The Rise Of Tyler Perry To Mastery In Film Production - Research Paper Example

The rise of Tyler Perry to Mastery in Film Production of Name of student: Name of tutor: Date due: The rise of Tyler Perry to Mastery in Film Production According to Greene (2012) masters are individuals who display outstanding creativity to the world. These people retain a significant portion of their childhood spirit, despite the pressure of adulthood. This implies that they transform everything around them into fascinating masterpieces. Moreover, they have maintained their original mind such that they can preserve their cocoon where they see the world differently from other people. They have mastered the art of seeing things in a different light that is free from the complications of the world. The world has many masters who have studied and perfected their skills and knowledge in their preferred art. In this research, I will focus my attention in one such master of the art who has mastered the art of film production, and this is none other than Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry came into being in the year 1969 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the child of Willie Maxine Perry and Emmitt Perry, who was a carpenter- Tyler Perry’s original name was Emmitt Perry. Perry’s childhood was not the easiest having been raised by an abusive father (Net Industries, 2010). Tyler Perry had a troubled childhood and he, at one time when he was only sixteen years old, attempted to commit suicide. He managed to cope with the abuse from his father through class clown antics in school and drawing. He was an inquisitive child but his environment did not do much for him and the only place he found peace was in church when his mother took him there every Sunday. Although he did not attend high school education, he later managed to earn a GED and started life as a carpenter’s apprentice. Perry had his name legally changed from Emmitt to Tyler as a way of distancing himself from his father (Gitlin, 2014). Tyler Perry’s life there on after took a journey of self-discovery at took many years before he found his calling. The creative task As written by Greene (2012), this mastery step requires the master to make a discovery, to invent something that connects with the public. He goes on to say that to fashion a work of art that is meaningful, inevitably requires time and effort (p. 179). Tyler Perry started off by writing scripts, and his writing was inspired one day as he was watching Oprah, and he heard her say that writing one’s life experience could be cathartic. After looking up the meaning of cathartic in the dictionary, he started writing his personal experience but invented the names of the characters involved to keep the peace. He called these memories from many years back “God’s little flashes of light” (Net Industries, 2010). Gradually, Perry’s journal developed into a piece of creative work, and that is how his first play came about. This play featured a character that confronted an abuser, forgave him and moved on- a recap of his life when he was growing up, and how he had forgiven his abusive father and moved on with his life. Creative strategies As written by Greene (2012), this step requires the master to come up with strategies to overcome the limitations of the mind. Since human beings are accustomed to the habit so is the mind that adapts one particular way of solving problems and seeing things (p 180). This could be limiting to someone trying to master the art. In the year 1992, Tyler Perry rented out Atlanta’s 14th Street Playhouse and began his own production of the play I Know I’ve been Changed with him acting as director, producer, promoter and star. He insisted on having total creative control over his production, and this in the beginning almost costed him his career. Only 30 people showed up to watch his play and in the year 1997 he hit rock bottom to a point of losing his entire savings and living in his car or with friends. In 1998, after changing a few promotion strategies and the way he did things, he rented Atlanta’s House of Blues. The House of Blues sold out eight times consecutively; this made Perry relocate production to the bigger Fox Theater. He then collaborated with Dallas evangelical pastor T.D Jakes, drawing inspiration from his book Woman Thou Art Loosed. The creative breakthrough Most masters begin a project with an initial intuition and excitement about it potential triumph. Their project is deeply related to a personal event, thus being much alive to them (Greene, 2012). At a time when most modern grandmothers were in their 30s, Tyler Perry came up with a creative character by the name Madea. Madea was first introduced in the play I can do bad all by myself. He played this role himself and he based the character Madea on several older women he had known while growing up in New Orleans. The creation of Madea was so well received by the public such that Perry’s act as Madea earned him a Helen Hayes Award nomination in 2001 in the classification of outstanding lead actor. The character Madea has continued to appear in all subsequent productions, and she has become his trademark. In the year 2011, Forbes named Tyler Perry the highest paid man in entertainment; he earned $130 million in one year (Aitken, 2011). Emotional pitfalls Tyler Perry has had some emotional pitfalls along his journey to mastery, for example, he is a very impatient man. This pitfall can be seen clearly when he wanted to become successful overnight. He did not understand that for one to be successful, and then need to take time and master their art to perfection before success and recognition can follow. Tyler Perry also suffers from inflexibility where he cannot stand anyone having creative control over his productions. He wants to create and produce his plays and movies. This could be dangerous in the future where his audience has gotten used to his creativity to the point of his productions being predictable and boring. Strategies for the creative-active phase my masters journey is related to The book of Mastery profiled nine people in the strategies for the creative-active phase. Tyler Perry’s story of mastery is similar to that of Leonardo Da Vinci. This is based on the fact that they both had difficult childhoods; with fathers who did not raise them in caring, and nurturing ways as they should have. Moreover, they both struggled and achieved their greatest potentials. References Aitken, Peter C. (September 13, 2011). Tyler Perry tops Forbes’ list of highest- paid man in entertainment with $ 130 million made in a year. Daily news (New York). Retrieved from www.nydailynews.com Gitlin, M. (2014). Tyler Perry: A biography of a movie mogul. Greene, R. (2012). Mastery. London: Profile. Net Industries. (2010). Tyler Perry biography. Inspired by Oprah, perseverance paid off, concentrated on Madea character. Retrieved from www.htpp://biography.jrank.org/pages/2872/Perry-Tyler.html Read More