Outline the extent to which you were creative in your As and A2 coursework

In the planning, construction and evauation stages of the AS and A2 coursework pieces i was able to be creative with my ideas. However there were certain constraints that restricted me from complete freedom of choice and '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.' - according to Pete Fraser.

When creating a magazine (which included a cover, contents page and double page spread) during the AS year i was given the brief that it had to be a music magazine. This was one of the constraints i faced, however when i started to research and plan what i wanted to achieve it became apparent that there is already a great variety of music magazines. This meant i could still be creative in the designing. Having the technology of the internet was helpful during the planning stages to see the some real conventions that i could adapt. The technology of photoshop also meant that i could have free choice of layout, colour scheme, image and image enhancements. I decided to base the music magaizine genre on indie/electro music. This is music i listen to myself therefore it felt natural to recreate something i myself and other 16-25 year old s would read or be interested in.

A well known theorist has suggested that 'technology has taken all the creativity out of media production'. I would have to challenge this theory becasue during my AS and A2 pieces of work technology did not hinder me in any way. It enabled me to explore what is already excsisting and change/adapt it creativly to make something new and original. This was definitely ahieved in the music video created at A2 where we research existing music video s with a similar 'dance' genre. We then planned the time of shots (fast), framing and lighting that would be appripriate for a dance genred song. However when it came to editing the enitial idea wasn't working. Even though we had come up with creative ways of filming such as spinnng the camera on the tripod and using effects that matched the section of the music, we changed the lengh of some of the shots to creatively challenge the exsisting conventions of a dance track. It was down to the 'field of experts who recognise and validate the inovvation.' In this situation it was my teachers who recoginised what we were trying to achieve and helped us by suggesting their creative skills to us.

Making the digipak and advert enabled me to have again, freedom concerning the layout e.t.c. However for it to look like a real media product i wanted to follow a few existing conventions such as the 6 sided digipak and the idea of having the track listing. I was allowed to be creative in chosing the font, what the band were wearing, the layout of other text, the colour scheme and many more factors that resulted in the end product.

In both tasks there was one main constraint which was the issue of having no budget. This mean't we couldn't rent out a proper studio to work in or buy new clothes for the band. However everyone who was set the task also faced this problem therefore we had to work around it. The main way we did this was trying to make the location look as proffessional as possible. We discovered a creative way of doing this and it involved placing the band infront of a projector screen. Different colours or patterns could be reflected onto the screen which gave the illusion of a many different locations (which we see in dance/pop videos).


In future projects i will continue to work collaboratively in order to achieve a mixed view of ideas. I will also work under constraints because i feel like they gave me guidance with my creativeness.

Creativity grid by

Creativity theorists

Creativity

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

At AS the task was to design a music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. I created a music magazine that was targeted at people aged 16-25. The magazine had an indie/electro genre that is known to be popular with young people. I chose to have a three piece girl band on the cover that were styled and photographed by myself.

 Some constraints were applied to this task. For example, we had no budget for photographing the band/artist and time constraints applied when we had deadlines to meet. These constraints hindered me slightly when carrying out the magazine construction and editing, however without these rules (such as deadlines) my work would have been disorganised.

I was told the task had to be a music magazine but I was able to be creative and independent when choosing the genre. I stuck to the genre of electro/indie music magazine all the way through the task in order to sustain a cohesive end product. As this task was the first task set (apart from a preliminary task), my skills using photoshop when editing really improved and I was able to show my creativity with the placement of the text on the magazine, the article subject, colours used and who was actually on the cover.

In my opinion, I worked more creatively at A2 when making a music video, digipak and advert. This might be due to that fact my skills and knowledge of the subject have become more advance therefore I could allow myself to think more creatively.

Similarly to the AS I had some constraints, one being that I had no budget and strict timings for filming depending on who was available and when. This was difficult but did not necessarily hinder my opportunities for creativeness or to do well on the task. Because I still managed to chose the genre of the song, style of the band, placing of and layout of text and pictures on digipak/advert and colour scheme. Another constraint was that we specifically had to make a music video and the band or artist had to lipsync. Again, this was not a problem because I worked collaboratively with a partner and we chose to have a dance genre song with a lot of singing.

Some aspects of being creative involved challenging our ideas or being challenged. Sometimes when working collaboratively there are clashes of ideas, especially when it came to editing the music video. However, once these ideas were shared and adressed we could come up with creative solutions.  Using our imagination and coming up with something interesting and original was important for our music video. We challenged ourselves by having a simplistic/minimal theme for a dance genre song which actually worked well. 

What is creativity? what Pete Fraser, the chief examiner for OCR Media Studies, has to say about 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  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.Making something by exercising your creativity under constraints. - Working within constraints.

2.creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

3.something which has been created which fits with certain structures or brief. - Genre

4. Challenging or changing rules

5. Reserved for those who are highly skilled or original.


Constraints - when making the music video i was constrained with a budget (no budget), the brief of a music video specifically, the artist had to lipsync e.c.t. Although when making my digipak, advert and music magazine (AS) I aslo had a few constraints. This included, the placement of title, it had to be a music magazine, the digipak had to fit a template and the advert had to have the band name on.

Collaborative - When making the music video i worked collaboratively with a partner to complete the task, this helped me because we could exchange ideas and comprimise what would work best for what we wanted to achieve. I worked independently on my digipak, advert and music magazine. However i still received feedback from peers, teachers and the public which could be looked at as working collaboratively.

Genre - The music video and digipak/advert followed a dance genre that we stuck to in order for a cohesive media product. At AS my music magazine had a pop/ electro genre that i also followed all the way through.

Challenging - some aspects of being creative involve challenging  your ideas or being challenged. Using  our imagination and coming up with something interesting and original was important for our music video. We challenged ourselves by having a simplistic/minimal theme for a dance genred song which actually worked well. I also challenged myself with the equipment and software used to construct the end products at A2 and AS.
 

Playlist shuffle - Brian Eno theory

Jeremih - Late nights (r&b)
Ben Howard - every kingdom (pop/singer songwriter)
The XX - chained (deep house)
Kayne West - Mercy (r&b/ rap)
Beyonce - love on top (pop/hip-hop)
Kendrick lamar - good kid (rap/hip-hop)
M people - proud (dance/house)
Portishead - Glory box (house)
inc - pull me down (house)
Biffy clyro - kill the old torture.. (rock)
Jamie woon - shoulda (house)
frank ocean - Pyramids (r&b)
led zeplin - ten years gone (rock)
Lana del rey - off to the races (pop)
blink 182 - ghost on the dancefloor (pop/rock)
Rihanna - pour it up (pop/ r&b)
John legend - sin city (r&b)
Band of skulls - death by diamonds and pearls (rock/indie)
Boy kid cloud - i would die for you (electronic/dub)
The weeknd - till dawn (r&b)

                                                                                                            

Example of recycled/ Remixed music

 

This is Lazy Jays 'Float my boat' and below is Azealia Banks '212'. This is an example of 'sampling', where an artist will take part of someone else's song and either remix it or use the same sample.

My Bricolage

Pardox Definition

a Paradox is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory orabsurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Examples of Bricolage

Music - postmodernism. The recycling/remixing of a song

 

Write down a brief description of your AS and A2 production pieces.

I was asked to produce a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread for my AS coursework. The magazine had to have some conventions of real media products for it to look real. The target audience for the magazine was people aged 16- 25. This was also the target audience for my A2 courseowrk, where i was asked to design a digipak, advert and create a music video.

 AS WORK

A2 WORK


After the research and planning stages of making both my AS and A2 pieces of work i had to evaluate the final products. I did this by assessing what i did well, what didn't work so well and how i would do things differently if it came to making the products again. I presented my evaluations using different technologies such as slideshare, scribd and so on...

My Title

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

Describe - give detail on what you have done, how you've done it.

Evaluate - Reflect on work. What works well, what doens't. why? What skills have you learn't. Comment on drafts, feedback.

skills - The areas you have learn't most in/are best at

Devolpement - How have you improved?

Production - Making the texts. e.g making (filming) the music video. Creating the digipaks and advert using photoshop. As yead, music magazine production.

Skills of production:

Digital Technology: Photoshop, Blogger, socoial networking sites, camera, internet.

Creativity: How you intepret other peices of real work and create something new of your own.

Research and Planning: Looking at other real media products, photo's or colours that have inspired you and how your work can be adapted and developed using this inspiration.

Post-production: After the production is complete. How you edited the texts, what style you were editing in. What you used to edit these texts eg, Photoshop and Final cut. Editing music video, digipaks, advert, music magazine cover...

Using conventions from real media texts: Looking at media products such as music videos, digipaks, music magazines e.c.t and using a similar style on your work. Maybe it's the layout, colour scheme, or pace of music video.

Bricolage

Bricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts, to refer to the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process. The term is borrowed from the French word bricolage, from the verb bricoler, the core meaning in French being, "fiddle, tinker" and, by extension, "to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose)". In contemporary French the word is the equivalent of the English do it yourself, and is seen on large shed retail outlets throughout France. A person who engages in bricolage is a bricoleur.

Postmodernism Definition

Postmoderenism is a cultural movement that came after modernism - Georger Ritzer (1996)

Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate audience and will exhibit many traits of intertexuality sophisticated  visual puns can be used by advertising companies, this is considered postmodernism.