, you would maaaybe be able to tell that the idea came from Aleah, but you wouldn’t discredit Dimitra for using it because she put her own spin on it. That’s how a good remix should feel.
Now I just need to convince Dimitra to do this lol.
Some of you have asked for specific takeaways or actions that you can take (I read every reply btw), so here’s what to do this week if you want to actually make progress with your art career with content:
- Find 3 outliers from artists. Reels or carousels that did at least 5-10x better than their average. The outliers should make you like or trust the artist more. If they don’t, don’t copy it. That’s a very important signal.
- Do this breakdown for those videos.
- Storyboard your favorite of the 3.
- Film it.
- Edit it.
- Post it.
- Repeat.
If you actually do this exercise diligently and pay close attention to the source video, I almost guarantee it will do better than anything you’ve made before.
Rooting for you,
Jake
P.S. please take a moment to rate this week’s newsletter here.
P.P.S. I decided that the timeless and timely sections felt forced. I think that I just want to write about something timely and there will almost always be timeless principles that you can extract out of it. Idk. I also might just write about creative company. Still finding my voice with this newsletter thing, but I assure you I will continue and I will get better over time. Your feedback helps! Also, I’m almost done with the first song in my music course!!! It’s not my style because we’re building together, similar to one of our masterclasses or Part 1/2 of the MP, but I’m adding my own little flavor to it. I’ll be sharing it next week in the P.S. ❤️