Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Digital Technology Question
MARKS
Explanation/Analysis/Argument - 10/10
Examples - 10/10
Terminology - 5/5
Total - 25/25
Monday, 4 February 2013
Creativity Question
Write up a 750 word response outlining the extent to which you were creative in your AS and A2 coursework tasks:
Within both my AS and A2 coursework I had to be creative in order to create an original and believable product within the restrictions and rules applied by the course. In both my AS and A2 projects I was limited by the requirements of the coursework, as I had to create specific products that both fitted into the music industry, therefore, within both I was restricted by elements required within the industry, such as legal information. I also had to select a genre to work with in both cases and was therefore also limited by conventions. In both my AS and A2 coursework projects I researched current and old texts to help understand conventions for the products I was creating. Although conventions place restrictions on the products was creating, it also allowed me to see what would help make my product convincing. It also allowed me to see where I could be original in what I created by challenging and changing conventional ideas. Within my A2 coursework, I also looked at products outside of my chosen genre and found characteristics and conventions from other genres and explored these to alter and change them to fit the pop genre that I was using for my final products.
Within both coursework projects I also created mood boards and mock ups as part of my research and planning. Doing this helped me to visualise ideas and decide what worked best with specific features such as colour pallet and typography, it also helped me to assess how far I could push rules and conventions.
The production stage of both projects required and restricted creativity in different areas. For example, camera work in the coursework allowed me to think creatively about framing, angles and shot types as well as the miss-en-scene within them. For the AS project, the photography required me to consider positioning, colours, costume, make-up and lighting. These were all extremely important elements as the models positioning would have an effect on my layout and possibly restrict the placement of other elements in my magazine. The costume, colours and make-up were also important as I had to consider what would best match my overall colour pallet and whether to match or contrast this, I had to also consider whether or not to conform to the conventional colour choices used within the pop genre. Lighting was also important as good lighting would help create good quality photographs. Similarly, in my A2 coursework, costume, make-up and colour choices all had to be considered from a creative point of view as these would determine how effective the connection between all three products would appear. The additional use of a theme based on the 1950's era meant that I had to combine the 1950's style with conventional colour and on-trend ideas within my work, this required creativity and originality to make the combination work effectively. Lighting was, again, also important, however, as the A2 work involved filming as opposed to photography the lighting could be used more creatively and altered in order to create varied effects, moods and atmospheres throughout the video, for example, contrasting darkly lit and brightly lit scenes and using spotlights to create specific point of light within a frame. Some other areas of filming required creativity and originality where the AS photography did not, as the A2 work required me to consider shot length and camera movements that do not apply to still shots.
Post-production provided several restrictions but also areas in which I could have the freedom to do what I wanted. Rules applied within the briefs of all the products, both AS and A2, restricted me to sizes and certain requirements; for example, I had to incorporate a barcode, the date and price within my magazine cover, and legal/copyright information within my digipak packaging. However, the layouts, colours, images, typography and enhancement to these were all free to be done as creatively and originally as I liked.
Within both my AS and A2 coursework I had to be creative in order to create an original and believable product within the restrictions and rules applied by the course. In both my AS and A2 projects I was limited by the requirements of the coursework, as I had to create specific products that both fitted into the music industry, therefore, within both I was restricted by elements required within the industry, such as legal information. I also had to select a genre to work with in both cases and was therefore also limited by conventions. In both my AS and A2 coursework projects I researched current and old texts to help understand conventions for the products I was creating. Although conventions place restrictions on the products was creating, it also allowed me to see what would help make my product convincing. It also allowed me to see where I could be original in what I created by challenging and changing conventional ideas. Within my A2 coursework, I also looked at products outside of my chosen genre and found characteristics and conventions from other genres and explored these to alter and change them to fit the pop genre that I was using for my final products.
Within both coursework projects I also created mood boards and mock ups as part of my research and planning. Doing this helped me to visualise ideas and decide what worked best with specific features such as colour pallet and typography, it also helped me to assess how far I could push rules and conventions.
The production stage of both projects required and restricted creativity in different areas. For example, camera work in the coursework allowed me to think creatively about framing, angles and shot types as well as the miss-en-scene within them. For the AS project, the photography required me to consider positioning, colours, costume, make-up and lighting. These were all extremely important elements as the models positioning would have an effect on my layout and possibly restrict the placement of other elements in my magazine. The costume, colours and make-up were also important as I had to consider what would best match my overall colour pallet and whether to match or contrast this, I had to also consider whether or not to conform to the conventional colour choices used within the pop genre. Lighting was also important as good lighting would help create good quality photographs. Similarly, in my A2 coursework, costume, make-up and colour choices all had to be considered from a creative point of view as these would determine how effective the connection between all three products would appear. The additional use of a theme based on the 1950's era meant that I had to combine the 1950's style with conventional colour and on-trend ideas within my work, this required creativity and originality to make the combination work effectively. Lighting was, again, also important, however, as the A2 work involved filming as opposed to photography the lighting could be used more creatively and altered in order to create varied effects, moods and atmospheres throughout the video, for example, contrasting darkly lit and brightly lit scenes and using spotlights to create specific point of light within a frame. Some other areas of filming required creativity and originality where the AS photography did not, as the A2 work required me to consider shot length and camera movements that do not apply to still shots.
Post-production provided several restrictions but also areas in which I could have the freedom to do what I wanted. Rules applied within the briefs of all the products, both AS and A2, restricted me to sizes and certain requirements; for example, I had to incorporate a barcode, the date and price within my magazine cover, and legal/copyright information within my digipak packaging. However, the layouts, colours, images, typography and enhancement to these were all free to be done as creatively and originally as I liked.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Creativity Theories and Quotes
Quotes and Relevance:
"If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users.'
(Banaji, Burn & Buckingham - 2006)
This point could be argued against to some extent as some may be born with a significantly better creative ability that derives from biological and genetic background. However, I would personally agree with this statement, as social and environmental elements will always have an impact on a persons ability to successfully produce a creative product to a certain extent. For example, the cost of certain technologically advanced software may mean that some people have limits placed on their potential. What is available to an individual user, from a research point of view, may also be limited and may therefore restrict their creative abilities. All of these things show that technology very much has an impact on the creative ability.
"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation."
(Csikszentmihalyi - 1996)
Again, this point may be argued against as an individual user, with the use of technologically advanced software and equipment, can quite easily produce a media product themselves. However, outside opinion and feedback from others, especially experts, can prove to be extremely valuable within the editing and further improvements stages. Also, bringing 'novelty into the symbolic domain' refers to the idea of understanding, conforming to and challenging media conventions.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Question on Creativity
How creative have you been in your AS and A2 productions?
Use the marking criteria for G325 to help you:
Level 1 = limited, descriptive
Level 2 = simple, basic
Level 3 = straightforward, clear
Level 4 = complex, articulate
Throughout all the coursework within AS and A2 I have been creative in all elements leading up to and including the production of my final products. In both sets of coursework I had a brief that I was required to work to, for example, as AS I had to create a music video. Although there were elements of the coursework that required me to make creative decisions, such as the genre of music I based my magazine on, to tailor and change this brief to my own ideas I had to be creative, and in some cases challenge conventional ideas. Picking a genre adds further constraints to the work as it meant I had further conventions to negotiate, these include colour schemes, layouts and featured elements within the magazine. Due to this I had to be creative in my decisions regarding these areas and whether or not to conform or challenge conventions to make the product realistic and convincing as well as different and unique as an overall product. Choosing the pop genre allowed me to take influence and inspiration from the many existing pop genre texts and re-create elements, recycling these ideas allowed me to take something that is already proven to work well and adjust it using my own creativity and originality to make a new version. I also chose to use a distinctive and strong 3 colour pallet, a common convention within music magazines that is not limited specifically to the pop genre, this helped me to create a convincing product as well as a theme and sense of branding throughout the product. Layout of all three areas of my final product - the cover, contents and double page spread - was very much entirely my own decision, however conventions would suggest the use of certain effective layout patterns such as the rule of thirds. This layout pattern was one I decided to use within my work as it created a strong, clear and easily accessible style for the reader.
Within my A2 coursework project there was similar constraints due to the task itself and the choice of genre. Similarly to my AS coursework my product was based within the pop genre, I was again restricted by certain conventions of the genre, however, in the production of these products I challenged many more conventions and pushed more towards an original and unique style that would further push my creativity. The product overall stood out as product due to the decisions I made and conventions that I challenged, I was also less afraid to think outside the box and take inspiration from other genres, such as with the use of hand drawn images within my digipak and advertisement that were inspired by indie genre style artwork. Although these elements all allowed greater creativity through a lack or restrictions but instead conventions that could be negotiated and manipulated, there were elements that provided rules and restrictions within my coursework. For example, whilst creating the digipak I was restricted to size and other industry requirements such as the regulatory inclusion of legal/copyright information. Within my AS coursework, similar restrictions where in place, however their were fewer, for example, only the inclusion of the barcode, price and date on the cover were deemed compulsory. Many sizing requirements, however, were equally restricting within both coursework projects with the AS magazine restricting me to an A4 cover, A4 contents and 2 A4 pages for an article and the A2 advertisement restricting me to an A4 page. Although these were elements that controlled my work and provide rules, they also helped me to push my originality and creativity in order to produce a layout that worked well within these size restrictions and made the best of the space I had to work with.
Overall, I feel that I was more creative within my second, A2, coursework project as I took more ideas from outside-genre influences and did not rely on conventional ideas as much. For example I chose to use a theme with a strong image, the americanised 1950's era gave me much more to work with from an image and branding perspective. It also provided with ideas for styles of typography and colour schemes that fitted the theme as opposed to the genre. This use of a rememberable era as a theme also provided inspiration regarding the artist's style and branding as well as a whole range of old texts and products that I could draw inspiration from.
Use the marking criteria for G325 to help you:
- Explain what you did and analyse the extent of your creativity.
- Give examples from the texts you created to support your points.
- Use terminology e.g. media terms, creativity terms.
Level 1 = limited, descriptive
Level 2 = simple, basic
Level 3 = straightforward, clear
Level 4 = complex, articulate
Throughout all the coursework within AS and A2 I have been creative in all elements leading up to and including the production of my final products. In both sets of coursework I had a brief that I was required to work to, for example, as AS I had to create a music video. Although there were elements of the coursework that required me to make creative decisions, such as the genre of music I based my magazine on, to tailor and change this brief to my own ideas I had to be creative, and in some cases challenge conventional ideas. Picking a genre adds further constraints to the work as it meant I had further conventions to negotiate, these include colour schemes, layouts and featured elements within the magazine. Due to this I had to be creative in my decisions regarding these areas and whether or not to conform or challenge conventions to make the product realistic and convincing as well as different and unique as an overall product. Choosing the pop genre allowed me to take influence and inspiration from the many existing pop genre texts and re-create elements, recycling these ideas allowed me to take something that is already proven to work well and adjust it using my own creativity and originality to make a new version. I also chose to use a distinctive and strong 3 colour pallet, a common convention within music magazines that is not limited specifically to the pop genre, this helped me to create a convincing product as well as a theme and sense of branding throughout the product. Layout of all three areas of my final product - the cover, contents and double page spread - was very much entirely my own decision, however conventions would suggest the use of certain effective layout patterns such as the rule of thirds. This layout pattern was one I decided to use within my work as it created a strong, clear and easily accessible style for the reader.
Within my A2 coursework project there was similar constraints due to the task itself and the choice of genre. Similarly to my AS coursework my product was based within the pop genre, I was again restricted by certain conventions of the genre, however, in the production of these products I challenged many more conventions and pushed more towards an original and unique style that would further push my creativity. The product overall stood out as product due to the decisions I made and conventions that I challenged, I was also less afraid to think outside the box and take inspiration from other genres, such as with the use of hand drawn images within my digipak and advertisement that were inspired by indie genre style artwork. Although these elements all allowed greater creativity through a lack or restrictions but instead conventions that could be negotiated and manipulated, there were elements that provided rules and restrictions within my coursework. For example, whilst creating the digipak I was restricted to size and other industry requirements such as the regulatory inclusion of legal/copyright information. Within my AS coursework, similar restrictions where in place, however their were fewer, for example, only the inclusion of the barcode, price and date on the cover were deemed compulsory. Many sizing requirements, however, were equally restricting within both coursework projects with the AS magazine restricting me to an A4 cover, A4 contents and 2 A4 pages for an article and the A2 advertisement restricting me to an A4 page. Although these were elements that controlled my work and provide rules, they also helped me to push my originality and creativity in order to produce a layout that worked well within these size restrictions and made the best of the space I had to work with.
Overall, I feel that I was more creative within my second, A2, coursework project as I took more ideas from outside-genre influences and did not rely on conventional ideas as much. For example I chose to use a theme with a strong image, the americanised 1950's era gave me much more to work with from an image and branding perspective. It also provided with ideas for styles of typography and colour schemes that fitted the theme as opposed to the genre. This use of a rememberable era as a theme also provided inspiration regarding the artist's style and branding as well as a whole range of old texts and products that I could draw inspiration from.
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Creativity Task
Pete Fraser's CD Cover Task:
http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=creativity
Artist Name: Lubanki
Album Name: Disastrous and the Unpalatable
Picture:
My Cover:
http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=creativity
Artist Name: Lubanki
Album Name: Disastrous and the Unpalatable
Picture:
My Cover:
An Introduction to Creativity
Dictionary Definition:
Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness,creativeness, vision and innovation.
Quote from Pete Fraser, chief examiner for OCR Media Studies:
"One of the possible areas you could be asked about in the exam is creativity. The projects you have undertaken will hopefully have felt like an opportunity to display your creativity, but you will need the chance to discuss what you understand by creativity and what it might mean to be creative.
Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness,creativeness, vision and innovation.
Quote from Pete Fraser, chief examiner for OCR Media Studies:
"One of the possible areas you could be asked about in the exam is creativity. The projects you have undertaken will hopefully have felt like an opportunity to display your creativity, but you will need the chance to discuss what you understand by creativity and what it might mean to be creative.
The assignment options at AS and A2 all offer constraints for your work, whether it be making pages for a music magazine, the opening of a film or the packaging for an album; one of the reasons why you aren't offered total free choice is because people often find that working within constraints gives them something to exercise their creativity, whereas total freedom can sometimes make it really difficult to know where to start. It's why genre can be interesting- how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?
The word 'creative' has many meanings- the most democratic meaning would really suggest that any act of making something (even making an idea) might be seen as a creative act. In more elitist versions of the term, it is reserved for those who are seen as highly skilled or original (famous artists, musicians, film-makers etc). An interesting third alternative is to think about how creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts."
5 Statements from his quote:
- Working within constraints can encourage you to be more creative and force you to think outside the box
- The most interesting pieces of creative work are often made when trying to fit structures and rules and yet also challenge and change them
- Making of something, even an idea, can be seen as creative
- Creativity can be an elitist term used for highly skilled or original ideas and products
- Creativity can also be an unconcious, random or collaborative act
- Constraints
- Brief
- Genre
- Original
- Collaborative
- Constraints: Within my AS and A2 coursework there were several constraints in place that put limits on what we could do. For example, within both sets of coursework we were limited to a certain media type such as the music magazine at AS and the music video, digipak and magazine advertisement at A2. There were other factors within the creation of my coursework that showed constraints, such as being a student, which meant that both budget and access to equipment was limited, as was the time limit and deadlines that we had to work to. Although these factors may have created difficulties within the creation of the coursework it also encouraged innovative and imaginative thinking to create ideas that would overcome these problems.
- Brief: Within both coursework projects we had a brief to work to, as well as putting constraints on what we could achieve as a final product this also meant we had set structures and rules that had to be followed. This encouraged creativity within my coursework as it allowed me to think outside the box and see how far the rules and structures could be pushed or challenged.
- Genre: For both the AS and A2 coursework we were required to pick a genre, in both cases these were within music. Choosing a genre placed extra structures and rules onto the coursework through the conventional ideas created by the genre. Throughout the coursework I was therefore forced to decide what conventions I would conform to or challenge in order to make my work different and unique as a new product, that also still fits clearly within it's genre.
- Original: Within both pieces of coursework originality was required in order to create a new product, originality was also required in order to make these products stand out as a whole. Within the A2 coursework, I had to be original within all areas, to create a new, different and intersting set of products that were all also distinctive as a brand.
- Collaborative: Many of the areas within our coursework required some sense of collaborative work, for example, we asked for feedback from both teachers and peers in order to see where improvements and changes could be made, as well as what worked well. Asking the opinions of others allowed me to work with others to collaborate an idea in order to make my final product better. Within the A2 coursework I had to work within a pair.
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