Question 1: Section A: Creativity (practice essay)

Creativity - how your skills have progressed and how they helped you in your productions

Creativity is “the making of new things and the re-arranging of the old” e.g. the ability to have your own ideas and not just copy other peoples.  The ability to do things that are unusual and different are present in the following features.

At AS we were creative coming up with ideas by narrowing down the choices of genre within our group. We were then fixed on the idea of doing an action genre with a hint of sci-fi. This is quite a unique genre as the two both don’t usually work hand in hand but we were able to make a female the main character and also a Hacker which proved to be extremely different when researching similar genres and very creative.

At A2 we were more creative coming up with ideas by deciding that we wanted to film underwater shots with a GoPro in a swimming pool. Underwater shots in music videos are extremely rare (as we found out when researching this in music videos) because it is hard to get them right. However, we were able to have guidance from influences and film beautiful water shots which slotted nicely into our music video.

At AS we were creative choosing locations by deciding we wanted to film in a train station in London. This is extremely hard to do as it is so busy and the ‘extras’ around may look towards the camera or make a problem for our performers walking through. However, the shots ended up being really successful and unique not only within our class but within the world of film.

At A2 we were more creative choosing locations by choosing to film at a swimming pool. This was a decision that was the one that proved to have the most problems initially – hiring the pool, finding the costumes, using the GoPro. However, we were able to pull it all together and film water shots that were appropriate for our music video. Also, we decided to successfully follow the forms and conventions as one of our influences (Lana Del Rey) has American 1950s and 60s looks to her videos and with the Southend location and vintage filter effect we were able to add – we pulled this off.

At AS we chose costumes by dressing our unique female hacker lead in a black dress and black boots. We did not want her to stand out as she was ‘on the run’ from special agents, so this costume was effective for her.

 

At A2 we were more creative with our costumes by considering makeup and hair to follow the mise en scene elements we had learned at A2. Emma wore a lilac dress and matched her lipstick to this, considering her hair down and straight to give an elegant look. This was more advanced and thought about than any costumes, make up or hair we had for AS. 

At AS we copied conventions of the genre for example having music that built up throughout the film opening and added to the tense atmosphere of the ‘hacker running away from the special agents.’ The sci-fi element came with the title sequence we chose to use with the ‘green computer’ font which copied sci-fi conventions.

At A2 we were more creative with the conventions for example copying the whole ‘Americana 1950s and 1960s’ effect and incorporating a vintage filter reel. We also copied elegant lines and body positions that were much like in the music video for Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’ and feel that both were successful in being more creative than at A2 in terms of conventions.

At AS we used basic editing techniques such as crop, delete, audio fades and audio gains. These were good to learn at AS as they were basic editing techniques we needed to learn, however we needed to be more advanced at A2.

At AS we used basic editing techniques such as incorporating a vintage filter effect that we found on the internet, using black and white, fading people into shots and dip to blacks. We also used the skills we had learned at AS level which helped us create a successful music video.

There were certain restraints on our creativity in place from the exam board, we had to make a music video, digipak, poster etc. These rules did limit our ability to be creative to a certain extent.

It is not easy to just be creative. We actually needed to do practical things like research, paperwork, storyboards etc. to allow us to develop our creativity.  Without solid research and planning, being creative was impossible. We needed a balance of organised and creative people in a group to be successful.

Often it is a learning process where you start by being told what to do, then you try doing things on your own and then you end up being confident and skilled enough to experiment which leads to creativity.  We had to make mistakes at first to be creative.