Creativity Essay

Being creative can mean very different things to different people, creativity can be defined as the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations. This could be considered vague but also leaves it open for people's ideas. I would start by saying that I was creative in many ways such as in production of my media products, such as designing my own magazine for my AS work. For this I could apply Bentley's theory: 'The making of the new and the re-arranging of the old'. I applied this from how I wanted my magazine to look authentic so I looked at existing products, such as Vibe and RWD, which in this case would be 'the old' and applied and arranged some of the colours, layouts and ideas into making my own product Blazin' which would be 'the new'. This allowed me to have my own personal touch and implement my own ideas in a creative manor. I was able to do this at AS through using the software Photoshop Elements 5.0, I had improve my grasp of this at A2 since instead of creating a magazine which seemed to have a clear layout I had to create my own advert and digipak which seemed to have less restriction which helped me implement more of my own ideas, and few inspired ideas, to being creative in a personal manor. I would also agree with Gauntlett’s view that ‘A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity’. I would say that my project for my A2 music video wasn’t fully planned at all but because of the charisma shown by the members of the band and the ideas we had whilst filming it lead to some of the best shots in the video through creativity by incorporating the location of filming and the elements involved. An example of this is how the final shot which I had planned merely for them to walk out which transformed into chucking the drum sticks and posing for the camera which overall made it more believable and look less staged, so it wasn’t only my creativity which aided my coursework. However, whilst completing my work there were some restrictions put in place which hindered my creativity. The main one for me was the budget that I had to complete my work on, for both AS and A2, unlike real artists which have big budgets which enable better resources. For example, for actors I was limited to using my friends who were willing and available at the times I needed them instead of hiring someone professionally. Also, locations is something I had to improve my creativity from AS to A2 in. At AS I didn’t really have to incorporate locations but for A2 I had to find and just film in locations which seemed free to use and apropriate whilst using equipment I had borrowed such as instruments and filming equipment. Should I have not had this restriction I think I would have been able to make my video more authentic. On the other hand, maybe this shows how I had to be creative in what resources I had available to me and how to use them. Whilst filming I did copy some ideas from existing texts but I did have to have some original ideas. I had to use creativity when developing my own ideas with how I could make it personal and develop conventions. During the production process I think my own ideas came from not fully working everything out, an example of this is how I still wouldn’t be able to define what genre my band is since they have links to being indie, rock or maybe even pop. In future projects, I would hope that creative skills that I have implemented in this project would help me to formulate ideas for future work through evaluating method which aided my work and which hindered my work. But in the same way I can take away how not always planning everything that I do and instead using inspiration can also help work through natural creativity relating to what Jones 1993 said that mistakes can be resolved with the use of creativity.