“The Hidden Power of Questions | Steven Ilous | TEDxCulverCitySalon

my name is Stephen Ellis so she said I’m
a filmmaker and inventor I started my
career working for the comic book legend
Stan Lee yeah yeah however after the.com
bubble I found myself bewildered and
unemployed a colleague of mine asked me
if I wanted to come work on a coal movie
which ended up being the matrix two and
three but before that I had asked myself
a question when he said do you want to
come work on a cool movie because we
didn’t really know the title at the time
and so I said why not so looking back at
that moment I thought to myself well if
I never asked myself the question was
asking the question equally as important
as the answer flash forward I’m a visual
effects artist working and something was
lacking in my life so I decided I would
go out around Hollywood and pitch this
story about noah’s ark but specifically
the animals that got left behind this
was a unique way at looking at a very
classic story although the pitch was
very successful and Dreamworks ended up
buying the movie but this was the second
time that I asked myself an important
question that changed my life what if or
why did I decide to be in the film
industry in the first place that was
something that I took a long time to
kind of figure out and I decided I was
going to quit my visual effects job and
now I asked questions for a living I
find that I like to take big ideas and
deconstruct them to figure out how they
work and how they come together and
ultimately try to find questions that
are new and innovative ways into looking
into a film property for example what if
we
genetically engineer a human being only
to find out that you cannot engineer the
human spirit that’s apex what if you
could embark on the first mission to
colonize a new earth only to discover
that you’re not the first you’re the
last and that’s arc what if machine had
to merge with man in order to ensure
their survival bolas these questions
have led me to work with films film
studios like DreamWorks and New Regency
and also filmmakers like david fincher
and Kennedy Marshall these questions
have also paved the way for me to
innovate in virtual production and mixed
reality filmmaking but these questions
were always at the forefront of my
career yet these questions had always
been at the forefront of my entire life
you see when we r 3 to 5 years old we
explore the world through one of the
most powerful questions we all know
which is why why is the sky blue why do
I have to eat my broccoli why do I have
to go to sleep somewhere along the way
we lose this curiosity and for me
questions have been such an important
part in changing my life starting with a
simple question such as why not
ultimately leading to a deeper question
of why am I in the film industry in the
first place and then ultimately leading
to I asked questions now because I don’t
want to wait for life to throw them at
me so the next time that you face a
question or asking for an answer
consider this the act of asking creates
the possibility and in a world of
infinite answers with infinite questions
think about the questions that you want
to ask because the answers the right
answers are right there and if you
continue to ask questions you can always
make the impossible
possible thank you [Applause]