Breaking the Rules

Those of you who know me personally or who have spent any amount of time reading this column will know that I used to be an attorney, a profession with which I’m glad to now be unencumbered. While the practice of law is a high and noble calling for certain people, during my season as a corporate and trial attorney, I found that in spite of my expertise, I was getting tired of seeing the worst sides of people each and every day – the egos, the greed, the petty arguments over contractual minutiae.

So I made the only logical choice and moved to the entertainment industry.

One of the few humorous aspects of the legal profession is that every so often one runs across some archaic and often arcane rules that still pepper the law books. These are laws that, at one point or another, probably made sense to some legislative body, but it’s hard to see how. Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples of state and municipal laws that are still on the books in California today:

– It is a misdemeanor to shoot any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale. (California)

– Peacocks have the right of way to cross any street, including driveways. (Arcadia)

– You are not allowed to wear cowboy boots unless you already own two cows. (Blythe)

– A man can’t go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that don’t match. (Carmel)

– Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine. (Chico)

– A person may not drive more than 2,000 sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time. (Hollywood)

– You may not bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time. (Los Angeles)

– It is illegal to carry a fish into a bar. (Portola)

– A motor vehicle may not be driven on city streets unless a man with a lantern walks ahead of it. (Redlands)

– It’s illegal to wipe one’s car with used underwear. (San Francisco)

– Kites may not be flown more than 10 feet above the ground. (Walnut)

You may have broken one or more of these laws yourself. If so, you know who you are. The problem with such violations, however, is that you don’t even get the pleasure of that spine-tingling thrill of rebelliousness that comes with intentionally breaking the rules, because I’m willing to bet you didn’t even know they were rules in the first place.

It’s that way with your artistic endeavors too. Every art form has certain rules that are inherent to it, whether that form is writing, acting, filmmaking, painting, or something else. With that said, there is a place to break those rules sometimes. In fact, some creative artists have become truly great because they broke the rules – think of Picasso’s Cubist paintings, Hitchcock’s technical breakthroughs in filmmaking, or e.e. cumming’s poetry that played fast and loose with punctuation and capitalization.

If you want to stand out as such an artist, one who has become renowned because you’re able to bend and break the rules of your art form, you must first know and study what those rules actually are. An artist who fails to do so isn’t really breaking the rules; he’s just putting his ignorance on display. So before you go trying to break the rules, learn what they are and how to keep them.

Then, if you’re going to break your art form’s rules, for goodness’ sakes, don’t skimp. Really break them. Don’t just wander around on the edges of the rules, which at best will only look like you’ve made a mistake, and at worst will look like you have no idea what you’re doing.

Third, if you do decide to break the rules, be prepared to take some flack. There are some people who will be quite vocal about the fact that you broke the rules. Unfortunately, many of them will be artists in your own field – your peers – many of whom have been following those artistic rules for a long time. Perhaps ever since they broke the rules that preceded them years and years ago. And the worst part of it all will be that you will actually have to listen respectfully to what they have to say, because they might actually have some constructive feedback. Please notice, however, that I didn’t say you have to agree with them. Once you have milked every ounce of insight from their critiques, you may find that the best thing is to go on breaking those artistic rules.

Take a look at your own artistic endeavors. Have you truly learned the rules of your art form? If not, take the time to understand them and why they are considered rules – this can only be learned in the practice of them. But when you have them down, I encourage you to start systematically taking risks by finding ways to bend and break those rules with a sense of consistency and in the pursuit of good craft.

Of course, you may also have to help people understand what you’re doing, so be ready to give a good explanation for your decisions. At first, it will sound as sensible as explaining why you’re marching 2,001 sheep down Hollywood Boulevard or carrying a fish into a bar, but you may find that some of those rules are there just to be broken.

All my best,

Shun Lee
Actor | Writer
Director of The Greenhouse

© 2011. All rights reserved.

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