Now this is going above and beyond. My short thought for this month is:
Going above and beyond always makes whatever you have done more epic; however, is the time you spent on it used well, or wasted?
This guy was obviously bored. That amazing replica of Gondor is made completely out of matchsticks. Where do I even begin on the questions? How long did this take him? How many match sticks did he have to buy? Did anyone pay him?
In my opinion, this is awesome; but, unless he had some great purpose for it (pay, a museum, Peter Jackson is his brother) I think that this was not worth the time he had spent. I cringe thinking of the tedious hours of getting the mountain just right. This project is definitely an obsession.
I'll give an example now on the other end of the spectrum: I spent the last few days working on a Shakespeare project. It was a performance and so our group got together and decided to do a video web chat of the scenes from As You Like It. I volunteered to do the editing. So I filmed everyone, put it on my computer, and since I only had basic effects, I had to spend at least twice the amount of time making the film look good. Once the editing was done, I decided to go above and beyond. I added special effects, credits, and composed music for the majority of the 10 minute film.
Now, was it worth no sleep? Yes, it was, because it is a project I am proud of. It is not perfect, and there are so many more things I could have done to it to make it win Independent Film of the Year or something; however, I made the decision that I would go above and beyond, but only so much. There is a fine balance between an excellent product, and obsessing to the last detail for a 'perfect' product. The time I spent was well used and I don't think any was wasted.
Here is the my Shakespeare project:
