10 Lockdown Ideas to Inspire Creativity

You can’t wait for the lockdown to be over, so you can explore the world once again? That’s the spirit! But in the meantime, let’s get your creative juices flowing.

• Film what’s outside your window

You remember the beginning of Hitchcock’s Rear Window? Jimmy Stewart looks out onto the patio and the adjacent apartments while hearing some children blissfully yelling at each other. “How time goes by for a mere spectator?” he might ask himself. But Hitchcock films this time passing, and so could you. You’re wondering what is gloomier – the weather or the adjacent building, or how many pedestrians wear masks, or how the tree leaves change day by day? Capture how the window view changes whilst you’re stuck in your bunker.

• Shoot a stop motion video

Perchance you’re more interested in your home reality. Time seems flat, and only the minor transformations you make (e.g. sheets change, shelf reorganisation) indicate life. Or you study or work productively but your free time still embodies a circle of repetitious nothingness? Use stop motion animation to galvanise your home. Create motion out of immobility.

• Start a YouTube film channel

The myriad movies/TV series you’ve watched during lockdown have triggered your critical thinking. Is the plot banal, or an entangled web full of surprises? Do you see yourself within the main character? Does the dialogue make you split your sides or bore you to tears? Does the cinematography submerge you into a delightfully unknown world? Then click on your phone’s rec button, record your beautiful voice and illuminate your constructive feedback to the world.

• Produce fan edits

You’re revisiting older movies, and your imaginative brain compares them to contemporary flicks: “Wow, Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey are so much alike! What if I mash them up and create my Snyder cut – 2021: Interstellar Travels?” Hey, do I see your video editing software loading?  

• Learn about film equipment

You’ve always wanted to grasp the film-production world better, but your hour-long trips to work/uni took all your remaining time and energy? I’ve got good news for you! We’re under lockdown, and you travel from the bed to your laptop! Why don’t you learn more about lenses, cameras and lighting to get ready to shoot your fantastic video idea post-Covid?

• Start a blog

Or maybe you’re not really a video-production enthusiast, but your thoughts on film still engulf your mind? Well, the blog is the perfect medium for you. Or wait a second. Have you recently started baking deliciously? The world needs your fantastic chicken quiche recipe, mate! Write about it. If you’re not sure where to start, then use a godaddy website builder video to give you all the info you need to build your site! If you’re afraid you might reveal too much personal information, don’t get discouraged. Make yourself comfortable and pen it incognito.

• Write a short story or a screenplay

You read something on the news that made you smile, or, on the contrary, made you enraged? Did the emotion you felt inspire you? Then write about it. Writing stories can help you make sense of the world and your internal conflicts. You worry you might not be good enough? The blank page will never answer this question, but your ideas-packed mind could.

• Write stand-up comedy

You constantly cause your friends to burst out laughing, and you love Chris Rock, or Bill Burr, or Sarah Silverman. It might be a great idea if you listen more carefully to the topics they’re discussing, write those down and then draft your thoughts on them. Examine your ingenious scribbles and inject them with your wit. Have mercy, though. My cheek muscles start hurting. 

• Test your styling potential

During this Oscar season, you saw how much personality the styling of Glenn Close’s and Viola Davis’s characters reveals. And you remember that mesmerising look you crafted once for Halloween. Don’t wait for a special occasion; it’s “Me Day!” Show your mirror how gifted you are at expressing your identity externally.

• Create music

Na nanana nana nanana na na nana…You just can’t stop humming the melody you once thought of! You decide to record it, and you enjoy the sound of it. “How I wish I hadn’t stopped taking those piano lessons when I was 10,” you hiss. Don’t fret! Buy yourself a low-cost keyboard or learn how to produce electronic music. I’m telling you, even Hans Zimmer would insist that melody hasn’t conquered your brain for no reason.