An Introduction to Creativity

What is creativity?

How creative have you been in your AS and A2 productions?

This is what Pete Fraser, the chief examiner for OCR Media Studies, has to say about creativity:

"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."

Task:

1. Create a blog post titled An Introduction to Creativity.
2. Copy and paste the passage onto your post.
3. Working in pairs, reduce the last 2 paragraphs into 5 statements.
4. Next reduce the 5 statements into 5 key words.
5. Consider each of these key words in relation to your own coursework. Add it to your blog post.
6. Carry out the creating a CD task as described on Pete Fraser's blog http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=creativity
7. Briefly evaluate the level of creativity you have just demonstrated. How does this compare to the level of creativity you showed in your actual AS and A2 pieces of coursework?
8. Answer the following question:

How creative have you been in your AS and A2 productions?

Use the marking criteria for G325 to help you:

• Explain what you did and analyse the extent of your creativity.
• Give examples from the texts you created to support your points.
• Use terminology e.g. media terms, creativity terms.

Remember:
Level 1 = limited, descriptive
Level 2 = simple, basic
Level 3 = straightforward, clear
Level 4 = complex, articulate