Creativity question

How creative have you been in your AS and A2 productions?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.

For our as media studies coursework we were asked to produce our own music magazine, for the magazine we were asked to create a cover a contents page and a double page spread with an article/ interview that we have written ourselves. I chose to aim my magazine at the age group 15-25 and used the pop genre to them my magazine. I chose this target group and genre because I felt that I knew what people wanted out of the magazine and how to reach the people I was aiming at.

We were given certain constraints when creating our magazine for example being students we only had limited budgets which did affect the quality and believability of our magazines but we worked with what we had to produce realistic music magazines with the equipment and technology that we had available and using typical music magazine conventions. There were other constraints such as time, it being our coursework we always had deadlines to meet and a final deadline which meant we were able plan efficiently to meet the deadlines but if certain matters held us up we would fall behind. However we were able to freely create in areas such as we chose the title of the magazine, genre, the layout, the colours, the artist, styling and all fonts. This meant we were able to make it personal and add our own creative touch but be original.

For our a2 coursework we were asked to create a music video in a pair, group or on our own. We were also asked to produce on our own a digipak and magazine advert for and promoting the artist or bands album to collaborate and create a brand for our band. We created a band called intoxicated with the music being dance genre we chose to aim it approximately at ages 16-25. For a2 I think we were given more of a chance to use our creativity because although we were able to pick the same things as AS such as the artist, the name, genre, target group etc I feel it included more because we had location and so many different shots to use and create.

A2 included the constraints as As such as time and budget because this is always a factor when being a student, there is only so much time. This meant we had to use our time to film and edit efficiently which in my opinion we did, at A2 we created our idea from scratch we wanted it to be new and unique but also we wanted to challenge typical dance music conventions.

Creativity

introduction to creativity

"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."

1. working within constraints gives something to exercise creativity

2. It's why genre can be interesting- how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules

3. democratic meaning would really suggest that any act of making something

4. highly skilled or original

5. can be unconscious, random or collaborative act


1.constraints- For our As coursework we were given certain restraints, we were told it needed to be a music magazine and conform to typical music magazine conventions, we were asked to use a mid shot image on the cover and for the magazine to contain a masthead, barcode, contents and double page spread. For our A2 coursework we were asked to produce a video it had to be a music video and we had to create an identity for a band/ artist with a digipak and advert for our artist.

2.genre- For both coursework tasks we were free to chose whatever genre we wanted to use, for my as i chose to use a pop genre and conform to typical pop conventions, and then for our a2 coursework we chose to use a dance theme.

3.making- During our as and a2 coursework a preliminary magazine, music magazine with contents and double page spread, music video, digipak and advert were produced.

4.original-  for my music magazine i chose the name, artist name and the artist i also styled the artist to how i thought fit the look i wanted, i took inspiration from other pop magazines such as 'pop' but ultimately created how i wanted my magazine to appear. We started our music video conforming to typical dance video conventions by choosing to use a energetic party theme but then we evolved our idea into more of an original one by using simplistic and minimal features.

5. collaborative- For the music video task most of us worked in pairs, this meant we were able to share ideas.

Randomally creating

artist name- 22d Space Operations Squadron

album name- trying to please everybody

task

write down a brief description of your as and a2 production pieces
what you were asked to produce, target audience, how you evaulated....

For our AS production pieces we were asked to create a music magazine cover, contents page, and article- double page spread. The magazine needed to comply to typical music magazine conventions in order to be convincing, i chose to use target audience around the ages of 15-25, this meant i was able to use features that i predicted would appeal to my target audience. We evaluated our work by carrying out several different evaluation questions looking good points and points that could have been improved.

For our A2 production pieces we were asked to produce a music video, digipak and magazine advert the album. we chose to do a dance/ pop video with a target audience of roughly 16-25, we then evauated our work by comparing how we thought we did and how we have improved our skills from AS.

Skills evaluation of production

Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work.

Name different elements that have developed through production stages
(eg. photoshop skills, filming)

Describe what you have done and how the skill used have been developed throughout media studies

Evaluate how your skills have improved, good and bad points, what have you learnt?

Skills development

• Digital technology- Camera, internet, photoshop, social networking.
• Creativity- how you interprete different texts to add your own personal stamp and ideas, creating a unique and original idea.
• Research and planning- looking at a varied amount of texts, all of the inspiration and ideas that led up to producing the finished product are part of research and planning. (eg. watching other music videos)
• Post production- stages that are completed after the production process, editing, altering and evaluating. (eg. uploading, cutting, photoshopping)
• Using conventions from real media texts- looking at similar texts and using the typical conventions to create a realistic product. (eg. barcode on a magazine, image of the band on an album cover)

Remix/ remade song

the original song by Bill medley and Jenifer Warnes featuring in dirty dancing (1987). Black Eyed peas song remake/remix using the song 'time of my life' (2010).

Paradox

Paradox can prove to be very revealing about human nature and the way that we speak. At the most basic level, a paradox is a statement that is self contradictory because it often contains two statements that are both true, but in general, cannot both be true at the same time.
basic examples of paradox

You can save money by spending it.

I'm nobody.

I'm a compulsive liar- am I lying when I say that?

A rich man is no richer than a poor man.

Nobody goes to that restaurant because it is too crowded.

You shouldn't go in the water until you know how to swim.