re wrote creativity essay

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Creativity
Emily Haynes
Re – written

‘Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers in your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions’? 25 marks 30 mins

‘The making of the new and the re arranging of the old’ this is a quote from Benteley 1997, creativity is over coming problems, I feel I have taken my interest in media, films, advertising and art (a consumers role) and created something of my own (being a producer.) This opportunity has been given to me through technology; a perfect example is Photoshop, which I used mainly in A2 to produce a magazine advert and a CD digipak. I gathered ideas from my natural creativity, knowledge of Photoshop, and inspiration from excising products, which links to Benteley’s quote.

My first media task in As was a prelim, where we had to film somebody walking through a door. I used my skills from photography, and previous experience to create a short clip which involved a wide variety of different shots such as pan, long shot and a upwards shot by using a cam-corder and a tripod. I edited my shots on a Mac, where I added different transitions such as fades to add a creative slant to an other wise boring clip. The Mac’s enabled me to edit each shot to the length I wanted, and add sound effects for tension.

The main As task I created a film opening, based on skins. This again relates to Benteley’s quote, I took something excising, which I was a consumer of and became a producer by creating my own version. I again used a tripod and camera, this time I was more experience and therefore more creative. The very opening was photographs very quickly edited flashing on the screen and then it went into the filming, which involved different scenes and many more camera angles. I again edited this on a Mac which meant I could create a film opening which involved a variety of transitions, different paced editing, and credits involving the filming in the letters.

For my A2 coursework I used my knowledge from As to create a stop motion music video, to ‘The Fear’ by Lily Allen, I used a acoustic version which I found on You Tube and downloaded the MP3 song using a website then adapted it, by fading it using Adobe Premier, a windows media editing program, (consumer to a producer, taking something old and making it new, Benteley.) I also used this program to edit my stop motion. I created it by using a camera positioned in exactly the same place with a tripod. This was a difficulty because I had the tripod at such an angle to create a point of view shot on a piece of paper, it was falling over so I had to tape it my floor. My stop motion idea was to use Lily Allen’s ‘The Fear’ video as a bases and create my own version as a piece of art, gradually being created. I had to take over 900 photos of each stage of my art work to create this effect. Adobe Premier, meant I could edited each photograph to the specific time, which I decided on from using the words and beats of the song, which I got off a lyrics website, this saved time from writing out the words from listening to the song, and therefore meant I had more time to edited my stop motion animation.

I used Barthes symbolic code and culture code, which are the only conventions I applied, as I wanted my music video to be different and post modern. The colours and items in my work are symbolic of Lily Allen’s style and music videos, also the massive difference is there is no ‘Lily Allen’ in the video, which I didn’t want because the idea is to show that the key aspect is that its about the music not her. And the cultural code fits in because Lily Allen is British, I feel these aspects may help audiences understand the context of the text but they don’t confuse audiences who don’t. It can be enjoyed on two levels, a post modern aspect.

For my research and inspiration for my art work as a stop motion I mainly used You Tube. I found animations which inspired me, chopped them to the specific aspect I liked on Tube Chop then using the embedding code uploaded them to blog, for me to write about, others to look at and to evaluate whether or not to use this idea. This use of digital technology helped me have all my inspirations in one place, to help me form more ideas and pick out the best bits. I took inspirations from the internet and created something of my own, digital technology turns media consumers into media producers.
This is something that happens constantly with digital technology for example consumers take something (i.e. a photo or video) off someone’s blog, flickr, You Tube or facebook adapt it by downloading, saving, editing it on Photoshop, paint, Mac, windows movie maker or another editing programme then re-upload it. This is post modern and is made possible by digital technology. This is continually happening, and evolving, people are adding there own touch on everything, and this links to, Jones’s 1993 idea that ‘A process needed for problem solving … not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people.’ I feel technology has made this statement true.

In conclusion, I believe I have taken my interest in media (being a consumer) and created versions of my own (being a producer.) This has been made possible though digital technology and my natural creativity. So I believe that it is a mixture, yes digital technology has made me more creative because without the technology I would not have been able to create a stop motion animation music video.