Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers. in yourown experience, how has you creativity developed through using digitaltechnnology to complete your coursework productions?

The development in digital technology has allowed consumers of these specific technologies to become producers of their own original pieces. In my experience of creating a school magazine front cover and contents page and a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, draft digipak, digipak and a music video. My creativity had developed greatly with the use of various digital technologies used in new and different ways.


In my preliminary task I knew little about how to make my magazine look as professional and high quality as possible, I did not include any special effects in images and did not take into consideration things such as lighting, positioning, location and mise en scene of my images. When I decided to make my magazine I had to do a lot of research before I could even start, this was good because I didn’t want my magazine to be no good, I took all the conventions of my favourite magazines into account, this was because I know these methods work and are pleasing to the eye for an audience. NME was my main inspiration because it is a personal favourite and I am also included in my target audience. You would need to find the perfect model for your front cover and know how they needed to be dressed and also how they needed to be presented on the cover. so i feel that i styled my model very well to create the perfect magazine. However in my main task I learnt that these aspects of images were very important to the overall effect of the magazine. One way in which I improved my images was to mind map ideas about what aspects would look best and keep to the correct genre of my magazine. I used a digital camera in both tasks but improved the images in my music magazine by taking into consideration the most important aspects of images. Such as bright lighting, costume and I also used post-production on my image fixer on my laptop to create the very best look for all my images.

In the school magazine I chose to use just the PC, however in the music magazine I was able to use a pen drive to quickly swap between PC and laptop as there was a wider range of software on the laptop. On the laptop I was also able to easily change the colours and layout of the magazine so that I could test what looked best and fitted with the original indie genre. Another advantage of this is that I was able to email work across and get opinions on what needs improving.

A media convention that technology played a big part in its production was my digipak for my created artist. Using technology I was able to research existing digipaks and album covers that were of bands and artists that’s music was a similar genre. I was able find images of album covers using Google search engine and with seconds I had inspiration from existing album covers I could re-create. The main technology that was pivotal in the production of my Digipak was Photoshop. Using Photoshop I was able create the exact product I had planned and I could edit photos and fonts to get the exact theme I wanted. The idea of Photoshop is that creating and editing has become a lot simpler and can be done by almost anyone who owns it. This is a great example of how technology has ‘Turned Media consumers into Media producers.

The use of technology was vital throughout my whole coursework as all my research was found on Internet sites. I got information and images off the Internet and then uploaded them onto Blogger which was the site we used to track our planning and research for the coursework.

Dan black 2

The Video for Symphonies is made up entirely of intertextual references.
 

The first intertextual reference is to Universal Studios and their opening titles to films; this technique is used to make the video opening more convincing and professional. 

 

The opening credits of Dan Black's film are very similar to those used in Lost Highway. The opening is effective and follows on to Black's next clip where a car is being driven.

Aspects of the action film 'Tron' are also used in Dan Black's video. This gives a video game appeal of the video, which is popular among Hip-Hip style artists.

The opening credits of Catch Me If You Can are closely copied even down to the colour scheme, it is difficult to know why Black has copied this so obviously.

Symphonies includes some sounds from Starman, but also the opening scene with spaceships flying around; the only different is in the colour scheme used.

Dan Black has made another direct copy from Space 2001 here, as he wears a visor over his eyes very similarly to the character shown in the Space 2001 image. This continues the video game image but also ties in sci-fi.

Black and white effects are commonly used in music videos however not as obviously as this. The 'look' Dan Black is going for is an old fashioned French theme with the style of dress and the appearance of the street. The image below is from A Bout De Souffle.

Goldfinger is a very popular James Bond film, not one that people would usually copy from. The clip from Dan Black's video shows a motion picture of him singing as if it's being projected onto the painted girl's body.

Bonanza is a Wild West featured TV show. Black has copied this by the setting behind him, the font of the text used, as well as the Sherrif badge he is wearing.

The text used in this frame is an exact copy of the text used for the title of E.T - this font is used on all E.T products ever existing, so it is not a sly copy.

Donnie Darko is famous for the evil rabbit; Dan Black produces an exact copy of this.

Thunderbirds is an ever famous children's TV show, the obvious copy of a driver sitting in a car with text introducing the character is an obvious Thunderbirds trait.

Towards the end of the video Dan Black uses yet another action film / sci-fi intertextuality; Blade Runner.

A reference to King Kong, as well as Godzilla, is used with a man protecting a woman in the scene; this is another direct copy including the black and white effect as well as costume.

The final section of the video shows recreations of 'The End' in every style of every film used.

Introduction into postmodernism...

Traditionally: One man-One skill
Modern day: Mass production factories
- 'If everyone can do something, no one can.'
- 'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.'


Jean-Francois Lyotard

Grand Narratives: Religion, Science, Politics
Nowadays, people choose the parts they want from each of the 3 beliefs to create their own beliefs, this is called Little Narratives; e.g. it can happen within Media and Fashion.

Creativity questions

- What do you understand by ‘creativity’ and to what extent have you been creative?

Creativity, in my opinion, comes from the persons' own imagination. I have been creative in my inidividual work from AS as well as in my group during A2 as I have looked at existing products (magazines, ancillary products, and music videos) and tried hard to create my own interpretation of these. This in my eyes is being creative, as I was trying to for fill a brief set by my teachers but also trying to be better than everybody else to get mine high marks, this proved to work as on both my digipak and poster I achieved full marks.


- How have you tried to facilitate and encourage your own creativity?

Over the 2 years my progress in Media has improved; however I feel I worked better at AS as I had no one to stop my own creativity and i was able to create anything i wanted with other people opinions but me as the dictator of the final piece. At A2 I did not feel as though I had much control over the final product (video) because I feel me and my partner tried to please each other too much that we got nothing done because of the other person, we didn't do very well in managing our time or putting ahead a plan of action.


- Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity?

When designing my A2 music video I discovered limits and in the end I changed the whole idea completely. Limits to think about a lot where to have committed actors and to plan ahead and not leave everything last minute, props and locations where also an issue we are only students and do not have a lot of access to many facilities.


- How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to the brief?

Sticking to the brief was not a problem for my digipak and poster or my AS work, i had done a lot of research on all of these and was confident i had created something good.


- Did working within convention stifle your creativity?

We were given a rough outline of the type of products we were asked to create during both AS and A2 however we definitely had more freedom at A2. The guideline for AS showed a specific style of magazine, which pages to include and roughly how to structure them; whereas at A2 we were given guidelines of '3 minute music video' and that was pretty much it.


- To what extent did you need to work with others and ‘bounce ideas’ off other people to be truly creative?

During the A2 project we used each others ideas to build on our own, resulting in all of the final ideas. We had a say in each idea and were able to give constructive criticism to each other, I feel we never really had a clear precise video we wanted and where trying to aim too high, this in the end resulted in loss of communication.


- How much of your creativity was about trying to picture things in your mind’s eye?

I find it easy to picture end products in my mind so I used this a lot, for example during A2 I had a clear idea of my ancillary products and really wanted my teachers to like them as a 'creative' idea, I new what a normal poster and digipak looked like and I just wanted to portray this through my own work.


- How much of your creativity was about trial and error?

During AS magazine and my ancillary products I discarded previous ideas and created new designs for my final submission. However for our A2 music video project we never had errors, only trials that we pushed aside and replaced with something easier or less time consuming.


- To what extent was a lack of confidence an issue in terms of your creativity?

I think we didn't have enough confidence to speak out to each other during our A2 project so we were not always happy with the final cut of our video. We didn't feel comfortable enough to judge each others ideas and criticise but we always reasoned with each other about ideas but neither put there foot down to portray the plan.


- To what extent was a lack of technical competence/confidence an obstacle to your creativity?

In my A2 coursework my confidence lacked towards the end of the course, I felt as though I was going to be unable to produce the same type of music video I had been planning from the start. As a result of my doubt, I achieved only a Level 2 grade in my coursework, which I was disappointed with as it was not always my fault.

Rene Magritte - Cest n'est pas une pipe.

Magritte's work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "This is not a pipe" (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte once was asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.

Inspire us to get started on being creative

1.“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

2. “There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”  — Martha Graham

3. “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” — Theodore Levitt

4. “A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”  — Charles Brower

5. “When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” –  Linda Naiman

6. “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda

7. “It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” — Edward de Bono

8. “A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely . . . but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude . . .” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. “Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” — William James

10. “The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things-ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen.” — Carl Ally

CD cover - random task