- "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."
"Working within time constraints"
"Unconscious, collaborative, random act"
"Challenging/ changing rules"
"Act of making something"
- Meanings: In both AS & A2 I had to decide a meaning behind the piece I was making. In AS it was the magazine cover, and I had to decide how I was going to make a magazine cover portray a meaning. In A2 it was arguably easier because a music video an obviously portray a meaning if you want it to via plot devices ect.
- Difficult: Deciding a concept for both the A2 and AS work was difficult because there was so much choice. I could literally have decided to base either of them about anything. There were some rules. I had to abide to the genre of my act.
- Constraints: Deadlines were apparent in each of my assignments both A2 and AS. They made sure I was not wasting time and kept me focused. I also had to constrain to the rules of the genre I had chosen. Other constraints were money/budget, time and the logistics of organising people to be in the same place at the same time.
- Highly Skilled: In one way or another you have to be highly skilled at video editing and/or filming to end up with a good product in A2. In AS a good knowledge of Photoshop was needed as was a good knowledge of a computer in general. Something that apples for both is being highly skilled with your imagination. To come up with a good concept in the first place is a good imagination.
- Rules: With all the assignments I have done so far there have been rules, whether it had been with the conventions of my genre or the place where I was filming, everything had rules. In AS it related to the rules of print and what was the best way to organise something to appeal to a mass audience. In A2 it was a similar concept but trying to appeal to a mass audience in the context of sight and genre.
Overall the 2 assignments really develop your creativity in many different ways. They take what you think you know about everyday products, be it a magazine or a music video and give you an insight into what makes you like those products in the first place. You learn to be creative within the boundaries of the convention of the genre you are in, this also puts constraints upon you because something that seems like a good idea in your head might not translate onto your piece. The process has fine tuned my creative buffer into having a better knowledge of what sounds or looks good.
