T/F: No one needs an 'idea guy'

[TroyVSTheWorld]

My older brother has an art degree and he's just an 'idea guy' and honestly I really hate it

[TheLemmaLlama]

This got me thinking -- when exactly does an 'idea guy' cross over from not being just an idea guy? Anyone with an idea must put in some amount of effort to communicate their ideas to others. I mean, writing and drawing are ultimately just high-fidelity, labour-intensive ways of communicating your ideas (putting them in a form comprehensible to other humans)

There's a scale here; from the purest 'spits out ideas, refuses to elaborate, leaves' ideas guy, to a guy who tells an artist what they want but sticks around to clarify their vision whenever there are any questions, to AI prompters*, to someone who storyboards their project and asks other artists to fill in the details, to someone who straight up does everything themselves.

(Heck, I'm making a comic by myself, but really I want an anime so I'm actually an 'ideas guy' who is drawing the comic as a means to communicate my vision to future people who might make the anime happen :P)

I guess for the pure 'spits out ideas, refuses to elaborate, leaves' ideas guy; theoretically there is a use case for them like you said in the OP, but in practice, it doesn't seem like any of them are getting used (I don't consider the 'boss' types others have mentioned pure 'idea guys'; their main value is leadership and coordination, which makes them useful even if someone else were coming up with the ideas (and they could muster the same enthusiasm when working with someone else's ideas)).

I can't say if the lack of real world cases of people finding idea guys useful is because of the reasons you specified in the OP, but it does seem like not many people have use for them, just as an empirical fact

*

who have to communicate very rigourously to get exactly what they want because the AI doesn't have common sense like a human artist; there's no-one on the other end making an effort to meet you in the middle - you have to meet the AI all the way on its side. (Also, let's say we're talking about a hypothetical AI that isn't trained on any copywritten works, so this conversation doesn't get sidetracked )

[NickRowler]

There is a thing in Hollywood where producers will pitch ideas and they will seek out writers/directors to help fully form it. This is quite common practice for IP films, like Barbie or the Disney live action remakes.

For using AI to create “original” stories, I would be concerned it would be used my low budget studios to just pump out films. People already accuse Hallmark films and similar studios for being formulaic, I don’t think we need to make it more so.

The reason why truly original stories don’t pop up as often isn’t about there not being any, it’s more if a marketing thing. Studios and publishers would rather play it safe. Like when all the Twilight and Hunger Games knock offs flooded the market.

[HGohwell]

I think it depends where you cross the line from Ideas Guy to Doing Guy. For instance, if you're a writer collaborating on a comic, you could be called the ideas guy depending on how clear and detailed the scripts given to the artist is. You're giving the artist ideas, they're pulling it all together. There are also just some people who have a lot of imagination and need reining in sometimes. I have this problem with my own work sometimes that I have some really cool ideas and concepts, but pulling them off is trickier, which is fine for me, I'm just me doing it for me and have time, but some people might have people and livelihoods relying on these things, so need someone who can execute their ideas.

Same with a lot of early ideas in any area of development. Someone has to come up with the initial moment of "what if this" and will often be passed off to other people to make work, and depending on the area/expertise they might just be purely ideas or they might just be able to do a bit of the number crunching or whatever the field requires themselves. And I think in big companies this is often a good idea. If everyone is coming up with ideas, that's too many ideas, but if only one person is it's too narrow, so having a little group of ideas guys just letting their imagination run wild and bouncing off each other can work. And also, just sometimes people have different areas they're good in. For instance, anyone who's watched anything like The Apprentice or similar shows, will have seen at least one really good idea that's been completely ruined by not listening to experts or incompetent marketing, and at least one good idea that's been completely overlooked for far worse ideas because no one wants to listen to an ideas guy and wants to copy the market trends. And of course, often these guys have years of experience in their field to have got to their position to start with. Ideas guy is rarely an entry level job, after all.

So there's definitely a space for ideas guys, but usually within big companies, not little individual artists and writers. And idk if anyone's watched this, or has time to play such a long video in the bg, but here is a video essay on this exact kind of business plan but with books and ghost writers for Audible instead, where someone comes up with a prompt, gives it to a ghost writer, gets it recorded and watches the money roll in and why it's not great.

[SleepingPoppy]

I imagine that whatever positions might equate to an "idea guy" require more background and skills to reach than what the people who talk about being an idea guy are imagining. So I voted "true" based on that.

Lots of people have genuinely good ideas that could be turned into amazing movies, tv shows, comics, etc, so I don't think people who aren't artists or writers are wrong for feeling that way or having those desires. But it will always take more work than the idea to make it into something. If someone wants to be a creator (have their ideas created), then they need to pursue the art of creation on some level. Or, you know, do something in the pursuit of acquiring a position that lets them have the power to get their ideas executed.

[NicDemonic]

Aren't consultants a thing or occupation?

[powerplantanimations]

Was going to agree until I realized I know artists who have difficult times coming up with ideas and they outright told me they just want to... draw or animate lmao. (I was shocked to meet like... three).

Wondering if the people who mostly vote for true are artists who're able to come up with ideas.

[Mallory]

I said "true" because to me an "idea guy" is a very specific kind of person who always daydreams about their ideas and is up for doing all the fun/easy parts (we all love just brainstorming new projects where there are no pressures or obvious problems yet), but will not move a finger to address anything difficult or anything that requires commitment. The guy who talks up about how much money this "idea" will make without sitting down and fleshing out the plot (and discovering all the plot holes) or sitting down to draw the characters (and discovering that they have no idea what this character should look like while hating all of their attempts) or even researching the ways this comic could make money (and realizing how much work and grind it's going to be to see a single cent).

To me, someone who is not a writer or an artist but who has a knack for markets and marketing, who can just talk to people and get them to buy in to a project, they're not just idea men, they're producers. Their part (securing funds, assuring success) is just as important as the person(s) making the actual project. And personally, while I haven't jumped on board yet, I have had the opportunity to talk to a few producers in the past and I take them and their ideas 100% more seriously than your average idea man.

[SleepingPoppy]

Do those artist only have trouble coming up with an idea, though, or are they looking for an actual story (like with dialogue and a plot)? I feel like those are different.

[powerplantanimations]

Ideas believe it or not. One of them I thought I was writing scripts, but I was just giving him sentences lol. He made a server where people can throw him ideas. He's pretty cool.

[darthmongoose]

Asking for ideas online for what to draw is a potential copyright minefield... For an individual illo, maybe it's fine, but hooo boy, if you get the idea for a comic off somebody else... and then it becomes a popular IP...

This is why a lot of publishers don't take unsolicited submissions, or why their submissions have a disclaimer that says something like: "If we happen to publish something with a similar story to what you submitted, you can't sue us for stealing your idea." Which some writers think means they're stealing ideas from the slush pile, but it's nearly always just that with so many people submitting story ideas, and so many stories being made, inevitably somebody's going to submit one that's coincidentally similar to something that actually gets released by that publisher.

Also this is why writers are advised by lawyers to say they don't read fanfiction based on their own series. If you admit to reading people's fanfic, then if somebody wrote a similar plotline to what you actually later write in the canon work, that's again, a potential copyright problem.

Getting somebody else just to come up with an idea, but without them being tied into the creation of the project could be a massive liablity because they could claim a significant portion of ownership of the IP without having really done any of the work. So I'm not sure I can really advise people to seek out an "ideas person" without getting some kind of contract signed regarding their role and ownership of the work!

[Darth_Biomech]

There can be an "ideas guy", but certainly not as shallow as the "type a sentence into a program and give you the result" guy. Coming up with a fairly well-thought-out and fleshed-out idea is not the same as going on "what if a giraffe had a penguin head?" types of ideas.

[Nugtown]

My issue with the "idea guy" is just that anyone can learn how to write and therefore stop being one. Artists can benefit from having a writer help them and it's precisely the same- except now the idea guy actually knows how to apply the ideas. The world needs less creatives and more creators.

[DiegoPalacios]

My boss has launched a pretty successful kids edutainment franchise, without really having any particular background in writing and with what she'd profess as "absolutely no drawing skills". Her approach to making a book is to basically get input, and help from a lot of other talented people; she'll find people with expertise in whatever she's writing about to give advice, she's named as the writer on the front of the book, but she's not scared to find writers to help write harder passages of text, or to take onboard recommendations from the editors, and of course the illustrations and design work are done by other people too.

the power of friendship is too OP XD

[darthmongoose]

As is the power of "paying people money" when just friendship doesn't do the trick. I will do a lot of research, design writing and drawing in return for not needing to worry about rent!

...But to be fair to my boss, she does legitimately amaze me sometimes with the people she's able to get advice from just on a casual basis. She'll just be like "Oh yes, I had a lovely chat with [one of the world's formost experts in a subject] the other day and they said..."

[DiegoPalacios]

As is the power of "paying people money" when just friendship doesn't do the trick.

A true friend doesn't ask a friend to do free professional labor

Your boss does a pretty clever approach. While some projects can be done single-handedly sometimes it's better to hire a person with the complementary skills.

she is not only an "idea gal" she is a team coordinator gal.

[RedLenai]

I'll personally go.. well the question is a bit unclear to me about where the true or false stands on.

Idea guys have no value if they can't bring their ideas to life or to have at least some kind shape, and the standard wouldn't even be a proper drawing or a narrative text, even the sketchiest of drafts could work, it'll have a shape that needs polishing, but it is a shape non the less.

Anyone can come up with an idea that another individual has imagined, but what matters is the execution and the way this idea is materialized or digitalized. So, ideas cannot be copyrighted, the product that comes out of it could.

But, if an idea guy is willing to shape their vision, have some kind of direction even if they won't be the writer or artist, for as long as they provide the resources and tools for that idea to take shape then they have some kind of value, but placing them in a paid position would depend on certain aspects such as how much are they actually providing.

Artists would likely hire a person who is both a writer and a idea guy instead of seeking two separate individuals, you know, kill two birds with one stone. Meanwhile, a writer "could" hire an idea guy, but since their work is already related to the creative process of generating concepts then I'll think is not a highly demanded position.

Idea guys, generally, make things according to what they want, since they have no artistic skill like drawing or writing, then of course they should be the ones paying since they are the ones with a vision, idea, concept and they are the ones wanting to give it shape... the ones with the interest is them, not the other two.

I believe the concept of "Idea guy" comes either attached to another field, producers, coordinators, researchers, marketing, investment, etc.

But returning again to the concept of IA kiddos and typing silly little prompts to generate an image with a bunch of database... no, they aren't needed. They are the truest concept of a lazy individual

[Iris-Grimoire]

I'll say true because the most realistic "idea guy" is actually going to be a project manager, which is a different type of thing added to the table.

Someone who just knows the cool stuff and doesn't do anything else isn't gonna add anything to a team; if you have an art team there's already a group of creative people and you'll find more in other areas. People who just have this crazy idea and wants someone else to do it all, and won't even contribute a cent... Nah. And AI-bros are just the worst breed of it.

[lizzyjones]

There are prompt generators online, and random plot generators, and more. That sounds sort of like what you’re describing as an “idea guy”, and I’ll admit that I’ve used them before as a starting point.

For me, there are times where I feel uninspired, or that everything I’m writing is coming out like crap, and so I don’t want to work on anything “good”. So I’ll take a prompt and work on that because I’m in a bad mood and that’s a storyline I’m not invested in. I don’t post them (rarely even finish them), it’s just for me.

There’s also times - like nanowrimo- where I’ll feel like there’s a deadline, and that completely freezes my ideas sometimes. So I’ll use a prompt generator or a character generator to give my creative side a kick-start. I usually deviate from the prompt, but all I needed was a start anyway.

[system]

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