Creativity Essay (MEDIA)

What is Creativity?

In essence, Creativity is the ability to think and act imaginatively, in ways that people either haven't done so before, or think and act in a unique adaptation of ways that have been done before. Creativity is pushing the boundaries of a certain field to new distances and creating a product that is not only original, but thought provoking also. I did my summer trailer alone, which gave me full 'creative control' when it came to the coursework piece that I handed in. 

Technology is absolutely instrumental with regards to creativity in media. In my summer trailer, I decided to use the camera of my iPad to record the scenes for my trailer. The various lighting and focus options on the camera app itself allowed me to manipulate the picture in the way that I want. Afterwards, I edited the colours and picture quality on AVS Video Editor, further utilising modern technology to enhance the creativity of my piece. In AVS Video Editor, I made the picture more 'grey' with a colour palette to make the picture more bleak, matching the plot line and the vibe of the trailer. Modern technology made it much easier to personalise my trailer and apply creative ideas to it. 

Intertextuality, by definition, is the relationship between two different texts. However, in the media context, it is the process of taking the ideas from one media text, to be put into another text with a slight variation or 'tweak' on the original idea. A good example of this process in my own work, is the adaptation of the well-known 'Final Girl' theory, first penned by Laura Mulvey. In a slightly misogynistic twist, my film has adapted this to have a 'final man' instead. In addition, my film is heavily based on the infamous 'Friday the 13th' series with an interesting take on Jason Voorhees, the infamous masked slasher. We have him equipped with a Baseball Bat as well as his typical phallic themed knife. Therefore, our film would be labelled as creative by Bently. 

On the other hand, there have been instances throughout my time doing Media A-Level that I have displayed little creativity and originality. An example of when I have shown little or no creativity is my Music Magazine project that was completed for my AS Coursework. The reasoning for this is that I had to make an archetypal music magazine by copying a real template for one and repeating the typical conventions to make it instantly recognisable as a music magazine. The Source and XXL were two magazines that heavily inspired my product and as a result, I was not able to display creativity.

Postmodernism is the idea that all media is subjective and should be judged differently by different people. The act of production itself is 'creative' by definition as it involves taking something that doesn't exist and bringing it to life. Living in Eltham, South East London assisted greatly with my filming and production as it provided a diverse range of locations for me to shoot in, contrasting from urban and built-up, to green and natural. This way, I am able to recognise creativity in all its forms rather than being biased to an urban production or a production based in a rural area. 

To conclude, I have developed personally with regards to how I consume media. I have gone from a casual viewer who consumes a variety of media very passively, to someone who can engage with what they are consuming, analysing the creativity and subtext of it. In addition, I have become a content creator.